Everything You Need to Know about Porn Induced Erectile Dysfunction
Everything You Need to Know about Porn Induced Erectile Dysfunction
Although erectile difficulties is a prevalent problem that affects millions of men, there’s still a lot we need to learn. It’s not just about the lack of ability to be able to get and maintain a sufficient quality of erection, enough for sex or a sexual act to take place but goes beyond that. You see, what you do in day-to-day life has a major influence on the strength and hardness of your erections.
For example, watching porn may seem harmless and as a sort of entertainment, but it can contribute to erectile dysfunction.
How? This article focuses on porn-induced erectile dysfunction and everything you need to know about it.
What Is Porn Induced Erectile Dysfunction?
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common problem where a man cannot achieve or maintain an erection and we usually think it affects only older men. Figures show that at the age of 40, about 40% of men are affected by ED while 70% of men older than 70 have this common sexual dysfunction [1]. This means that ageing is not the only factor playing a role in ED.
Younger men can struggle with this problem too and usage of porn emerges as one of the causes behind erectile dysfunction. In fact, the influence of porn on your erections is considered so significant scientists have defined it as a disorder called porn induced erectile dysfunction (PIED).
Porn And Erectile Dysfunction
Men watch porn while masturbating or to “get into the mood” and while watching a clip or two on occasion won’t do any harm, too much porn can have a negative impact on the hardness and strength of your penis. Before you think this is some anti-porn article with baseless claims, it’s important to mention that science has confirmed the relationship between porn and ED.
Researchers from the Kinsey Institute in Indiana were among first to report porn induced erectile dysfunction and porn induced abnormally low libido back in 2007. Half of the participants recruited from bathhouses and bars where porn was omnipresent weren’t able to achieve erections in the lab in response to porn.
Researchers wanted to know why men who were exposed to porn were unable to get strong and hard erections. They discovered that exposure to pornography caused lower responsivity and an enhanced need for more extreme or kinkier material to achieve sexual arousal. Although scientists remodeled their study to include more versatile porn content, a quarter of the subjects’ genitals didn’t respond properly i.e. their erection was lacking [2].
Since then, the relationship between porn and erectile dysfunction was investigated more frequently. About 6 in 10 out of a total of 3962 visitors seeking help on the MedHelp.org ED Forum who revealed their ages were 25 or younger.
The analysis of eight years of posts on this forum showed that porn is the most frequently used word linked with the mental aspect of erectile dysfunction [3]. What can we conclude here? Basically, it shows that ED affects young men too and they are also worried about the influence of porn on the ability of their penis to get strong and hard.
Porn can contribute to dissatisfaction in the bedroom.
Why Does Porn Contribute To ED?
A study of 434 adult males from March 2016 issue of Computers in Human Behavior revealed that extensive use of pornography is strongly associated with sexual dysfunction. The investigative team discovered that subjects spent about three hours a week with online sexual activity.
Why did they look for porn? Answers are pretty obvious: sexual satisfaction, arousal, mood regulation, stress relief, alleviating boredom, trying to forget daily problems, loneliness, easing feelings of depression and sadness. The truth is that most of us have looked for porn based on these reasons, right? However, their activity was strongly related to lower erectile function [4].
But why does seemingly innocent activity affect your likelihood of getting an erection? Porn videos are made to be a form of adult entertainment, to capture your attention, and help you get aroused. That’s why men watch them. However, actors and actresses in porn videos often perform sexual acts that wouldn’t translate into real life.
Men who watch porn too much expect to have the same experience with a real-life partner, they become conditioned to this type of sexual arousal, and everyday sexual situations don’t offer the same thrill to them. As a result, they don’t get turned on, their erection is absent, and their love life suffers.
Having regular sex with a partner who doesn’t look like a porn star isn’t exciting because men with high porn exposure expect different things. This leads to the decline of neurotransmitter dopamine which regulates brain’s reward and pleasure centers.
Due to low dopamine, the feeling of sexual satisfaction is lacking which also means there’s no arousal and erection. Men aren’t in the mood to have sex. It’s not uncommon for men to experience PIED when in the presence of their partner, but their penis is hard when watching porn later [5]. That’s because they are able to search for specific porn content that excites them the most.
How To Fix This Problem?
Watching porn from time to time isn’t likely to cause problems with your sex drive and erections. That said, searching for this type of content on a regular basis can be a bad thing for your penis, libido, and relationship as well. The younger the age of a man when he begins watching porn regularly, the greater the risk of PIED and preference of porn over partnered sexual intercourse.
Erectile Difficulties is a manageable problem and porn-induced kind isn’t the exception. Evidence shows that reducing exposure or avoiding porn entirely can help alleviate this sexual dysfunction [6]. As you remove your porn-watching habit, your expectations regarding your and partner’s sexual performance can improve.
If left unresolved, PIED can also:
- Lead to risky behaviour such as increased need for multiple sexual partners, alcohol, drugs, unprotected sex
- Cause sexual anorexia or a pathological loss of appetite for romantic-sexual interactions [7]
Porn-induced erectile dysfunction occurs due to excessive exposure to pornography. A growing body of evidence confirms that higher porn exposure changes a man’s expectations from partnered sex, he needs thrilled similar to the one he gets while watching porn, but many of those acts and situations don’t translate to real life.
It’s important to mention that not every man can get PIED and watching porn occasionally doesn’t do harm. Watching porn too much and porn addiction can be serious problems but are taken lightly. If you’re struggling with erections, cutting down porn exposure might help.
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If you have any questions regarding Porn Induced Erectile Dysfunction, leave a comment below and I will be sure to get back to you as quickly as I can.
References
- http://www.clevelandclinicmeded.com/medicalpubs/diseasemanagement/endocrinology/erectile-dysfunction
- http://www.indiana.edu/~sexlab/files/pubs/JanssenBancroft.pdf
- https://onlinedoctor.superdrug.com/semantic-analysis-erectile-dysfunction
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563215302612
- https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317117.php
- http://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/6/3/17
- https://www.healthline.com/health/erectile-dysfunction/porn-induced-ed
