Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common sexual health problem that affects about 30 million men in the United States. For as disruptive, distressing, and worrisome as it can be, ED is also highly treatable.
At Atlas Men’s Clinic in Los Angeles, California, our skilled team of men’s health and urology experts can help you uncover the underlying cause of your ED problem and provide targeted treatment solutions to help you successfully reverse it.
Here’s how advanced, noninvasive pulsewave therapy works to treat ED and how to find out if it may be a good solution for you.
Erectile dysfunction explained
Most men suffer from erection problems at some point. But if you have trouble getting an erection when you’re ready for intercourse — or if you can’t sustain an erection long enough to have fulfilling sex — you may be dealing with the effects of ED.
ED definition
ED is the inability to get an erection or sustain an erection that’s firm enough for normal sexual intercourse.
To truly understand ED, you must first understand the psychophysiological actions behind a healthy erection. For both women and men, successful arousal, intercourse, and completion require the mind and body to work together.
Erection process
During male arousal, the brain signals nerves to release chemicals that increase blood flow to the penis. Blood flows into erection chambers (corpus cavernosum) made of smooth-muscle erectile tissue. This spongy tissue traps blood during an erection and releases it following an orgasm.
The male sexual response and erection process are complex, interrelated reactions involving thoughts, emotions, hormones, nerves, blood vessels, and muscles. Anything that hampers any part of this process can cause temporary, short-term ED or lead to a persistent, long-term ED problem.
Causes of erectile dysfunction
Underlying causes that trigger ED or contribute to its development fall into three general categories.
Physical causes
You can develop ED when a physical problem impedes nerve signals from your brain or restricts blood flow to your penis. It can also occur when something keeps the erection chambers from trapping and holding blood normally. Physical ED may be a result of:
Medical conditions
Chronic health conditions associated with physical ED include:
- Type 2 diabetes
- Hypertension
- Heart disease
- Atherosclerosis
- Kidney disease
Less commonly, low testosterone levels are responsible for ED.
Lifestyle factors
Modifiable lifestyle factors that have been linked to physical ED include:
- Tobacco, alcohol, or drug use
- Lack of physical activity
- Being overweight or obese
Taking certain prescription medications, including some antidepressants and blood pressure drugs, can also lead to erection problems.
Emotional causes
An emotional issue or mental health condition that interferes with normal arousal can trigger ED or make an existing problem worse. These include:
- Stress (home, work, or relationship)
- Acute sexual performance anxiety
- Low self-esteem or body image issues
- Depression and anxiety disorders
In many cases, ED is a result of a combination of underlying factors. It might be triggered by high blood pressure medication that slows your physical arousal response, then worsened by the resulting distress over erection maintenance and sexual performance.
The pulsewave therapy solution
ED may become more frequent with age, but it’s not a normal part of the aging process. In fact, ED is common among men of all ages. No matter how old you are, remember that ED is a highly treatable problem that can often be reversed.
At Atlas Men’s Clinic, we take an integrative approach to ED treatment that combines lifestyle modifications and medical interventions, as needed. For some men, targeted strategies like weight loss, smoking cessation, chronic disease control, stress management, and medication changes go far enough to resolve the problem.
An alternative to medication
For more persistent cases, we offer pulsewave therapy, a noninvasive ED solution that uses high-frequency, low-intensity sound waves to repair damaged blood vessels, stimulate the growth of new blood vessels, and enhance circulation to affected erectile tissues.
Fast, painless, and effective
This quick, painless, and highly effective treatment offers a direct and targeted solution to the very problem that drives persistent ED: poor blood flow to the penis. Pulsewave therapy helps lay the foundation to restore normal, healthy erections by:
- Increasing micro-vasculature density
- Breaking up plaque accumulation
- Releasing reparative growth factors
- Easing inflammation at every level
If you have questions about pulsewave therapy for ED, we have answers. Call or click online to request an appointmentt at Atlas Men’s Clinic in Los Angeles, California, today.
