Venous Leak vs PIED

I’m posting this in a few places because I’m a pretty extreme example of someone who may have PIED, but I’ve always been concerned about venous leak. I’ve shared before but I’ll include my story below, if you care to read my story, please tell me if this sounds more like PIED or something else like venous leak or hard flaccid/pelvic floor issues. These conditions seem to have similar symptoms to mine, such as: no morning wood, poor and inconsistent erection quality, sometimes cold/shriveled penis and cold glans. I’ve even recently talked to a guy who was diagnosed and seemed to think my symptoms sound like his, although he wasn’t a big believer in PIED. He was not a porn user.


I’m in my early 30s , very inexperienced, and began using porn probably around 13, maybe even younger. I began noticing weaker erections as early as high school (maybe only 3 or 4 o clock at times and morning wood began to decline). I’ve always been a very anxious person so once I noticed and began worrying about this the problem became worse. In my early 20s I went to the doctor and had blood work done, which checked out fine. I was then sent to a urologist who only did a physical examination and said everything looked good. He gave me some off brand ED meds and since I was single at the time, he said go home and masturbate and come back if they don’t work. (Which I did, using porn since I was still clueless about PIED). They worked okay and I carried on with my bad PMO habits, despite having pretty weak erections at times and a lack of morning wood (almost never now and pretty weak). I obviously had insecurities about this which caused me to avoid relationships most of my 20s. At the same time I was almost in a state of denial and told myself things would work when they needed to.


This past summer I finally began looking for answers again and discovered the nofap and PIED communities, which gave me hope but also amped up my anxiety quite a bit with the realization I may have been doing this to myself. I made it about 40 days before relapsing due to some depressing life events. After relapsing, I did notice two days where I had weak morning wood and felt optimistic that nofap had been working, but got discouraged when it didn’t continue. I have since learned that progress isn’t always linear. I can also say that while my erection was pretty weak when I relapsed, I noticed some improvement when I relapsed a few more times in the following weeks, although this wasn’t consistent either. There were even a few select times where I felt like my erection was stronger than I had seen it in years.


I was also finally dating someone who I was VERY in to and my biggest fear was losing her due to not being able to perform. Being inexperienced obviously made this problem worse and created some bad performance anxiety. When the time finally came that we ended up in bed together, I was almost in a panic about not being able to perform, which shut everything down regardless of what my condition is. Luckily she was pretty drunk and I was able to use that as an excuse. We ended up breaking up shortly after though and I’ve really been beating myself up about that missed opportunity and how she may have felt about my putting off sex. I should add that while my dick was completely dead in this situation, I did have times where I got to about 40% when kissing or touching.


I’ve been pretty down since losing her and I’ve finally gotten myself back on track with nofap. I’m currently on 27 days and I’m being much more strict on myself this time (no peaking, looking at sexy pictures on Instagram, and avoiding any fantasizing as best I can). I have even had a few weak morning woods, which I suppose is some progress for what I’m used to. However I’m constantly second guessing and worrying that I may not have PIED and may have something else. It’s hard for me to tell if I’ve gone into the “flatline” since my erection quality has sucked for so long. I will also find myself getting a weak erection here and there if I drift off thinking about a previous experience or something, which may suggest I’m not in the flatline since most guys in flatline seem to report to life at all. I have felt very depressed lately and have been spending way too much time on my phone researching this, but I can’t help but be concerned.


Venous leak seems to be what a ton of guys look into when assuming the worst, and although I went to a urologist when I was younger I never received the ultrasound shot test everyone talks about. I’ve also looked into hard flaccid and feel I do have some of those symptoms at times, so I started stretching and exercising that area a bit, but I can probably add in a more complete routine. As you can see I’m almost becoming a hypochondriac over this. I’d appreciate any help and feedback.

 

Thanks for responding. Without a doubt, I have a big anxiety problem and I have been guilty of being a hypochondriac in the past, but I’m sure I have some form of ED. I don’t think anxiety would explain almost non existent morning wood. When I went to a urologist in my early 20s, the sample ED meds he gave me helped slightly and I was so relieved to have a professional just tell me I was okay that I accepted that, despite continuing with my porn use and still probably only getting to 70% at best. I can’t say I always stressed about it because I felt I was in denial about it. In the back of my mind I knew I had an issue but didn’t know what else to do. Only recently did I realize porn could be a factor. And porn was really all I relied on since this caused me to avoid relationships until recently. You are certainly right that anxiety makes this worse. The experience I referred to in my original post with my ex, I was completely worried and not focused on her at all.

All this being said, a lot of guys who end up getting diagnosed with venous leak are told it is in their head initially since it’s so rare.

I’m definitely committed to being done with porn, it’s just difficult for me to not question having a physical issue given my symptoms. I will stick to it and try my best to fight the anxiety, but that’s tough to do. Maybe I’m expecting results too soon and getting myself worked up. My sleep has always sucked but it’s been awful lately.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond brother.

 

When I went to the urologist in my early 20s he gave me some sample ED pills and it worked okay, but not great. I used porn in that situation as well. I will add that after talking with a guy who has venous leak, those drugs can work temporarily depending on the severity. In this guys case he gradually got worse and worse over time.

I definitely got into some fetish stuff as well so I definitely built up a tolerance and so forth. I’m not worried about relapsing as the urges are much easier to overcome now. I’ll catch myself fantasizing here and there (about real experiences, even if just making out) but I’ll remove myself from that as best I can as I’m trying to avoid any arousal for the 90 day window at least. Being almost a month in I can’t tell if I’m in a flatline or not. My baseline for what I consider a normal erection kind of sucks anyways, but the ones I’ve had still aren’t as good as the ones I’d get with porn which hopefully indicates PIED. I definitely have bad moods and feel depressed more than usual, but that may just be anxiety and not using porn as an escape anymore. I really never thought of myself as an addict until I discovered this community and tried quitting. The first attempt of 40 days was relatively easy (I was motivated by my relationship) but once I relapsed it was so hard to get the momentum back.

I appreciate you responding and I hope you continue to see improvements yourself.

 

How were your symptoms prior to starting vs when you made it to 93 days? Hopefully you saw a significant improvement.

 

That should be a sign that you were on the right track, I would think. When I first relapsed my erection sucked. But as I fell back into the trap for a month or so I had a few of the best ones I’ve ever had. I really don’t know what to attribute it to but I’d assume or at least hope it was abstinence from porn.

 

The morning wood should be a good sign man. I haven’t had good morning wood since high school probably. Gradually seemed to decline over the years. Did you see a urologist to rule out any physical problems?

 

When I was in my early 20s I had blood work for testosterone checked so I assume they checked those hormones as well as part of that panel. Everything came back normal for me. At the time my symptoms were the same as they are now.

 

It sounds like a lot of guys had success using resistance stretching and pelvic floor strengthening exercises. They say avoid any high impact exercises and don’t lift heavy weights. There is a guy on Reddit who does a really good job of sharing information on this.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Hard_Flacc...urce=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf