What Is Impotency
What is Impotence?
The inability to achieve or maintain a sufficient penile erection throughout sexual intercourse or other sexual activities is the most commonly accepted definition of impotence. Ejaculation (cumming) may or may not be present in impotent males during sexual activities. Impotence is also known as Impotence (ED) in the scientific community. Impotence can be categorized under two different levels: primary and secondary.
Primary Impotence:
a male has never had successful intercourse with a partner but, under other circumstances, has achieved a full erection.
Secondary Impotence:
a male has problems with successful full erections, but has had a history of having successful erections in the past.
How Common Is Impotence?
In their lifetime, most men will occasionally experience impotence, usually a result from stress, tiredness, anxiety or excessive consumption of drugs, alcohol, or a mixture of both. Many times, the psychological fear of not having an erection (known as “fear of failure”) may cause the symptoms of impotence to worsen due to the performance anxiety that one causes themselves. Research has established how prevalent ED is among men. The following are the age ranges and percentages showing how likely it is that one might have troubles with impotence: - 13.1% of 40-49 year olds - 33.5% of 50-59 year olds - 51.5% in 60-69 year olds - 69.2% of 70-79 year olds Unfortunately, statistics show that many men never receive any treatment against impotence, or wait a prolonged amount of time before seeking treatment due to this psychological “fear of failure.” It has been shown, however, that erections can change over the course of one’s life, sometimes being strong, while other times being quite weak and almost non-existent. A male teen often has little problem, or control, with having an erection. Often times this leads to embarrassing situations as a teen will have an erection at a time that no sexual activity is happening. For most men, this embarrassing situation stops once the teen reaches their late teens or early twenties. As a male gets older, erections might not come as quickly as they had in the past. Every man, at one point in there life, has had an erection that is less strong than they would have preferred, however, at some point there it can be defined as the medical problem known as impotence.
The Causes of ED
The causes of ED can be physical or psychological. Many times, the problem is a combination of the two, with psychological causes creating physical problems or vice versa. However, predominantly, the cause will always have some sort of physical reason. In over 75% of case studies, the male subject’s impotence was caused by something physical.
Physical causes of Impotence include:
• Diabetes • High cholesterol • Heart disease • Post prostate cancer • High blood pressure • Alcohol or other drug use • Some prescribed medicines • Liver and/or kidney disease • Surgery of the bladder, prostate gland, lower bowel and spine • Blocked arteries causing poor blood flow to the penile canal
Psychological causes of Impotence include:
• Anxiety or stress • Anxiety about sexual performance or sexual identity • fear of sexual contact (from issues such as pregnancy or HIV/Sexually Transmitted Diseases) • Psychological trauma or abuse • Problems of intimacy • Sexual boredom • Depression • Lack of communication in a relationship or other relationship problems • Grief or illness
