Erectile Dysfunction Psychological Factors

Currently, there are many different diseases and conditions that can lead to erectile dysfunction in men. Most often, erectile dysfunction (ED) is caused precisely by the characteristics of the man’s mental state. Erectile dysfunction statistics show that in 10-20% of cases, the development of erectile dysfunction is caused by a psychological factor, and often turns out to be a secondary reaction to an underlying physical cause. In 80% of cases, erectile dysfunction is organic and represents a complication of various somatic diseases. However, in most cases, it is easy to distinguish psychological form of erectile dysfunction from the organic one.

Studies confirm that most often, the psychological causes of erectile dysfunction are found in young men who have recently started to have sex. In many ways, erectile dysfunction in young age is associated with psychological trauma in childhood and adolescence, when parents kept telling the child that sexual relations are shameful. In this case, man’s first sexual intercourse deserves special attention, because the excitement is often so great that by the time the intimacy starts, the anxiety and lack of experience lead to the fact that the erection disappears. But for many young people, failure during the first sexual intercourse, particularly if the partner’s behavior wasn’t entirely correct, becomes a big psychological blow and can lead to great difficulties and problems in this area of ​​life. But relationships with a partner can also play a positive role: her emotional support can serve as a method of treating the psychological form of erectile dysfunction. However, if an adult man with sufficient experience of sexual relations is usually able to deal with such form of erectile dysfunction himself, young men require a specialist’s advice.

Erectile dysfunction often results from psychogenic disorders. One of the most common forms is anxious sexual failure expectation syndrome. Accidental sexual failure – a decrease or disappearance of an erection – leads to the doubts about your own male strength. Fear increases right before the intercourse, which leads to a complete loss of erection. Thus, the principle of auto-suggestion works here: the stronger the fears, the higher the possibility of their implementation. Over time, men start to have real problems with reaching and maintaining an erection, which leads to psychogenic impotence. Subsequently, this can provoke a loss of interest in sexual intercourse as such. Numerous attempts to overcome insecurity lead to the fact that during the intercourse, partners can’t focus on anything other than observing and evaluating the reaction to their actions. This makes the possibility of reaching erection even lower and aggravates psychogenic erectile dysfunction.

Some older men also have psychological form of erectile dysfunction. They usually have selective erectile dysfunction, i.e., the impossibility of having sexual intercourse with one partner while having constant success with others. For example, they often complain about the lack or poor quality of an erection during intercourse with a wife, while there are no problems with their mistresses.

Another variant of erectile dysfunction, explained by the characteristics of the man’s psyche, is a so-called “first meeting syndrome”. In such case, erection problems appear only during the first intimacy. However, with an overly emotional male psyche, one accidental failure during the intercourse may lead to a very strong excitement during the next intimacy with a partner and subsequently, erectile dysfunction. Constantly accumulating, such cases can make a man believe in his own inferiority. As a result, all this can make even a young man impotent. Besides, such condition can be caused by the illness that affected erection (for example, the organic cause of erectile dysfunction was eliminated, but erection problems remained).

Also, in addition to the above cases (most often with the psychological form of erectile dysfunction), a so-called phenomenon of nocturnal penile tumescence, or morning erection, persists.

Loss of male power can be caused by a number of psychological disorders. The most common of them are:

• prolonged depression that causes an indifferent attitude towards everything, including women;
• promiscuous sex; as a result of the frequent change of sexual partners, the man loses interest in intimacy;
• atypical reaction to the use of local contraceptives;
• unsuccessful first sexual experience can lay in the subconscious the fear of intimacy with a woman;
• sexual abuse or attempts of abuse in childhood;
• fear of catching a sexually transmitted disease from a partner;
• prolonged abstinence leads to psychological disorders, which promotes the development of psychological impotence;
• excessive use of alcoholic beverages or drugs disrupts the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, especially after the action of these harmful substances;
• raised or lowered self-esteem.

We should note that all men experience problems with erection at some point. However, most of them require consultation with a psychologist in the treatment of erectile dysfunction, because irrespective of the cause of the problem, sexual failures leave a mark on the man’s overall psychological state. In such situations, the patient is most often encouraged to take the drugs that affect his psychological status and thus normalize and increase all manifestations of the sexual sphere. You should worry if erectile dysfunction becomes permanent (that is, occurs more often than in 50% of cases) or turns into a source of stress for your partner. In such cases, you should seek medical advice and treatment from the urologist.