A Bend in the road

[Wookie]

Hi guys, i've been reading the forum for a few months now and thought i'd introduce myself.

I'm a 45 year old male who was diagnosed with Peyronies in August last year.

It started when i first noticed a small lump about midway along the top of my shaft while travelling in early July last year. I was confused and sat in the taxi on the way from the airport and started Google searching thinking it was penile cancer.

I hit on Peyronies fairly quickly and after a bit more research found this forum fairly easily.

I have never been married but have been very sexually active most of my life with hundreds of different partners over the last 30 years. During the early parts of 2019 i had rigorous sex with multiple women and i can remember many times waking up the next morning with a swollen and tender penis due to the exertions of the night before.
I have a fairly large and long penis and very often while having sex i can hit the end which may have been the cause of the problem.
I have no history of Erectile Dysfunction and still have erections you could hang a beach towel off but i use Viagra sometimes if i'm having a few drinks.

I'm not sure if rigorous sex is what suddenly caused the issue considering it hadn't caused a problem in the past, or if it was that coupled with getting older. I guess it could have been anything, and i'll never know for sure so for now i'll focus on the progress since July.

Within a week of noticing the lump i noticed a slight curve to the left and could feel a band of soft but firm tissue across the top of my shaft about half an inch wide and a quarter of an inch long.

I had already been reading the forum here so i was pretty sure what was going on. I booked an appointment with a good young urologist in town and he saw me in early August and diagnosed Peyronies. He was pretty open minded about any treatment that might help and said to try Pentox and Vitamin E and that i should wait 6-12 months to see if things improved or stabilised before considering surgery or anything else.

Well to cut a short story even shorter (pardon the pun) i started taking 400mg of Pentox 3 times a day, as well as some Tamoxifen. I also supplemented with L-arginine, Acetyl L Carnitine, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and ginger.

I didn't like the way Pentox made me feel so after 3 months i stopped taking it and now all i am taking is Vitamin C, Vitamin E, garlic, ginger and Acetyl L Carnitine.

Over the last 6 months the plaque on top of my shaft has increased in size by about 50% and i also have a thin strip plaque that runs on the underside of my penis from about midway almost up to the glans. This has been there from the beginning as well.

Mentally it has been a blow. No man wants this condition and i can see why many men become depressed with it.

Even though the plaque and curve have increased i am probably more positive now than i have been since first realising what i'd been stuck with.
I'm single so i don't have a wife to please and if i never had sex again i guess i could say i've probably had more than my fair share over the years.

Although i still have strong erections and no Erectile Dysfunction i don't have the same sex drive i did when i was younger, and if i'm not having a few drinks i hardly ever give sex a second thought so in theory i could go on for the next 20 years and just accept the status quo and get on with life.

At present my upward curve is about 65 degrees with a slight bend to the left. I have a little bit of hourglassing toward the glans and some hinging about mid shaft where the main plaque is.

Regarding length, i have not lost a lot. If you measured my erect penis with the bend it is still roughly the same as it was at the beginning, but because of the bend it means that i don't have the same 'straight out' length.

At present the bend would render intercourse either extremely uncomfortable or almost impossible. I have not had sex for almost 4 months and even back then it was becoming difficult.
I don't have much pain, but it is painful if i try to apply pressure against the curve when erect. When flaccid i have virtually no pain.

I am fit and healthy and heal quickly so i have started considering surgical options. I do not like the idea of either plication surgery or excision and grafting so i have begun to look into getting an implant. I have read many of the implant journals on the forum here and watched a lot of the videos that Dr Eid and Dr Kramer regularly post on YouTube.

In my current position i think an implant would correct the issue. Most patients report high levels of satisfaction and with a 2-3 month recovery time it's a small price to pay to be able to maintain sexual relations in the future instead of hanging up my boots and choosing self imposed celibacy.

Anyway guys, that's my introduction. Feel free to ask any questions. I am going to schedule a call with Dr Eid and see what he thinks. It has only been 6 months since this first became an issue but i would rather act now than wait for things to potentially get worse and then have to wait longer for the implant to slowly straighten out the curve through cycling.

I guess there is still a slim chance that things may improve if left alone, but the fact that my curve has gotten progressively worse over the last 6 months makes this seem unlikely, so i think that being proactive is the best approach at the moment.
I will be interested to hear what Dr Eid has to say once i have given him the timeline and he has seen some pictures.

After researching implants i am surprised that more men with peyronies don't consider them as they seem like a great way to solve a very frustrating and disheartening condition. I would compare one to getting a knee replacement or any other surgery that replaces something with a man made apparatus designed to give the same function.

[Benjamin62]

If you still have strong erections there is not reason for an implant and I would think most surgeon won't want to destroy a functioning penis.
Look into Plication. A few doc also do Plication with some grafting to build up any hourglassing.
I've spoken to three great surgeons.  You should reach out to Dr Gelman in Orange County,Ca.  If you go in his website and fill out "ask the dr" he will return you with a call!
I'm going down to AL to Dr Christine next week... for an exam for the exact procedure I described above.  He has a YouTube channel and actually shows the surgery.
You can also reach out to Dr Levine in Chicago.  He'll schedule a call for a few hundred dollars... same info as Gelman... but knowledge will help you feel empowered.

Also depending on the curve... I've seen/heard where they need to do Plication in concert with a implant... because apparently in some cases it pumps up hard.  But still with a bend... thats is decided  in The OR  

[Wookie]

Thanks for the reply I have decided against plication surgery because many patient reviews i have read are not encouraging and there is always potential that another plaque could develop causing further curving. Plication can also result in quite a lot of length loss in some cases (normally an inch or slightly more depending on the severity of the curve).
Most of the research i have read supports a patient post op satisfaction rate of no higher than 60% with plication surgery because of the reasons i mention above.

Dr Eid has corrected curves of almost 180 degrees with an implant and no plication. He seems to prefer to let the strength of the implant straighten the bend gradually as time progresses by stretching the plaque. He also does modelling during surgery if required. Hawk may be able to chime in on this.

Dr Eid has done surgery on patients with no Ed to correct peyronies before. He may have a different opinion when i speak to him, but i will wait and see what he says.

Here is one of his videos where he uses an implant to correct a 90 degree curve and hourglassing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xylchePBkJg&feature=youtu.be

[Benjamin62]

Sound like you are well informed...

We each need our own "firm" plan...
Pun intended;)  

[samsung]

I'm more or less in the same boat as you Wookie. It sort of feels like a no man's land as far as it not being bad enough for an implant and not good enough to get better from the given therapies. Slightly less curve, no erectile dysfunction. Have lost size and girth. Same age. Interested to see where you go with this. Dr. in Boston said he would never do surgery on me with no erectile problems. Dr. Eid kind of didn't commit either way. I think he would do it if I really pushed in that direction for a solution.

Have you considered xiaflex, traction, VED, etc.?

[Benjamin62]

Which Dr in Boston?
I'm in Boston  

[samsung]

Munarriz. Said he would never operate on me and that he felt uncomfortable even doing xiaflex. But that he would if I insisted. But his xiaflex protocol (1x per month instead of the protocol recommended by the manufacturer) was offputting to me so I went to Dr. Eid.

[Wookie]

I'm more or less in the same boat as you Wookie. It sort of feels like a no man's land as far as it not being bad enough for an implant and not good enough to get better from the given therapies. Slightly less curve, no erectile dysfunction. Have lost size and girth. Same age. Interested to see where you go with this. Dr. in Boston said he would never do surgery on me with no erectile problems. Dr. Eid kind of didn't commit either way. I think he would do it if I really pushed in that direction for a solution.

Have you considered xiaflex, traction, VED, etc.?

Hi Samsung, thanks for the reply. I haven't tried Xiaflex, i'm currently living out of the US in a country where it is not available, so if i do get an implant i will have to travel to NY like Merixx did.
I have looked at traction and VED but i still think that although they my work well for others i view them as sort of chasing the carrot and not getting to the root of the problem (ok this time the pun was intended ).
Life is short and at the moment although i don't have ED my penis is still unfit for duty and so i may as well be in the same boat as someone who does have severe ED.
An implant will work from the inside out to stretch the scar tissue which will resolve both issues of curvature and hour glassing without loss of length.
I'm sure i could get some benefit from VED or traction or both, but that would mean months of constant effort and still no guarantee of a positive outcome. I read tons of information on people suffering from peyronies and from what i can gather most people just learn to suffer in silence and the years go by.
I am not the type of person to sit back and just accept a bad situation when there is what seems to me a good a solution.
If you read the recent journals on the forum, including Hawks journal and the PDF of Merixx's journal then it leaves little doubt in my mind that an implant is the most obvious and permanent solution.
I'm not sure if Hawk will read this thread, but i think if you asked him which option he would have chosen if he had them all in front of him at the beginning of his condition he may (with the benefit of hindsight) agree that an implant is the only treatment currently available that will not only restore a penis to excellent working condition, but also permanently remove the damaging and compounding psychological effects of this condition.
I am generally a very positive person, but from the day i discovered i had peyronies it has constantly been in the back of my mind and affecting not just my sex life but my quality of life through diminished self esteem. This condition is insidious in the way it manifests both physically and mentally and even with my positive attitude it has put me in some pretty black places where i have felt hopeless about what to do.
If an implant can cure both those things without having to continually worry in the future about the condition returning then i would be mad not to seriously consider it.
I would urge all members considering an implant to read Hawk, Curved, Stepone and Merixxs' journals.