What to Consider Before Getting a Penile Implant

ED — these two innocuous letters can wreak havoc on a man’s life when they’re referring to erectile dysfunction. In fact, more than half of men in the United States suffer from the condition at some point in their lives, and it becomes increasingly prevalent with age. If you find that your sex life has become an area of intense anxiety because of ED, and spot treatments are only producing marginal results, you may want to consider a penile implant.

At our practice, top urologist and men’s sexual health expert Dr. Robert Cornell and our team understand the difficulty and frustration that comes with coping with ED, which is why we offer our Houston patients a number of options. Included in these options are penile implants, which have provided many of our clients with a new lease on their sex lives.

Here’s what you should consider before getting a penile implant.

Behind ED

While an erection may seem simple enough, there are a surprising number of factors that can influence your ability to achieve and maintain one long enough for intercourse, including your:

• Circulatory system
• Nervous system
• Mental and emotional health
• Hormones
• Muscular health

In many cases, the leading cause of ED stems from a problem with circulation as clogged blood vessels prevent your penis from getting the flow of blood it needs for an erection.

But this physical problem can quickly snowball into a mental one as anxiety about your ED takes over, further hampering your sex life.

Treating ED

Thankfully, there are many treatment options that effectively address ED, and we offer most of them here. To start, we identify the problem so we know where to start treatment. For example, if your ED is related to blood flow, we may try oral medications, self injections, or vacuum devices to tackle the ED, all while recommending lifestyle changes that can help boost your circulatory health.

If your ED proves resistant to these conservative and noninvasive measures, it may be time to look for a more satisfactory solution that can go the distance, such as a penile implant.

Penile implants — what you need to know

A penile implant, as the name suggests, is a device that we place inside your penis to help you achieve an erection. There are two main types of implants: A bendable implant or an inflatable one.

We offer both kinds and use only the top products on the market, including:

American Medical Systems (AMS) 

For more than 30 years, AMS has supplied men with top-of-the-line and innovative erectile implants. In fact, more than 300,000 men have received an AMS implant, and 90% are pleased with the results. We recommend two AMS implants: the AMS 700™ series three-piece inflatable penile implant or the AMS Ambicor™ two-piece inflatable penile implant.

Coloplast 

For both bendable and inflatable penile implants, we turn to the Coloplast Genesis® implant or the Titan® OTR (one-touch release) implant, respectively. 

In either case, inserting a penile implant requires a minor surgery, which we perform here in our office on an outpatient basis. 

If you want to put an end to your struggle with ED once and for all with a penile implant, please give us a call at 281-607-5300 or use our convenient online scheduling tool to set up a consultation.