Patient's question:
Detailed medical condition and purpose of consultation: Used to be quite indulgent. In the past 2 years, there have been strong sexual urges, but it's soft and cannot be inserted.Duration and course of the current illness: 1 year
Current general condition: Soft and cannot be inserted.
Medical history: None
Previous diagnoses and treatment history and outcomes: None
Auxiliary tests: None
Other: Divorced for almost 1 year
Doctor's answer:
Hello: Many men cannot determine whether they suffer from erectile dysfunction, but in fact, the nature of erectile dysfunction can be judged from the nocturnal penile erection. Normal men of all ages can experience reflexive penile erections during sleep. During puberty, there are about 6 erections per night on average, each lasting 20-30 minutes; young and middle-aged adults have about 4 erections per night on average; healthy elderly people over 65 still have a total of 1-1.5 hours of erection time per night. Even children often have penile erections during sleep.Clearly, nocturnal reflexive penile erections are unrelated to sexual stimulation and are not affected by psychological factors. Therefore, they can be used to distinguish whether erectile dysfunction is caused by psychological factors or by medical factors. If an erectile dysfunction patient has no nocturnal erections or the degree of erection is below the normal range for their age group, it may indicate a medical factor and requires further investigation to identify the root cause. If an erectile dysfunction patient has normal nocturnal erections, it is unlikely to be caused by medical factors but rather by psychological and mental factors. There are several methods for self-assessing nocturnal penile erections:
(1) Stamp Test: Use four stamps to surround the penis, stick the overlapping parts together to form a ring, and then go to sleep. In the morning, check if the stamp has torn. If it has, it indicates nocturnal erections. If the overlapping part comes loose, it is not meaningful.
(2) Penile Circumference Measurement: There is a commercially available tape measure (usually paper-based) with one end connected to a square buckle. Before going to bed, wrap it around the penis, and let one end come out through the buckle. First, record the baseline circumference of the penis in its flaccid state, and then in the morning