The-Penis.com

The Penis & Prostate Gland

Problems of the penis and prostate

Curving or arching of the penis cannot be caused by any masturbation technique that a man can use! Peyronie's Disease causes bending or arching of the penis due to the formation of some inelastic tissue in the corpora cavernosa sections of the penis. This very rarely happens in a man below the age of thirty. It can make the erection so painful that intercourse is impossible. in many cases it can be cured, but as a rule it disappears after a time of its own accord, though no one knows why.

Some men are born with a penis which, when erect, instead of being straight is arched, so that the tip bows over away from the straight line drawn through the shaft to the base. In others, the penis curves either to the right or the left. This bending, arching or curving is sometimes due to malformations in the tissue of which the penis is composed, and sometimes to the ligaments, which lift the penis up when it is erect, being shorter on one side than on the other. Malformations of the tissue cannot be treated, but surgery is sometimes successful in lengthening shorter ligaments.

Click Here For The Contents Page Of Site

Pages On Penis Problems

Main Problems Page
Penis problems 1
Penile anatomy & circumcision 2
Penis problems 2
Penis problems 3
Penis problems 4
Penis problems 5
Penile cancer
Androgen insensitivity
Readers' penis problems
Penis and prostate problems
Penis anatomy
Prostate problems (inc BPH)
Pearly penile papules
How To Be A Confident Man
Sexually transmitted diseases
Peyronie's disease: bent penis
Premature Ejaculation

Naturally, a man with a curved or arched penis worries that it may prevent him from ever having penis-vagina contact. In the rare cases where the curving or arching is very pronounced this does happen, because it is not possible to put the penis in the vagina without causing the partner unbearable pain. In most cases, the arching or curving is not a bar to full intercourse. In fact, it should be regarded as a bonus, because the bending of the glans stimulates the barrel of the vagina more than the glans of the straight penis, by exerting more pressure against the G spot.

Phimosis is a condition of the penis in which the foreskin is long and the opening is so small that it will not allow the foreskin to be drawn back over the glans. Though the man's sexual performance may not be impaired by it, it is a condition that should not be allowed to persist, because it does not permit the lining of the foreskin, the glans and below the coronal rim of the penis to be washed free of all the dirt and smegma which collect under the foreskin. No man with a tight foreskin, which gives him pain if he tries to pull it back, should attempt to pull it back on his own, especially if the penis is erect. It can easily happen, that the foreskin having been pulled back behind the rim is so tight that it cannot be pulled forward again. Medical attention must be sought immediately to avoid strangulation of the penis, which, if not remedied in time, can cause gangrene to set in. This condition is known as paraphimosis.

Epispadias and Hypospadias are malformations of the penis with which some boys are born. In Epispadias the upper side of the urethra remains open, in hypospadias the underside remains open, so that instead of being a closed tube, the urethra is more like a trough. Sometimes the defect may run the whole length of the penis, sometimes it is a slit, sometimes a large hole on the under or upper side of the penis. All serious forms prevent normal delivery of urine, and if the opening is near the base of the penis, the semen is not ejaculated into the vagina. Plastic surgery can now remedy all forms of epispadias and hypospadias.

Verruca acuminata is a condition in which a close group of small warts, resembling a cauliflower head, forms under the foreskin. It is generally quite painless, but, if not properly treated, may become moist and suppurate. Consult a physician immediately you become aware of them.

Balanitis refers to infection of the glans. Men with tight foreskins are more susceptible to it than men with retractable foreskins. There have been cases of circumcised men contracting balanitis of the penis-head. Balanitis is not a venereal disease, and does not attack the urethra. Medical attention should be sought immediately, because it can be very painful. Intercourse should not be attempted during an attack. The best means of avoiding it is scrupulous daily, or twice daily, washing of the penis, though this is not very effective in men with tight foreskins, since the infection is located under the foreskin, where it cannot be reached.

Prostate Problems

The prostate is a gland which completely encircles the urethra - the tube by which the bladder is emptied, situated immediately below the bladder. The gland, which is shaped like a horse-chestnut, also contains muscles, whose functions will be described presently. The prostate is a sex gland, which develops under the influence of male sex hormones.

The prostatic fluid which the gland produces is passed into the urethra by means of tiny openings, when the man has an orgasm and ejaculates. Ejaculatory ducts, which carry the sperm from the testicles, enter the prostate after leaving the seminal vesicles, and open into the urethra. The two seminal vesicles, which are situated behind the bladder, also produce fluid. This fluid, carrying the sperms which race into it as a result of sexual stimulation, joins with the prostatic fluid as orgasm approaches, and the three constituents - sperm, seminal vesicle fluid and prostatic fluid - together make semen. As sexual excitement reaches its peak, the muscle in the neck of the bladder closes and grips the urethra tightly. The muscles surrounding the prostate and other muscles connected with the sexual apparatus contract and relax, and the semen, which is prevented from flowing backwards into the bladder due to the closure of the bladder-exit, is forced down the urethra, which runs through the penis, and out at the opening on the glans in spurts. The prostatic fluid is important in supplying substances for the nutrition of the sperm on their perilous journey in the woman's vagina and womb. It maintains delicate acid-base balances and supplies substances needed by the sperm to carry out their metabolic activities during this period. The prostate reaches its mature size by the time a man is thirty. As he passes middle-age, it begins to enlarge. In later life, it diminishes in size again; sometimes, however, the enlargement is so great that it interferes with the flow of urine, and surgery must then be used to reduce it.

Prostatitis, as inflammation of the prostate is called, can happen to any man at any time of life. Prostatitis can be contracted in exactly the same way as any other infection e.g. a sore throat. For though the prostate is a sex organ, the inflammation need not have a sexual origin at all. Quite a number of cases have been reported in which the cause has been traced to an infected tooth. There is one sexual cause, however: masturbating to the threshold of the point-of-no-return, and then stopping. During one session a man may stimulate himself to this point five or six times before ending the session. If this practice is frequently repeated, the prostate will become inflamed by the retention of the prostatic fluid.

The most puzzling form of prostatitis, and also the most annoying, is non-specific prostatitis. Usually it disappears as mysteriously as it came, often when even the mildest treatment has not been prescribed. The symptoms of prostatitis may be:

  • mild or sharp, constant or intermittent pain somewhere in the lower belly in the region of the pubic area.
  • mild or sharp, constant or intermittent pains in the small of the back in the region of the kidneys, in the groin, in the balls or around the base of the penis.
  • pain which is experienced only at ejaculation.
  • pain which is experienced during urination.
  • pain that appears after sitting for a long time.
  • increased frequency of urination.
  • too rapid ejaculation.
  • excessive and painful sensitivity of the glans when touched.

The trouble with diagnosing prostatitis is that it does not necessarily produce pain in the prostate, but reflects it to other organs, while some of the symptoms listed above can be the symptoms of other ailments. Any physician who is presented with any of these symptoms and who cannot immediately trace the cause will invariably carry out an examination of the prostate. This is done by inserting a finger in the rectum while the patient is lying on his side with his knees drawn up. This enables the physician to feel the prostate with the finger, and he can tell whether it is enlarged, or is too hard or too soft. If any of these symptoms are present, he will at once arrange for the patient to see a consultant urologist - a doctor who specializes in complaints of the genito-urinary tract. If none of the symptoms is present, and there are no additional symptoms present pointing to another infection, so that he would be justified in diagnosing prostatitis, he will treat accordingly, usually with appropriate antibiotics. If the rectal examination indicates reference to the urologist, the patient may expect the urologist to carry out certain tests.

Please be reassured that all treatment for prostatitis short of surgery will not reflect a man's general health or sexual potency. Do not get the idea that because you have a prostate disorder you are on the verge of impotency. If you do think this, you might just make yourself impotent through worry!

Where there is enlargement that is interfering seriously with urination, surgery to reduce the enlargement is inevitable. It's important to know that not all enlargements of the prostate by a long chalk indicate cancer. On the other hand, cancer can often be detected by examination with the finger via the rectum. As the cure rate is very high in cases of cancer detected in the early stages, all men over 50 should have a rectal examination every six months, as a matter of routine. It is a very simple procedure, taking only two or three minutes.

Sexual dysfunctions

Sexual dysfunctions fall mainly into two broad categories: low sexual desire disorders, and orgasm/ejaculation disorders. Obviously ejaculation disorders will only be relevant to men.

Both men and women can suffer from low sexual desire, but the question of whether or not this is actually a disorder is open to debate. There is a large body of opinion which suggests that the medical profession wishes to categorize what are in fact normal conditions as medical issues, either as an act of patriarchal dominance or an attempt to medicalize them so that treatment can be justified. (And the motive there is profit, obviously.)

However, while I certainly accept that lots of people do have low sexual desire, in some cases it can certainly be attributed to conditions that need medical attention. I'm thinking in particular of abnormally low levels of testosterone in men, abnormally high levels of stress in anybody (although arguably that doesn't need medical attention, it needs a program of relaxation and holistic healthcare), and more serious medical issues such as MS, diabetes, coronary artery disease and so on.

Leaving aside the debate about the rights and wrongs of coming up with disorders such as "hypoactive sexual desire disorder" instead of looking at the relationship and social context in which a couple might be experiencing low sexual desire, there certainly are some conditions which we can categorize as a sexual dysfunction simply on the grounds that they detract from an individual's sexual pleasure. In the past attempts have been made to define these conditions as sexual dysfunctions by incorporating a pre-requisite condition that either an individual or a couple are distressed because of the problem. That's really rather unhelpful, but it does have some relevance in the real world if you consider premature ejaculation, which is the most common male sexual dysfunction.

In that context, consider the following issue: whether or not a couple is satisfied with, let us say, intercourse lasting two minutes, depends entirely on the dynamics of the relationship between them, and how each member of the couple obtains sexual pleasure and satisfaction. Certainly if both members of the couple were looking to achieve orgasm through intercourse alone, then sex lasting for two minutes would satisfy neither of them. However, if the woman obtains pleasure through oral sex or masturbation before intercourse starts, it may well be quite acceptable for the couple and course last no longer than this.

Obviously the problem is how you define premature ejaculation in the context of such variable expectations. It may be, of course, that there is actually no need to formalize a definition – after all, the man and woman in a couple certainly know whether the speed of the man's ejaculation is affecting their sexual pleasure or not! More to the point, perhaps, each individual man will know whether or not he satisfied with his sexual performance, and whether or not he wishes to improve his "staying power".

Thus, in some sense at least, premature ejaculation is self-defining.

Other ejaculatory dysfunctions include delayed ejaculation, for which treatment has been described as "challenging". This is a condition in which a man finds it difficult or indeed impossible to ejaculate during normal sexual intercourse, traditionally in the context of an assumption that he has enough sexual stimulation to enable him to ejaculate and yet has not done so. This definition rather misses the point: the majority of men with delayed ejaculation, and certainly the majority of men who seek treatment for delayed ejaculation, appear to be highly aroused, mostly because they have long-lasting and often very hard erections, but in reality their level of emotional sexual arousal is usually very low. After all, a man does not need to be sexually aroused have an erection, as in the most simple case the phenomenon of "morning erections" demonstrates very clearly.

Delayed ejaculation is also known as retarded ejaculation; the word "retarded" means "delayed" but is used less often because of the pejorative connotations. However, provided that a man is willing to look at the relationship dynamics of his interaction with with his partner, the cure for this difficulty in reaching orgasm during sexual intercourse is by no means as complicated or as difficult as has been represented by the medical profession. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that the people who truly have the greatest insight into delayed ejaculation are those who deal with male sexual dysfunction on a regular basis, and who have understood the paradox of a man appearing to be sexually aroused, but not actually being so, during intercourse. Another orgasm/ejaculation disorder is the inability to reach orgasm. In general this is represented in men by the inability to ejaculate as discussed above – although it's a broad assumption that orgasm and ejaculation are simultaneous processes, it will certainly suffice for the definition of anorgasmia in men. In women, of course, the absence of orgasm is much more obvious. Even when a woman is satisfied with sexual intercourse and derives fulfillment from it, it's usually quite obvious when she hasn't reached orgasm. Again there is a debate about whether or not anorgasmia in women is a sexual disorder or simply the product of sexual experience in childhood and adulthood – in other words, is it a developmental issue? These are issues which can be researched on the Internet.