Erectile Dysfunction Or Impotence - What Is It About?

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Erectile Dysfunction is often referred to as Impotence. It means to the loss of a man's ability to maintain an erection during sex. It can include a reduced sense of sexual excitement, which in turn leads to a loss of an erection.

Love-Making and Getting An Erection

A man must be excited by one or more types of stimuli to succeed in achieving an erection. The stimulus may be psychological or physical both together.

Most often the stimulus can be what he sees or senses or even hears from his partner. On the other hand it can be his imagination producing thoughts and images that are of a sexual nature. Generally it is a combination of the both fantasy and reality.

Erections That Are Involuntary

All men will get what might be called an involuntary erection. This is when a man will achieve an erection that he has not chosen to have at that time. Most often a man will notice an involuntary erection when waking in the morning and before emptying his bladder. While asleep the bladder will fill with urine and this presses prostate gland. Stimulating the prostate gland brings sexual arousal and the result is an erection.

Similarly, there will be other times whether awake or asleep that a man will get an erection that is involuntary. Occasionally a man will be aroused by another person he has contact with. He will not seek to have an erection but because he is sexually stimulated he will experience an erection.

How Does the Body Achieve An Erection?

There are three chambers in the penis. These chambers expand with blood making the penis stiff and rise during an erection. The width and the length of the penis will get larger too.

When sexual stimulation (physical or imagined) or involuntary stimulation is present, the brain sends a message to increase the blood pressure in the body and to send blood to enlarge the penis. The three chambers in the penis fill with blood and the penis becomes hard and erect.

During sexual arousal, the penis stays enlarged and all the blood is prevented from escaping by muscles.

The body contains two specific action or relaxation systems; the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous system. Normally one or other of these systems are in ascendancy in the body at any one moment in time. For a successful erection the two systems are in balance.

This may give clues as to how psychological forms of impotence or erectile dysfunction can arise. During sex if a man thinks of an anxiety such as the possibility of losing his erection, it can tip the delicate balance between the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous system and the result may be a loss of erection.

Therefore impotence or erectile dysfunction is the loss of an erection through to ejaculation or desired completion of satisfaction for both partners.