While Peyronie’s disease may not be all that common — only about 4 in 100 men have the condition — it can wreak havoc on the sex lives of those who do. If you have Peyronie’s disease and your sexual function has been affected, a penile implant may prove to be the best solution for restoring your sex life.
At Arizona Urology, our men’s health experts specialize in male prosthetics, which can solve several sexual function issues, including Peyronie’s disease. Here’s how.
To better understand Peyronie’s disease, it’s useful to understand the anatomy involved in the problem. In short, Peyronie’s disease describes a condition in which scar tissue forms in your penis, creating plaques that can interfere with the shape of your penis during an erection.
Your penis contains three main tubes — your urethra and two corpora cavernosa, spongy areas that fill with blood to create an erection. These three tubes are sheathed by your tunica albuginea.
When you have Peyronie’s disease, the plaques that form can render your tunica albuginea less flexible, and when you have an erection, your penis can curve upward, downward, or to the side. In 70% of cases, the plaques form on the top of your penis, leading to an upward curvature.
While the curvature may be problematic, Peyronie’s disease can make erections uncomfortable. Also, 75% of men with Peyronie’s disease struggle with erectile dysfunction.
In most cases, Peyronie’s disease develops after trauma to your penis, which typically occurs during rigorous sex.
Peyronie’s disease involves two stages — acute and chronic. The acute stage lasts for about 6-12 months as the plaques form, and the chronic stage starts when the plaques have stopped growing. Peyronie’s disease rarely resolves itself, as once the plaques form, they are there for good unless we remove them.
If your Peyronie’s disease is affecting your sex life and you have concurrent erectile dysfunction, a penile implant may be a good solution. Please note that we only recommend inserting a penile implant after your Peyronie’s disease has entered the chronic stage, and we’re sure that no more plaque will develop.
In most cases, we suggest a three-piece inflatable implant, which allows you to control your erections. With this type of implant, we insert two inflatable cylinders inside your penis, and you can fill and drain them with a fluid reservoir that we place in your abdomen. To inflate or drain the cylinders, you simply press on a pump that we place discreetly inside your scrotum.
We perform the implant procedure during an outpatient visit and only use the most minimally invasive surgical techniques available.
To learn more about treating your Peyronie’s disease with a penile implant, please contact one of our locations in Goodyear, Gilbert, or Glendale, Arizona, to set up a consultation.
