The Bathmate is a different animal from the others, in that it is supposedly a male enhancement device and is not really meant for intercourse. You generally need to be in the bath or shower to use it (hence the name), so unless you're gonna do the deed there it's not practical for sex, more's the pity since it is about the most effective Vacuum Erectile Device I've tried so far.
It's a big bullet-shaped device with a domed top and an "alligator" flexible rubber-like gasket at the bottom. You fill it with water and then push it back against your body, which forces water out a one-way valve in the dome, creating suction. You wait a minute until the suction draws blood into the penis (and thus the suction lessens), then you push it back again to force more water out and increase the suction, repeating the cycle every so often until you can't increase the suction any more. You're supposed to leave the device on for a maximum of 15 minutes (making for a danged long shower, sometimes) in three sessions of five minutes each. The result was that it made my weenie about as big as it's ever been since I developed Peyronie's, and almost hard enough for penetration, despite my severe ED. Did it increase my size? Hard to say: as I continued to use it over several months, the graduated measurements marked on the side of the cylinder did increase by about 2.5 centimeters, but I don't know if that was a real increase or just my becoming more adept at applying the suction, thus collapsing the seal tighter and forcing the head farther into the cylinder. My wife, however, remarked that when I use Edex to get a real, full erection, my little man seems thicker, for some reason, so....
Still, whether or not it really increased my size and/or helped partially cure my Peyronie's disease, it gave me a great sense of fullness that lasted for quite a while when I also used a cock ring to keep it engorged after removing the pump. If felt so good that I more often than not, um, pleasured myself, which made the shower even LONGER! Dang.... After about 8 months of use, however, it appears the seal is failing, so I can't get the suction to work very well, even with gel lubricant as a seal, so I'll have to buy a new or different one to continue. Hmph! (Update: I bought another one and after a while it developed the same problem. Cleaning the valve helped the problem some, but did not cure it. *sigh*
Showing posts with label Peyronie's Treatment options. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peyronie's Treatment options. Show all posts
Monday, December 7, 2015
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Using penis enlargement devices to treat Peyronie's disease?
It's not as silly as you might think! I read an abstract by the National Institutes of Health about several clinical studies of Penile Traction Therapy and Vacuum Erectile Devices, which concluded that they do work, to some degree. There was measurable increase in penis length for men who wore PTT devices 8 hours every day for 6 months, although in most cases the gains were quite modest, like 1 to 3 cm, although men who suffered from small penis syndrome realized more dramatic gains. The improvement for Peyronie's disease sufferers looked really promising, with curvature improvements that ranged from 15 to 27% (the corrective surgeries available, as well as the new Xiaflex injection, offer only a little more improvement at 33%).
Supposedly, it is believed that the best results are achieved in the acute phase of Peyronie's, before the scar tissue is calcified, although some study participants had the disease for 11 months. VEDs were less effective in both areas, although they do make it feel good to have the ole' willie filled up and (in my case) almost hard. Most of the studies used stretched penis length (SPL) as the measurement of success, although one Peyronie's study used photographs taken after medically inducing an erection, to measure curvature success.
Having read that, I ordered the "Deluxe" PTT device from X4labs.com for $89.95 with free shipping. They have a special Peyronie's model for like $149.95, but I couldn't see much difference in that product to merit the much higher price, other than a free bottle of Vitamin E, which you can get from the drugstore for much less. I've been wearing the thing for about a week or so, and it takes some getting used to, but isn't really painful or anything like that. It has a tension adjustment that you can use to tighten or loosen up things once you put it on, but early on you have the urge to make it tighter in order to feel the stretch. By the end of the day, however, you REALLY begin to feel it painfully, so I've been starting out with an easier setting, lately. We'll see how he does. The Little Woman said she actually can see a difference in my flaccid length, which wouldn't be important to me except for the fact that if I eventually need penile implants, they make them so that your erect length is about the same as your SPL, so HEY! The longer the better! BTW, TLW and I made love on New Year's Eve, and it may be my imagination, but it seemed the curvature had already improved a little bit. Fingers crossed...!
UPDATE- 04/02/2015: After 3 months of using the PTT device, my wife and I have noticed a definite improvement in the curvature of my Little Man. Where previously it curved all the way back over to my abdomen, it now curves but points straight up, so something definitely seems to be happening. Sex is still rather awkward, but somewhat improved. Keeping my fingers crossed that there's more improvement to come!
UPDATE: 12/07/2015: After about 7 months of PTT, the bend in the lower part of my shaft has straightened out considerably, while the small bend up near the head is, unfortunately, not much affected. I was using VED's at the same time, so it's hard to tell whether they or the PTT worked better, although my gut instinct is that the PTT was most effective. As a result, the doc has taken a wait and see attitude toward getting penile implants. When I asked him about the ED1000 ultrasonic shockwave treatment which is not yet available in the US, he said it looks promising both for ED and Peyronie's, but all the studies aren't in, yet.
Supposedly, it is believed that the best results are achieved in the acute phase of Peyronie's, before the scar tissue is calcified, although some study participants had the disease for 11 months. VEDs were less effective in both areas, although they do make it feel good to have the ole' willie filled up and (in my case) almost hard. Most of the studies used stretched penis length (SPL) as the measurement of success, although one Peyronie's study used photographs taken after medically inducing an erection, to measure curvature success.
Having read that, I ordered the "Deluxe" PTT device from X4labs.com for $89.95 with free shipping. They have a special Peyronie's model for like $149.95, but I couldn't see much difference in that product to merit the much higher price, other than a free bottle of Vitamin E, which you can get from the drugstore for much less. I've been wearing the thing for about a week or so, and it takes some getting used to, but isn't really painful or anything like that. It has a tension adjustment that you can use to tighten or loosen up things once you put it on, but early on you have the urge to make it tighter in order to feel the stretch. By the end of the day, however, you REALLY begin to feel it painfully, so I've been starting out with an easier setting, lately. We'll see how he does. The Little Woman said she actually can see a difference in my flaccid length, which wouldn't be important to me except for the fact that if I eventually need penile implants, they make them so that your erect length is about the same as your SPL, so HEY! The longer the better! BTW, TLW and I made love on New Year's Eve, and it may be my imagination, but it seemed the curvature had already improved a little bit. Fingers crossed...!
UPDATE- 04/02/2015: After 3 months of using the PTT device, my wife and I have noticed a definite improvement in the curvature of my Little Man. Where previously it curved all the way back over to my abdomen, it now curves but points straight up, so something definitely seems to be happening. Sex is still rather awkward, but somewhat improved. Keeping my fingers crossed that there's more improvement to come!
UPDATE: 12/07/2015: After about 7 months of PTT, the bend in the lower part of my shaft has straightened out considerably, while the small bend up near the head is, unfortunately, not much affected. I was using VED's at the same time, so it's hard to tell whether they or the PTT worked better, although my gut instinct is that the PTT was most effective. As a result, the doc has taken a wait and see attitude toward getting penile implants. When I asked him about the ED1000 ultrasonic shockwave treatment which is not yet available in the US, he said it looks promising both for ED and Peyronie's, but all the studies aren't in, yet.
Monday, November 3, 2014
Success After a Dry Spell: Damn the Peyronie's, (Almost) Full Speed Ahead!
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Thursday, March 13, 2014
Peyronie's Disease: WTF Else is Gonna Happen???
About 8 to 10 weeks ago (see previous post). I woke with one of my usual only moderately hard morning erections, and the damn thing was curved all the way up to touch my belly. I finally got an appointment with my urologist in mid-February, and he detected a definite plaque (scar tissue) inside the ol' weenie that is causing it to curve. He referred me to a urologist specializing in Peyronie's Disease. That doc said he did not believe the Edex had caused it, that I probably injured my member during sex at some point (and I do remember being bent bent double a time or two when I slipped out unexpectedly. The injury supposedly happens usually when you are doing it in a woman-on-top position).
Anyway, this doc deals with Xiaflex, a new collagenase drug that is injected into the plaque to cause a break in it so the penis can be stretched to separate the parts of the plaque so it no longer "tethers" the penis. He said, however, that at best it generally improves the curvature by only 33%, and that would not be much help to me, and people who already have ED are not good candidates for Xiaflex because it can make the ED worse. Then, too, Xiaflex currently costs a whoppin' $3300.00 per vial, with as many as 8 vials sometimes necessary to complete the treatment! Not sure if insurance would cover any of that, since the drug is sort of experimental.
His bottom line recommendation, if I cannot live with the curvature, is to get penile implants. (It's a little too much for me to think about right now, so you'll just have to Google penile implants.) My Peyronie's is not stable yet, so he has me taking a couple of prescription drugs to mitigate it as much as possible until it does go from acute to chronic. Supposedly, 10 to 12% of patients improve on their own, about 40% get worse, and the remaining bunch see no change at all.
Oh, joy....
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