‘Young men are falling prey to psychogenic erectile dysfunction ’

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Three months post marriage, a couple walked into a city doctor’s clinic with a complaint of the man ‘not performing well’. But his diagnosis, has made the doctors in the city believe that this is a side-effect of excessive pornography and taking up sex as a challenge rather than a pleasurable experience

Reasons for avoiding sex can be easily treated

  • Erectile dysfunction is not always a physical problem only. There can be psychogenic causes which may cause or worsen the problem.
  • Psychogenic erectile dysfunction is defined as the persistent inability to achieve or maintain erection satisfactory for sexual performance owing predominantly or exclusively to psychological or interpersonal factors. Psychogenic erectile dysfunction frequently coexists with other sexual dysfunctions, particularly depression and anxiety disorders.

Psychogenic erectile dysfunction is no new concept! Most of us may have heard about how some or the other psychological reasons such as stress, anxiety and so on. A Mumbai-based couple went to Dr Deepak Jumani’s clinic in Goregaon with the same complaint.

“The woman walked in with her 29-year-old husband and claimed, “Doctor he can’t perform. If he can’t, I will leave him. Saying this, she walked out of the clinic frantically. The guy’s eyes couldn’t meet mine and he was anxious,” said Dr Deepak K Jumani, professor and sexual health physician attached to JJ Group of Hospitals, Grand Hospital and Mumbai Police Hospital.

On further probing, it came out the guy’s lack of performance was related to performance anxiety. According to Dr Jumani, there are surely more young boys in the age group of  25-40, coming in with this complaint.

“For this patient, I had to counsel the wife first. One can’t have expectations like an adult star which is unrealistic. Young men are falling prey to psychogenic ED, more these days. What they must know is that real life sex is much different,” said Dr Jumani.

Ask other city doctors about such an erectile dysfunction and most blame it on excessive pornography.

“There are majorly three reasons for ED which are psychogenic, neurogenic (related to nerves) or vasculogenic (related to blood vessels). Commonly, what people come up with is psychogenic which is situational. For example, some men can’t get an erection with their spouse after a fight but can perfectly have sex with other women,” said Dr Anjali Chhabria, a well-known psychiatrist and Founder of Mind-temple.

“When such a patient comes to us, we treat them with minimum medicines and more of behavioural therapy. Excessive pornography leads most men to ED. Psychogenic factors are more commonly seen in young men,” said Dr Yusuf Matcheswalla, a senior psychiatrist attached with Masina hospital.

“Some other methods can be dual-sex therapy where both partners are counseled. But the good thing is, now-a-days, people are coming forward and they consider it an illness,” Dr Priyanka Mahajan, psychiatrist from Mumbai.

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