Is Male Impotence Normal?
Yes, yes it is.
Impotence is the term I hear people use for what is clinically called erectile dysfunction or erectile disorder. Some people just use the term ED.
This is where I can throw lots of numbers out there, and those numbers are what some people would use to define if it’s “normal” or not.
But I’m not going to, and the reason is that while there are many studies that include information on ED, those studies don’t always use the same criteria to define what ED is.
One set of criteria comes from the DSM-5, a manual that is often used by health care practitioners to diagnose patients. The diagnosis of ED in the DSM-5 has a time frame that’s linked to it – and that time time frame is 6 months.
So under the DSM, for someone to be considered having problems with impotence, they have to have the problem for at least 6 months.
Most people don’t realize that, and so if they have a problem getting and maintaining an erection once or twice they assume that there is a problem.
And there might very well be a problem, it just might not be ED.
People have problems getting erections for all sorts of reasons. Maybe they’re tired, or they’re drunk, or stressed, or taking a medication that’s preventing them from getting an erection. Maybe they’re older and it’s taking much longer to get an erection. And did I mention stress? There’s a very long list of things that could be the reason why someone can’t get it up.
Here's my take on it, if you can’t get and keep an erection and it’s happened only once or twice before, but now you’ve got no problem, then I wouldn’t worry about it (remember that whole stress thing).
If it’s been happening for a while and it’s an issue for you, or your relationship, then that’s when it’s a problem. Think about all the things that are going on in your life that could be impacting your ability to get an erection. They could include everything from money concerns, to relationship problems, to fatigue. All of those can impact your erection, so if you can address those things yourself, great.
But if you can’t, or just feel like you need help figuring out what’s happening, then I suggest talking to your health care provider and seeing if they can shed some light on what’s going on, and help to figure out how to address it.
Until next time, be safe and have fun!
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