Porn and ED: What's the Real Connection?

What is the relationship between porn and ed? Stay tuned to find out.

This podcast is for you. The Modern Man I'm Dr. Anne Truong, your host. I'm an intimate health medical doctor and best selling author of the book Erectile Dysfunction Fix. I'll do a deep dive into sexual health and performance and how it affects men of all ages and backgrounds. So let's get started and be sure to visit my website@sexualhealthformenpodcast.com for more information and resources from the show. See you on the inside.

Porn and ED There is ongoing debate and research regarding this potential link between pornography consumption and ed. Some report call this porn induced erectile dysfunction or pied where excessive consumption of porn is believed to contribute to difficulties in achieving erection during real life sexual encounter. So let's look at the studies and look at the causes behind this. It's actually a little bit more complex than you would think, but I'm going to try to break this down from multiple domain between addiction and psychological and what really goes on in the brain when you consume pornography. What we do know is that there are trends in sexual dysfunction at this point that until the last decade the rate of ED were low, especially in men under 40. However, it started to rise steadily in the last decade since 2006 where porn Internet use start to appear and since 2006 ed in men under 40 has been on the rise. And and what we see is that low sexual desire was increasing as well as incidence of ED, especially in men under 40. So ED was the most common problem that was observed in men under 40 followed by low sexual desire and problem with orgasm. In a 2014 study of active duty servicemen found that the rates of ED had more than doubled between 2004 to 2013 and that the rates of psychogenic ED increased more than physical or organic ed. So is Internet use a factor in today's sexual dysfunction? The Kinsey Institute researcher found that half of the subject recruited from bars and bathhouses where video pornography was omnipresent were unable to achieve erection in the lab and respond to video porn. So since then evidence has mounted that Internet pornography may be a factor in the rapid surge in the rates of sexual dysfunction. Particularly, studies have found that those who consume Internet porn more than once a week report lower sexual desire than than non consumers. So if you have anxiety about sexual performance, then that person will rely upon pornography as a sexual outlet. Studies have also shown that eight months after stopping all exposure to pornography, the user have experienced successful orgasm as well as ejaculation and resolution of ED and succeeded in enjoying good sexual relations again. Studies have also found that porn use is correlated with problems with arousal, attraction and sexual performance, including difficulty with orgasming and decreased Libido and especially ED. Two studies in 2016 found that frequent porn use was negatively related to marital quality and satisfaction with sex life. So what's happening to the male sexual response in the brain? Well, the hypothalamus, which is the gland that is in the middle of your brain right here, it's an important center for regulating sexual behavior and erection. My past episode I talk about the dopamine pathway. The dopamine pathway, which is in the mesolimbic pathway, comprises of an area called the ventral tegmental area or VTA and the nucleus acumen or abbreviated nac. It is a key detector of rewarding stimuli and and play a central role in sexual arousal, sexual motivation in penile erection. So Internet porn use result in erectile dysfunction and delay ejaculation, which may be due to the alteration in the circuit governing sexual desire and penile erection. So the Internet point use is influencing and facilitating compulsive sexual behavior because it is a super normal stimulus and because it allow the porn user to self select material with ease. So this makes Internet porn use more arousing than pre selected collections. And it makes it a unique activator of the brain reward system. Now listen to this. This is important. Novelty or new enhances the reward value and that has lasting effect on motivation, learning and memory. So what this mean is that Internet porn shows stronger preference for new sexual images than healthy control or for those that doesn't watch Internet porn. And that essentially the more new images or novelty, the more it affects their learning and memory. Essentially the more you watch porn and the newer the image is, the more you get stimulated for arousal. But what it does is that in real life it's not new and it's not stimulating enough. And therefore you're not getting the sexual satisfaction with partner sex or in real life sex. So the reward system is vulnerable to pathological learning. And this is particularly in adolescent when as they're learning about sexuality. So what's happening is that with this repeated use of Internet porn and affecting psychostimulant in the brain, the brain actually undergo changes that sensitizes the mesolimbic dopamine system. Right? So what this means is that it become hypersensitized to stimuli associated with activity. So what it means is that the mesolimbic system lead to compulsive use. It needs to be stimulized. So that's why you need to continue watching porn in order for it to be stimulated. So as you become sensitized to Internet porn, partner sex may no longer trigger the release of sufficient dopamine to produce and sustain erection. This is because the dopamine pathway is inhibited. Because your expectation that you had when you were watching Internet porn are unmet in real life sexual situation. It appears that Internet porn use can condition the user to expect or want novelty. And these elements are difficult to sustain during partner sex. And that he may feel that partner sex is less salient than Internet porn user. And this may weaken his association between arousal and real life partner sexual encounter. So, in conclusion, I know that I've given you a lot of scientific terms and perhaps maybe over explaining it. But in conclusion, this is what's happening that may be contributing to ED and porn is that one overstimulation, meaning frequent exposure to porn lead to desensitized, meaning that the same stimulus that stimulated your brain no longer stimulate your brain as much. And that you need new and novelty all the time in order for your brain to be stimulated for real life situation. And that with watching porn and wanting to have new and novelty, it presents unrealistic body image sexual act and scenarios which then affect your expectation and and lead to disappointment and anxiety during real life sexual activity. Number three, Dopamine release. So pornography trigger dopamine release in the brain similar to addictive substances like cocaine and amphetamine. So over time this lead to reduced sensitivity to dopamine and potentially impact your sexual function. So what this mean is that you need higher and higher level of dopamine to be released in order for you to be aroused in order for you to get an erection. It's almost like a tolerance effect where you need higher dopamine in order for you to get aroused. And that you may not get to that higher level of dopamine with partner sex. It's also important to note that there are individual variability that pornography on individual varies widely. Some people may not experience negative effect while others may find that their sexual experience are affected and not necessarily the amount of consumption equal the severity of use. But what we do know is that men under 40 who watches pornography and do notice some sexual dysfunction, if they stop porn, their sexual function returns and and sometimes it can take up to eight months to return to normal. But we do see that in studies that their sexual function return with stopping porn use. And that when they revert back to porn use, then they'll start to notice sexual dysfunction. So if you've noticed that you have a difficulty in stopping porn and do have sexual dysfunction, it may be beneficial to seek professional help with a doctor or a therapist because there are solutions and studies have shown that stopping porn use do show an improvement in sexual function. Having said that, I hope you find it helpful and I hope that you will like and subscribe and I hope to see you in the next episode. Take care. Hello there. What an amazing sex Life. This free gift is going to give you more sex by helping you get harder and and lasting longer. Let's talk about the most sensitive subject, the effect that aging has on your sex life. If you're over 40, there's about 67% chance that you have to deal with one or more of these issues. You sometimes go soft in the middle of sex. You sometime have trouble lasting long enough to climax. Your erection just doesn't feel as hard as it used to be and your penis is not as sensitive as it used to be. You cannot reach orgasm or ejaculate. You sometimes have trouble getting an erection. These things lead to frustration and embarrassment when you cannot please your partner. My name is Dr. Ann Truong and I've been treating men for issue like this for over 25 years. As a board certified medical doctor who specializes in men's health, I helped over 7,000 men reverse the effect of ED. As a way to introduce you to the ED treatment that I offer, I want to give you the most incredible free gift ever. But don't let let the fact that this free gift fool you. This powerful gift will help you get harder and stay and last longer and may just revolutionize your sex life, making sex more exciting, more thrilling and an amazing experience again. How is that? Well, here's what you're going to get in this most incredible free gift. Number one A good morning wood smoothie recipe. 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