Is Your Penis Curving?

What causes the curve?

Peyronie’s occurs due to a plaque that builds up in your penis, says Dr. Carson. It typically starts out as a localized inflammation, which then progresses to hardened scar tissue that reduces flexibility and causes your penis to bend during erection. “Peyronie’s disease can often result from an injury during sex,” Dr. Carson says. But realistically, anything that causes vascular trauma or injury to the penis, such as athletic activity or an accident, can receive the blame,

How does it affect your package?

Once the scar tissue begins to harden into a plaque, the tissue tethers the shaft into a curved position, because that section is no longer as elastic as the rest of the penis. “The curve can be anything from minimal up to almost 90 degrees,” says Dr. Carson. “The [penises] that usually need treatment have 30 degrees or more of curvature.”

Can it screw up your sex life?

You bet. Things start getting painful when your penis becomes erect, making sex more difficult for you and your partner, says Dr. Carson. But the pain associated with an erection usually only lasts for the first 4 to 6 months. So most men can continue sex, but it’s just not as pleasurable

What are the current treatment options?

Unfortunately, there are no approved oral medications that actually work, Dr. Carson says. Patients are usually put on Potaba, a drug that reached the market before the FDA required proof of effectiveness. “When oral treatments don’t work, which they usually don’t, docs recommend Interferon, another injected treatment,” says Dr. Carson. But again, Interferon can’t guarantee a cure.

Case in point: One study, published in the journal European Urology, found that after treating 25 Peyronie’s partients with injections for five weeks, researchers saw a 28 percent decrease in the size of the plaque. Yet when the same researchers conducted the study 2 years later on a group of 30 men, no decrease in plaque size was reported.

If the docs exhaust every other option (and the case is extreme enough), surgery is a last resort. “There are three basic operations that we do: Two are based on just straightening the penis, and the third is a penile implant,” says Dr. Carson. But again, he pegs surgery at a 75 percent success rate, and each option may lead to erectile dysfunction and shortening of the penis