I’m 36 years old and was married for 8 years. I have no children. My work involves glamor and flamboyance, meeting with a lot of who’s who, maintaining a stature that exuberates a lot of energy at all times. The first four years of my marriage were a mix of travel and work and I had an active, healthy sex life. In the fifth year of my marriage, I started experiencing difficulty in getting an erection. At first, I thought this must be normal and could happen in any marriage after the novelty wears off. But the problem persisted and I failed to get an erection every time my wife and I wanted to be intimate. Then I knew that this was not normal and that something was wrong.

As I have been a voracious reader, the first thing I did was do more research and so I took to the internet to read about erectile dysfunction, its causes and treatment options. For the next 6 – 12 months,I also tried several medicines. Nothing helped. I practiced yoga, which did help me perform on a few select days in the month for a while, but this was again short-lived.

Then I decided to talk about the problem with my friends who told me about an “implant” which may be helpful in addressing my condition. I decided to take a Doctors advice about it.

Armed with this information, I decided to meet with several urologists to ask for this treatment. None of the urologists I met with had heard of this penile implant! Some were not sure of its safety and efficacy. Some advised me against it as ’36 wasn’t the right age’ and told me to rely on yoga and other medication. None of this was helpful. I was trying everything I possibly could and that included leaving food items like rice for 2 years that could potentially cause this problem too.

I wanted to get my life back! I was in the prime of my life and I wanted to have children too eventually. I decided that if there was no solution in India I would look for it in the US. Just when I was about to give up on any hope of getting treated in India I came across andrologist. When I asked him about the penile implant, his response was simple, “You’re about to change your life,” he said. And he was right!

I went through the procedure and recovered in less than a week after the initial mild discomfort. I am now able to face the outside world with greater confidence and the feeling of being normal. Regrettably, I wasn’t able to save my marriage. It took too long to find a solution and the relationship suffered. My wife and I have gone our separate ways. But at least now I can continue to hope and feel like myself again.

We are also now working on getting back together and sorting the issues between us that cropped up with ED somewhere being the underlying reason.

In retrospect, I believe that it may be a certain sport that I used to practice intensely and I remember having acute groin pain at certain times while practicing that sport. It seems that there are certain sports which you need to be very careful while playing or practicing. Ensure that you have a good medical team to guide you while indulging in such sports and follow their instructions.

My two cents to all would be to never give up and fight it out for a solution for your problem.