Trimix vs. Implant

The "rule of thumb" seems to be for many, keep on with what you are doing till it absolutely won't work any more. But in your case the issue of preexisting Peyronies and suspected scar tissue the rule of thumb may not the wise. The operation, as far as I think, may not remove the scar tissue but sort of bust it up with a blunt dilator. Since you are relatively young you should make an informed decision soon. Try finding a male sexual dysfunction specialist urologist and evaluate you. You may be don't irrevocable damage? The implants do a lot to straighten you out and give a quality erection but.....once done you will never achieve a narural erection again and as in most things natural is best. I received my implant Jan 2011 but my decision was easy in that I could not achieve an erection post RRP.

Hi cwren,

My husband had surgery 8 months ago. He has ED and is using Trimix for ED rehab. Shortly after he started Trimix injections he developed mild peyronies. His ED doctor, Dr. John Mulhall at MSKCC verified that he had peyronies with a sonogram. The treatment that Dr. Mulhall prescribed was to use a penile extender for 2 hours a day. The brand was called Fastsize. My husband injected trimix 2 days a week and wore the extender on the days that he did not inject. After a few months the peyronies was gone. It was a pretty easy and painless solution.

My husband's office is slightly over a mile away from Dr. Mulhall's and he takes our insurance so the decision to use him was easy.

CWREN: you are to new to this to consider implants. You still are in the healing stage. I'm 18 months post RALP and just experienced a new higher plateau. Here is my latest post about this issue:

www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=2766798

Good Luck

Cwren,

I am 16 years older than you but in a lot of ways I am in the same boat. I am a year out of surgery, using trimix and I am developing some hard-to-inject lumpy bits in the injection sites. I inject three times a week (M,W,F) and use a VED the other four days of the week. Trimix works OK for me but I wouldn't say great. I use kind of a lot and get good results if I am standing but lose ground markedly if I lay down. That is probably some sort of problem with my vasculature -- either a venous leak or arterial insufficiency. I don't use PDE5i drugs because I am less than half way through a two year span of HT and the pills probably wouldn't do much for me.

In order to minimize the scarification (or fibrosis or peyronie's plaques or whatever the heck the lumps are) I have started using a push button injector. I've noticed that sometimes when I hit one of the lumps with the needle it is difficult to depress the plunger and the medicine leaves a palpable lump that needs to be massaged away. It's a bit hard to hold my hand steady while I struggle with the plunger and it seems like jiggling the needle might be contributing to the scarification. With the auto-injector it is easy to hold it steady while the spring depresses the plunger for me.

Currently the role that implants play in my planning is to give me confidence to continue to inject. The auto-injector does seem to help and the lumps don't seem to be getting worse, at least not very fast. But if the scarification were to cause a real problem then I could have my erectile chambers roto-rootered and implants installed.

There are several differences between your situation and mine. Since PDE5i drugs work for you (even though they give you a stuffy nose) it suggests that you have a good chance of retaining natural erections with time. I, on the other hand had only-partial nerve sparing on one side during surgery and have since undergone radiation and HT. I still have a shot at a natural someday but its long odds for me.

You are also a young guy and the implants can be worn out -- they don't last forever. On the other hand they last a long time: ten years is stated and fifteen is not unusual. Fifteen years might well be enough for me. And the operation to replace the innertube in a flat tire is less traumatic than the initial implantation where they have to make room for the implants.

Finally, you have some mild Peyronie's disease and I don't. I think implants can help with that, somewhat, but the treatment that Bluebird's husband got (from Dr. Mulhall) sounds like it might address that problem with a much less drastic treatment.

I have an appointment with my uro in three weeks and I'll discuss my situation with him and see what he says. But in the meanwhile I was just posting to say I know exactly what you are talking about.

Yup, I've had this debate in my mind too. I am almost 5 years post surgery and oral meds do nothing. Trimix works well, although I too have mild Peyronies, a curve to the left. So I only inject on the R side, since the penis curves in the direction of the scarring. My Peyronies is mild and now that I have the right trimix dosage down the penile curve actually seems less. Trimix is a drag because it takes all the spontaneity out of the act. Plus I always preferred sex at night which is difficult because it's hard to fall asleep with an erection for the next 2 or 3 hours. However, I suffer from low T, am taking testosterone to keep my bones from disintegrating and to help with the depression. But my libidio is continuing to drop so I don't feel the implant is worth it to me. If I wanted sex a lot more I probably would consider it. Just make sure you get the best expert possible for this surgery because it is a complicated surgery and requires a lot of skill to get it right...........