Peyronie's disease - why does it happen, what does it look like and can it be cured?

Modern science, like ancient science, is not always able to accurately determine the causes of certain violations. Peyronie's disease is one that remains a mystery to her. It is manifested by visible curvature of the penis and related complications in men.

But what is the nature of the emerging foci of fibrous tissue has not yet been established. It is not worth expecting high efficiency from therapy in the absence of data on the causes of the pathology, although in most cases the treatment gives a satisfactory result.

What is Peyronie's disease?

The essence of the disease, named after the doctor who first gave a systematic description of the symptoms of Peyronie's disease, is reduced to the proliferation of connective tissue fibers inside the tunica albuginea of the penis.

The defect is clearly visible only in an erect state.

Reasons

Currently, the true causes of the disease have not been established. At first, medicine leaned towards its hormonal nature, but sometimes an autoimmune reaction is the cause.

Among the main factors:

• a fractured penis is an uncommon occurrence that affects men who have intense sex or have an incomplete erection;
• angiopathies of various origins, including atherosclerosis and deep vein thrombosis;
• metabolic pathologies - gout, diabetes mellitus;
• deficiency of vitamins A and E - as responsible for the correct formation of connective and superficial tissues;
• a history of traumatic interventions on an organ - treatment with injections and douching, surgery, introduction of foreign objects into the urethra, including a catheter;
• other congenital or acquired anomalies in the development of connective tissue - scleroderma, myopathy, contracture (Dupuytren's disease). Against the background of such reasons, fibrous growths of the penis often become a symptom accompanying the main process.

In some cases, relapses of Peyronie's disease show a relationship with jumps in the level of the "wakefulness hormone" serotonin.

Stages of Peyronie's disease in men

Once caused by any of the listed reasons, seals and cords under the skin are formed over the next year or two. This is called the acute stage of the process, marked by an increase in its symptoms. The size, stiffness, and number of the lesions are then stabilized and maintained for the rest of the patient's life. This stage is called chronic. New injuries in the acute period cause increased symptoms.

Diagnosis: Symptoms and Signs

Subjectively, Peyronie's symptoms are painless, movable lumps under unaltered skin. Erection becomes difficult due to pressure, constriction and pain in the places where they appear. Outwardly, all this looks like a change in the shape of the penis in any of the possible directions, depending on the location of the defect.

Diagnostics in men with the help of cavernosography, which so well detects pathological formations inside the cavernous bodies, did not justify the hopes of urology. Now the main methods of detecting plaques and assessing their condition for developing tactics for further treatment are:

• a photo of an erect penis taken independently by the patient in several angles;
• palpation;
• Ultrasound.

Peyronie's Disease - Photo of the penis in men

As the main sign, urologists consider the violation of the shape of the penis when excited. Regarding what Peyronie's disease looks like in practice, the photo of a man below as an example shows that the curvature can be observed in an upward direction (most often). Also, the organ can be directed to the left, right and even down. Less often there are abnormal shapes in the shape of an "hourglass", "bottle with a neck", etc.

Fibrous growths under the skin must be distinguished from cancer, as it occurs much more often. For a differential diagnosis, sending a photo to the doctor is not enough - a personal attendance is required.

Treatment

People who are diagnosed with hereditary Peyronie's disease often do not need treatment. In their case, the changes in shape are small, the sensations that make it difficult to have sex are weakly expressed. Growths of a traumatic nature, on the other hand, tend to progress.

Specificity

The main difficulty with the treatment of this deviation lies in its poorly understood reasons. There are additional complications in the form of a threat of relapse or worsening of symptoms after treatment.

This is possible with the surgical removal of neoplasms, local injections that stop collagen synthesis or sepsis.

Preparations

Drug therapy in men is used only in the acute stage. The reason is that it rarely gives meaningful results when the process is chronized.The optimal drugs are those that do not require injection through an injection (at least topically).

Treatment is carried out:

• complex AEvit - to normalize the renewal and growth of connective tissues of the whole body. AEvit is taken up to 800 mg per day, with food, for a month or longer;
• potassium aminobenzoate and colchicine - promoting the destruction of "extra" tissues. The first is prescribed to drink 12 g per day, for any number of doses. The second is used only in combination with vitamin E, 2 mg per day;
• Tamoxifen is a female sex hormone estrogen antagonist commonly used to combat hormone-dependent tumors (including men). To cure Peyronie's disease, he is prescribed 20 mg every 12 hours for 3 months.

You can drink carnitine twice a milligram in 24 hours - an amino acid with a sugar metabolism stimulating effect. Men who suffer from the autoimmune "version" are also prescribed corticosteroids - local injections of hydrocortisone or an ointment containing it. With weak immunity, pathology can be triggered by chronic sepsis. Then the local administration of interferons, antiviral proteins, looks more expedient.

For symptoms of impaired blood microcirculation, Trental is also included in the treatment, which reduces its viscosity. Tablets with it are shown in the amount of 2-4, no more than 3 times a day (the maximum dose is 1200 mg). To slow down or block the calcification of neoplasms, you can drink Verapamil - 120-480 milligrams per day, drinking pills with plenty of water.

With a hereditary defect in the formation of connective membranes, the drugs Lidaza and Longidaza are used. But given the high susceptibility of the organ to injury, any invasive manipulations with it are performed exclusively in the hospital.

Procedures

At home, it is possible and necessary to carry out only some procedures that alleviate the patient's condition and improve blood circulation:

• massage - it is not forbidden if it turns out to be erotic and "smoothly turns" into healthy sex;
• applying ointments - in particular, heparin. Heparin is a direct anticoagulant. In case of Peyronie's disease in men, it is advisable to include it in therapy when large trunks filling the penis with blood are squeezed by strands / plaques;
• steaming is also unable to get rid of the defect itself, but it improves the blood supply to the organ and contributes to normal erection. Soaring the genitals is most convenient in a sitz bath. It usually doesn't take more than 20 minutes.

Of the procedures performed in the hospital, shock wave therapy and electrophoresis are most often used in the treatment of Peyronie's disease. The standard area of application of UHT is crushing kidney stones. However, once it was accidentally noted its positive effect on the texture of calcifications inside the penis in men. Electrophoresis is usually performed with lidase, but another enzyme that breaks down connective fibers, chymotrypsin, is also used.

Operation

The bottom line is the surgical removal of extraneous formations with subsequent prosthetics of the removed parts with a fragment of the body's own tissues. The main advantage of the operation is a 100% guarantee of restoration of the organ's shape and erection. And the disadvantages should include:

• high likelihood of relapse, given the trauma inflicted;

On the other hand, some "minus" in centimeters of organ length is compensated for by inserting implants.

Folk remedies

Healers do not have the means that can seriously affect the course or symptoms of pathology, and by treating Peyronie's disease at home, you can only start it. If at the initial stage there is a chance to do without surgery, the fascination with techniques that mask its symptoms will make surgery inevitable.

The only alternative method of dealing with it conditionally approved by science is hirudotherapy - the use of leeches or ointment / cream with their extract. Their saliva contains the anticoagulant hirudin, and the whole technique duplicates the ease of erection with heparin or Trental.

"Experts" also claim that regular use of garlic in shock (over 5 cloves per day) doses can help a man from Peyronie's disease. But there are no cases when a patient cured neoplasms himself with his help, although the use of this spice really helps with many urological and digestive pathologies.

Other approaches

Pseudoscientific methods of treating Peyronie's disease are even more dangerous than hopes of "resorption" of subcutaneous fibrinous nodules under the influence of herbs or massage. The myth that the onset and progress of curvature is strongly influenced by the use of alcohol, including low alcohol drinks and beer, sounds similar to the "miraculous" effect of garlic.

Alcoholism really leads to large-scale violations of the composition of the blood and the work of the heart, liver, central nervous system, blood vessels, and it is one hundred percent "lethal".However, moderate drinking is associated with only one aspect of Peyronie's disease - an increased risk of injury from cheeky drunken sex.

Some patients also believe that an extender, a simple placebo device sold in many modifications on the Internet, helps to straighten the organ affected by the curvature. It is equally traumatic and ineffective in any use - to enlarge a healthy penis or to "straighten" one affected by Peyronie's disease. In the first case, it can itself provoke ruptures of the tissues forming the organ, in the latter, the use of an extender is all the more contraindicated.

Another myth on the topic of the possibility of curing Peyronie's disease independently concerns preparations of the ASD series (Dorogov's activator-stimulator). Most often, "traditional healers" advise the ASD fraction 3. This is a veterinary drug based on bone ash. The use of ASD inside people ends with erosions of the stomach and duodenum. It has the same local irritant effect on the skin.

How much does it cost to recover on average?

Peyronie's disease: complications, negative consequences

Further development of structures and plaques is dangerous by their hardening and secondary impotence due to complications. The most common among them:

• development of persistent pain syndrome and disappearance of desire for intimacy;
• squeezing of the vessels supplying blood to the corpora cavernosa, and, as a result, a decrease / loss of erection.

How does pathology affect sex?

In the acute stage of Peyronie's disease, changes in the shape of the organ may not seriously interfere with sex. As it becomes chronic, the symptoms stabilize, but the intimate life of men becomes more difficult or impossible if the neoplasm blocks part of the vessels that feed the cavernous bodies with blood.

How do girls and women view Peyronie's disease?

The attitude to the pathology discovered in a sexual partner is an individual matter. But in general, women perceive deviations in the shape and size of the male penis is not nearly as painful as its owners. In the presence of strong feelings, they are able to put up with the inevitable consequences of pathology.

How should your wife behave?

When a husband develops Peyronie's disease, wives should refrain from hints and statements that can aggravate the already difficult moral state of the patient. It is imperative to dissuade him from the idea of treating Peyronie's disease at home, using folk remedies, to convince him to contact a urologist. It should be remembered that the operation is currently the only effective (though not without consequences) method of getting rid of the "newly appeared" formations.