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Stress: Erectile Dysfunction & Premature Ejaculation

Be it Erectile Dysfunction or Premature Ejaculation, somewhere or the other the culprit is stress which hits a man below the belt. Let us know the mechanism behind a male erection so that we can understand what stress exactly does to distress a man.

The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) regulates the refined senses in us, such as, intuitive feelings, blushing, gooseflesh, orgasms etc, which has two parts, sympathetic and parasympathetic. The sympathetic nervous system has two main chemical messengers, epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine, which mediates sexual arousal, reaction to emergencies, excitement, response to stimulations, anger etc. On the other hand the parasympathetic nervous system, primarily counteracts the sympathetic reactions by maintaining tranquility in the body by slowing down the heart beat rate, breathing. The penis receives signals from both the branches of ANS, and a satisfactory sexual intercourse depends upon a proper balance between the signal from both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. To get a good blood flow to the penis, a man needs to be calm so that spongy tissues in the penis are filled up and an erection can occur. And then the stimulations from the outside cause the sympathetic nervous system to kick in and he becomes sexually aroused.

When a man is stressed out, there are two possibilities during the sexual session, in the first scenario; the man becomes too apprehensive to ease up his body before sex so that the penis gets enough parasympathetic input, which results in impotence. In this process a man calms down to a level where he cannot get an erection. And then in the other scenario, when a man has managed to get an erection, but then becomes too anxious about something which may be the reason of his stress, may be something related to his business, a very important work to be accomplished or anything of that sort, or may be his anxiety related to his sexual performance, ("Will I be able to satisfy my partner?") which rapidly increases the sympathetic signals to the body, things go too fast and he suffers from premature ejaculation and loss of erection afterwards.

Now, how to make things better so that one can have good time on the bed? First things first, a man under stress, needs to relax, have a bubble bath, use the deep-breathe technique to calm down or listen to a relaxation tape. Allowing some time to the mind and body before starting sexual activity would save it from disaster caused by ED or Premature Ejaculation. If a man is unhappy with the partner about any issue or doubt, it should be sorted out first before having sex. There is another technique to stop PE, called "squeeze technique" in which a man squeezes or pushes his pelvic floor muscles. There is another technique called "stop-and-start" where a man needs to stop at the point of ejaculation, and then wait till the sensation level falls down, again start self stimulating. One has to repeat it three times and find the duration of time before each stop gradually gets longer. After this technique, the next step is to change strokes where the same process is followed but instead of stopping each time, the man has to do something less stimulating, or apply slow strokes. During the intercourse a man can use the stop-and-start technique when the sensation becomes strong. After a few days of practice when he is more confident, he can try change of position in between, while making love.