What are the causes of erectile dysfunction (ED)?

Stress and emotional issues can certainly cause erectile dysfunction; but if you are older, ED may be indicative of a medical problem. Urologist Harry Fisch, MD, explains how erectile dysfunction could be caused by a vascular issue.

Transcript

00:00

What's interesting is the same blood supply to the penis is the blood supply to the heart. As a matter of fact, we know about coronary vessels, right?

00:08

Blood supply into the heart, and people have heart surgery? Well, it turns out the arteries to the penis, same blood

00:14

vessels, but much thinner. [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:25

You know, a lot of people think they have ED, or erectile dysfunction, but what does it mean? I mean, clearly, if you can't get an erection, well,

00:32

that's erectile dysfunction. But what causes erectile dysfunction? Well, if you're 20 years old or 25 years old, a young guy,

00:42

and you're in a new relationship and you have erectile dysfunction, chances are it's not because of heart disease. Chances are it's emotional.

00:48

You're stressed out. You're worried about your ability to have sex at that particular time. As opposed to, hey, let's say you're older,

00:55

50, 60, 70 years old, and all of a sudden, you have erectile dysfunction. It turns out that could be a medical problem.

01:02

What's interesting is the same blood supply to the penis is the blood supply to the heart. As a matter of fact, we know about coronary vessels, right?

01:10

Blood supply into the heart, and people have heart surgery? Well, it turns out the arteries to the penis, same blood

01:17

vessels, but much thinner. So if you're older and have erectile dysfunction, it may be a vascular problem.

01:24

Not enough blood is getting to the penis. [AUDIO LOGO]