About 5 years ago, the managing director of a Sydney manufacturing company noted with alarm that he was having difficulty maintaining an erection. It would rise without any trouble but almost immediately would begin to subside.

At 54, he couldn’t understand why this was happening. ‘My wife was very encouraging, but no matter what she did – and she put in a lot of effort – it just didn’t last. It was an abject embarrassment.

‘Somehow, over the past 3 months, I had developed a curve, down and to the left, in the shaft of my penis,’ the man explained. T never had it before and the specialist said it was Peyronie’s. He said the only long-term solution was a penile implant.

‘We discussed it. My wife is 14 years younger than me and enjoys sex as much as I do, so we decided to go ahead,’ he continued. ‘About 6 weeks later I put it into operation and it worked right away. In a way it works better than before because now I have more control and can last a good 30 minutes.

In my right testicle I have a small flat box which is the pump. It causes me no discomfort and I’m not aware of it in my daily life. It pumps liquid into two tubes which run down either side of my penis to the head. The liquid is stored in a reservoir which is buried in the right side of my abdomen and I don’t feel it either.

The man described how it works. ‘.Some nights we shower together and then massage each other and caress and kiss and love and during this I can bring up a natural erection and perhaps have oral sex. Then she will gently move my hand down, which tells me to pump it up to a full erection. I push a little button on the pump and it takes maybe 30 seconds to work. I think she probably gets more pleasure now than she did before. Afterwards, I release a valve as she folds me down.

‘Although the Peyronie’s came out of (he blue, I have diabetes too, so I’m a double candidate for an implant. The idea of fussing with vacuums or injections didn’t appeal to me. I’ve been comfortable with the implant for 5 years now and have no regrets.’

There are several types of implants available in Australia but the most popular is the three-part system discussed above. The main risks are infection at the time of surgery and long-term mechanical breakdown. Over a 10-year period, about one in three will break down and need to be repaired with further surgery.

*18\105\2*