How Psychological Erectile Dysfunction Works Physically

How your thinking/emotions affect your body and your erections.

By Brian Mahoney | Last updated Apr 02, 2024
Medically Fact Checked by Dr. Jody Cushing | Last Updated May 20, 2024

Muscles, blood flow and your nervous system

Your penis is hydraulic system. When the muscles around the arteries of your penis relax, more blood flows in. Simultaneously, muscles at the base of your penis contract, preventing blood from leaving the penis. Blood flows in faster than it flows out. You get an erection.

Your nervous system has two modes:

  • Fight or flight: sympathetic
  • Rest and digest: parasympathetic

If you're in rest and digest mode, things work normally. You have good erections.

If you're in fight or flight mode, the brain wants to protect you be diverting blood to the large muscle groups needed for immediate survival. So it sends a signal to groin.

The small groin muscles that you want to loosen tighten and the muscles you want to tighten loosen. Not enough blood in the penis = no erection.

REFERENCE

• Coping with Erectile Dysfunction, Michael E. Metz PH.D. and Barry W.McCarthy, PH.D., pp. 32-34

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