Men normally have a number of erections each night, whilst they sleep. These were always scoffed about as being related to “dirty dreams” etc., but urologists have understood in recent years that these night-time erections are a part of the normal body function, to keep the penis healthy.
There is not much blood flowing through the penis when it is flaccid (soft), but as an erection starts to happen much more blood goes into the penis, fresh blood full of oxygen, and this oxygen gets into all of the cells inside the penis, to keep them healthy.
As well as that, the regular night time erections keep the penis, and all the cells and tissues within it, very elastic and stretchy.
When a man stops having erections, such as might happen after prostate cancer surgery when the nerves to the penis are not working, the cells in the penis become hypoxic (low in oxygen) and this permanently damages those cells so that they don’t work properly in the future. The penis becomes less elastic, won’t stretch and won’t trap enough blood inside for a firm erection any longer.
The penis permanently loses length and girth.
This is why we encourage men, after prostate cancer surgery especially, to start doing something to keep the penis healthy, like a vacuum device to maintain length, and regular erection medication to encourage more blood into the penis, because for everyday they wait they are losing both length and girth of the penis.
This lost length can never be fully recovered by any surgery, including implant surgery, so, for the best cosmetic results after anything that causes erectile dysfunction, the sooner a man has a penile implant the better, and we know that they are also the best treatment for providing spontaneous and long-lasting erection strength.