What are the symptoms of sexual dysfunction?

Signs of sexual dysfunction

The symptoms of sexual and erectile dysfunction to look out for include:

• Erections that are too soft for sexual intercourse.
• Erections that are too brief for sexual intercourse.
• An inability to achieve erections.
• Erections that are hard (rigid) in the beginning but become soft soon after.
• Erections that are semi-hard (semi-rigid) in the beginning and become softer later.
• Progressively fewer or no morning erections, which may be with lower quality (i.e. no rigidity or longevity).
• Premature ejaculation.
• Delayed ejaculation.

From the patient’s perspective, sexual dysfunction evolves in roughly three stages:

1. First stage: The morning erections are becoming more and more sparse. The erections that happen due to any kind of sexual arousal may be rigid at the beginning, but they are not as long-lasting as before with oscillations between rigidity and flaccidity.
2. Second stage: This stage usually starts after about 6-12 months from the first stage. The morning erections are now a very rare event and are generally flaccid, whereas the erections caused by sexual arousal are now semi-rigid and they cannot be sustained during sexual intercourse and they end up to flaccidity fast.
3. Third stage: Morning erections no longer exist. Erections caused by sexual arousal are mostly flaccid (they are not even close to semi-rigidity) and it takes great effort to perform vaginal intercourse, if even possible at all.