Erections help keep your penis healthy - use it or lose it!

Erection problems are common as men get older. And they're something no man welcomes.


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"When you get erectile dysfunction, there's this stigma of 'I can't perform, I'm not a man anymore' and it's quite damaging," says specialist Dr Doug Lording, who has worked in the field for more than 30 years.

When it comes to a healthy penis though, the principle of 'use it or lose it' seems to apply.
There's even the idea that older men could perhaps use sex as a way to reduce their odds of developing erectile problems in the first place.

But does regularly having sex really help a man avoid developing erection problems?

While there's no, ahem, hard proof, the answer is quite possibly yes, says Lording, Honorary Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Monash University and an andrologist at Melbourne's Cabrini Hospital.

"I think it probably does, but I don't think it's a proven thing. I don't think there's been enough work done to say there's conclusive evidence that's the case."

It's certainly true however that "getting erections helps keep the penis healthy" he says. But whether sexual intercourse has benefits for the penis over and above those provided by a man's normal night time erections, or by him masturbating, hasn't been tested.

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