Is Excessive Short-Form Pornography Consumption Causing Erectile Dysfunction in Young Men?

This article is from the column “Nothing New Under the Sun” on Jandan.net, and has been authorizedJandan.netAuthorization. For more interesting stories, visit Jandan.net or subscribe to its WeChat official account (ID: jandancom). The header image is from Visual China Group.

There’s an advertisement in the London Underground tunnels with the slogan “ED is dead,” accompanied by a photo of a healthy man in his prime. In smaller print below, it reads: “Don’t worry—ED isn’t a person. It’s about men’s health; ED stands for erectile dysfunction.” The poster promotes a new brand of sildenafil.(commonly known as Viagra), we believe it may solve the problem. However, as things stand, ED is far from dead.

Historically, the core market for Viagra was older men with poor health. However, according to the latest research and surveys, 14%–35% of young men suffer from erectile dysfunction (ED). “Until 2002, the prevalence of ED among men under 40 was approximately 2%–3%. Since 2008, when access to free high-definition pornography became effortless, this figure has been steadily rising. Growing clinical and anecdotal evidence indicates that pornography is a significant contributing factor to ED.”

Claire Faulkner（Clare Faulkner）A psychosexual therapist based in central London, she believes that erectile dysfunction is closely linked to the misuse of pornography. “My current clients are all young men in their twenties,” she said. Part of the problem with pornography is that it constitutes a “disembodied experience,” where stimulation comes from external sources, making it difficult for individuals to connect with their own bodies. Moreover, it perpetuates the myth that “men are always rock-hard, and women are always ready for sex.”

Individuals who consume pornography in isolation become accustomed to exercising complete control over their sexual experiences—a point Faulkner describes as “different from the real world.” When confronted with a real, complex person, along with the needs and insecurities of a sexual partner, they may experience profound aversion.

In a Specialized Discussion on Pornography-Induced Erectile Dysfunction（PIED）on online forums, thousands of young men have shared their arduous journeys of quitting pornography, tracing their progression from softcore to hardcore content, as well as the obstacles they face in establishing real-life sexual relationships. While it is difficult to directly prove that pornography causes erectile dysfunction (ED), these accounts support the findings reported in clinical literature:If men can quit the habit of watching pornography, their sexual dysfunction in real life can be alleviated to varying degrees.

Some young men have already begun their self-support movement, such as that led by Alexander Rhodes（Alexander Rhodes）NoFap, founded in the United States("Quitting Masturbation")

“When he started having sex at age 19,” he continued, “I couldn’t maintain an erection without imagining pornography. My sex education came from high-speed internet porn.” Last year, he was at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation in the United States.（National Center on Sexual Exploitation）At an event, he stated to the audience: “Children in the United States and many other developed countries are being guided by the internet to access pornographic content, which is effectively mandatory.”

Rhodes began watching pornography at a very young age, which is not uncommon. From 2016 to 2017, Middlesex University in the United Kingdom（Middlesex University）A study conducted on children aged 11 to 16 found that 48% of them had viewed pornography online. Among them, the vast majority（93%）Seen before the age of 14.

60% of children first viewed it at home. Published earlier this year in "Pornography Studies"（Porn Studies）An Irish study published in a journal found that 52% of boys began viewing pornography and masturbating at age 13 or younger. Sharp stated that social media serves as a gateway. “Porn stars have Instagram accounts, so they let children follow them on Instagram; with just one or two clicks on links, you can access pornographic content. Children aged 12 or 13 should not be exposed to explicit depictions portrayed as sexual acts.”

The Reward Foundation is not an anti-pornography organization, Sharp said, “but excessive pornography is changing the way children experience sexual arousal.” This occurs during their formative years, “an age at which they are most vulnerable to mental health disorders and addiction. Most addictions and mental health disorders begin in adolescence.” Published in Archives of Sexual Behavior（Archives of Sexual Behavior）A study in the journal suggests that the rise in pornography consumption can at least partially explain why millennials have less sex than the previous generation.

Faulkner stated that, like other addictions, “people require larger doses to achieve pleasure. The stimulation threshold is constantly increasing in order to obtain the same level of excitement. This means that the content they consume becomes increasingly hardcore and more disturbing.” When researchers studied the brains of individuals with compulsive pornography abuse, they found that their brain changes were identical to those observed in other types of addicts.

Some people still view erectile dysfunction in young men as a form of performance anxiety, but Sharp says that while this may indeed be the case for some, “what we hear from clinicians, sex therapists, and those treating compulsive sexual behavior is that over 80% of erectile issues are related to pornography.” The Reward Foundation has been conducting workshops with healthcare practitioners across the UK, finding that doctors do not even consider asking male patients about their pornography consumption. Sharp states, “Doctors prescribe Viagra to patients, but it doesn’t work for many. This fails to address the root cause.”

When Medications Fail, Some Young Men Opt for Penile Implants(Penile prostheses aid in achieving erections). One patient even had two such prostheses implanted. No one thought to ask him about pornography abuse.

Sharp recalled that during a recent school visit, a teenage boy asked her how many times a day it was appropriate to masturbate while watching pornography. “They are constantly viewing pornographic content,” Sharp said. “But no one has told them that this is wrong.”

This article is translated from The Guardian, with the original titleIs porn making young men impotent?Released by translator Mork under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (BY-NC) License.