Chapter 1: The HISTORY of Erectile Dysfunction
It wasn’t long until some doctors began using surgery to treat impotence. In the early 1900’s; a surgery professor claimed that he could perform a surgery that could give a man with no testicles the ability to achieve an erection. He claimed that he could take pieces of human testicle and surgically implant them into the man’s muscle and he would be able to have strong erections within days.
Experiments with grafting testicles were delayed until doctors gained the right to use body parts of the dead for medical experiments. In 1922; San Quentin prison doctors began taking testicles from executed prisoners and implanting them into their patients. Their experiments soon developed into injecting solutions made from animal testicles into their patients’ scrotum. Over 600 men received the injections.
Some scientists around this time would even use the testicles of animals such as monkeys because of the similarities in our reproductive systems. These treatments were popular in France for a brief period, but the treatment was soon widely criticized and considered barbaric.
Methods of surgery evolved by the 1970s and doctors began surgically inserting silicon into the penis to treat impotence. By the ‘80s; there were several penis implant procedures available using silicon rods. One of them involved implanting two silicon rods into the penis that could be bent. You would bend them up before sexual intercourse. Another involved implanting two cylinders that could be inflated when squeezed. Another inflatable penis implant involved a reservoir and pump being implanted into the scrotum. Even though there were several infections and complications reported; there were hundreds of thousands of inflatable penile implants performed.
