Can You Test Yourself For Erectile Dysfunction?
November 04, 2020
4 mins
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a health condition that's not uncommon for adult men to experience at one point or another. The underlying causes can be range from health conditions like diabetes or heart disease to mental health issues like anxiety or depression.
A healthcare provider may explore multiple avenues for finding the source of your ED. It's strongly recommended to not try to self-diagnose yourself. Self-diagnosis can lead to taking medications that make your ED symptoms worse.
What is Erectile Dysfunction?
Erectile dysfunction is the inability to get or maintain an erection. ED affects every guy differently. There is no one singular symptom of ED that indicate the severity of your ED.
ED often occurs as a result of other health conditions. Common health conditions that may contribute to ED include:
Diabetes
Heart disease
High blood pressure
Hormonal imbalances
Certain lifestyle factors can increase your risk of ED. Smoking tobacco and drinking excessive amounts of alcohol can disrupt consistent blood flow to the penis. This makes it difficult to reach and maintain full erections.
How Do You Diagnose ED?
There is no single test that checks for ED, but a healthcare provider can still ask certain questions and run tests on your overall health. Your healthcare provider may first ask you if you have a history of medical conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes. Certain antihypertensive medications may have ED as a side effect.
Be sure to be as honest as possible with your healthcare provider. Not only can omitting important information be dangerous to your health, it can also lead to a wrong diagnosis.
Next, a healthcare professsional can conduct a physical exam to find any changes in blood pressure, heart rate, and weight. They may also visually examine the penis for any physical signs of changes. Blood tests may help a healthcare provider find any hormonal imbalances.
What is the sexual health inventory for men?
The Sexual Health Inventory for Men (SHIM) questionnaire is a short series of multiple-choice questions that can help a physician determine whether you have ED. The questions focus on what your experience has been like with sex.
Answers are associated with a numerical score between 1 and 5 each, and summed at the end. Out of 25 points, the lower the score the higher the likelihood and severity of E.D.
This test, also known as the IIEF-5, is an abbreviated form of the 15-item International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) developed in the 90s. It came to prominence at a time when more men than ever were seeking diagnosis and treatment for ED.
What Are Self-Testing Options?
It's not the safest option to try to test yourself for ED without input from a healthcare provider. The following methods have been used by men in the past to test for ED. While these methods may indicate some changes in erectile function, going to see a healthcare provider is the best way to receive the proper treatment.
The stamp test
One method men have used to test themselves for ED is called the stamp test. It involves testing for erections while you sleep by rolling stamps around the shaft before bed.
Erections during sleep, called Nocturnal Penile Tumescence (NPT), are a natural part of men's health. Most guys will get one to five erections during the night, without even knowing it. If the stamps pull apart during the night, then it's likely that a man experienced an erection. However, stamps can pull apart from movement during sleep or other factors.
How Rex MD Can Help
At Rex MD, you can receive access to ED medications like sildenafil and tadalafil after a healthcare provider has approved your prescription.
Get started today with finding the ED medication that is right for you if a healthcare provider diagnoses you with ED.
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