Eli5 Why do you need to call a doctor if your erection lasts longer than 4 hours after taking male enhancement medication?

Question

Eli5 Why do you need to call a doctor if your erection lasts longer than 4 hours after taking male enhancement medication?

In: 219

Answer 1

Blood clots. Here’s the deal:

* Erections are created by using some special muscles to trap blood in the penis, causing it to inflate.
* Blood’s default state is clotting. Your blood vessels have to be actively adding a “don’t clot-now” chemical to keep it from coagulating. So whenever blood is left to sit stagnant and not flowing for a while, there’s a risk it will start to coagulate and clot. Basically it starts solidifying.

So if you have a 4h erection, there’s blood pooling for a long time in the penis and just sitting there. It can start coagulating and forming clots. The real problem is when the erection does dissipate, these clots can then be pushed out into your general circulation system where they float around and may end up plugging something really important like an artery to your brain or heart.