Oral drugs 4. External vacuum therapy 5. Penile self-injection 6. Penile prostheses The success of some of these treatments may depend upon the type of impotence. Vacuum therapy has a lifetime-cost advantage over injections and prostheses.
Patients can easily discontinue vacuum therapy and try other treatment options if desired.
The most common patient complaints concerned an interruption of lovemaking, numbness or coolness of the penis, or discomfort ejaculating, but the panel found no serious side effects from vacuum therapy. Injection therapy is easy and usually painless, although some men report mild discomfort following the injection. The injected drug produces an erection within 5 to 15 minutes. The most serious possible complications are prolonged erections or the formation of scar tissue within the penis. The surgically implanted penile prostheses are available in several designs and do not affect a man's other normal bodily functions.