To send a link and summary of this article to a friend, click here . A painful erection or erection-like swelling unrelated to sexual thoughts or arousal persists for an hour or more. You suffer any injury to your penis. Your penis painfully curves when it becomes erect. You N ature plays a cruel joke when the body's main source of pleasure becomes a focus of pain.
Penile pain comes in several forms, most of which are apparent only when the penis is erect.
Prolonged penile swelling, called priapism, may start out as a normal erection, and it may look like one, but it actually isn't. What we're really looking at is a malfunction of the regulation of blood flow in and out of the penis. Priapism usually results from an injury or a medication. Some men with diabetes or sickle cell disease also are prone to priapism, according to Bruce H. Blank, M.D., a clinical associate professor at Oregon Health Sciences University School of Medicine in Portland. An injury can actually break an erect penis, causing pain and even priapism.