Ok. I've been putting off writing the rest of this thread because I want to really do it justice and explain it in full.
Update: 11/11/14
I recently received another message requesting info about hard flaccid. This has happened a lot in the past, so clearly we need more readily accessible and awesome hard flaccid info threads!
The original body of this thread was about my specific journey, and how I recovered, however, I've learned a whole lot more about the condition since then, and as such it's time for an update.
The original post will remain at the bottom of this one.
Everything I know about Hard Flaccid and its potential remedies:
The very first thing I want to say is this: regardless of whether your potential hard flaccid disappears overnight or after a long period of time, it's really not that terrible. I want you to change the way you think about hard flaccid from, "I just got cancer," to "I have an annoying, perpetual runny nose." Hard flaccid is extremely annoying, sometimes mildly painful, and a bit damaging to one's self esteem, however it's not going to ruin your sex life.
Now thay we've cleared that up, let's talk cures. First of all, become fairly certain that you have hard flaccid. There's a difference between being a little turtled and having a full-blown hard flaccid.
Mild turtling is when your penis retracts and tries to protect itself. This can happen due to abnormal physical stress (from PE or getting kicked in the groin) or simply from cold weather.
Hard flaccid is more persistent than turtling. If you have hard flaccid, it is likely that it will pretty much look as small as possible at al times. If you go to pee, it will look very turtled. If you take a shower, it will still be turtled. Another sure fire sign of hard flaccid is the sudden absence of morning wood.
So what causes hard flaccid? I'm not a physician, but I've done a ton of reading on it, and experienced it myself so I'll give it my best shot. Hard flaccid, similar to some cases of simple turtling, is generally caused by a traumatic injury. A hard flaccid is the result of extreme pelvic floor tension, and/or poor circulation (as a result of injury), and/or minor nerve damage.
Following this line of thinking, there a number of things that can be attemoted to remedy the issue. Also, as there are at least three possible individual or compounding causes, which I posted above, there are likewise many methods that may or may not work for certain people. That may be the reason that people seem to have such a terribly mkxed experience with finding a consistent cure.
As I'm not a physician, I have no idea what your case is, and even if you described it to me, I wouldn't feel comfortable telling you specifically what to do. Instead, I'll tell you everything I know and hope you find something that works for you.
1. If you think it's muscle tension, various stretching exercises like yoga, deep, weightless squats, and carious gentle PE style techniques may help to alleviate the muscle strain. In my amateur estimation, I would say this is probably one of the causes of hard flaccid in 75% of men. Hot baths may help as well. There are even physical therapists that specialize in pelvic floor, I have heard of a lot of goos results from sessions with them, though I didn't try it personally.
2. For circulation related concerns, the best thing that can be done is drinking green tea, ginseng, ginkgo, and avoiding coffee (caffeine). If you use workout supplements like ephedrine, I would cut them out as well during your recovery period. Circulation is probably a factor in 40% of men who have hard flaccid.
3. If you think that nerve damage is the problem, then more than anything else, I recommend a visit to a urologist. However, in the mean time, you could buy some over the counter topical cremes. Be extra careful of additives and carefully read labels to make sure that its ok for use om your genitals. I would estimate no more than 10% of men have this kind of problem. That being said, nerve damage takes the longest to heal and is the most painful. Don't lose hope though, it can be overcome.
I know doing kore PE is probably unappealing, but I recommend reading all of the excellent threads on kegels. Definitely approach woth caution, but practicing kegels will give you a tremendous new awareness of how tense your pelvic floor is at any given moment. Reverse kegels, in moderation, will help you release this tension.
The last thing two things I would like to say are as follows: first, please don't masturbate and if you absolutely must, be gentle. Second don't "test" your erections. Men with hard flaccid often become obsessed with seeing if they can get adequately hard. This is stupid. Never do it. You are bound to have terrible anxiety during ahy such test, which will increase your chance of failure, which will in turn increase your anxiety even more. Also, you may feel tempted to do hard kegels which would just exacerbate your muscle tension. Don't retard the healing process by playing with it. You don't test to see if your broken leg is healed by kicking a punching bag, you wait for the most obvious symptoms of injury to disappear first. In the case of a hard flaccid, the most obvious symptom would be its constant presence. If it becomes even slightly intermittent, you are on your way to a healthy penis, bit be patient.
The guide below details the unusual way in which I managed to recover, accidentally, from hard flaccid. I would only ever recommend it to those who are certain that their problem is muscle related and who have either tried everything else, or simply live a lifestyle that can accomdate a week or more of fasting.
--------------------Original Post--------------------
Symptoms
First let me start off by explaining what I consider to be hard flaccid, so that no one gets confused about what I'm trying to help them with. I consider hard flaccid to be when the penis, in it's flaccid state, suddenly shrinks or "turtles" to a smaller state than it had ever done previously. This state will come on frequently, seemingly unprovoked or without cause and cause great stress for the owner of said penis. The penis, in this state will feel as if it is made out of rock, possibly even HARDER to the touch than a 9/10 erection, however it is NOT engorged in this state. Many hard flaccids have other symptoms such as a head that does not inflate or accompanied partial erectile dysfunction. I had all of the above symptoms. I believe that mine (and probably other peoples' as well) was the result of an injury. I believe that this injury forces the PC muscles into a permanent strained position that endlessly tugs across the full length of the penis, causing the internal hardness, which is actually the result of extreme tension.
Duration
Before I get too excited about having cured my problem, I would also like to talk about how long I had it, and the natural process of healing. I had a hard flaccid with head deflation problems for nearly exactly 2 years until I got rid of it 2 weeks ago. Hard flaccid is actually what got me into PE, and while PE can alleviate some of the symptoms, I did not find a cure within PE. I would also like to say that there is a minimum period of time before I would expect to be able to heal your hard flaccid. I would put that period of time at around 6-8 months. I would not attempt to take any of my following advice before that, as I think that you may have other internal injuries before this point and not simply be suffering a hard flaccid.
Professional Advice
I, of course, consulted a urologist over a series of meetings and had advanced assessments of my condition. I even received the whole "miniature lighted camera" up the urethra treatment. Nothing significant was found, I was told it was stress. Now that's some stressful news!
The Cure
So this may cause a bit of controversy for some people. I'm just gonna cut to the chase. The cure for me was Fasting. Fasting as in not eating intentionally for an extended period of time. I will add that I did this fast without any intention of curing my hard flaccid. Fasting is considered by Western medical doctors and health institutes to be bogus and detrimental to ones health. However, people into more New-age medicine or Eastern medicine will likely tell you the opposite. You are welcome to have your own opinion about the validity of fasting for all other purposes of weight loss, etc, but I know what it did for my hard flaccid!
So, how do I do a fast?
Well first of all, what is a fast? I did a water fast. This means drinking only water and consuming nothing else, and I mean NOTHING else. I did it for 7 days, I would recommend doing it for 7-10 based on the experience I had.
Here are my steps to fasting.
1. Assess health first. You may want to ask your doctor if doing a fast is ok for someone in your condition. I am in very good shape physically, workout frequently, and have a low body fat %. I'm not saying this to brag, I'm saying this because it may be relevant to the cure I experienced, and I want to give you guys the best chance I can.
2. Prepare properly for the fast. If you are doing a fast of 7 days or more, you need to eat special meals for about two days prior to fasting. That means less meats and doughs, try to shift towards a more liquid-like diet. I recommend soups if available. Yogurt is excellent. Also try whole fruits like oranges, grapes, apples, etc...
3. Be really determined and consider setting aside time from work. I am a really hearty guy, but I ended up calling in sick on the last day of my fast. You will start to become exhausted. I can't express the need to be determined enough. You can't give up.
4. Don't masturbate. The purpose of doing this fast, is that during fasting your body will let go of nearly all muscle tension, including tension it may have been holding in your PC region for 2-3 years. Don't retard the process by tightening muscles it's trying to loosen.
5. Break the fast properly. This is probably the most important thing. Break the fast on fruit juices and soups. The point of a long duration fast, is certain parts of your body that have never shut down before like your stomach, digestive system, and liver, can finally take a break for the first time in your life. This is critical to muscle relaxation as well. The longer you stay on a special diet the more likely it is for you to achieve the results you want.
Please Be Careful
I did not start this fast with the intention of curing hard flaccid. I did it because it's a requirement for certain members of my religion as a kind of "becoming an elder" type of thing. I had no idea that it offered health benefits. In fact, I knew nothing about it at all! I didn't research it well before hand, and other than the hard flaccid thing, it was really miserable because I didn't follow the advice I posted above. I have since been inspired to learn more about how to fast properly, and to try and council others in how to do it. The information above is my opinion based on, my own experience, reading the experiences of others, and reading 3-4 medical journals about fasting cover to cover. For those of you who are interested in doing some reading for yourselves, I will offer the best resource I found on fasting during my own investigation. Here it is: http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201...020127.toc.htm Please don't be fooled by how old this document appears to be. This guy is over-qualified to write this kind of pamphlet. He oversaw thousands of fasts and is probably the best person to look towards for information about it. Fasts have been documented to cure nearly every disease known to man, and while I can't vouch for that, I can vouch for what I experienced.
So there you have it guys. I did a 7 day fast, and cured all of my difficulties down south. I would highly recommend this to anyone who feels that their hard flaccid is having a serious detriment on their life. It may not work for everyone, but I think just about anyone who has gone through what I went through, the pain, the doubt of ever being normal again, the frustration and anxiety... well yeah I think you guys will feel it's worth it.
Final Thought
I hadn't realized that I had been using my pelvic muscles so intensely for so long during erections. After these muscles were loosened and weakened from the fast, at first I couldn't get an erection at all. However, after a few days - I think around day 4 after finishing the fast - not only did I get erections back, I got erections that didn't require any kegals. This hadn't happened in so long, that I actually forgot you wern't supposed to have to kegal to get an erection. This is when I also realized the absence of my hard flaccid. After a few days, my head started fully inflating again, without performing kegals, for the first time in two years. Have faith my friends, and good luck.
Feel free to message me or comment here if anything is unclear, I really want to help my hard flaccid brothers!
Update: 11/11/14
I recently received another message requesting info about hard flaccid. This has happened a lot in the past, so clearly we need more readily accessible and awesome hard flaccid info threads!
The original body of this thread was about my specific journey, and how I recovered, however, I've learned a whole lot more about the condition since then, and as such it's time for an update.
The original post will remain at the bottom of this one.
Everything I know about Hard Flaccid and its potential remedies:
The very first thing I want to say is this: regardless of whether your potential hard flaccid disappears overnight or after a long period of time, it's really not that terrible. I want you to change the way you think about hard flaccid from, "I just got cancer," to "I have an annoying, perpetual runny nose." Hard flaccid is extremely annoying, sometimes mildly painful, and a bit damaging to one's self esteem, however it's not going to ruin your sex life.
Now thay we've cleared that up, let's talk cures. First of all, become fairly certain that you have hard flaccid. There's a difference between being a little turtled and having a full-blown hard flaccid.
Mild turtling is when your penis retracts and tries to protect itself. This can happen due to abnormal physical stress (from PE or getting kicked in the groin) or simply from cold weather.
Hard flaccid is more persistent than turtling. If you have hard flaccid, it is likely that it will pretty much look as small as possible at al times. If you go to pee, it will look very turtled. If you take a shower, it will still be turtled. Another sure fire sign of hard flaccid is the sudden absence of morning wood.
So what causes hard flaccid? I'm not a physician, but I've done a ton of reading on it, and experienced it myself so I'll give it my best shot. Hard flaccid, similar to some cases of simple turtling, is generally caused by a traumatic injury. A hard flaccid is the result of extreme pelvic floor tension, and/or poor circulation (as a result of injury), and/or minor nerve damage.
Following this line of thinking, there a number of things that can be attemoted to remedy the issue. Also, as there are at least three possible individual or compounding causes, which I posted above, there are likewise many methods that may or may not work for certain people. That may be the reason that people seem to have such a terribly mkxed experience with finding a consistent cure.
As I'm not a physician, I have no idea what your case is, and even if you described it to me, I wouldn't feel comfortable telling you specifically what to do. Instead, I'll tell you everything I know and hope you find something that works for you.
1. If you think it's muscle tension, various stretching exercises like yoga, deep, weightless squats, and carious gentle PE style techniques may help to alleviate the muscle strain. In my amateur estimation, I would say this is probably one of the causes of hard flaccid in 75% of men. Hot baths may help as well. There are even physical therapists that specialize in pelvic floor, I have heard of a lot of goos results from sessions with them, though I didn't try it personally.
2. For circulation related concerns, the best thing that can be done is drinking green tea, ginseng, ginkgo, and avoiding coffee (caffeine). If you use workout supplements like ephedrine, I would cut them out as well during your recovery period. Circulation is probably a factor in 40% of men who have hard flaccid.
3. If you think that nerve damage is the problem, then more than anything else, I recommend a visit to a urologist. However, in the mean time, you could buy some over the counter topical cremes. Be extra careful of additives and carefully read labels to make sure that its ok for use om your genitals. I would estimate no more than 10% of men have this kind of problem. That being said, nerve damage takes the longest to heal and is the most painful. Don't lose hope though, it can be overcome.
I know doing kore PE is probably unappealing, but I recommend reading all of the excellent threads on kegels. Definitely approach woth caution, but practicing kegels will give you a tremendous new awareness of how tense your pelvic floor is at any given moment. Reverse kegels, in moderation, will help you release this tension.
The last thing two things I would like to say are as follows: first, please don't masturbate and if you absolutely must, be gentle. Second don't "test" your erections. Men with hard flaccid often become obsessed with seeing if they can get adequately hard. This is stupid. Never do it. You are bound to have terrible anxiety during ahy such test, which will increase your chance of failure, which will in turn increase your anxiety even more. Also, you may feel tempted to do hard kegels which would just exacerbate your muscle tension. Don't retard the healing process by playing with it. You don't test to see if your broken leg is healed by kicking a punching bag, you wait for the most obvious symptoms of injury to disappear first. In the case of a hard flaccid, the most obvious symptom would be its constant presence. If it becomes even slightly intermittent, you are on your way to a healthy penis, bit be patient.
The guide below details the unusual way in which I managed to recover, accidentally, from hard flaccid. I would only ever recommend it to those who are certain that their problem is muscle related and who have either tried everything else, or simply live a lifestyle that can accomdate a week or more of fasting.
--------------------Original Post--------------------
Symptoms
First let me start off by explaining what I consider to be hard flaccid, so that no one gets confused about what I'm trying to help them with. I consider hard flaccid to be when the penis, in it's flaccid state, suddenly shrinks or "turtles" to a smaller state than it had ever done previously. This state will come on frequently, seemingly unprovoked or without cause and cause great stress for the owner of said penis. The penis, in this state will feel as if it is made out of rock, possibly even HARDER to the touch than a 9/10 erection, however it is NOT engorged in this state. Many hard flaccids have other symptoms such as a head that does not inflate or accompanied partial erectile dysfunction. I had all of the above symptoms. I believe that mine (and probably other peoples' as well) was the result of an injury. I believe that this injury forces the PC muscles into a permanent strained position that endlessly tugs across the full length of the penis, causing the internal hardness, which is actually the result of extreme tension.
Duration
Before I get too excited about having cured my problem, I would also like to talk about how long I had it, and the natural process of healing. I had a hard flaccid with head deflation problems for nearly exactly 2 years until I got rid of it 2 weeks ago. Hard flaccid is actually what got me into PE, and while PE can alleviate some of the symptoms, I did not find a cure within PE. I would also like to say that there is a minimum period of time before I would expect to be able to heal your hard flaccid. I would put that period of time at around 6-8 months. I would not attempt to take any of my following advice before that, as I think that you may have other internal injuries before this point and not simply be suffering a hard flaccid.
Professional Advice
I, of course, consulted a urologist over a series of meetings and had advanced assessments of my condition. I even received the whole "miniature lighted camera" up the urethra treatment. Nothing significant was found, I was told it was stress. Now that's some stressful news!
The Cure
So this may cause a bit of controversy for some people. I'm just gonna cut to the chase. The cure for me was Fasting. Fasting as in not eating intentionally for an extended period of time. I will add that I did this fast without any intention of curing my hard flaccid. Fasting is considered by Western medical doctors and health institutes to be bogus and detrimental to ones health. However, people into more New-age medicine or Eastern medicine will likely tell you the opposite. You are welcome to have your own opinion about the validity of fasting for all other purposes of weight loss, etc, but I know what it did for my hard flaccid!
So, how do I do a fast?
Well first of all, what is a fast? I did a water fast. This means drinking only water and consuming nothing else, and I mean NOTHING else. I did it for 7 days, I would recommend doing it for 7-10 based on the experience I had.
Here are my steps to fasting.
1. Assess health first. You may want to ask your doctor if doing a fast is ok for someone in your condition. I am in very good shape physically, workout frequently, and have a low body fat %. I'm not saying this to brag, I'm saying this because it may be relevant to the cure I experienced, and I want to give you guys the best chance I can.
2. Prepare properly for the fast. If you are doing a fast of 7 days or more, you need to eat special meals for about two days prior to fasting. That means less meats and doughs, try to shift towards a more liquid-like diet. I recommend soups if available. Yogurt is excellent. Also try whole fruits like oranges, grapes, apples, etc...
3. Be really determined and consider setting aside time from work. I am a really hearty guy, but I ended up calling in sick on the last day of my fast. You will start to become exhausted. I can't express the need to be determined enough. You can't give up.
4. Don't masturbate. The purpose of doing this fast, is that during fasting your body will let go of nearly all muscle tension, including tension it may have been holding in your PC region for 2-3 years. Don't retard the process by tightening muscles it's trying to loosen.
5. Break the fast properly. This is probably the most important thing. Break the fast on fruit juices and soups. The point of a long duration fast, is certain parts of your body that have never shut down before like your stomach, digestive system, and liver, can finally take a break for the first time in your life. This is critical to muscle relaxation as well. The longer you stay on a special diet the more likely it is for you to achieve the results you want.
Please Be Careful
I did not start this fast with the intention of curing hard flaccid. I did it because it's a requirement for certain members of my religion as a kind of "becoming an elder" type of thing. I had no idea that it offered health benefits. In fact, I knew nothing about it at all! I didn't research it well before hand, and other than the hard flaccid thing, it was really miserable because I didn't follow the advice I posted above. I have since been inspired to learn more about how to fast properly, and to try and council others in how to do it. The information above is my opinion based on, my own experience, reading the experiences of others, and reading 3-4 medical journals about fasting cover to cover. For those of you who are interested in doing some reading for yourselves, I will offer the best resource I found on fasting during my own investigation. Here it is: http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201...020127.toc.htm Please don't be fooled by how old this document appears to be. This guy is over-qualified to write this kind of pamphlet. He oversaw thousands of fasts and is probably the best person to look towards for information about it. Fasts have been documented to cure nearly every disease known to man, and while I can't vouch for that, I can vouch for what I experienced.
So there you have it guys. I did a 7 day fast, and cured all of my difficulties down south. I would highly recommend this to anyone who feels that their hard flaccid is having a serious detriment on their life. It may not work for everyone, but I think just about anyone who has gone through what I went through, the pain, the doubt of ever being normal again, the frustration and anxiety... well yeah I think you guys will feel it's worth it.
Final Thought
I hadn't realized that I had been using my pelvic muscles so intensely for so long during erections. After these muscles were loosened and weakened from the fast, at first I couldn't get an erection at all. However, after a few days - I think around day 4 after finishing the fast - not only did I get erections back, I got erections that didn't require any kegals. This hadn't happened in so long, that I actually forgot you wern't supposed to have to kegal to get an erection. This is when I also realized the absence of my hard flaccid. After a few days, my head started fully inflating again, without performing kegals, for the first time in two years. Have faith my friends, and good luck.
Feel free to message me or comment here if anything is unclear, I really want to help my hard flaccid brothers!
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