Treatment Options for Peyronie’s Disease

Peyronie’s is most common among men in their 50s. Unfortunately, it tends to be under-reported because many men are uncomfortable discussing it and end up ignoring or denying the condition. Estimates are that 9% to 12% of men over the age of 50 experience some form of the disease.

Symptoms sometimes seem to appear overnight. Other times they may gradually develop. Not every man has pain with Peyronie’s either. Common symptoms include:

• A palpable lump or bump (one that you can feel) in the penis
• A new curvature or other visual deformity (denting, wasting, hourglass, hinging, shortening) in the penis when erect
• Erectile dysfunction

Peyronie’s disease is typically a result of inflammation and plaque formed after repeated trauma to the penis, commonly during sexual intercourse. Once plaque forms, a thick, inflexible scar can cause the penis to curve upwards, downwards or sideways.

During your visit your doctor will perform a complete examination that includes feeling the hardened tissue (sometimes it is necessary to do the exam with the penis erect).

A measurement of your curvature may also be taken to determine the degree so that specific treatment can be provided.

It is often helpful for patients to capture a picture of their erect penis to demonstrate to their provider the extent and location of the curvature.

Treatment depends on the degree of penile curvature, severity of penile shortening and/or narrowing and whether or not you also have erectile dysfunction.

If proactive treatment is recommended, here are the options we provide:

• XIAFLEX: A nonsurgical treatment during which the physician injects medication to weaken and break down the plaque that is causing an erect penis to curve.
• Penile Traction: Various traction devices are available, one of which is RestoreX, which has demonstrated improvement in penile lengthening and erect curvature based upon published data.
• Surgery
  • Penile Plication: Procedure under general anesthesia where the surgeon places sutures to shorten the unaffected side of the penis to result in overall significant straightening of the penis.
  • Penile Plaque Incision/Excision and Grafting: Procedure under general anesthesia where the surgeon incises and/or removes part of the penile plaque to improve the curvature deformity. As a result, a xenograft or allograft may be used to replace the scar tissue. Often times the surgeon may place a penile implant at the same time as plaque incision/excision grafting to ensure future erectile function is satisfactory.
  • Penile Prosthesis (Implant): Your doctor may suggest a penile implant to address your ED if other treatments do not work or do not fit your lifestyle. There are two types of implants: Malleable (you bend the device manually to create an erection) or inflatable (you use a pump implanted in your scrotum to inflate the device to create an erection). These can improve penile curvature deformity in some cases, and when combined with above surgical techniques, can be used to correct any severity of penile curvature deformity.