Couple shares story of struggling with erectile dysfunction

Galen and Linda Bird are celebrating 41 years of marriage. Life couldn’t be better. But about six years ago, when Galen was 63, there was a major change they didn’t see coming.

“No problems at all. We were completely happy, completely normal,” Linda says. “We’d been married at that point 34 years and had had a wonderful marriage, a very satisfying sex life and, you know, overnight — it’s gone.”

Galen was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The surgery damaged nerves causing “ED” — erectile dysfunction. And there were more problems.

“The minute I had my surgery, walk out of the hospital, I’m suffering from ED and severe incontinence,” Galen said. And this is a complete change overnight and it’s devastating.”

Galen said it was from the nerve damage sustained during the removal of the prostate.

He tried different therapies for ED, but nothing worked. Not being able to control his bladder made things worse. He felt horrible. He couldn’t enjoy the pleasures of life — playing with the grandkids, golf, horseback riding, and romance with his wife.

“It put me in depression. I didn’t feel like a man anymore,” Galen said.

“I kept telling him he didn’t have to do anything for me,” Linda added. “You know, that I could live this way. But I knew it was devastating to him. It’s just part of a man’s ego, libido. He was just not happy. He was so depressed.”

The depression and frustration lasted nearly two years. For other men with ED it can last even longer unless they seek help.

According to urologist Steve Hardeman, a testosterone, hormone deficiency can be a cause of erectile dysfunction. That’s in addition to nerve damage and other factors.

“Men who are taking blood pressure medications, the medications themselves can produce problems with erections,” Dr. Hardeman said. “If someone has diabetes, that can affect both the blood vessels and the nerves that supply the tissues that are necessary for erections.”

Other possible physical causes could be heart disease, obesity, tobacco, drugs, or alcohol — and getting older.

“Probably in the 50 to 60 age group is when it really starts to increase its incidence,” Dr. Hardeman said.

But it can affect younger men too especially if they’re depressed or stressed. Counseling may help them but what if it’s also physical?

The introduction of this pill, Viagra and others like it has helped many men with ED.

“Men who don’t have identifiable vascular disease or nerve injuries,” Dr. Hardeman said. “They respond fairly well to the oral medications. I would say there is probably a 70 to 80 percent success rate there.”

But that didn’t help Galen Bird. Therapies like injections or external mechanical devices wouldn’t work either because of the nerve damage.

“If those therapies don’t work, then we may need at least to talk about surgeries with a patient, and that would be the implantation of a penile prosthesis,” Hardeman advises.

That requires surgery.

“This is an inflatable penile prosthesis,” the doctor explained. “It’s got a reservoir which holds fluid. It’s got a pump and these are the two structures that go inside the penile shaft. And what happens is you actually pump the fluid through this reservoir with this. This structure is within the scrotum, and it causes inflation of these structures and they produce a rigid erection.”

After Galen learned of this procedure and after everything else had failed, he had the surgery.

Dr. Hardeman says when it comes to ED, men need to realize sometimes the body does things you don’t want it to. But you can’t sit around hoping things will change. You have to get help.

“If they can understand that it’s something beyond their control, then I think they’re comforted by that,” he explained. “In other words, it’s not their fault. They’re not any less of a man than they were back when they not having any problems with erections.”

For Galen and Linda Bird, the smiles say it all.

“This is kind of a difficult subject to talk about but we appreciate you doing it,” Linda says. “We don’t mind speaking about it. Our results are so good we’d like to share our story.”

“I had both implants — one for ED and one for incontinence,” Galen said. “I absolutely don’t know they’re there, unless I want to use them. It’s marvelous.
“And one thing that’s awesome,” Linda says, “when he pumps up his penile implant, he’s good to go for however long.”

“Ten minutes or ten days,” Galen says. “These 18-year-olds can eat their hearts out.”

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May 4, 2008 | Filed Under Erectile Dysfunction

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Couple shares story of struggling with erectile dysfunction

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