Yes. There is demonstrable evidence that consuming pornography increases the likelihood of erectile dysfunction.
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a physical condition in which men have difficulty sustaining an erection. It is usually caused by a number of physical conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, tobacco use, or sleep disorders, and / or psychological states, such as depression or stress. In the context of regular pornography use, ED (or PIED – pornography-induced erectile dysfunction) is more than twice as likely to occur than in men who don’t watch pornography.
Many men report that while pornography is useful in stimulating a sexual response (in the brain, thus causing an erection), as exposure to the pornographic stimuli is repeated it becomes less exciting and eventually incapable of provoking the same excitement (in the brain, thus difficulty in maintaining an erection). As men become desensitized to pornography, they require a more shocking stimuli, hence why many men move from softcore to hardcore pornography, hardcore to gonzo pornography, and so on. Pornography, then, paradoxically alters, or damages, healthy sexual functioning and provides, with an overwhelmingly vast resource of shocking stimuli, a temporary solution.
A brief look at the history of ED in young men, alongside the history of pornography accessibility, strongly infers a correlation. Studies from the late 1940s, before pornography was mass produced, reported that less than 1% of men under 30 suffered ED; studies from 1999, pornography available in print, reported that 7% of men under 30 suffered ED; various studies the last several years, pornography having been mainstreamed and easily accessible via mobile devices, report that downwards of 30% of young men suffer ED. ***
While it can be negligent to infer causality when events coincide, the story being shaped – that the proliferation of pornography has directly contributed to the proliferation of erectile dysfunction in men – is compatible with various studies directly linking the two. In fact, studies report that when pornography addicts experience ED with women (which is more than 60% of heterosexual men), they actually have no difficulty with an erection with pornography itself. Once again, pornography is a virtually endless reserve of materials, readily accessible, almost always capable of shocking. Not one human body can compete with this. Not one person can. Not one person should.
*** Coincidentally, or perhaps not, Viagra became available and massively successful in 1998. More to follow on Big Pharma’s financially dependent relationship on the global pornography industry in a latter post.