The Sad Reality of PIED – Porn-Induced Erectile Dysfunction

Why Young Men Aren’t Having Sex – Pt. 2

Anthony, 20, was excited about his upcoming marriage to his bride-to-be. He had known this girl for a long time and was pumped about the wedding, the reception, but most of all the wedding night! But his excitement about the first night of the honeymoon turned to horror when something traumatic happened. He was unable to get an erection.

What a major disappointment to both Anthony and his wife. Anthony could easily get aroused by pornography, but not by the real thing – not even his beautiful bride.

This true story illustrates the destructive power porn has on the young mind. You see, his sexual arousal had been wired and conditioned to screens and self-sex, so the reality of sex with a real person was a completely foreign practice to his mind and body.

Anthony’s story is not uncommon. Regardless of what the porn industry communicates, porn continues to promise what it never fulfills. What does porn truly deliver? Sadly, for Anthony and many others, porn-induced erectile dysfunction (PIED) is one of those consequences.

A Sad New Reality

Anthony is not alone. PIED affects a growing number of teenagers and twenty-somethings every year. Porn is the driving force of this rewiring of the brain. In 2016, TIME magazine ran a cover story about young men with PIED. These men shared the shock of discovering porn ruined their ability to have sex with a physical partner. The article reported that before internet porn, only 5% of men under 40 had ED. Today, 33% of men under 40 report some erectile dysfunction.¹ Let those numbers sink in. Before the internet, 1 in 20 men struggled with ED, but after high-speed internet was delivered to the smartphone, 1 in 3 do.

Alexander, one of the twenty-somethings featured in that article, shared about his first girlfriend as a teenager. “I thought it was normal to fantasize about porn while having sex with another person,” he said. But as he continued to use pornography while he was dating, he eventually lost the ability to respond sexually to a real woman. ED on such a large scale is an entirely new phenomenon among youth that has sprung up in the last fifteen years.

Gary Wilson, in his book Your Brain on Porn, writes, “Until recently, erectile dysfunction was rarely seen in men under 40. Now, it is seen in teenagers as young as 15.” Why? Wilson attributed this dilemma to the use of porn. He went on to explain:

“By the time they find a real partner, perhaps as much as a decade later, some guys discover they have trained intensely for the wrong sport. These young men had simply conditioned their sexual response to screens, isolating, constant novelty, shock/surprise, fetish porn, and watching other people have sex … you become numb to real partners.”²

Stealing, Killing, and Destroying

For many men, they have settled on porn, and it is costing them their ability to have real sex. Dr. Abraham Morgentaler, professor of urology at Harvard Medical School, describes the men suffering from PIED as young and healthy men who can’t maintain an erection when with a sexual partner.³ These young men can, however, maintain an erection when watching porn. When a person’s entire sexual history has been shaped by porn, real sex seems like an alien experience.

I would point out this new reality to Elon Musk and others like him, who contend porn has little to do with the declining rate of young men having sex. Millions of young men are not having sex because they are physically unable to, but the Harvard Prof lets us know that they can still get an erection from porn. So where do you think they go to fulfill themselves sexually? The majority go to porn and masturbation, while some go to Roman. Roman is one of many apps that allow young men to avoid embarrassing conversations with their doctor to get ED medication. The company started in 2017 and is now worth $5 billion. This only underscores how widespread PIED is.

But PIED isn’t just impacting single men. Increasingly, married men are struggling with it too. For a young man to have performance issues is devastating to his confidence as a man, and rather than face that issue, he chooses to avoid the embarrassment. This reality seems to be behind the completely new and shocking phenomenon of sexless marriages for millennials. These are young couples in their late 20s or 30s who are in or around their sexual prime but not having sex or having very little. Twenty-six percent of married millennials reported problems with sexual desire in the past year. The study concluded, “Experts agree porn has had an outsized influence on millennials, many of whom came of age just as porn was becoming widely accessible online.” One wife in an online support group asked about her husband’s lack of interest in sex, “Why does he prefer his own hand over having sex with me?”

The porn industry will, of course, push back on these findings and conclusions because it would be bad for their brand. But those like Musk who get distracted by their propaganda will continue to miss the obvious reality that pornography is rewiring the adolescent brain and is causing massive sexual issues in the Western world where porn is readily available.

Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, but I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Before we turn to the thief, let’s consider the abundant life Jesus promises. Doesn’t this apply to sex? When you follow God’s plan of sex within marriage, when you avoid porn, you can expect your sex life, marital life, and spiritual life will be more fulfilling.  When a person follows God’s design for sex, they have more sex and more satisfying sex. These are the blessings of enjoying an abundant sex life the way God intended.

The thief wants nothing more than to kill your abundant life. Through porn, isn’t Satan stealing, killing, and destroying our ability to enjoy sex as God intended? Porn has promised sexual fulfillment while delivering dysfunction and death.

Life Abundant

To experience the abundant life that Jesus offers, including an abundant sex life, we must obey His instruction about sex. Embrace God’s design. Flee and reject everything that opposes it. One offers life. The other kills, steals, and destroys.

For anyone struggling with PIED, there is hope! Romans 12:2 teaches us that the brain can be rewired. It can be renewed. This includes a mind that has been damaged and shaped by porn. You can build new pathways.

We have seen men reverse the effects of PIED after just a few months of stopping porn, fantasy and masturbation. Others may need 6 months of sobriety to regain their mojo. But, it’s possible for the mind to be renewed. Take the Freedom Fight 30-Day Challenge to begin  regaining your mojo!