Firmness:
Firmness of your erections is directly related to cardiovascular health. A significant decrease in the firmness of your erections could be related to stress, new medications such as high blood pressure, anti-depression and anxiety meds, anti-hair loss drugs, low testosterone, obesity, sleep apnea, diabetes, or it could be an early sign of cardiovascular disease. The blood vessels in the penis will clog before those of the heart.
If you see a consistent decrease in firmness for more than three nights of use of the ring or in more than 3 sexual encounters (including masturbation) we recommend seeing a urologist to talk about medications that could possibly be impacting your erections. Checking your hormone, blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol levels are recommended if decreases in firmness continue.
If your erections achieve maximum firmness, as they will for most men without erectile dysfunction (ED), our rings are designed to increase pleasure. Beyond “rock hard” is “cock ring” hard. The majority of our users report firmer erection and better orgasms. Note that for some men adjusting the tension in the ring around the base of the penis may improve both hardness and pleasure.
If you have erections that are firm at night but not when you have sex, you may have psychological ED or performance anxiety. We recommend seeing a sex therapist for this.
If your erections are not as firm as you would like, track them with the Tech Ring and see if making changes in diet, weight loss, exercise or stopping medications harmful to erectile function help your firmness. Cutting back on drinking and smoking can also help. Seeing a urologist can help you understand what to do and the Tech Ring can help you measure if those changes are working.
Duration:
Nocturnal
If the time of your nightly erections decreases significantly (more than 20%), this can indicate stress or can be due to medications for hair loss, high blood pressure, sleep, or psychiatric drugs. Declining nocturnal erection duration can also indicate cardiovascular disease or early onset diabetes. If you notice your nightly erectile firmness decreasing consistently for a week or more we would recommend consulting a urologist and your primary care physician (PCP) to determine if there could be an underlying medical reason for this.
Sex
If you find that your erections do not last long enough for sex/masturbation or routinely last less than 5 minutes this could be due to stress, medications, early onset diabetes, cardiovascular disease or, if it only happens with a specific or new partner, can be associated with stress in your relationship. We recommend seeing a urologist if your erections consistently last less than 5 minutes or are not long enough to have sex.
If your erections routinely last more than one hour, please consult a urologist. An erection that lasts longer than 4 hours can cause damage to the penis and is especially common in men who are young and using medications such as Viagra to improve their sexual function.
Ejaculation
If you find that your erections are shorter than 5 minutes and/or you ejaculate within one minute of penetrative sex, you may have something called premature ejaculation (PE). If this occurs, you should see a urologist and/or a sex therapist. If the Tech Ring shows that you are unable to ejaculate or have an orgasm, this is also a problem and you should see a physician.
