Health Care, Men Health, Sexual Health Articles at HealthPeriodical.com

Many men are suffering from erection problems, usually because of the inability to sustain an erection (if there's any at all). While these men lack this erection ability, others are suffering from too much of it-even up to the extent of having four hours long or more of sustained erection. This condition is known as priapism

Guys may see this as a condition to be happy about, but it actually causes much pain and discomfort. This happens not because a guy's mind is too dirty, but because of the blood that gets stuck in his penis. In normal circumstances, blood that flows in the penis (causing an erection) is drained after a while, unlike the cases of people who have priapism wherein the blood acidifies and then becomes stiff. This kind of priapism is commonly known as a low flow.

There are rare occasions when an artery in the penis or in the perineum part gets ruptured because of injury, therefore hindering the blood inside the penis from having a normal circulation. This is another kind of priapism known as the high flow.

Priapism is caused by many different factors. Sickle cell anemia makes the risk of having priapism high. Almost 50 percent of men who have been reported to have this anemia last year eventually developed priapism. Other factors that cause priapism include using prohibited drugs, poisoning from carbon monoxide, using anti-depressants and cases of incorrect intake of medication dosage.

It is not really hard to recognize priapism (just observe how long will the erection take), so a man who experiences this should go to a doctor at once because delaying treatment could cause an erectile dysfunction or impotence permanently. Priapism is often treated by injecting drugs in the penis to correct the blood flow. In serious cases of priapism, a surgery is needed to correct the circulation of blood.