I am about two and a half weeks out of my end-to-end surgery for a stricture between 1 – 2cm in the bulbar region, cath is out, stream is forceful and directed (they will measure it a month from now) and with respect to ED issues, I can report the following: Flaccid state immediately following surgery and to date appears to be shorter than it was before surgery. Masturbation is not appealing to me at this stage of recovery AT ALL. However, involuntary erections are happening frequently (and they occurred nightly while I had the catheter in) and they are accompanied by discomfort and pain. The erections are partial so I can’t say if erect length is fully recovered and the pain appears to emanate from the part of the urethra between scrotum and penis that was not the site of the intervention.
Before surgery, my full erection position was centered and facing slightly upwards. I was able to press it up straight against my abdomen with no pain. (Not sure if this positioning throughout my life is/was a normal but it never interfered with sex).
After surgery, my partial erections are veering to the left and I encounter uncomfortable resistence if I try to center it and/or position it upwards and towards my abdomen. So, I will have to talk about this with the surgeon. He advised against sexual activity for a full month, so that would be for about 6 weeks after surgery. By sexual activity I can surmise that he means, no sexual intercourse and no masturbation, but I am not clear if this includes voluntary attempts to attain an erection just to test things out.
It is still pretty early and I will have to see how things go. Before surgery, my anxiety was about suffering another emergency urinary retention episode living with a bulbar urethra that was 60% closed. After surgery, my anxiety is now about whether ED issues will resolve, and if not, whether they outweigh the benefits of significantly improved flow.