Annual ED maintenance with shockwave therapy

One year since my first round of extracorporeal acoustic shockwave therapy, and I am back at the same clinic for “annual maintenance.” I am a happy customer: my erections have been sustainably stronger since my first treatment in May, 2025. And when I noticed a partial fade after more than one year, it has been easy, painless and relatively affordable to go back for a second round of treatment.

Better with relaxed attitude

What struck me as I walked up the door of the ED clinic was how relaxed I feel now. I hope you can feel that from the selfie I took above. My erectile function is just like any other health issue. No shame, no secrecy – just a part of my aging body that needs a little extra care.

I have gained a lot of confidence from sharing my story openly, in my book and the new Beyond Erections Live series of online conversations. It is exciting to see how many others are cracking the code of silence. The other men at the ED clinic. The people of all genders and sexual orientations reading my book and coming to the online calls. The stalwarts who continue to show up at the Recovering Men support group, now in its 65th month.

Shockwave therapy works for me

I’m pretty happy with the state of my penile rehab, after six years. So many factors have gone into the process, and it seems the shockwave therapy suits me particularly well at this stage.

I am also lucky to get the treatment at a very affordable rate. In many places, unscrupulous operators charge a kind of “shame premium” and I know people who have paid thousands of dollars for the course of treatment that is costing me under a hundred Canadian dollars per session. My sex life is definitely worth C$600 per year to me.

The big picture? It’s just like going to the physio – a similar experience to receiving ultrasound for a muscle injury. You lie there and they point this ultrasound-like implement at the affected area. The machine clicks a bit, and a timer runs for about five minutes. Then they move to a fresh area (base of penis and perineum in my case). Then you get up and go home.

I can barely feel anything during the treatment. Yet within 12 hours of the first session, I noticed that my nocturnal erections increased in strength and frequency. The readiness and resilience of my erections for lovemaking improved substantially. The impact of the first round of treatment lasted for more than a year at full strength. It was still much better than pre-treatment when I returned to the clinic this year for my annual maintenance.

For details, please see my previous posts on this topic – links are included below.

Recovery or adaptation?

Zooming out a bit further, I see that recovery can only go so far. For the rest it is about adaptation. I am not going to become a young man again, and I am not going to get my prostate back. Even the cancer – while it is not evident now, we all know it can come back at any stage. So while this website keeps its name Recovering Man – I am also active on its partner website Beyond Erections where the focus is on living well with the current bodies we find ourselves inhabiting.

If the sexual aspect of adapting appeals to you, I invite you to subscribe to the Swell blog, and/or join the Beyond Erections Live conversations (next call is July 6th).