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I am referring to the claim made by yourbrainonporn.com and also NoFap movement:

"It's hard to know exactly how many young men are suffering from porn-induced ED. But it's clear that this is a new phenomenon, and it's not rare."

According to one of the testimonials:

Thanks to NoFap I could at least get it up, and maintain an erection, but I could not come, and she was a little worried as to what was going on, but we persevered, and over the next day and week it got better, now it’s better than it has ever been. This stuff works!

I am also aware that there are psychologists who pooh-poohed the idea.

Two recent studies have been published by researchers who examined whether there truly is a potential epidemic of porn related erectile dysfunction. Prause and Pfaus published this study in Sexual Medicine, finding that porn use did not predict sexual dysfunction, but instead, predicted higher levels of sexual responsiveness.

So which is which? Is Porn Induced Erectile Dysfunction a real thing? If it's not, then how to explain the testimony above?

Could it be possible that although there is no correlationship between porn usage and Erectile Dysfunction on a general scale, but for certain people, porn usage does lead to Erectile Dysfunction?

Also, could it be that the usage of porn leads to ED for some, but helps to combat ED in others, and these two effects cancel out each other and thus result in weak or no correlationship on a general scale?

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    Could it be possible that although there is no correlationship between porn usage and Erectile Dysfunction on a general scale, but for certain people, porn usage does lead to Erectile Dysfunction? – This does not make sense. If porn usage begets ED for some people, this should be reflected in the correlation, the only question is how weak the effect is. The only exception would be if porn usage was beneficial against ED for some people and the effects are exactly cancelling each other.
    – Wrzlprmft
    Sep 24, 2015 at 9:45
  • @Wrzlprmft, that's what I meant, see the updated question
    – Graviton
    Sep 24, 2015 at 9:53
  • I will answer that shortly :)
    – George Chalhoub
    Sep 24, 2015 at 15:32
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    I'm tempted to explain away the discrepancy with "the dose makes the poison" :)
    – user5341
    Mar 13, 2017 at 14:56
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    Another factor here: Some men use a very tight grip with their hand while masturbating. They adapt to this and normal stimulation becomes not enough--the result looks like ED. This would almost certainly show up as a correlation with porn even though it's not the relevant factor.
    – Loren Pechtel
    Apr 20, 2018 at 5:08

2 Answers 2

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One study in Sexual Medicine, found that that porn use did not predict sexual dysfunction, but instead, predicted higher levels of sexual responsiveness.

Another study analyzed European men from Croatia, to find that there was no reliable connection between porn use and sexual dysfunction. The study reports that there was no statistical relationship between men who use higher rates of pornography, and reports of sexual dysfunction. There were inconsistent but weak associations with moderate use of pornography.

Matter of fact, urologists and researchers have found that pornography viewing is an effective, noninvasive and reliable test for psychogenic erectile dysfunction. Another study identified that the brain activities of men watching pornography are not significantly different in men with and without erectile dysfunction.

Read more: An Erectile Dysfunction Myth - Psychology Today

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    What about the possibility that the usage of porn leads to ED for some, but helps to combat ED in others, and these two effects cancel out each other and thus result in weak or no correlationship on a general scale?
    – Graviton
    Sep 25, 2015 at 0:03
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Here's a list of about 17 studies that link porn use to sexual dysfunctions and lower arousal. The first 3 studies in the list demonstrate causation as participants eliminated porn use and healed chronic sexual dysfunctions.

The paper (not a study) published in "Sexual Medicine Open" (Prause & Pfaus, 2015) has been critiqued in the peer-reviewed literature here. A more complete lay critique is found here.

The Croatian paper (Landripet & Stulhofer) was a brief communication that actually found 2 correlations between sexual problems and porn use. The Croatian paper has also been critiqued in the peer-reviewed literature.

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    Great links. Could you edit into this answer, what each critique is saying and what the studies find? What is the upshot? What is the overall picture of what's going on?
    – Caleb Stanford
    Mar 12, 2017 at 21:18
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    Science is not about only the number of experiments, but also their quality. Can you choose the best evidence and present it with context? Is there any contrary evidence?
    – Sklivvz
    Mar 13, 2017 at 9:14
  • I would note this statement on their homepage: "Our hope is that Porn Study Critiques serves as a place to air ideas that might normally be suppressed or attacked by the science establishment." I'm sorry, but a site that as its basis asserts a conspiracy theory is not one I'd trust for an unbiased evaluation of the evidence.
    – Keith Morrison
    Jan 12 at 23:50

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