Erectile dysfunction treatment – NEW stem cell therapy could be CURE for impotence

Erectile dysfunction – also known as impotence – is a common problem experienced by men. 

A new trial is giving hope to sufferers after effectively treating the condition using stem cell therapy. 

Men who are continent and unable to have an erection after prostate surgery have undergone clinical tests. 

Of the 15 participants, eight were able to experience normal sexual intercourse six months after their one-time treatment. 

These men required no recourse to drugs or penile implants during that time.

After one year, the stem cell treatment proved to last, with no dangerous side effects reported. 

Professor Lars Lund from the Odense University hospital in Denmark worked on the groundbreaking trial. 

He said: “As far as we know, this is the first time that a human study with a 12-month follow up shows that the treatment is lasting and safe. 

“That is much better than taking a pill every time you want to have intercourse.”

The stem cell procedure works by removing fat cells from the participant’s abdomen using liposuction.

These cells are briefly treated to become all-purpose, so that they can mutate into almost any of the body’s specialised cells. 

Lund’s colleague Martha Haahr added: “We do not cultivate the cells or change them in any way.”

These stem cells are injected into the penis with a syringe, where they morph into nerve and muscle cells as well as endothelial cells which line blood vessels. 

The patient is placed under general anaesthetic for the whole procedure, before being discharged from hospital the same day.

Reported at the European Association of Urology conference, the results have proven successful enough to grant more trials. 

Only men recovering from prostate cancer who are continent will be enrolled for the new experiments, which will include both stem cell and placebo groups. 

But Haahr said the trials could open up a “therapeutic option for patients suffering erectile dysfunction from other causes”. 

Experts have recently warned about the significant impact diet can have on erectile dysfunction.