Erectile Dysfunction

At the age of 18 I was involved in a very serious motor vehicle accident and my injuries included the severing of my urethra from my bladder which involved extensive surgery to reattach it again. The end result of all this being a diagnosis of total erectile dysfunction, amongst a variety of other health concerns.

At approximately six months post surgery i began taking cialis for roughly 3 months and this had absolutely no effect whatsoever. The doctor then put the other options on the table as; other oral medications (i.e. viagra and levitra); injection therapy (i.e. caverject); or a penile implant. I chose caverject and, while successfully giving me a total erection, I quickly ruled out that as an option due to the excruciating pain it caused in my penis which required hospitalization at the smallest dose available.

Now I have tried both levitra and viagra but have decided to continue with viagra as it seems to have given some sort of change. According to my Urologist, I am only in 'early days' (14 months post surgery) as he has had some people go either way in my situation and everyone is unique.

I'm starting to get irritated by these indefinite answers though because I suspect that my urologist is simply covering his behind and not giving me a definite answer just in case he's wrong which is fair enough in these times, but extremely frustrating for me.

I am 20 now and it has been approximately 20 months since the car crash and 14 months since my urethral re-attachment. I still take viagra 100mg (1-2 times weekly) but the effects seem to be very hot and cold, sometimes it will work to the point where I am erect enough to undertake intercourse (which has not occurred to this date), other times all i will do is get a headache.

As with anyone with erectile dysfunction, it is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, especially listening to all my friends say how good their sex life is, but I have been hesitant to really sustain the viagra use because of some health effects I have been told could affect me.

I have several questions that I would greatly appreciate anyone helping me out with:

- Am I being too hasty in expecting a near return of total function by now?

- Is my reaction to the caverject any indication as to whether or not my erectile function will return?

- If I continue taking viagra to attempt to treat my erectile dysfunction, what will the long term health effects be for someone my age?

- Are levitra and cialis worth another try again now that I am further down the recovery track? And what would be the effects of these on someone my age?

- My urologist recently recommended i try taking cialis daily (a newly available prescription), does anyone have reports on the success and, once again, long term health effects for someone my age?

Finally, I have heard multiple people say that it's 'all in my head' since the occasional succes with any treatment and are convinced that I need to get 'something' (no quantification of that something) off my chest in order for my erectile function to return. Does anybody else think that this is the case? And those that do, what sort of psychologist/psychiatrist should I see?