According to a study published by the American Urological Association, young men who watch too much porn find it challenging to perform well in real-world sexual encounters.
For this study, the association surveyed 312 men between the age group of 20 to 35 and found that 3.4 per cent of males prefer masturbating watching pornography over having sex with someone. However, apart from this number, the researchers also discovered an established statistical relation between addiction of porn and erection issues. It claimed that men who are actually porn-addicted are not satisfied with the way sexual intercourse happens in the real world.

The Naval Medical Center of San Diego stated in one of their reports that the natural causes of erectile dysfunction in the men of 20s, 30s and early 40s are deficient. They further noted that the root cause of this problem can lie in the biology of addiction to pornography. Sexual activities and thoughts trigger the same circuitry in the nervous system as addictions to drugs as cocaine or methamphetamine does. A similar kind of addiction is seen in pornography. Just like taking drugs is a self-reinforcing act, watching pornography too can stimulate the circuitry in a self-select and self-reinforcing mode.

Watching a lot of pornography increases a person's tolerance in the same manner in which drugs and narcotics do. Porn-addicts are less likely to respond to regular and real-world sexual activity and principally rely on pornography for the need of their body. This tolerance comes out in the form of erectile dysfunction in a sexual encounter with a partner.
Furthermore, pornography also set-up unrealistic expectations in the mind of young men, leading to libido-sapping anxiety when real-world sexual encounters don't match up that level.

It is evident that in PIED, pornography remains the contributing factor and requires you to limit your porn watching sessions. Of course, for someone who is addicted to watching porn, not watching it regularly can be difficult. But there are sex therapists and recovery platforms to support a person in this process. Moreover, cutting back on pornography will help a person rewire his brain, which also benefits in his sexual life.

PIED is a controversial topic. Some say that erectile dysfunction is the result of performance anxiety or sexual exhaustion. Researchers, on the other hand, states that PIED make the most sense for those young men who face of men who erectile problems with no other natural cause for the same indicated.

Medically reviewed by Rishabh Verma, RP