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About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Kate Grossman, MD

The inability to perform sexual acts because of an inability to achieve and/or maintain an erection one of the most common sexual problems that affect nearly all men at some time in their lives. Although we know this as fact the cause of erectile problems are often misunderstood and can lead to a cycle of frustration and emotional difficulty within a relationship.

For many men the image of self is inevitably linked to a perception of masculinity which in turn involves functioning and performing well sexually.
When problems do occur in the form of an inability to achieve or sustain an erection the term erectile dysfunction (impotence) is applied.

Three Stages of Erection
Things can go wrong at any point of the 3 stages of producing and maintaining an erection.

1st stage, sexual arousal Getting sexually stimulated from our thoughts and senses.

2nd stage erection It is the brain communicating the sexual arousal to the body which increases the blood flow to the penis.

3rd stage erection blood vessels that supply the penis relax allowing an increased blood supply to flow into the shafts that produce the erection.

If anything affects any of these stages or the delicate balance between them erectile dysfunction results.

Facts about erectile dysfunction and impotence
Despite a general reluctance to seek medical help when men do finally make the effort they are more likely than women to seek help and treatment for sexual problems.
Sometimes quite simple interventions, information, reassurance, talking to someone,  contraceptive advice etc, can resolve the problem.

Erectile dysfunction affects 1 in 10 men at some point in their lives.
Erectile dysfunction varies with age. Some degree of dysfunction is experienced by 40% of men at age 40 and by 70% at age 70.
In most cases of erectile dysfunction the cause will be psychological and physiological.
In up to a third of people with sexual problems the partner also has a sexual dysfunction.
20% of men with erectile dysfunction also have low sexual desire.