If you were slowly bleeding to death and had an erection, would you die before you go flaccid?

Question

If 120/80 is the average blood pressure, at which pressure would you lose an erection. DO NOT ACCOUNT FOR SHOCK, PAIN, ETC. At which pressure would you die? Which would come first?

Answer 1

You'll preserve blood pressure for a considerable time with significant blood loss, and the numbers are not consistent. But as soon as you begin to lose a notable amount of blood, one of the things that happens is that you shunt blood flow from the periphery (including all five extremities) to the central circulation to preserve central perfusion. Not only will you lose your erection before you drop your blood pressure, you'll lose it before your pulse rises significantly.
By the way, in my youth I had to learn ranges of expected pulse, blood pressure and urine output correlating to degrees of blood loss. They still teach that stuff in Advanced Trauma Life Support courses. The courses, though, would better be called "trauma care for dermatologists," because anybody with any experience in trauma knows the numbers correlate poorly, not the way they are written in the texts.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Awsome question!, but it sort of depends.
If the bleed is superior (higher) than the errection like in the spleen or something it may effect the blood flow to the penis however if it is inferior (lower) than the erection it may directly inhibit the blood supply to the penis causing it to go flacid. I dont think that Hyper/Hypo tension (high or low BP) would have any thing to do with your ability to get it up but i feel that if the BP drops too low like in a slow bleed out that the systolic blood pressure (pressure in the circulatory system when the heart is contracting) becomes close or equal too the diastolic blood pressure (pressure in the circulatory system when the heart is resting) it may not be able to support normal heart function or life.
Having said that often in cases of severe spinal trauma leading to death, casualties have been known to have errect penisis even after the heart stops for a time.
Cant keep a good man down.

Answer 4

You seem eager about knowing the timing of the loss of erection....let me tell you, once you have established tachycardia, your body will be so busy trying to compensate volume, after the loss of 10% of total volume, that erection from then onwards is NOT an issue...and erection, contrary to what you think, is not related to blood pressure but VENOUS pressure....even with normal one, and if you loss blood, you have to account for hypovolemia, and after 15%, hypovolemic shock---- (whether you like it or not. it DOES happen) erection follows physiological rules, not whims or imagination....
Erection is a complex event that requires not only of proper perfusion of blood, but the proper balance of the sympathetic- parasympatetic system.......and integrity o many hormones, (androgens,ETC)......
By the way, you will die (without an erection of course) at blood pressure 60/0 after a vigorous tachycardia that can reach 129 130 bpm.....
What will come first???
Easy...Loss of erection,,,,that is so important to your very physiological question....Then hypovolemic shock,,then death
Have a good erection...stay healthy...no hemorrhages..
Cheers

Answer 5

blood pressure in general doesn't have a whole lot to do with having an erection, or all the guys with hypertension would be running around with one. and as far as what pressure you die at, it isn't that cut and dry there are lots of other factors at play here.