Abstract
Painful nocturnal erection is characterised by internal penile pain which only occurs during sleep-related erections [4, 9]. This is a rare disorder, often poorly understood and lacking in documentation. It specifically affects men: only one woman has been reported suffering from severe painful clitoral tumescence, and this was during wakefulness [1]. The most informed work on neurophysiological and neurochemical erectile mechanisms [5, 8] has shown the importance of intercavernous smooth muscle tonicity in controlling penile haemodynamics in the flaccid and erect states, but has failed to elucidate the origin of the syndrome. A hypothesis has been put forward of altered autonomic nervous control [2].
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Calvet, U. (2003). Sleep related painful erections. In: Billiard, M. (eds) Sleep. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0217-3_55
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0217-3_55
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