Male TENS Unit Pad Placement for ED

If you’ve ever experienced erectile dysfunction (ED), you know how important finding an effective treatment is.

In evaluating your options, you may find yourself considering electrical stimulation with a TENS unit — leading to Google searches like “Does TENS machine on penis work for ED?” and “pelvic floor male TENS unit pad placement for ED.”

So, is transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) the solution? Are you really going to "fix" your erections, pelvic floor muscles and sexual function issues with electrotherapy? And where exactly do these wires and pads need to go?

While generally considered safe, little research supports TENS therapy as an effective treatment for erectile dysfunction. But if you want to try it, it seems like the perineum may be your best bet placement-wise.

Below we’ve covered how transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation works, what the research supports, and everything else you need to know about male TENS unit pad placement for ED.

TENS is short for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, and TENS units are devices that deliver electrical impulses to muscles, nerves and other parts of the body to treat a variety of conditions like chronic pain.

That may sound intense, but keep in mind: A TENS unit is typically battery-powered and often small enough to fit in your pocket, so it doesn’t pack an incredible amount of electrical current.

If you place a TENS pad directly onto your body, the electrodes in the pad will conduct the unit’s power source into the body through small pulses of energy between roughly 10 to 50 hertz, depending on the setting for your needs.

Essentially a nerve and muscle stimulator, the modern TENS unit was developed for migraines, gout and general back pain.

You can adjust the electrode placement to nearly any spot on your body while you go about your day — as long as you’re not bathing, driving or operating heavy machinery.

TENS units are widely considered safe as long as they’re operated in safe conditions. Side effects aren’t out of the question though.

Your highest risk is getting something like contact dermatitis where the electrode pads are placed. In other words, you can have an allergic reaction to the adhesive materials. They actually make special pads for people with this problem.

Separately, some research shows TENS electrodes may cause problems with transdermal drug delivery where (or near where) the pads are placed.

But as long as the machine is functioning the way it should (read: no errant zaps), the risks are generally very low.

Unfortunately, along with those generally low risks comes a generally unproven benefit for TENS therapy — at least in comparison to proven ED treatments.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), there’s no consensus on whether TENS is effective in pain relief. And from what we can tell, this applies to other uses for TENS, including erectile dysfunction.

No NIH resources mention ED treatment as a proven or approved use for a TENS unit. In fact, none of the official resources mention ED at all.

Comparing the limited research into TENS units and electrical stimulations as ED treatments to the numerous clinical studies proving the benefits of medication and therapy, it’s clear that a TENS unit shouldn’t be your first-line, go-to treatment for erectile dysfunction.

While the research is limited, a 2020 study that compared electrical stimulation to aerobic exercise for erectile dysfunction had some interesting findings.

In this experiment, the active electrode pad was placed “circularly” on the penis (which we assume to mean around the shaft). After six weeks, researchers found that electrical stimulation from a TENS unit on penises was more effective in managing ED than exercise.

Now, that study has some holes we’d like to point out. It excluded people with diabetes, cardiac pacemakers, uncontrolled high blood pressure and other medical conditions often associated with poor health.

Knowing that heart healthy exercise can help treat vascular erectile dysfunction because high blood pressure and hypertension can be associated with ED issues, it seems like those folks left out of the study are precisely the ones that could benefit from aerobic exercise.

Also, the study’s length was arguably too short for serious changes in health to result from exercise.

But even with these caveats, it’s a substantial accolade for electrical stimulation to perform so well.

Where do you put TENS pads for erectile dysfunction, exactly? Many men have searched “Where to place TENS pads for erectile dysfunction” with a bit of anxiety, only to find out that there actually isn’t a clear answer — other than “not on your penis.”

TENS units are a contact-based tool. You’re meant to place one of the pads directly on the organ, muscle group or other area where you want results. But as you might have guessed, there’s not a ton of research into where to place a TENS unit for effective ED treatment.

This 2008 study looked at electrode stimulation through the perineum, or the area between the anus and the scrotum. Electrostimulation was used to treat neurogenic erectile dysfunction, ED caused by neurologic issues.

Researchers looked at 28 healthy patients and 18 patients with complete neurological ED. Both the healthy volunteers and the ED patients saw benefits from the treatment, with the ED patients seeing a longer response.

This led the study’s authors to suggest that when other treatments of erectile dysfunction fail, electrotherapy could improve erectile function  (though additional research is necessary to understand how and further develop the optimal system).

For now, you probably want to focus on proven ED treatments. A healthcare professional can help you pick the right one for you.

Medications like PDE-5 Inhibitors are a great place to start. These prescription drugs increase blood flow to your cavernosal arteries, potentially restoring your ability to get hard when aroused.

With options like sildenafil (generic Viagra) or tadalafil (generic Cialis), men with erectile dysfunction often easily find just what they need. For example, sildenafil can be taken on an as-needed basis to prepare for intimate activities ahead of showtime — while versions of tadalafil can be taken as a daily medication (at lower dosages) so that every day is sex day.

Of course, medication and electrodes aren’t your only options. Therapy has helped many men work through the non-physiological causes of erectile dysfunction, including low self-esteem, performance anxiety, fear of intimacy and depressive disorders. Therapy can help you overcome those feelings and get back to business.

And while the study we mentioned earlier suggested aerobic exercise is less effective than a TENS unit, experts generally agree that lifestyle changes can benefit erectile health and sexual function.

Eating well, getting enough sleep, working out and laying off tobacco, alcohol and recreational drugs can improve your health, heart function and erections.

So where does all of this leave TENS? In our opinion, it should be left on its charging stand.

• The reality is that we don’t know enough about TENs and other electrical stimulation techniques for them to be a first-line treatment, especially when medication, therapy and lifestyle changes offer so many proven alternatives.

• While current study records are promising, more research is necessary.

• If you need ED treatment, we recommend speaking with a healthcare professional. They can help you identify the root cause or causes of your erectile dysfunction and set you on the path to the best treatment tailored to your unique circumstances.

Our sexual health resources can connect you with a healthcare professional and, should you decide to go that route, get medications for erectile dysfunction.

TENS units may one day become a critical component of improving men’s sexual quality of life, but until then, stick with what’s proven and recommended.