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What Morning Erections Can Tell You About Your Health, According to Urologists

Urologists say a sudden loss of morning erections can signal vascular, hormonal, or other heart health issues.

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Morning erections don’t get nearly enough credit. They’re inconvenient, they’re easy to dismiss, and nobody is putting them on a wellness checklist—but according to urologists, they probably should be.

Nocturnal penile tumescence, the clinical term for what happens when the parasympathetic nervous system takes over during REM sleep and produces erections without any involvement from conscious thought or arousal, is essentially a built-in health diagnostic. Andrew Sun, M.D., a urologist at Urology Partners of North Texas, told Hone Health that morning erections are “a great general indicator of overall........

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