Physical Sensation of Erection?

[Velvet D Coolette]

When you have an erection, can you tell - without looking down - that you've got one? Is there a physical sensation to it? Please let a slash writer know!

[FairySlayer]

First off, when wearing pants or underwear one definitely feels his penis pushing against it. Even when unrestricted there is enough sensation of pressure to be fairly certain, and if he moves he'll definitely feel the difference as it bobs (even if it's just walking). Basically he can feel himself getting hard either way, but there's a lot more feedback when it's restricted.

[wanderingaddict]

lawlz, a man ALWAYS knows when he's "getting hard." a lotta girls may not even have the slightest idea about this, but there's actually a long, long, LONG time where the guy's not hard at all (depending on the situation of course).

assuming all things equal (no pressing urgency, etc), a guy sorta starts getting "tingly" let's say. it's a shift in his breathing, in the flow of his blood. usually, he'll do a sorta half-shift, a reposition of sorts, because his dick is getting "twitchy" and he doesn't want it to show through his pants. any man who's finished puberty is EXCELLENT at controlling and concealing his erections. it's sort of a "trial by fire" if you will. after a few years of suffering from rock-hard erections that come and go in a flash, at incredibly inoppertune times, we kinda learn to deal.

but more to your original question, the best analogy I've ever been able to come up with is this: all men have a penis. a penis he likes very, very much. easiest explanation? girls, think about your tongue. think about how often you move it around in your mouth, outside of talking or eating. think about how sensitive it is, how often you accidentally burn or bite it. how generally aware of it you are at all times.

now put that between your legs. that is a penis. men are ALWAYS generally aware of their penis. it's a protruding object in a very inconvenient place. god, I can even think of the number of times I accidentally sit on my balls and flinch in pain every day. hah, well it's probably not even one or two times a week, but still, those few times I do I remember it (ow!).

when I stand up, I feel it drop and shift. if I switch positions, sometimes I have to adjust it because otherwise it will look REALLY FREAKING OBVIOUS where it is. I am aware of it at all times. I am on constant alert for flying/falling object that seek to harm it, because GOD does that hurt. it's like getting knifed in the kidneys, even with just a glancing blow. all men know this, all men fear this (well, maybe not the weird, creepy guys who like to pay hot women to knee them in the balls, but you're probably not writing about those in slash are you? ).

anyways, does that kind of give you some background information about the penis itself? the whole tongue-thing should sort of be kept in mind when trying to explain an erection. I don't know how in-depth of an explanation you want though.

I mean, it's really kind of two-part system. the guy started feeling aroused first. like I mentioned earlier, it's just... a shift in the blood. his lips part maybe, or his interest increases. it's very subtle. basically though, his body's just being like "hey! hey dude! if we're gonna get hard, I'm ready! just lettin' you know!"

his dick's not even hard at all at this point. it probably hasn't even swelled, to the naked eye. it's kind of... poised, though. on the precipice. then, depending on whether there's going to be more sexually stimulating stuff going on, it might get harder, it might soften, depending on how anxious he feels about it. like, if he's kinda into what's going on, it'll slowly inflate as he gets more into it. if he's turned on, but he knows he's not getting any or it's not "stimulating" enough, or if he simply has a great deal of self-control, he'll stay in a semi-hard state for a bit before his body realizes nothing fun is gonna happen and gives up. he may be still *aroused* for a good while, but his erection is not into it. his body has better things to do (and, of course that doesn't preclude him from getting hard later).

physically, there's ALWAYS readjustment. depending on the position his penis is in, getting hard could be a fucking *bitch*. if like, the penis is tucked downward, alongside the crease of the hip and leg, getting hard is fine. pleasant, even! the resistence gives a bit of friction with each pulse of blood and the guy's kind of "safe" because his dick's tucked away in an unnoticable spot. if it's along the length of the leg though, fuck! that shit sucks! you either have this obvious tube arcing over one leg, or it starts to get REALLY hard and slides up to nuzzle your waistband! then the guy has to shift position, or readjust somehow to either relieve the tightness of his stomach pushing against his dick pushing against his waistband, or to conceal the obvious boner he has.

and then for the actual penis, that really depends on the guy. some dudes have a high pain tolerance, and can jerk off with just their hand. others just require spit, and then some guys (usually uncut) won't let you even think about touching their dick without a handful of lotion or lather. uncut is different too, because it's like a tight ring of skin sliding out over a very sensetive tip. purse your lips tightly and then slide your tongue through them. it's kind of like that, depending on the tightness of the guy's foreskin (ranging from hella tight to really loose).

then, depending on how horny the guy is, his dick could be a mere shadow of its real self (if he's not interested, anxious, bored) or it could pack on exxxxtra inches like no tomorrow, surprising even the dude who owns it (if he's SUPER-ULTRA-MEGA turned on!).

of course, neither case is necessarily a garauntee of climax. erections can be so hard the dude's willing to drive it through a brick if he has to, and then other times he's going great and suddenly he feels the blood returning to the rest of his body and he's like "no no no stay hard please stay hard!" only now he's super worried and the hot babe looking at him is making him feel emasculated and weak and that's only making it worse and now his erection has turned into a limp droop

but short answer is: a man might be surprised by his erection on the rare occasion that something has captured 99% (NINETY NINE PERCENT) of his attention/is so unbelievably erotic that his brain is on overload and he can't hardly think, but generally no. guys know when they're going to get one, whether to stop it from happening, and how to shift, adjust, and sit so that no one around them has a clue.

[ApolloImperium]

Oh wow...thanks for the detail, that helps even the het stuff I do!

[Velvet D Coolette]

Blimey, thanks you two!

So much information, wanderingaddict!

[Melrick]

Oh man, getting a hardon when it's down one leg, now that hurts. Personally, when I'm fully hard, I can't bend it down lower than horizontal without causing pain, and it physically won't bend down much lower than that anyway - when it gets hard, it gets hard. So if I'm getting a hardon and it's pointing down like that, I better find a discrete way to readjust it awfully quickly or cause a scene!

[wanderingaddict]

Oh man, getting a hardon when it's down one leg, now that hurts. Personally, when I'm fully hard, I can't bend it down lower than horizontal without causing pain, and it physically won't bend down much lower than that anyway - when it gets hard, it gets hard. So if I'm getting a hardon and it's pointing down like that, I better find a discrete way to readjust it awfully quickly or cause a scene!

haha, oh yeah, god- I get what you mean! I can only handle it before I get *hard* hard, and I'm getting hard while it's pointing down already. once it pulls free though, it's not going past horizontal. that's a good point!

I'm glad we could be helpful to you girls though!

Edited October 24, 2010 by wanderingaddict

[Shadowknight12]

I think there's one or two things I can contribute with, that haven't been touched yet. For you girls, I think that the best way to imagine how an erection feels like, clothes or not, is to think of your clitoris. Some of you may not know this, but a clitoris is basically an internal penis. The actual clit would be the equivalent of the male glans (the 'head' of the penis) and it's just the tip of the larger body that extends behind your vaginal wall. If you want to know what an erection feels like, then get aroused and pay close attention to how your clit behaves. You'll notice that at first it's just small, but that as your arousal increases, it begins to swell with blood and become very responsive to pleasure. That's pretty much what we feel, too (and really, it's the exact same erectile tissue, the sensations are practically the same), including the build-up to an orgasm.

You can also draw a parallel between a clitoris and an uncut cock. A clit has a 'hood' covering it, called prepuce, which is pretty much the female equivalent of a guy's foreskin (so if you want to know how foreskin feels like, well... you have a way to find out). It protects the clit from abrasion and chafing. This varies from guy to guy and woman to woman, but generally, a woman who's not aroused or only slightly so might actually feel discomfort or pain if (for example) a guy rolls back the prepuce and tongues her clit directly. That happens to uncut guys who aren't fully hard, too. As the levels of arousal increase, the erectile tissue is capable of enduring more direct contact, to the point where it's actually very pleasurable for both to apply direct stimulation.

And finally, a penis is not (usually) something that can be turned on and off like a lamp. Going from limp to throbbing hard and back again isn't something that happens in a matter of seconds (save specific exceptions, like exceedingly powerful stimuli). There are stages of hardness, but the time that takes the guy to go from one to another varies depending on the guy in question and what's triggering the arousal. Also, not all guys have the same amount of stages. Some have just four, some have more, some may even have only three or two.

The first stage is limpness, which is the cock that hasn't even begun to experience arousal. This is the default state (when an erection is the default state, it's called priapism and it's a very hilarious illness). Then there's the 'stirring' stage, where the male first sees something vaguely arousing. He might catch a glimpse of cleavage or start fantasizing. The cock is not hard here, but it sends 'warning signs' to the guy, telling him that if he keeps going down that road, things are going to get stiff. If the guy is clothed, nothing is visible. If the guy is naked, his cock might twitch on its own or even roll lazily a little, across his leg/navel/hip. Might grow an inch or so if the guy's a grower (that is, if his cock changes size between limp and hard. Some guys have the same size regardless of arousal, they're usually called 'showers'). Then you have the 'half-hard' stage, in which the arousal continues its course and blood begins to flow into the penis. Here is when the guy starts to get slightly stiff and his dick starts to grow. If the stimulus isn't strong enough, the growth might stop here. If a guy catches sight of a nice ass, for example, maybe it won't get him fully hard (depends on his personal tastes), but it might be enough to get his blood flowing. Usually the cock remains like this for a few moments even after the arousing stimulus has passed, it doesn't immediately go back to limp (assuming he doesn't see something horrifying that completely kills his mood, of course). It's like his cock is saying "hey, are you SURE you don't want to keep thinking about that ass? I already have all this blood here, it would be a shame to send it back to the body..."

Some guys have different stages of hardness, and whether all or some of them should be called "fully" hard is a matter of debate. What they all have in common is that a guy can orgasm in this state. If a guy is jerking off, for example, to relieve stress or because he's used to it or because his body demands release, he might not become 100% hard. He might only reach 90% of his potential, but it's still enough to climax. It's like a chore, the guy's not really into it. He gets hard enough to do his job, comes, and then he goes back to limp very fast (in a minute or less). Now, if the guy is actually interested and he's very aroused, he might reach his peak and become as hard as he can get. The main difference between these is basically the intensity of the orgasm and the volume of cum. In the first case, the guy may have a quick orgasm and shoot a small load, maybe a couple of shots. In the latter, the guy may have a longer, 'better' orgasm, and his ejaculation might be a little or a lot more copious. Oh, and in the latter case, the cock usually stays hard for a long time after climaxing (from a couple of minutes to remaining hard enough to go at it again once the refractory period is finished). Of course, some guys have more than these stages. Maybe a guy gets 80% hard when he's jerking off every day, but he can get 90% hard when he's getting laid, and 100% hard when his girlfriend/boyfriend has him tied down and spanks him with gusto; or he engages in his favorite fetish. It varies.

And as a closing advice: watch porn. No, seriously. The best way to familiarize yourselves with a penis is by looking at it so often and from such different angles that you can practically draw it with your eyes closed. Look at the different shapes they come in, how they change color depending on how hard they are, how most guys will start dribbling precome if they're REALLY aroused and they're not getting any. It doesn't need to be video, of course. Pictures/manga/etc work just fine, too. The key is to get as familiar with it as you can.

I think that's all, hope this helps iron out some leftover details on the matter.

[pittwitch]

Wow to everyone! Incredible descriptions all around. Incredible and fun to read descriptions! Won't need to bleach those images from my mind's eye, lol.

[kisakimiko]

A man may always know, but there is still the - surprise! erection - don't deny it. Also, the morning gift. Agreed the surprise ones are more controlled when past puberty, but it still lingers and requires adjustment after the fact. I am glad I am a girl and my anatomy does not bust me out like that. Also, I often wondered if you guys sat on that stuff, I hear varied answers. 'Oh it is ok you learn' and 'ouch it sucks' Interesting thread.

[wanderingaddict]

A man may always know, but there is still the - surprise! erection - don't deny it. Also, the morning gift. Agreed the surprise ones are more controlled when past puberty, but it still lingers and requires adjustment after the fact. I am glad I am a girl and my anatomy does not bust me out like that. Also, I often wondered if you guys sat on that stuff, I hear varied answers. 'Oh it is ok you learn' and 'ouch it sucks' Interesting thread.

haha, I don't know... I can honestly say that I have never had an erection sneak up on me. at least, not in the last in the last ten years since puberty. some of the other guys might have to comment otherwise, but personally I've never experienced it, sorry I might have to burst the mystique surrounding the morning wood too- hah, most of the time it's hard more as a means of bladder control, rather actual arousal (as it is very hard for the internal mechanisms for urination to activate when a man is hard). sure there are some really awesome days when morning wood is more like a real erection, but a lot of the time it's just an annoying obstacle (and almost insurmountable challenge!) when trying to aim it at the toilet. hah, that was probably a lot more than what you wanted to know though.

[kisakimiko]

haha, I don't know... I can honestly say that I have never had an erection sneak up on me. at least, not in the last in the last ten years since puberty. some of the other guys might have to comment otherwise, but personally I've never experienced it, sorry I might have to burst the mystique surrounding the morning wood too- hah, most of the time it's hard more as a means of bladder control, rather actual arousal (as it is very hard for the internal mechanisms for urination to activate when a man is hard). sure there are some really awesome days when morning wood is more like a real erection, but a lot of the time it's just an annoying obstacle (and almost insurmountable challenge!) when trying to aim it at the toilet. hah, that was probably a lot more than what you wanted to know though.

Well I am still not a man so I can not say for sure. My only reference is being married for eons. Surprise erection was perhaps just his way of being cute about it. But I can say that the morning wood was very viable. This is a funny thread.

[Shadowknight12]

Well I am still not a man so I can not say for sure. My only reference is being married for eons. Surprise erection was perhaps just his way of being cute about it. But I can say that the morning wood was very viable. This is a funny thread.

Yeah, that's probably his way of saying "Whoops." As it was mentioned above, morning wood is more about pissing and less about arousal. It can be about both, of course, if you wake up after a sex dream, though it isn't that common. And it's perfectly workable, sure, if you don't mind the discomfort of getting aroused with a full bladder (though this varies from guy to guy).

It's no surprise a thread about erections gets so much attention. It's pretty primal. I'd expect more or less the same if a thread was started called "Women: Physical Sensation of Penetration?" or something like that.

[BoredStraight]

A man may always know, but there is still the - surprise! erection - don't deny it. Also, the morning gift. Agreed the surprise ones are more controlled when past puberty, but it still lingers and requires adjustment after the fact. I am glad I am a girl and my anatomy does not bust me out like that. Also, I often wondered if you guys sat on that stuff, I hear varied answers. 'Oh it is ok you learn' and 'ouch it sucks' Interesting thread.

I have to agree that I'm also glad I'm a girl and do not get busted everytime I get turned on! Wow I learned so much from this thread that I never knew before! Great job with the descriptions guys!

[Guest Snowfall]

I like the descriptions of what owning a penis and what arousal does to the male anatomy. What I'm not seeing addressed is the one thing that I am curious about most--sensations that men experience at different stages. When...giving head, at the point just before the guy climaxes, there is a sensation, in my mouth, that makes it feel as though there is something fluid rushing in the veins beneath his skin. Is this something that he can feel? What is it? What does it feel like for him? And, though I've seen physical descriptions of what is happening to the guy, something easily observable by sight and touch, what I want to know is what it actually feels like for the guy when he is in different states, and particularly when he climaxes. I've seen a couple of different answers. One guy says that he feels cum crawling up his penis, or that's what it feels like to him. Another guy says he doesn't feel that at all. There are many different sensations that are possible and many ways to describe them.

If I'm writing from the perspective of a male, I'd like to be accurate, and most importantly, that includes the sensations a guy experiences while inside a vagina, mouth, or rectum. So, yeah, sensations are key for me while trying to get the reader to experience what the characters are experiencing.

[Shadowknight12]

Well, every guy will tell you something different about orgasming. It also varies on what exactly brings the guy to orgasm. Some will say that a handjob can't hold a candle to anal, or that a blowjob is a million times better than vaginal intercourse, if the person giving it is skilled enough. Some will be reduced to a quivering, wrecked puddle if you can deepthroat, while others will tell you that they have the best orgasms while being assfucked (this is because a guy's orgasm begins with the contraction of the anal sphincter and the pleasure 'waves' travel all the way from there to the tip of the penis, therefore anal stimulation often enhances a guy's orgasm).

Physiologically, what happens is that the guy starts combining the different fluids that make up his sperm, and then gathers them up at the base of the penis before shooting it at high velocity. Some guys will feel all the stages of this process, from the moment his balls withdraw to his body to the pooling of hot seed at the base, to each and every blast being forcibly expelled through his urethra. Some won't feel anything like this, only waves of undefined pleasure as he climaxes. If you look at a cock's underside while it climaxes, you can sometimes see (depends on the dick in question) how the urethra bulges in sections and returns to normal, then bulges and returns to normal, again and again, as the sperm goes through it.

What you might have experienced before this stage is an increase in the flow of precome, which increases as the guy approaches orgasm (or as his arousal increases). Another explanation could be that right before an orgasm, there's an influx of blood to the organ (related to the diffusion of the neurohormone oxytocin, which is responsible for urethral contraction, needed to pump out the sperm). So any of this can be the explanation for what you feel in your mouth when you're giving head. Normally, all of this is not necessarily registered by the guy. The guy's brain is being bombarded by the extremely pleasurable sensations you're placing on his very sensitive cock, which kind of block out any subtler sensations. Normally, he'd only feel (clearly) two things during orgasm: 1) anything touching his cock, 2) the orgasm itself. Oh, and anything touching his asshole, too, because of what I explained above.

In my case, it varies depending on how aroused I am, and for how long I've been in that state. Sometimes it'll take my by surprise. I'll go 'oh shit' and then bam, a lot of sudden pleasure that quickly subsides. But usually, I'll feel a certain 'tightness' in my groin, like that feeling you get when you're tethering at the edge of a cliff and you start leaning forward and you just know that you can't go back, that you're already starting to fall. That's pretty much the same. I feel a vaguely pleasurable sensation that signals it's all over. If I stop then, I still orgasm, it's just not as good (my cock twitches pleasurably once or twice and then it's over... but I still shoot a small load). If I keep going and embrace it, the pleasure starts rising and comes in sort of waves, usually synced to every shot of sperm. It's hard to describe because it happens too fast and sort of short-circuits the brain, you know? Pausing to analyse something like that is like asking someone to describe what they feel when they're on a roller-coaster. I think that what I can best describe is something like an electrical discharge, only instead of painful it's pleasurable. It's really that fast. And there's a lot of them, one after the other.

If any guy out there has a better way of explaining it, go ahead. I'm no good with words.

[Asexual Biped]

If you look at a cock's underside while it climaxes, you can sometimes see (depends on the dick in question) how the urethra bulges in sections and returns to normal, then bulges and returns to normal, again and again, as the sperm goes through it.

I just got a visual of a girl yelling "Hold on, I wanna watch!" while grabbing her man's cock and holding it up while getting close to the underside as he climaxed. It was quite amusing. ^^

[Guest Snowfall]

ROFL! I actually do like to watch. One guy could shoot it high over his head. LOL Sorry. You just cracked me up.

I just got a visual of a girl yelling "Hold on, I wanna watch!" while grabbing her man's cock and holding it up while getting close to the underside as he climaxed. It was quite amusing. ^^

[Guest Snowfall]

Thanks for the help. I like that description of the sensation moving from the anus to the penis. It is another thing that I've seen conflicting opinions about.

[ApolloImperium]

I just got a visual of a girl yelling "Hold on, I wanna watch!" while grabbing her man's cock and holding it up while getting close to the underside as he climaxed. It was quite amusing. ^^

I totally wanna do that now! LOL! However I'm thinking about the eyes being that close or having to wash my hair right after so I don't have a 'There's Something About Mary' moment...

[wanderingaddict]

hee, well with anal stimulation, it kind of depends on what the guy likes, and where he's most sensitive. there are a lot of nerve endings in and around the anus opening, so some guys like the simple act of penetration by itself, or even just external touches (like the straight guy who appreciates a little rimming once in a while, but nothing more). some guys actually like the pressure-feel of having something inside them, and for them it's that whole "the bigger the better!" while other guys can't stand anything more than a finger because (and this is the most reasonable response I've ever heard) "they can feel their organs moving inside them." this can be true for gay or straight dudes, of course. anal stimulation is only gay by association oh, and if you ever look at an internal diagram of male anatomy in that area, you'll see exactly what the prostate does (and why it does it, lawls). the clenching a man experiences during orgasm stimulates it regardless, and for guys who focus on the feel of that versus the sensation they receive from their penis, simply striking it with any blunt object can be tantamount to that "clench" of orgasm, even when they're not actually climaxing. if the stimulation of the penis is the "external" half of climax, the prostate is pretty much what makes up the "internal" half. and, again, these aren't mutually exclusive. some guys love plowing a girl, and being penetrated in the middle of that is like a sudden short-circuit of the brain.

as for like, physically being inside someone, well... haha, Snight got it right when he said it's different for everyone. well, maybe "different" in what they like, but that's a sort of too-broad preference question. what it actually *feels* like to be in someone is... lawlz, god... it's hard to describe! okay, if the dude is like, actually into having sex (and not resistant or resentful) then it just feels divine. like, the entirety of the conscious mind is suddenly engulfed, and there's nothing else in the world except for your dick and that person. like, it's easy to loose track of arms and legs and everything in/around your body. there's only the blood in your penis, the tightness in your balls, a warm, engulfing pleasure that makes you drool and want to just collapse.

lawlz, of course it varies in degree and intensity. a blushing farmboy could be easily overwhelmed and feel just like I wrote above, while a hardcore demonlord or whatever would be able to handle it (lol prolly?). I honestly, again, can't think of a better analogy than the tongue. just imagine plunging your tongue into something that's warm- really warm- and moist and gooey. something you enjoy eating. that pleasure is somewhat akin to it, a little? only now imagine that magnified a thousandfold, and placed at the pulsing epicenter of your brain. that's what a good experience inside someone is like. heh, a bad one is.... well, for example, I heard one guy complaining about loose girls say it's like "being inside a warm swimming pool" which is probably just about the most boring thing a guy could possibly get from sex XD