# Practical guides > Diagnosis, safety, dosing, cost and the conversations that come with all of it. - **Source:** ED Treatment Guides (https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides) - **Guides:** 22 - [ED Symptoms and How It Is Diagnosed](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/symptoms-and-diagnosis) — What counts as erectile dysfunction, what a proper assessment involves, and which tests are worth asking for. Diagnosis is mostly conversation — the tests are about finding the cause. - [How to Bring Up ED With Your Doctor](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/talking-to-your-doctor) — Most men wait years before mentioning erectile dysfunction to a clinician. Here is how to make the conversation short, unembarrassing and useful — including the exact words to open with. - [What Happens at Your First ED Appointment](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/first-appointment) — A walkthrough of what a first consultation for erectile dysfunction actually involves — the questions, the examination, the tests, and what you should leave with. - [Talking to Your Partner About ED](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/talking-to-your-partner) — Erectile dysfunction is rarely a solo problem. The silence around it usually causes more damage than the symptom — and partners are almost always drawing worse conclusions than the truth. - [How Erections Actually Work](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/how-erections-work) — Understanding the mechanism is the fastest way to understand the treatments. Every option on this site intervenes at one specific step — and knowing which step yours has failed at tells you which option to reach for. - [Morning Erections: What They Mean and What Losing Them Means](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/morning-erections) — Nocturnal erections are the closest thing to a free diagnostic test you have. Whether you still get them, and how that has changed, tells a clinician more than almost anything else you can report. - [ED in Your 20s and 30s](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/ed-in-younger-men) — Erectile dysfunction in a young man is usually psychological — but 'usually' is not 'always', and being told to relax without anyone checking anything is not an assessment. - [What to Do When ED Medication Doesn't Work](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/when-medication-fails) — Around a third of men get a poor result from their first ED prescription. A large share of those are not treatment failures at all — they are trial failures. Here is how to tell the difference, and what comes next if it really has failed. - [PDE5 Inhibitor Safety: Interactions, Contraindications and Emergencies](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/pde5-safety) — The complete safety picture for sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil and avanafil — what must never be combined with them, who should not take them, and what counts as an emergency. - [ED Medication Side Effects, Explained and Managed](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/side-effects) — What each side effect is, why it happens, how common it actually is, and what you can do about it — including when a side effect means switching medication rather than tolerating it. - [ED Medication Dosage Guide](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/dosage-guide) — Standard doses, timing, food effects and adjustment rules for all four PDE5 inhibitors — plus the most common dosing mistakes and how to avoid them. - [What ED Treatment Costs — and How to Pay Less](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/cost-and-insurance) — US insurance covers erectile dysfunction medication poorly, so most men pay cash. That makes shopping around unusually worthwhile — the same generic tablet can vary tenfold in price. - [How to Buy ED Medication Safely Online](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/buying-safely) — Legitimate online pharmacies and telehealth services are convenient and safe. Illegitimate ones are everywhere, look identical, and are the reason the FDA runs a public education campaign about this. - [Counterfeit ED Pills: How to Spot Them and Why They Are Dangerous](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/counterfeit-medication) — ED medication is one of the most counterfeited drug categories in the world. Counterfeit tablets have been found to contain the wrong dose, no active ingredient, and substances that have killed people. - [Sex After a Heart Attack or Cardiac Procedure](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/sex-after-a-heart-attack) — Almost every man who has had a cardiac event worries about this and very few are given a straight answer. For most people with stable disease, sex is roughly as demanding as climbing two flights of stairs. - [Your First 90 Days on ED Treatment](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/first-90-days) — Most men who abandon treatment do so in the first fortnight, usually after one disappointing attempt. Knowing what the timeline actually looks like is the cheapest way to avoid that. - [Choosing a Urologist for ED](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/choosing-a-urologist) — Not every urologist specialises in sexual medicine, and for second- and third-line treatment the difference in outcomes is real. Here is how to find the right one and what to ask. - [Appealing an ED Treatment Insurance Denial](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/insurance-appeals) — ED medication is frequently excluded outright, so appeals rarely succeed there. Devices, injections and implant surgery are a different matter — and those denials are often overturned. - [16 ED Myths, Checked Against the Evidence](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/ed-myths) — Erectile dysfunction attracts more folklore than almost any other health topic, largely because so few people ask a professional. Here is what holds up and what does not. - [Pornography and ED: What the Evidence Actually Supports](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/porn-and-ed) — This is one of the most confidently argued and least well-evidenced topics in men's health. Here is what the research supports, what it does not, and what is worth trying if you think it applies to you. - [ED and Fertility: Treating One Without Wrecking the Other](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/ed-and-fertility) — Erectile dysfunction and infertility are different problems, but one common treatment for the first reliably causes the second. If you may want children, say so before anyone writes a prescription. - [Travelling With ED Medication](https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides/travelling-with-medication) — Tablets are straightforward. Injections, refrigerated preparations and international borders are less so — and buying a replacement abroad is where things go wrong. --- _This page is general health information, not medical advice. It cannot account for your own history, medications or risk factors. Talk to a licensed clinician before starting, stopping or changing any treatment._ _Canonical URL: https://www.edtreatmentguides.com/guides_