In any of the cases you’ve seen, is stress indicated as a possible trigger for Peyronie’s? I ask, because in me its appearance coincided with a very stressful period of my life.

Dr. Levine answers: Stress can certainly be a contributing factor to many disorders. It is unlikely to activate the Peyronie’s process directly, but stress may result in diminished rigidity which may subject the “at risk” penis to a greater likelihood of injury which would then activate the Peyronie’s process. As medicine matures and we know more about the psychodynamic aspects of stress it may be that we would find that anxiety and stress may actually have physiological responses which can activate the scarring process. At this time, it is more likely to be coincidental or due to a traumatic event that happened with a less rigid erection during your stressful period.