The answer is yes. There is a place in most JO clubs (including mine) for guys with ED. When we say we do not discriminate, we mean it. The only thing that is unwelcome is bad behavior, which means breaking the rules or treating other members disrespectfully.

If physical contact with other men is important to you, if masturbation is a satisfying part of your sexual experience, there’s a good chance you will find a place for yourself at the Jacks. Here’s the challenge: The majority of men who go to JO clubs are specifically into hard cock. You may share that fascination yourself. I know I do. Some guys are specifically into big, hard cock. I am not especially picky about size. I personally get into guys with smaller dicks, but I’m more interested if they’re hard. When I am playing with a guy and I notice his cock is not getting hard, in the absence of more information, I will assume that he is not into me or intimidated by me or both. I will often move on to someone who seems to want what I have to offer in the moment.

In some cases, there’s nothing you can ultimately do about it. If a guy needs your erection to be motivated to stay with the experience, that’s the end of things. There’s no point in trying to keep him there because the satisfaction of jacking off with other men is mutual pleasure.

Here is a possible solution: First, you need to recognize that not all men are the same. Not all men are turned on by the same things or turned off by the same things. We too frequently assume that we know what another guy is experiencing, thinking and being motivated by. The solution is clear communication about sex.

Second, you need to recognize that there will be other men at every JO club who understand exactly what your sexual challenges are because they share them. Another guy with similar challenges may get great pleasure out of helping you experience great pleasure. The fact is, far more of us males get off primarily on the pleasure of others, either witnessing it or directly facilitating it, than we think there are.

If you don’t ask for what you want—even, on occasion, explicitly demonstrating exactly what you like and how you like it—then the other guy is going to go with his assumptions. It’s your responsibility to communicate what’s really happening.

It is true that for every man, being as generally healthy as you can be is the path to being as sexually healthy as you can be. Do all you can to reduce your weight, get some exercise you enjoy and manage your illness and then open yourself up to the sex that is available to you. One option is a JO club. If that’s a scene that turns you on, it’s a good option.

But you need to be ready to take responsibility for your own pleasure and not invest everyone else with the power to determine the terms of your satisfaction. If and when you encounter someone you like to play with (and it will happen in time) talk to him. Tell him, explicitly, that your dick may not get hard, but it feels good to you and that you can and want to cum.

Show him how to work with your dick. Demonstrate how to masturbate your penis, how to make you cum. Give feedback while he does it, letting him know you like that… that this or that feels good or that he needs to go faster, slower, with longer or shorter strokes, that you need your balls stroked or your nips tickled, pinched or bitten. Be ready to jack off for him, to get yourself off in front of him. If many monogamous couples did this, they’d be a hell of a lot more intimate and know a hell of a lot better how to have good sex together and maybe have more success being successfully monogamous (not that I’m into monogamy… I’m just sayin’.)

Disabuse yourself of the notion that JO clubs are only full of healthy horny hard cocks. That is not a requirement of membership. Yes, there are plenty of hard dicks, but we are real men, not ideal men. You need to try and enjoy the variety and the difference if you’re going to really get the most out of a JO club… if this really is something for you.

And sometimes, you are going to only really indulge in giving pleasure, to fully enjoying the generosity of some guy with a “healthy horny hard cock” willing to enjoy your enjoyment of it.

I’m going to lose my erectile function some day. I will lose my ability to ejaculate. I will stop having orgasms. It is also true that either I will be alone or my husband will be alone. I’m going to lose everything in my life that I love. This is not a risk, it is certainty. All of us lose everything.

I try to remember that every day and I never, never, never avoid being present to the loss of loved ones. Everything we have in life is temporary. Everything. My ability to be happy depends on my ability to experience and appreciate loss. It’s something you only learn the hard way.

So go to your doctor and be as clear as you are able that sex is important to you. See what is possible. If your doctor doesn’t help, that’s when you seek a second opinion and a third. Do what you can on the physical side, but really, you need to let go of what others think and zero in on what you have power over: Your own thoughts, your own feelings and your own life.

I hate giving advice, but there it is. I know LOTS of men who have done just this. My JO club and every other JO club has members who never get hard, never ejaculate, but still return again and again because there is more to the experience of sex play than erection and ejaculation. They do it and so can you.

Get off the pity pot and start working with what you have. I’d start with that negative attitude that’s stopping you from exploring your options.