What Is Whiskey Dick?

What You Need to Know About Conquering Alcohol-Induced ED

It’s a condition known colloquially as “whiskey dick,“ and it’s the source of frustration and embarrassment for guys who’ve had a few drinks too many.

Regardless of whether you’ve experienced it before, or you’re trying to ensure it never happens to you, AskMen spoke with a few experts in the field (and one guy who admitted to experiencing it) to get the lowdown on all things whiskey dick: what it is, why it happens and how to get rid of it if you have it.

“‘Whiskey dick’ is the (non-medical) term for when you get completely pissed-drunk and cannot perform sexually,” says Dr. Koushik Shaw of the Austin Urology Institute. “While one or two drinks might give you a confidence boost and put some wind in your sails, too many will take the wood out of your rudder. Booze is a nervous system depressant, and if you depress it too much, you won’t be able to perform at all.”

And despite the name, whiskey dick doesn’t actually have anything to do with drinking whiskey per se.

“This is dependent on the amount of alcohol, not the type,” explains Shaw. “So switching from whiskey to vodka will not help you here.”

Lots of guys probably imagine that issues getting and staying hard are the province of older men, but while erection issues are often associated somewhat (though not entirely) with age, whiskey dick makes no such distinctions.

“Any sexually active individual [with a penis] who consumes alcohol is putting themselves at risk of whiskey dick,” says Shaw.

Beyond that, it’s not a question of how much alcohol you consume in terms of number of drinks, volume of liquid or alcohol by volume percentage, but rather what your personal alcohol tolerance is with regards to erectile function.