Some sex therapists have claimed that if a man's erection is not firm enough to allow penetration, then a man has erectile dysfunction - or, in common language, an erection problem.
Obviously the prevalence of erection problems gets older as men age - with the exception of problems that are due to performance anxiety among younger men, whose erection difficulties tend to be more transient and short-lived, being caused by sexual and personal circumstances (i.e. over-excitement, anxiety about the partner, fear of discovery, and so on) rather than health or medical issues such as age-related diabetes or circulation problems.
This kind of erection failure is rather simple to explain: it is an anxiety-based response. Anxiety can effectively turn off the sexual response in young men because it is a product of the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, which opposes the sexual responses controlled by the parasympathetic nervous system. In effect, therefore, one can say that over-arousal is the cause of many young men's erection problems, though this refers more to emotional arousal than sexual arousal. Paradoxically, over-arousal can also cause premature ejaculation: the essence of both problems is that a man's normal sexual response has been over-ridden by his anxiety.
The irony here is that anxiety - fear, worry, call it what you will - about losing your erection actually stimulates a man's level of nervous system activity so that he is actually somewhat more likely to lose it!
Please feel free to private message me if you have any further questions or concerns.
Colin2011