NEWS YOU CAN USE: Why Men Are Putting Their Penises through Shock Therapy. “It involves painless acoustic waves stimulating blood flow and, in theory, this should lead to better and more frequent erections. . . . ESWT has been around for decades. Physicians use it to treat arthritis, tennis elbow, and kidney stones, and it has been used in Europe to treat erectile dysfunction for years. But it is a relatively new option for American men.”