In 1983, one doctor was going around offices of each department at Sinchon Severance Hospital. This was the urologist Hyungki Choi. He was 38 at that time and he just came back after leaning the operation of inserting silicon prosthesis on man for curing erectile dysfunction. At that time, it was the only way to treat impotence. However, he didn’t get a chance to show his skills. When having an erectile dysfunction problem, most of men preferred aphrodisiac or analeptic and no one dared to have a knife on their important part. So, Choi started looking for his patient.

Then, Choi met a miner at his college’s office at the end of the year and the Choi found out that the miner was dispatched to Germany earlier. Although he was at the same as with Choi, he got impotent after the spine injury from the accident. His wife was a nurse who was also dispatched to Germany and they got close when she treated him. Although they got married based on their belief on platonic love, the marriage life didn’t go smoothly and the miner was suffering from a severe delusional jealousy of his wife. Then, Choi persuaded him to get an operation. When his wife visited a recovery room after the operation, she saw his erection for the first time and she started crying holding the penis.

At that time, people were unfamiliar with the concept of Andrology and Choi’s operation news was covered in the corners of general news pages in few newspapers in December 23. The title of the article was ‘A Patient Who Became Impotent after Unexpected Accident Gets Penile Prosthesis for the First Time in Korea’. During that time, impotence was regarded as permanent disability or mental issue without proper treatment measures. The news about Choi’s successful operation was a hope for people who were in despair due to impotence.

30 years have passed since then and Choi (68, emeritus professor at College of Medicine in Yeonsei University) is still active. After retiring in 2010, he opened up his own clinic at the late age of 66.

In introducing the surgical penile treatment in Korea, Choi and Sechul Kim of Myongji Hospital played leading role. In 1974, Choi opened up sexual function clinic for the first time in Korea. He treated over 40,000 men for last 30 years and he had operation on over 1,000 patients. While the history of urology starts in 1917, Choi is the representative first generation in Andrology field.

Choi has been involved in helping the impotent men for his whole life. Although Choi’s father who was also an urologist passed away during the Korean War, Choi and his son Hyunmin Choi (35) will succeed his will. The three generations are all urologists and they all graduated from College of Medicine in Yeonsei University. Choi will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of his first operation and we had a chance to interview the pioneer of Andrology in Korea. Choi shared his erotic and sexual stories about ‘Past and future of Korean men’.

First Sexual Function Clinic Worried About ‘Obscenity’

After completing the first operation, Choi opened up ‘Sexual Dysfunction Clinic’ in Sinchon in the following year. Although it’s common to watch a video and test on degree of erection, there was no such diagnosis method in Korea at that time. Choi collected ‘Porn’ from Cheonggyecheon Stream and Dongdaemun Market and kept the porn for treatment. Other fellow professors from College of Medicine got worried and said “Choi, aren’t you worried about getting prisoned for obscenity?”. Choi said “At that time, people didn’t know about Andrology well”.

After opening the clinic, Choi treated various VIP-class patients. For example, famous actors, singers, attorneys, politicians, CEO of large company, and relatives of former president visited his clinic. Although it was hard to keep a secret in university hospital, Choi ran an erectile dysfunction clinic for VIIP (Very Important Impotent Person) patients. Choi said “VIIP patients got treatment while playing go or golf together. Sometimes, I treated them by visiting their home. Some popular politicians came to the clinic at late night time when everyone else left’. Although his surgical treatment helped numerous impotent men, most of them were reluctant about revealing such fact.

There was a case when a big politician disappeared on the next morning after getting the operation. Staff at reception desk got angry and said “He ran away during the night without paying!”. Choi called the politician and asked why he ran away. Then, the politician said that he was half asleep in the dawn after the operation and that a woman who cleaned the hospital room recognized him. The politician said “I couldn’t tell my wife about coming to the hospital and I didn’t want anyone else to know about it. So, I had to run away without looking back”. Choi said “My patients even don’t tell their wife about the operation. Who would talk about the clinic? I endured 30 years in such field. If I sold operation equipment, I could have been rich. I always feel sorry for my wife”. After opening his own clinic in 2010, he didn’t hang up the sign for one year. He firmly believed that patients who believe in him would visit his clinic.