Anshul Bhadwaj: Breaking the Silence on Sexual Health and Dignity After Stroke

Erectile Dysfunction After Stroke: One Survivor’s Courageous Truth About Intimacy and Bowel Control

When Anshul Bhadwaj collapsed at his gym in Delhi at just 27 years old, he thought his life was ending. The thunderclap headache, the dizziness, the vomiting he was certain he was having a heart attack. What he didn’t know was that his brain was bleeding, and the hemorrhagic stroke he was experiencing would challenge not just his ability to walk, but his sense of manhood, dignity, and identity.

What Anshul shares in this conversation is what most stroke survivors won’t talk about: the loss of erectile function, the inability to control his bowels and bladder, and the profound shame that came with both. But his story isn’t just about loss, it’s about the courage to speak openly about these taboo topics, the journey back to dignity, and the mission to ensure others don’t suffer in silence.

The Stroke No One Saw Coming

Anshul was living the demanding life of a political journalist in India long hours, intense deadlines, and relentless pressure from his news channel manager. The stress was so extreme that even when he was hospitalized for hypertension in 2023, his manager told him to bring his laptop to the hospital and work from his bed.

“Life of a journalist in India is very stressful,” Anshul explains. “It looks good from the outside, but not good from the inside.”

That unmanaged hypertension, blood pressure exceeding 180/86 despite medication, was a ticking time bomb. On February 27, 2025, while working out at the gym, Anshul felt a sensation behind his brain, followed by severe dizziness. Within moments, he collapsed.

Because stroke awareness in India is remarkably low, no one at the gym, including Anshul himself, recognized what was happening. He thought it was a heart attack. Even when a friend drove him home and his father rushed him to a chemist, they were given electrolytes for what they assumed was low blood pressure.

It wasn’t until hours later, when his sister noticed he was having seizures, that the family finally took him to the hospital for a CT scan. The results were devastating: a brain hemorrhage. One junior doctor even said within Anshul’s earshot, “He’s going to die soon.”

The Loss That No One Talks About

After emergency angiography and coiling to stop the bleeding, Anshul survived. But survival came with challenges that went far beyond the left-sided paresis that left him unable to walk or use his dominant hand.

“I lost my manhood at that time,” Anshul shares, his voice steady but vulnerable. “I’m sharing this for the first time.”

Erectile Dysfunction After Stroke: The Silent Struggle

For approximately one month after his stroke, Anshul experienced complete erectile dysfunction. As a 27-year-old single man, the psychological impact was crushing.

“I used to think, what will happen in the future? Nobody will marry me. Nobody will accept me,” he recalls. “I was thinking I was not a man now.”

The shame was so profound that he couldn’t share this with his family or doctors. In Indian culture, discussing sexual dysfunction carries immense stigma; people judge, people assume you’re “less of a man.”

But what Anshul eventually discovered through his own online research was that erectile dysfunction after stroke is a common neurological symptom, not a permanent condition. As his brain healed and his testosterone levels recovered, his erectile function gradually returned over the course of several weeks.

“I want people to know about this. This is not a shame