Former rugby pro and devoted The Traitors UK favourite Joe Marler, 35, shared a frank update about getting older, admitting he wakes up with morning wood ‘nowhere near’ as often as he once did.
Speaking on the Man Alive podcast, Marler’s comments prompted host Dr Jeff Foster to explain that many men notice changes over time. He noted that testosterone typically declines with age, and that can influence how frequently men wake up with an erection.
Marler then joked that as a teenager, erections were basically constant, teasing the host with an exaggerated visual.
“The amount of times the tables would rise at least 12 inches, maybe less…” he laughed.
So what’s considered typical for someone in Joe’s age bracket? Dr Jeff said men in their 30s should still be experiencing morning erections around two to three times per week, which he described as ‘normal’.
Joe Marler: Where Has My Morning Wood Gone?!
Dr Jeff added that if a man in his 30s can’t even recall the last time he had an early-morning erection, it’s worth getting checked out.
“That’s a really good indicator that either hormones have dropped, or your cardiovascular risk has gone up, because something is stopping that erection naturally occurring,” he warned.
In further comments to Metro, Dr Jeff said daily (or near-daily) morning erections are common for teenage boys and men in their 20s.
He also outlined how expectations tend to shift with age: in your 30s, he suggested it should happen more than half the time, while men in their 40s and 50s might see a normal range of two to three times a week.
By the 60s, he said once or twice a week can fall within the typical range.
Even with those benchmarks, plenty of men may feel uneasy—especially as more specialists have recently discussed erectile dysfunction among younger men.
Dr. Leon Telis, a board-certified urologist and director of the Men’s Health Program at Mount Sinai Hospital, explained to New York Post:
“A very large portion of ED in younger men is what’s called psychosomatic, basically stress and anxiety-induced.”
Meanwhile, Rocky Tishma, co-founder of Manhattan Sex Therapy Group, said:
‘a lot of stress, anxiety and psychological issues’
can prevent men from showing up
‘how they want to in their body’
when they’re trying to be intimate with someone else.