Hair Mchair's ongoing battle with Sexual Dysfunction

[hair mchair]

Ok, so I figured, based on HairLossTalk.com's advice, that I might as well start my own thread detailing my progress with all of my sexual problems.

A little bit of background first. I took Propecia 1 mg a day from Aug. 2001 to Nov. 2002. I had GREAT results - TOTAL stoppage of hairloss and decent regrowth. I was VERY happy. However, I was forced to discontinue due to sexual problems (low libido, soft erections, difficulty getting and maintaining erections, ejaculation problems, etc.). Interestingly, these side effects didn't pop up right away. I was fine for at least several months until I noticed anything was wrong. Things gradually got worse however, and when I started having sex again, I knew things were pretty bad.

Ten months later, things haven't gotten a bit better. Actually, things have gotten worse. My best guess is that I had a rare and severe reaction to finasteride that messed up my hormones. Obviously, I'm going to try to fix this as I've given up hope of my body correcting the problem itself.

Ok, so now my recent progress.

I've been doing a lot of research these last months. I finally was able to convince my urologist to check a bunch of my hormones. He only wanted to check serum T, but I convinced him to check some others too. Here are the results.

DHT: 32 reference range: 25 - 75 ng/dL
Total T: 424 reference range: 260-1000 ng/dL
Free T: 92.2 reference range: 50-210 pg/mL
Androstenedione: 159 reference range: 65-270 NG/DL
DHEA: 691 reference range: 125-619 MCG/DL
SHBG: 22 reference range: 7-50 NMOL/L

Previous results:
Total T: 550
Serum Estrogen: 183 reference range: <130

It seems that my estrogen levels are through the roof, and that my total T and free T are a bit low, especially for a guy my age (I'm 23). With free T, I'm in the lower third of the reference range, which I have read is bad, especially in combination with high estrogen levels.

Actually, my total T has gone down recently. I've checked it three times. First two times it was 550. Now it's 424. This makes sense because my condition has definitely worsened in the last month or two.

My endocrinologist is not at all concerned about my results and tries to tell me that I need sexual counselling. He ignores the fact that my nocturnal erections are PATHETIC and that I have just as much trouble masturbating as I do attempting intercourse (actually, masturbation is actually harder due to lower stimulation). These are signs that my problem isn't psychological. He doesn't think that high estrogen would affect my libido and erections, and he doesn't seem to be concerned that my testosterone levels are on the low side of the normal range. Ah well. I'll have to find a new endo eventually.

Here's my gameplan for now: Tribestan and Arimidex along with a lot of exercise. I'll get my hormones checked again in a couple of months. If my testosterone levels are still low and I'm still having sexual problems, I'll give testosterone replacement therapy a try.

My hope is that I won't need testosterone replacement, but we'll see.

I'm not crazy about the idea of self-medicating, but I've been to my doctor, two urologists, and an endocrinologist, and none of them have been particularly helpful. The only doctor who has been of any help is an andrologist I correspond with via email, but he's in California and I'm in Philadelphia.

I am also going to give Traditional Chinese Medicine a shot since some of the people I've talked to have seen decent improvement, although not total recovery.

Ok, thanks to everyone for their advice. I'll keep everyone who is interested updated.

Best of luck to everyone.

 

[TEST SUBJECT#1]

Dude! Your dhea levels are peaked! That where I'm confused, as DHEA has simialr effects as testosterone. I dont understand why you would be having such low libido and problems with erections. Your endo was right to not get all paniced over yout total test count as the body is constantly going through a sea-saw type effect. Your body isnt always gonna have the "perfect range" of test or estrogen, one goes up a bit, the other goes down and vice versa.

Have you considered that although your test levels may be low right now, (If they were over 500 last time, it will go up again) that maybe your problem is a physical one. Maybe your penis has some actual muscle.blood flow problem. are you getting that angle checked out, its not like its unusal to happen to guys.

 

[TEST SUBJECT#1]

:lol:

 

[drinkrum]

Hair,

My gameplan now is to let Arimidex run its path for a month+ and then get my hormones checked. Probably going to use a saliva test that I can order online.

Arimidex is strong stuff and my current self-medicated dose is 0.25 mg every-other-day. I am also taking Propecia everyday.

D.

 

[hair mchair]

Actually, I was going to ask about the high DHEA levels. I wasn't too sure where DHEA plays a role.

Aaaggghh!! This is all so frustrating. What a pain in the a$$.

TEST SUBJECT, you seem to know a lot about hormones. You know of any good websites or books where I can read up on this a bit more??? I feel like I don't know nearly enough about this stuff.

I had some tests done, and blood flow is ok. No problems there. It was actually one of the first things I had done. Wasn't the most pleasant experience, but it was nice to have some piece of mind.

I was thinking maybe there some atrophy of the penile tissue or maybe some neurological damage. Who knows? At some point, maybe I'll get this checked out. I've already asked about it, and the tests don't sound so pleasant. The first urologist I went to told me that neurological damage is unlikely unless you have a disease - I forget which one he mentioned.

Ah well. I'll stick to my gameplan for now.

 

[richlocks]

I really would have checked what your estradiol level is.. Total estrogen doesn't mean much. Either way.. find another endo. Tribestan and arimidex sound good.. go for it. Use that EOD dosage.. hit the gym hard.. and eat right. Drink a few glasses of wine at night as well (red).

I doubt it's any physical sexual organ damage.. Your body just isn't recovering from the hormone shift, so you'll have to do it manually. I would really want a physician watching over me while i'm on arimidex.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[mariejoe]

Hair McHair,
So sorry for your medical troubles!! I hope you are able to rebalance your hormones!! Sooner rather than later.
To a degree, I can sympathize, as many women are given hormones, ie the Pill and hormone replacement therapy, which then throw their natural hormones out of whack, resulting in hair loss and other horrors.

I blame this on rushing drugs throught the trial phase. In effect, we are the trial phase for drug safety (AKA guinea pigs). It's too bad we end up being the victims!!!

 

[Trilidon]

Good luck man, your in my prayers, hope im in yours =P

 

[douggie]

Wow, crazy stuff, I will give you some input.

When I was 24 or 25, I had blood levels checked and my T was super low, I cannot remember what it was since that was like 3 years ago, but it was on the low end. Anyway, My Doctor recommended I drop some poundage since I had gained like 40 lbs that year from 190-230. Well, I did that and my test levels normalized. Also, I more or less designed my training regimen around the big compound movements (Deadlifts, Squats, etc) as it has been shown that these exercise elicit a huge testosterone response during and immediately after their performance. Well, my test levels are spot on where they are supposed to be right now and I am as horny as ever. I worried about this stuff so much and in then end, dropping the 40 lbs pretty much did it for me.

As for your diet, certain foods can kill your T levels. I know that if someone is on the low of average, they can eat licorice and take some vitamins before their blood test and it will drop them below the threshold of getting Testosterone therapy. This is actually a way some folks try to legally get steroids. Drop me a pm and I will try to find the list of T killing foods. I also know that a high protein diet will raise T levels dramatically if followed for a while. Who knows, maybe you only have to do this crap to give yourself a kick in the *** to get your hormone levels back up.

 

[fuzbucket]

Hmm.... this is slightly off topic but.....

When I had my first major sexual partner (2 years ago) I had serious trouble maintaining and getting an erection, I went to my doctor and he said just stick with it, I was even to the point of paying all that money for viagara as my GF at the time was hoping... Anyway a few weeks or months down the road and I was having no trouble.... thanks to my open-minded and willing to please GF.

Anyway, now I'm back in a similar situation with this really hot girl I just met. In the middle of making out with this chick on my bed, I interrupted it all and asked her if we could talk, because I couldn't maintain my fuckin erection!..... and I coulda hit a homerun easy....... damn.

So I would like to blame the proscar that I've been on for a month, but this is all so similar to my first GF, so I will just stick with it.

My plan now is to do her on the spot as soon as she gets in my room, before I have any time to lose focus or lose an erection.

Yes, anyway I'm sure none of you wanted to read any of this, lol....

Invalid.