Hi everyone I would really appreciate some advice,
I’m a 20 year old male that applied saw palmetto extract topically because it was an ingredient in a topical similar to Rogaine called Foligain and I also was prescribed some 2% ketoconazole. I stopped the ketoconazole for 6 months now and the saw palmetto extract topical for a year and a half. Now, I’ve been having terrible symptoms over the past 2 years or so. The thing is I can’t tell if my symptoms are stemming from excessive porn and masturbation or if maybe it came from the topical saw palmetto.
My symptoms include low libido (my erections are still pretty strong), brain fog, depression, social anxiety and awkwardness, a weird pressure in my face (related to the social anxiety), dull and lifeless eyes, twitching under right eyelid, etc.
As for my porn and masturbation habits, I was pretty much addicted to edging. For hours at a time. I would watch porn while keeping myself at the edge of orgasm for 3-4 hours at a time once or twice a week for about 2 years. My life got progressively worse at this time. Before this like when I was 15 or 16 I had almost nothing wrong in my life I was perfectly fine. My theory is that this relates to PFS because of the over expression of androgens on my androgen receptors. I think I made my body produce way too many androgens that eventually just was too much and so now my androgen receptors are having trouble processing everything.
I don’t know if these symptoms stem from the Saw Palmetto topical or from the excessive porn and edging because I stopped the edging and saw palmetto at the same time. I have only edged a few times in the past year. Maybe 5 or 6 times and not more than 30 minutes.
My life is just not the same as it once was, I feel like a zombie, I just want my old self back. I’ve started taking pumpkin seed oil capsules and can actually feel a difference with them. My eyes are not dull and they are shiny like they used to be and my mood has slightly improved when I take them. I don’t know why and only took them because I thought they would help my hair but it helped some other symptoms as well.
Anyways, I got my labs drawn about 6 months ago for hair loss and they did an ACTH test and would really appreciate it if someone could maybe find anything that could be causing my problems?
TESTOSTERONE FEMALE AND PEDS, LCMS: 5.76 ng/mL (2.50-10.00 ng/mL)
ANDROSTENEDIONE: 1.2 ng/mL (0.4-1.5 ng/mL)
TESTOSTERONE, TOTAL: 594 ng/dL (240-950 ng/dL)
TESTOSTERONE, BIOAVAILABLE: 232 ng/dL (No standard range given)
17 HYDROXYPROGESTERONE: 1.3 ng/mL (<2.2 ng/mL)
DHEA-SULFATE: 849 ug/dL (80-560 ug/dL)
DHEA: 10.8 ng/mL (1.3-7.8 ng/mL)
ACTH: 88 pg/mL (5-52 pg/mL)
17 HYDROXY PREGNENOLONE: 1160 ng/dL (55-455 ng/dL)
-High Values
Could my symptoms stem from having high levels of DHEA and Pregnenolone? Also I probably have very high DHT because of the edging as well.
Thank you very much to anyone who reads this.