A new member, not sure if my symptoms fit in - help me out here people!

Member Stories
#61

Well, I never thought I’d say this so soon but I’m pleased to report some improvement.

I’m not taking any supplements, or doing any kind of regimen whatsoever, but this week my symptoms have noticeably abated. I was getting nocturnal erections earlier in the week - I was waking up in the middle of the night and realizing these. And I had a proper morning wood just a few hours ago. I was so excited I jumped out of bed and stonked around the room with it. Yes, my life has got that ridiculous.

Sex drive is still not great, but has gone from maybe 5% to about 25%, which is quite an improvement for me.

And alongside this, I’ve been feeling a lot more happy and a lot more driven. I feel like I actually have some energy now.

I don’t know what’s caused this, perhaps it’s just a natural upsurge of hormones or perhaps my levels are balancing somewhat. I have no idea, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if it all went away and back to before next week. Still, I suppose once again it shows my body has the capacity to feel normal at some level. And, who knows, maybe I’ll remain at least retain this level of semi-functionality for a while.

Gim

#62

Back again with another update.

I took a couple of weeks away from here to chill out, and to see how things went. I didn’t really get much improvement. I’d say sex drive is still at 5-10%, while nocturnal and/or morning erections are about once every week if I’m lucky.

This is, essentially, where I was before I took saw palmetto. The difference is that then I assumed these symptoms were all “in my head”, and now I know they’re not natural (after having been on SP and felt GREAT).

I’m having a fairly extensive hormonal profile later this week, which is costing quite a lot of money but is hopefully going to point me in the right direction. It includes:

  • Testosterone
  • Free testosterone
  • SHBG
  • Estradiol
  • LH
  • FSH
  • Prolactin
  • Glucose
  • TSH
  • T3
  • T4
  • Sperm Count and semen analysis

Following this, I should either A) have sufficient evidence to get a referral to an endocrinologist from my doctor, or B) have more or less ruled out a hormonal cause, after which I can look into other avenues.

I’ll keep you posted with my results when I get them.

  • Gim
#63

Saw this new doctor again, had another embarrassing discussion. I felt he didn’t really understand the issues at hand, but he was nice enough.

Has a physical examination for the first time, apparently no problems there.

Had the bloods taken, I should get the results back on Tuesday.

He also recommended hookers. I’m not joking. I was told something like, “something that sometimes helps my patients is going to see call girls.” I was pretty gobsmacked, since this isn’t your standard prescription from a medical professional. Fortunately, I don’t intend to see this guy again, and was mainly there just to get the bloods done.

I’ll post the results on Tuesday when I have them.

#64

haha oh god
if you can’t get off in your own company then you won’t get off with the added pressure of someone else.once it has happened before the doubt is always in your mind , you need to be confident by yourself before being with someone else again (or use viagra)

#65

EXACTLY. It never ceases to amaze me at what some of these Doctors will say. Unbelievable.

#66

Yeah, it was actually quite shocking now that I think about it. I didn’t really know what to say. One thing this whole situation has taught me is not to place so much faith in the medical community anymore. There are great doctors out there, but there are large numbers of quacks around as well. You’ve got to keep a critical eye open and be wary of what they say.

I was raised to “just listen to what the doctor says”, but this whole experience has taught me that this is a bad approach. I treat them more as a resource now: if they have good ideas, and good understanding, then great; but if they’re talking nonesense, I’m out of there.

For me the issue isn’t really a confidence one. If I was waking up everyday with raging boners, had masses of drive and so on, I wouldn’t even be thinking about this shit. And I never had a problem psychologically a couple of months ago. If I could flip a switch and get back my drive tomorrow, I might need a crutch for a while (having viagra in the pocket ‘just in case’), but would pretty quickly be able to get on with things.

Less than 48 hours to go until I get the results now. Again, I’m totally excited about something completely ridiculous. I’ll be sure to post on here when I’ve got it.

#67

Newest set of blood results have come in:

propeciahelp.com/forum/viewt … 2824#12824

#68

Well, I’ve reached the end of the road for time being, and there’s not much more I can do without more time and resources at my disposal.

I still don’t really know exactly what’s behind the problem; my blood results seem to indicate fairly low estradiol, but there’s no way to tell if that’s really the problem or if it’s insignificant.

Ridiculous as it sounds, I’ve started taking saw palmetto again to see if I can test this theory. My thinking here is that SP increases estradiol, allegedly through some direct mechanism but certainly through increasing available testosterone (i.e. blockingh some DHT conversion), which creates more aromatization in turn. It’s the best way I have to ‘test’ if this will make me feel better symptom-wise. Also, since I achieved fairly good T levels at a 2pm testing, and after feeling my worst symptom-wise, I don’t feel the first run of SP did me any long-term damage and it’s hard to see how it would have done so.

Since I’ve been taking it again, I’m oddly actually feeling much, much better. I’ve had morning wood every single day this week, penis feels better overall, more frequent erections, etc. This is crazy, and I don’t know if it’s a placebo or if it’s the real deal, but it is happening.

So maybe I had some problem beforehand that means I’m naturally low on estradiol, or maybe all this was brought on by depression following the onset of these symptoms (which then worsened them). Perhaps it’s both.

Either way, I don’t really know what the hell is wrong with me, but I do know I feel somewhat better taking SP than not taking it. For the time being I’m going to stick on SP, and carry on with my life and my studies and later this year hopefully get a job at last. Once I’ve got some money together, I have the option of investigating this further, but for now I’m going to have to stick with what I’ve got and try to carry on as much as I can.

I’ll be popping back from time to time to see how things are going. Even though my case isn’t a typical one, I’ve found this board a really great resource and there are a lot of really knowledgeable and helpful folks here. Next time I’m here, hopefully one or two more of you will be on the way to recovery.

Take care,
Gimzim

#69

I really wish guys like this wouldn’t just disappear!