Can i please preface this by saying this is just a theory/idea that I’m considering for myself.
My penis had pain for the first time EIGHT months after stopping finasteride. Ever since (its now a year) i’ve had a noticable reduction in girth and still get dull pain. Fibrosis. The tissue is different i can bend my flacid penis without effort, there’s a huge change.
I’ve got top range testosterone levels and DHT levels but yet since going off finasteride ive had weak erections and low libido. Why? Seemingly due to skyhigh estrogen levels and high SHBG levels. Atleast to my mind that is the reason (we’ll see for sure when i get them down). My erections have varied from 50% to 80% over the past 8 months with much lesser occurance and strength (obviously). No throbbing erections thats for sure.
Anyway, i never had a crash just a slow decline. This is why im not convinced about androgen resistence - atleast as a main cause anyway. Also, since i had good days and bad days this doesn’t really bode with the idea of AR, either.
So i spoke with a top male hormone doctor this week at length and i explained about my penile atrophy as per above. He said right away this was likely due to reduced elasticity of the penis. If you “dont use it, you lose it” he said. Obviously that doesn’t require being sexually active or even masturbating, what it means is, if your body literally isn’t having the strong erections (say at night where you supposedly have 6-7 erections per night when you’re normal) like it should be, then you literally aren’t “using” a good proportion of the cells in the penis like you normally would. Consequently, the blood isn’t fully circulating in the penis, the nitric oxide isn’t getting aroud and ultimately the cells in the penis are being starved of the oxeygination that they require. Over time this will, and i believe HAS in my case, reduce the elasticity of the penis.
Apparently mens’ penis’ naturally lose elasticity over time. This is why some people use penis pumps which help as it ensures these neglected cells are being stimulated and made feel like they are wanted. Really though, look it up. It seems that the most noticable gains are girth. Don’t think that’s a coincidence either. I don’t know how well penis pumps do their job (if at all though) so im not endorsing them (although i would be interested to hear of some experiences…)
Anyway,
Bear in mind im only theorising here (but with an element of application from good information) - I really believe some of us have had gradual penile shrinkage for this reason. It does seem logical. It probably isn’t just that simply but could certainly be a compounding factor.
The one drawback of this, I suppose, is that, why do people with ED generally not get this? One of my answers would be because many don’t actually have a physical problem and therefore at night time they have their full nocturnal erections to sustain the penis’ full form. As for guys with legitimate hormonal problems, i guess I don’t know. I do realise this “loss of girth” thing isn’t restricted just to finasteride though so maybe it’s not as unique as we think its just that finasteride causes so much physical ED that this comes about more frequently.
I’m open to people’s opinions here. But I will again add the basis of this has come from a top male hormone endochronologist so it is likely to have some merit.
Personally in my view, i hope this is the case as it’d make sense to me on a few levels and it would give me hope that when i restore my erections that i’ll come back to normal size. Will keep you guys updated on how i fare out.
Peace.
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