Single Accutane pill and ED

Member Stories
#1

Welcome to our community. Please fill in the following template as a way of introducing yourself, and helping others to understand your background and situation.

Where are you from (Estonia)?
What is your current age, height, weight? 26, 188cm, 88kg
What specific drug did you use isotretinoin/Accutane
What dose did you take ? one dose of 40 mg
How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start the drug? 26
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
ED, libido,

Check the boxes that apply. You can save your post first, then interactively check/uncheck the boxes by clicking on them. If your symptoms change, please update your list.

Sexual
[ x] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[x ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[x ] Loss of Morning Erections
[x ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[x ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[x ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] Suicidal Thoughts

Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)

Sorry english is not my first language.

I was thinking to share my story for 7 months and here I am.
It’s hard to believe but yes, it is happened just from single pill. It was generic accutane from India. I never in my life experienced impotency. No matter what state of mind I was, whether sad, stressed, depressed, oppressed or whatever I always was able to get an erection. And then suddenly, next day after I took a pill I couldn’t get it up from watching porn.It was completely dead. It felt my mind isn’t connected with penis. I went to google and found that ED could happen. So for two months I was 100 % impotent. I was trying some different herbs and hormones like DHEA. There was little to no effect and I lost any hope. I was able to get some response when trying to masturbate. Penis was responding to physical stimulation, but it was impossible to maintain erection. One night I was thinking about girl and I can’t explain how it happened but it was the first time in 3 months it got hard from my thoughts.It was miracle for me. I felt so relieved that day. unfortunately ‘’ recovery’’ didn’t last so long and the situation is very unstable, it feels like that my brain/body is following some cycles. For 2 months i can be impotent, then come back almost to normal, then back again to not being able to get hard and back and forth. Something is affecting my condition. Maybe there is some pattern, maybe herbs i was taking or even food. At the moment I still have ED and low libido. Its like some brain signal, that is responsible for sexual arousal is suppressed. I don’t have any morning wood for 8 months. And I don’t feel any chemistry when being with a girl as I felt it before. I experience only sexual problems and I dont have any other issues like most of accutane sufferers. Does PFS and PAS share the similar mechanisms ? I haven’t found any separate community of accutane sufferers. I guess I will follow now the researchers here, some of the studies sound quite promissing. Will continue exploring herbs and possible theories.

4 Likes
#2

Yes, they are both anti-androgens. This has already been discussed here:


Welcome to our community. You are in the right place here.

5 Likes
#3

Man… i really amazed from your story. We are so similar. But i just have low semen volume for 4 years due to 4 Accutane pills i took. I used the drug for two days. Its really weird that you have these symptoms from just one pill. Whereas other people use this drug for a year without a single side effect. There is something going on here that we have to solve…

1 Like
#4

Interesting thing, I’ ve read that post accutane people recovered after taking fin. I would give it a try when I will be completely hopeless.

you could read it here:

#5

I’d urge that you take extreme caution with this approach. The post title says “high risk” - it is extreme risk.

There is a small subset of patients hit by the lasting side effects of Accutane, Propecia, SSRIs, Lupron. If you’re here, on this forum, you are likely in the subset. You discovered this by using Accutane. Do you want to create fresh damage by using Propecia?

1 Like
#7

My hormones seems fine. Checked DHEA, Testosterone, Prolactin and Estradiol.
Only Estradiol is slightly above normal range. Could Estradiol alone be a reason for ED ? Although its not much elevated. I think I will try letrozole carefully.

#8

i don’t want to take your hope but estradiol alone is not something to give you ed. I had my estradiol as high as 60 before taking all this crap and I would masturbste 4 times a day with 100% erection

#9

Don’t try letrozol you will crash your e2 and create bigger problems. Wait and give time for your body to heal

1 Like
#10

Now I realize the two weeks that I took accutane also could have fucked me . I fucked myself in so many ways that’s insane. I was retarded. I wish I could go back in time…

1 Like
#11

I think if a normal healthy person do some blood tests they will get these slight abnormalities. It’s normal in my opinion. Our case is not related to blood hormone levels. Problem is elsewhere.

2 Likes
#12

I’m so pissed for what happened to you!

#13

if I won’t find a cure in about 3 years, there will be only one option for me to get out from this misery.I know that lots of people got much worse complications than mine, but loss of sexual drive and impotence is just killing my interest to life. Its not only about sex, but mostly it is about the energy that was making me alive.

3 Likes
#14

This is fucking me too. I am not as strong as you buddy.

#15

Do you have also fatigue and energy loss slick? I never got energy loss, but i do get sexual side effects. Many times in my life i felt very tired and unmotivated for the things i love. But they probably unrelated to the drug i used 4 years ago. Are you trying to say that your sexual side effects also affects your energy levels or do you imply that your ‘‘crash’’ also made you a tired and sleepy person?? (you woke up one morning with your tired ‘‘crash’’ body and sexual side effects? Or is it developed after the crash?)

note: What are you gonna do after 3 years? Proviron or steroids? I think the last option is some steroids or heavy things like that.

#16

i have energy to do things, but I lost motivation for everything. its like world becoming all grey but at the moments of recovery the colors are returning for a while. I think the total absence of libido is responsible for this, and of course the fact that I have ED affecting my confidence and i forced to shut my social life. But in general I don’t feel tired and sleepy after crashes. But probably have light apathy to everything.

I will probably try these heavy things at some point, but i was talking about suicide.

2 Likes
#17

Hi Slick1,

I recently got off accutane after 3.5 months of treatment, i developed ED and could not have an erection no matter how hard i try. My penis is always soft and i seem to lose the brain- dick connection. It is been 2 weeks since i took my last pill. I really hope it will come back to me cause i don’t want to be like this forever

2 Likes
#18

You probably read my story, but I will repeat some facts. I was soft for about 2-3 months. Occasionally I was able to get semi-hard penis from stimulation only. I had zero libido. And there was a moment when I lost all hope. But one day something clicked and I came back nearly to 100% (but with some lack of libido) for about 6 months until i crashed from something. Now I can’t tell exactly what helped me, because I was taking different supplements. First it was Tongkat Ali powder for 3 weeks.Then I finished taking Tongkat, because my under eyes became very purple/red from it. And I switched to DHEA and Tribulus . And at some point i went absolutely soft, not even 20% of erection. And as I said I rebounced to nearly 100% in one day. I think it was DHEA, but its hard to tell. I was also taking for a while korean ginseng but it is very estrogenic as far as studies shows. I suggest you to start doing some research. It’s good to have a rough idea of possible theories why it’s happening with us. Read this forum, read others people experience on different supplements and meds and check the safety profile of any substance you want to take.There is always some risk. Its also useful to research the official studies about working mechanism of meds/herbs and how it affect androgens and androgen receptors. From what I see many cases have proved that it’s POSSIBLE to improve or even to get back to normal. At the moment I have about 60% stable baseline. And be careful with anti-androgenic substances that inhibit 5AR reductase. people can get worse on them. very few can get better. It can be quite risky and generally there is no proof that it’s helping. It’s a russian roulette.

#19

Thanks so much for replying. I am getting semi-hard penis from stimulation only. I am starting to do more research on supplements.

#20

Hi there @accutanesufferer2019, if you can, start your own thread and write up your story, it’ll make it easier for people to find you.

I would personally suggest you do nothing and wait it out for a while before you start attempting to fix yourself, certainly not before you’ve worked out what kind of risks you might be looking at.

#21

Hi Greek, how long should i wait it out? It’s been 2.5 weeks already