Hi,
I am hoping to get some insight about my DH. He is 34 and has had low libido for the longest time (several years) and rarely initiates. He also has low energy and despite being really great with a gym and heavy lifting routine the past 6 months, has seen minimal results.
He is overweight (technically obese but I really would not call him that from looking at him.) 6 feet and about 220 I think.
After urging him to get tested for low testosterone for the longest time, he finally did. His testosterone was low - around 300 if I recall. The urologist put him on Clomid - 50mg every other day. He was on this for about 3 months. Absolutely no change in low libido, exhaustion, physique, and grumpyness. However, two things did change from clomid: 1) his testosterone levels when tested actually went way up, to around 700 (sorry, I don’t remember the exact number).
Now he is having ED. It used to be that sex was very infrequent (once a month or less, he rarely initiated, did not seem to miss it or need it at all). However, before clomid, he never had ED problems – on the rare occassions we did have sex, he would have a hard erection with no problem.
However, since he started clomid, he’s now not able to get as hard as previously from the very beginning. So he will start off with a less than hard erection, and will often lose it mid-way through sex.
He went back to his urologist, who says that since his T levels are now normal, the ED problems and continued lack of libido are entirely psychological. I just can’t help but wonder if the clomid could be responsible, and if he should have taken T-replacement instead. The dr has now taken him off of clomid completely and told him to talk to a therapist.
Does anyone have any insight? I am so tired of living in a sexless marriage and miss connecting with my DH. It is making every other aspect of our marriage so stressful. What should we do?
TRT is a very delicate treatment for most, especially for me. Erectile dysfunction can happen for a number of reasons ranging from hormones, psychological issues, and physical incapability like from an injury.
Assuming his erectile is hormone related, testosterone alone might not be enough to restore erectile ability or even the medication being taken may resolve one form of erectile dysfunction and substitute it with another. For example, clomid may raise T levels to within functional range, the body may then be converting some of that testosterone into estradiol which can lead to erectile dysfunction in men and enlarged prostate.
If this is truly hormone inducing it may take more than just a bump in T levels to re balance the scales. He may need other hormones checked along side with this T such as LH, FSH, E2, Prolactin, and DHEA to name a few. Also some urologists believe that prolonged symptoms of erectile dysfunction can benefit from a small dose of cialis while on TRT to influence the body to get back into having normal erections and wean off in a few months.
Its nice to see you interested in your DH increase and libido and sex life, but any extra stress put on him from an increased pressure to have an erection may also induce an unwanted psychological issue as well.
After researching Clomiphene citrate I felt confident that it was the answer for my low 300s T scores as well. After my urologist denied he would do anything to help I found an endocrinologist. When I asked if I could start with a trial of Clomid his response was pretty much flat out no.
Even though the research and numbers show that it works to elevate T levels, he said it just has too many side effects. Having bad personal experience with medications in the past that look great in research I’m always sceptical of scholarly reports.
As was mentioned above, the higher T levels might be getting converted to E2 at a higher rate. Also, the more body fat, the more E2 conversion. Obesity seems to be a pretty high risk factor for low T and I’m shocked by the amount of body fat people are carrying.
Adding an aromatase inhibitor might work but I think I’ve read on this forum that guys have had bad experiences mixing a SERM(like Clomiphene) with an AI. hopefully someone with more info can weigh in.
Almost certainly E2 related. He needs to get E2 tested and address if in the 30s or higher. He should make sure he gets Free T tested as well.
LH, FSH, Testosterone, Free Testosterone, and Estradiol (E2) would be useful in determining next steps. Make sure it’s the Labcorp E2 test with a range of 7-42, or thereabouts.
As others have said, if he has high fat, he has more chance of having high aromatase activity. Clomid raises testosterone but this will inevitably get converted into estrogen. Clomid itself is an estrogen agonist/antagonist (depending where). Clomid is a great drug however it is usually only a portion of the solution.
[quote]redjr wrote:
I’ve been taking 25 MG daily for the past 3 months (or so), my reactions to this are similar, but different.
My erections haven’t gotten any worse or better, but my libido is completely gone. My GF initiates intercourse now instead of me.
Comid was something that I wanted to try, but am not willing to continue much longer without my libido back to normal.
[/quote]
have you checked E2 levels? I’m continually amazed when people write off SERMs (or any treatment) without doing proper blood work and addressing E2 issues if they exist.
Yes, but I don’t have an accurate number/result. They didn’t perform the correct test, all I have is <20, which could be 1 or 19, not much help. I have other results as well, but…
I’m gonna start my own thread, I’m not hijacking this one.
Hopefully your still checking back here… But clomid does the same thing to me…
Especially in higher dosages…
I am taking 25MG EOD and while my libido is better than when taking higher dosages its still not where it should be.