Hello guys. This is my first post ever and this is an urgent matter regarding my sexual health.
I started this “no masturbation til I get laid” challenge back in mid September. It was not for 2 months til I ejaculated through sexual activities. I’ve been feeling strange ever since that encounter because I wasn’t as sexually excited as I shouldve been. I’ve been reading all over the Internet and a lot of people who have done this “no masturbation” challenge lost their sex drive as well the same way.
Now even when I watch sexually arousing materials I don’t even have an interest in it. Even if Ms.Universe stood in front of me I wouldnt be sexually excited. Im only 18, and before I started this challenge I would even consider with sleeping with some ugly chicks.
My sex drive was that high, now it is reduced to nothing. I rarely have the urge to masturbate now and I havent started regularly ejaculating til about 2 weeks ago again.
People’s have been suggesting that because I did that challenge, my dopamine level has been down regulated, raised my prolactin level, and messed up my testosterone and estrogen balance. I got a hormonal blood test done 2 weeks ago but it wasnt the whole hormonal profile, here it is.
Testosterone = 32.8
Range : 8.4-28.8 nmol/L
Free testosterone = 936
Range : 170-630 pmol/L
Bioavailable testosterone = 21.9
Range : 4.7-15.0 nmol/L
Estradiol = 165*
Range : <150 pmol/L
I know the ranges differ for every test lab, but does my hormonal profile look a little bit out of whack here? Please advice!
The numbers in your bloodwork look strange. Did you do any of the serum tests that I outlined above? have you read the beginner stickies in this forum? Your estradiol number is high which could be the reason for your lack of libido. The ranges provided are strange, but your numbers seem fine given the ranges.
Are you using any type of TRT? Did you pull your own bloodwork? Are you in a doctor’s care?
E2=165 is a major problem. Are you taking any supplements? What OTC or Rx meds? Are you taking something to increase your T levels? Pro-hormones?
Your liver clears estrogens. Some drugs interfere with that. Labs for ALT, AST can indicate some liver problems.
Keeping your sexual focus is important. You were turning off your libido.
In the advice for new guys sticky, note issues for iodine, body temperature, iodized salt, sea salt, hypothyroidism and symptoms. Note that many of the symptoms of thyroid problems are the same as hypothyroidism.
Any extremes of diets?
Concerning your questions about fat in your diet on other forum(s): If you cholesterol is low, all of your steroid hormones can be reduced. But your T levels are high.
Do you take Vit-D3?
Get much sun exposure? [Vancouver?]
[quote]threepercenter wrote:
The numbers in your bloodwork look strange. Did you do any of the serum tests that I outlined above? have you read the beginner stickies in this forum? Your estradiol number is high which could be the reason for your lack of libido. The ranges provided are strange, but your numbers seem fine given the ranges.
Are you using any type of TRT? Did you pull your own bloodwork? Are you in a doctor’s care?[/quote]
I have never done any type of TRT, or any type of drug in that matter. Nothing. Don’t even drink or smoke weed or anything.
This was a bloodwork ordered by my doctor after I explained to him that I have zero sex drive.
And this is all the number that I have.
[quote]KSman wrote:
E2=165 is a major problem. Are you taking any supplements? What OTC or Rx meds? Are you taking something to increase your T levels? Pro-hormones?
Your liver clears estrogens. Some drugs interfere with that. Labs for ALT, AST can indicate some liver problems.
Keeping your sexual focus is important. You were turning off your libido.
In the advice for new guys sticky, note issues for iodine, body temperature, iodized salt, sea salt, hypothyroidism and symptoms. Note that many of the symptoms of thyroid problems are the same as hypothyroidism.
Any extremes of diets?
Concerning your questions about fat in your diet on other forum(s): If you cholesterol is low, all of your steroid hormones can be reduced. But your T levels are high.
Do you take Vit-D3?
Get much sun exposure? [Vancouver?][/quote]
No supplement. No drugs. No extreme of diets.
Ever since I lost my libido for the past 6 months I have barely been exercising, sleep a lot, don’t have much motivation in general.
There’s not a lot of sun recently.
[quote]KSman wrote:
E2=165 is a major problem. [/quote]
In conventional units it would be 44 pg/mL which seems high, but according to the better TRT doctors most estradiol tests of most labs are very unreliable and inaccurate when applied to men, so I am not sure just how much weight one should really give to this, especially given that all the other numbers are also above range. Most likely this whole set of tests were done with a calibration error if you ask me.
I think you are knocking on the wrong door worrying about hormones. Your hormones are fine and stop worrying about it.
It is probably in your mind. Most likely during those two months when you mentally suppressed your libido it simply became a learned habit that will take some time to unlearn, but for that unlearning to happen you have to stop obsessing about it.
E2 labs do what they need to do. You get a number. If E2 needs to be reduced, you take an AI and then E2 is lower on the next labs and you refine the dose to achieve the desired E2 target. There can be problems if the wrong E2 lab is ordered. Sounds like your TRT info ‘sources’ are idiots.
If you get E2 in the lower 20’s you will do a lot better. Probably will need to do that on your own. Do not expect that you will get a doc to do what is needed.
Your problem is probably not hormonal. I did something similar to what you did I might be fucked up forever.
I understand your problem but for having been there since a long time there is no magical solution. Doctor will not do anything about your hormones and psychologist will tell you that you are depressed (even if you are not). No one knows anything.
[quote]KSman wrote:
E2 labs do what they need to do. You get a number. If E2 needs to be reduced, you take an AI and then E2 is lower on the next labs and you refine the dose to achieve the desired E2 target. There can be problems if the wrong E2 lab is ordered. Sounds like your TRT info ‘sources’ are idiots.[/quote]
Dr. John Crisler is the source on the unreliability of most E2 tests and he is well regarded.
[quote]KSman wrote:
E2 labs do what they need to do. You get a number. If E2 needs to be reduced, you take an AI and then E2 is lower on the next labs and you refine the dose to achieve the desired E2 target. There can be problems if the wrong E2 lab is ordered. Sounds like your TRT info ‘sources’ are idiots.[/quote]
Here is a quote from Dr. Mariano, who is also well regarded in the TRT community, on the issue:
“Different tests for estrogen will give you different levels of estradiol. The different protocols involved simply give different numbers. If a person is obsessive-compulsive or rule-bound, all of the different results would drive that person nuts. Given this scenario, one has to CHOOSE ONE of the tests and base their clinical decisions on the observations and experience with that one test. It is oneâ??s experience and observations, then, that would help determine the interpretation.”
In other words, what he is saying you cannot say E2=24 is ideal, because another lab’s E2 test ON THE SAME SAMPLE might give you, say, E2=30. In any case, he has also been on record as saying that different people will all have their own optimal E2, so there is no one optimal for everyone, even if they all use the same test.
This seems, to me at least, this might be psychological.
I would try masturbating to completion as much as possible for at least a week, even when you don’t want to.
I’d also try consistently training and eating well again.
If after a few weeks you still don’t feel right, then you should look in to medicine.
Until then though, you’re probably just freaking yourself out over something that a good lifestyle change can remedy.
Again, just personal opinion, having been in similar slumps as this, I though I’d chime in, but it is your body and only you know best.
"Not every man requires treatment with Arimidex to control estrogen. Very few of the men I treat require it, even with estradiol levels in the high 30s. Some need it since the higher estradiol levels may cause downstream problems resulting in anxiety - for example, by reducing free thyroid hormone or increasing immune system inflammatory signaling or by direct estrogen nervous system effects on behavior. Some men feel worse when Arimidex is added to control estradiol production. Arimidex may cause other changes in ilntercellular signaling other than just blocking Aromatase enzyme which may be poorly studied, causing adverse effects aside from those obtained from blocking Aromatase.
We know what works well for most. Ones response always needs to be regarded. If you feel better, that is all that you need to know in your sample of one, because it applies to you.
Yes, you can’t be changing lab sources all of the time. That is not specific to E2. Yes, you need to know which of a company’s labs to order [or you are an idiot].
Other than been contrarian today, what are you really trying to say? That E2 levels should not be checked and AI never used?
This is hijacking this thread. If you think that this is important, please get this out of this thread where is is buried and unseen by most and create a new thread.
For the OP, your testosterone is 928 ng/dL and your estradiol is 44 pg/mL in SI units. The ratio between the two numbers is 21 to 1.
According to Dr. Mariano, that is a good ratio all else being equal, while acknowledging that everybody is different. Here is what Dr. Mariano has to say about this:
Please read it. I’m seeing a lot of guys that just got well when they started to look into their adrenal gland. Called adrenal fatigue search it! You need to do Cortisol SALIVA TEST 4 times a day or at least 3 in the same day.
I will post two guys who took licorice root and got well. You may want to look into hydrocortisone. If you live in the US you’re a lucky guy that can buy Cortef. In UK and in Brazil we don’t have this medication.
