After taking Zoloft and suffering from erectile issues, I began using my knowledge of hormones to figure out what was the cause of my issue. I can only speak from personal experience here and I really hope that I can help at least one person suffering from PSSD. The first thing that I have to say is that if you are dealing with PSSD, please go get your sex hormone binding globulin checked, as well as your free testosterone (if you are a man). Those two tests are how I figured out what caused my PSSD. You see, if SHBG is raised in the body, it will bind on to sex hormones and make them inert. So even if you did a total testosterone test and it came out normal, you could have very low levels of free (available for use) testosterone, which can cause a host of issues. I would also like to add that you need enough estrogen for erections too, and SHBG can lower free estrogen (estradiol) levels too much. Please go visit your doctor and requests those tests and report back with your results. If you can’t go through a doctor you can also use privatemdlabs.com to order those tests without having to go through your insurance or doctor. Please take a chance on this as I am honestly trying to help. If you come back with test results showing high SHBG and or low testosterone, message me and I will help. Thank you
Define fixed? What did you get better from specificity? Numbness, libido, weak erections?
I had no libido, my erections were weak and i couldn’t sustain them. I has numbness also. All of these things were alleviated
What exactly did you do?
Well what I did may not work for everyone and it is important to have blood work done to see what your particular issue is. Personally, my issue stemmed from high SHBG and low free testosterone (even though my total testosterone looked good). Essentially I took testosterone exogenously in order to first confirm my hypothesis. Luckily for me, the act of taking in testosterone not only increased my testosterone and estrogen levels, it also lowered my SHBG (many other steroids also do this). And I took hcg afterwards rather than taking a serm like clomid or nolvadex since they can also raise shbg
this is interesting. when I was on Effexor, I'm convinced it was lowering my testosterone. I have relatively recent test results, testosterone is normal but I didn't see anything on SHBG. thanks for this.
Did you check free testosterone or total? Yes SHBG is a good one to probably check but you can infer that it is high if you have a low free testosterone but good or decent levels of total testosterone.
shoot, I only have results for total testosterone.
Trust me, that won’t give you the full picture. I had high total testosterone and pretty low free testosterone. I will warn you that estradiol (an estrogen) is very important. The problem is that testing for estradiol is hit or miss, and once again it’s more important to know the free levels of estradiol, which are also affected by how high your SHBG is
I believe you, I'll try to get free test measured as well. thanks for your input, very interesting.
Yes please come back with the results and let me know :)
I have another question for you. I've tried two supplements that are supposed to boost test: horny goat weed, and magnesium (which is supposed to reduce SHBG). In both cases, I felt like they were doing the opposite- I keep a log of how I'm feeling every day, and in both experiments there was a significant drop after starting these substances: increased fatigue, more irritable, and lower sex drive. After stopping, I bounced back after a day or two.
Are you able to draw any inference from this? Thank you.
Honestly I would like to give you some clarity on this but I don’t know the answer. All I can say is that most supplements that are supposed to boost testosterone are doing so by lowering estrogen levels or lowering conversion of testosterone to estrogen in the body. In the case of someone with PSSD I think this would make the problem worse because you need estrogen and testosterone for sensation and libido.
Thanks for your insight, its quite interesting. The effect of these supplements was really profound. I stopped the magnesium, and I was also taking zinc but I stopped that as well. I feel cured, or at least, better than I ever have since the beginning of all of this.
Yes I think people underestimate some of these supplements! A lot of them can impact your body significantly. Another example is when I take ZMA (zinc, magnesium, & vitamin b6): it makes me irritable / angry! It sounds absurd but it’s true
Read my first reply: I also want to reiterate that this is why taking testosterone exogenously (such as injections) is the best way for PSSD because it will raise both testosterone and estrogen