Hey guys,
I've suffered for a number of years with what I originally suspected was PIED. Easily able to MO to porn but struggled to get aroused to the real thing, watching increasingly more violent/niche porn, needing physical stimulation to sustain erection, etc.
Turns out it was just garden variety hypogonadism.
My doc had diagnosed me with depression which I didn't believe, but he said you 'don't need a reason to be depressed.' I only considered low T to be a possibility when I was researching other symptoms which I thought were unrelated. I've been on TRT for a few months now and my sex drive is through the roof. Interestingly, I find normal porn arousing now and am slightly repulsed by most of the harder stuff I used to watch - I now wonder if it was just a 'novelty' to give new stimulation and shock a tired old libido.
One of the things that spurred me to post this was reading the quotes on some of the sites such as yourbrainonporn and yourbrainrebalanced. Examples below:
"Men posting on forums usually say something like, "All my lab tests came back normal, including T levels."
"Low testosterone is rarely involved in youthful ED."
And another which I read but couldn't find again (so have paraphrased): "Many men with porn induced ED exhibit lowish testosterone levels but are still within the normal range when tested by their doctor."
What I want to emphasise here is that most doctors are NOT experts in hormonal issues and are in fact clueless in many cases. Even many (perhaps most) endocrinolists are extremely archaic in their views. Here in the UK, the scale used is calculated across all ages, so it is possible to be at the very bottom end of the scale and yet be told your levels are 'in the normal range.'
I was told confidently by my doctor that my levels were fine, yet at the age of 35 my levels were a shade lower than the average adult in the 85-100 age group. Part of the problem is that the NHS ignores the guidelines recommended by the International Society of Sexual Medicine which recommends that 'borderline' cases be investigated for treatment if symptoms are present and especially if the patient is young - remember, this is borderline across all ages and not just for your young age group.
I must emphasise that I'm not trying to dispute the concept of PIED. However, there are many 'been rebooting for two years with no results' threads around and I just want people to be aware that there may be other possibilities. I also dispute that low T is not commonly a cause of youthful ED, unless we are talking solely about erection impotency. It seems that many people here have no problem getting an erection to extremely stimulating porn but are not sufficiently aroused by tactile physical sexual stimulation. Perhaps this is a little like somebody who has fried their tastebuds and can only taste extremely strong flavours and doesn't react to more subtle nuances anymore. If your problem is getting aroused (like mine was) then you may genuinely benefit from raising T levels and effectively 'rebooting' your natural sex drive.
I could be totally wrong, but it worked for me and if this helps just one person resolve their issues then it won't have been a waste of my time. The first three testosterone studies cited which I read on here were from 1980, 1974 and 1979. This is a long time ago and even now it is a grey area. The specialist I saw is at the top of his game. He has run a sexual dysfunction clinic for 25 years and helped write the UK guidelines for diabetes. Furthermore, there are dozens upon dozens of accounts online from people who were successfully treated by him after years of chasing their tails and being put on anti depressants which only serve to worsen one's libido.
Just some food for thought...
I've suffered for a number of years with what I originally suspected was PIED. Easily able to MO to porn but struggled to get aroused to the real thing, watching increasingly more violent/niche porn, needing physical stimulation to sustain erection, etc.
Turns out it was just garden variety hypogonadism.
My doc had diagnosed me with depression which I didn't believe, but he said you 'don't need a reason to be depressed.' I only considered low T to be a possibility when I was researching other symptoms which I thought were unrelated. I've been on TRT for a few months now and my sex drive is through the roof. Interestingly, I find normal porn arousing now and am slightly repulsed by most of the harder stuff I used to watch - I now wonder if it was just a 'novelty' to give new stimulation and shock a tired old libido.
One of the things that spurred me to post this was reading the quotes on some of the sites such as yourbrainonporn and yourbrainrebalanced. Examples below:
"Men posting on forums usually say something like, "All my lab tests came back normal, including T levels."
"Low testosterone is rarely involved in youthful ED."
And another which I read but couldn't find again (so have paraphrased): "Many men with porn induced ED exhibit lowish testosterone levels but are still within the normal range when tested by their doctor."
What I want to emphasise here is that most doctors are NOT experts in hormonal issues and are in fact clueless in many cases. Even many (perhaps most) endocrinolists are extremely archaic in their views. Here in the UK, the scale used is calculated across all ages, so it is possible to be at the very bottom end of the scale and yet be told your levels are 'in the normal range.'
I was told confidently by my doctor that my levels were fine, yet at the age of 35 my levels were a shade lower than the average adult in the 85-100 age group. Part of the problem is that the NHS ignores the guidelines recommended by the International Society of Sexual Medicine which recommends that 'borderline' cases be investigated for treatment if symptoms are present and especially if the patient is young - remember, this is borderline across all ages and not just for your young age group.
I must emphasise that I'm not trying to dispute the concept of PIED. However, there are many 'been rebooting for two years with no results' threads around and I just want people to be aware that there may be other possibilities. I also dispute that low T is not commonly a cause of youthful ED, unless we are talking solely about erection impotency. It seems that many people here have no problem getting an erection to extremely stimulating porn but are not sufficiently aroused by tactile physical sexual stimulation. Perhaps this is a little like somebody who has fried their tastebuds and can only taste extremely strong flavours and doesn't react to more subtle nuances anymore. If your problem is getting aroused (like mine was) then you may genuinely benefit from raising T levels and effectively 'rebooting' your natural sex drive.
I could be totally wrong, but it worked for me and if this helps just one person resolve their issues then it won't have been a waste of my time. The first three testosterone studies cited which I read on here were from 1980, 1974 and 1979. This is a long time ago and even now it is a grey area. The specialist I saw is at the top of his game. He has run a sexual dysfunction clinic for 25 years and helped write the UK guidelines for diabetes. Furthermore, there are dozens upon dozens of accounts online from people who were successfully treated by him after years of chasing their tails and being put on anti depressants which only serve to worsen one's libido.
Just some food for thought...