Lost Sheep wrote:Thank you for inviting me to expand on my thoughts to you. You ask for help. Help is why I am still active on this site (both to receive and to give).
Libido and sexual sensations are different from general good sensations. But all three are related intimately (no pun intended).
Wonderful post lost sheep.
Your talent with words is impressive as are your diplomacy skills.
I can relate to what you have said so well. The sexual acts I now enjoy very much, were almost a turn off when I was much younger.
I had difficulty as a young man enjoying anal sex, mostly because of all the negative programming in my head about being attracted to other men.
So as you mention; my ability to find it a turn on was being blocked by my preconceived attitudes towards it.
When I found the right partner who was able to help me break down some these hang ups, I discovered a whole new world of sexual enjoyment. Later on I discovered the pleasure of sex with the opposite sex as well, which I had been very much not interested in as a young man. My attraction for men was and is stronger, but I learnt to open myself up to new things and how my body could feel sexual pleasure.
The mind is very powerful when it comes to our ability to feel pleasure. If someone is suffering from depression, this can greatly affect how we experience pleasure. What is depression? We don’t fully know. Some people seem to have a genetic predisposition to getting it, it can run in families, but could this also be partially a learned thing from our parents?
If some neural pathways in the brain become dominant due to frequency of use, we are more likely to use them, they in fact become stronger, so as time progresses it becomes more difficult to not use these “roads” in the brain. If we appear to be a negative person always seeing the world as a “glass half empty”, this highway of neural activity is most probably very strong in that individual. Trying to make a right turn onto another road far less traveled with less power gets overridden by the mainstream traffic.
I believe this can be changed or helped a great deal with cognitive therapy. However, It takes a lot of effort and time by the person doing it to create new strong connections in the brain. I think it helps if one can believe that you can make such changes to the way you think, this is very hard for some people stuck in that mindset.
Pharmaceutical intervention only helps to a point. Often it is just a band aid that mutes some of these dominant neural connections. If no effort is made to change these pathways and build new ones, the individual never gets better or sees much improvement in how they feel.
Some people can experience an event in their life which can propel them to change the way they perceive something in their mind. It literally forces them to open a new pathway which rapidly gains strength due to the shock of the event.
I have had such moments in my life and it is quite amazing when it happens. It is literally like someone just flipped a switch.
The above may or may not be relevant to the OP’s question. Sexual sensation is indeed a different thing but very related to libido as Lost sheep has eloquently described.
Libido for me is the urge you experience both in the mind and the feeling in the loins that seems to build up for sexual release. Whereas sexual sensations are the sexual feelings of pleasure experienced during actual masturbation or sexual activities with another person, which can be felt in many parts of the body if you are turned on enough. However, I feel these sensations are also part of libido as they are evident even before any sexual activity; the feeling of your penis swelling in your pants during the day when a sexual thought appears in your head as the urge or the drive of libido motivates you further. They are forever entwined with each other.
Hormones do play a big role in the above. If they are missing or insufficient libido and sexual sensation/function can be dysfunctional.
Testosterone does affect libido considerably and erectile function, however, indirectly. DHT also affects libido and the health of the erectile tissues.
The OP has mentioned he felt he may have a lower than normal T level. This could be part of his issues or it may not be. Multiple testing and seeing a doctor who specialises in TRT may be of help. Urologists IMO can be very old school when it comes to T replacement. See a doctor who truly understands this part of medicine. This is the tricky part, they are not easy to find.
Perhaps he has thyroid issues or prolactin is too high? There are many possibilities for the symptoms he describes.
Sexual sensation can decline for so many reasons. All we can do on this forum is relay our own experience and story.
I was also beginning to experience a loss of sexual sensation. One day it would be there the next not so much, then another hardly at all. Since I have been taking Tadalafil chronically, that is every day in a low dose for about 15 months now, I have noticed the sexual sensitivity in my penis is much more consistent, quite remarkably so. I have changed nothing else in my routine. I could begin to speculate many reasons for this. The main ones I will mention is the consistent enhancement of the NO pathway and the consistent enhancement of nocturnal erections. Over time, some form of regeneration of particular tissues may have evolved.
It is also possible that the combination of testosterone and Tadalafil is having a synergistic effect. Both used in this manner have rejuvenation actions in the penis.
This is long term therapy, not an overnight solution. There will be no overnight solutions anyway. Perhaps the OP could discuss this therapy with a doctor who understands this new way of using PDE5 inhibitors.
Another interesting thing I have noticed: When I was a younger man in my 30’s and I tried Viagra and Cialis for on demand use, I noticed that sexual sensation was reduced when using these drugs. I was using them in a higher dose. Quite the opposite now with above protocol.
The more I research about PDE5 inhibitors, the more I realise how interesting these drugs are. They are currently being investigated with possible use in Dementia and Alzheimer’s, due to their effect with negating oxidative stress in various tissues and ability to restore the function in the endothelium and increase in NO synthase. The improvement in blood flow in the Brain could be of great interest if started early enough.
I have also noticed a mood elevating or almost antidepressant effect from the consistent use of Tadalafil as well. It definitely has effects on the brain.
Food for thought!
