veganism ruined my life!

[NumbNoodle]

Hello,

i am 27 years old, live in germany and becoming impotent is my own fault!

In the summer of 2017 i watched a film on netflix about veganism which i found really convincing.
I instantly changed my diet, cut out on meat, dairy and eggs i felt better and lost about 18 kg of bodyfat.
I ordered some B12 from amazon thinking this is sufficient supplementing.
felt great for the first two and a half years but then i started to feel sicker and sicker. I went to my family physician a few times because of my symptoms but she thought it is just psychological and i should go home because my bloodwork looks good. a few weeks later i called the physician again claiming my symptoms getting worse so got a new bloodwork.
What was the result of the bloodwork?: severe iodine deficiency!

but it was already too late, my penis is numb and erections are nearly impossible - nerve damage. (iodine deficiency can cause nerve damage)

I visited two urologists both stating that you can't become impotent by diet so it must be psycological.

The first one didn't even want to prescribe pills because i can't say that i have erectile dysfunction because i don't have a partner. His argument was that masturbating doesn't have the same stimulation as having sex. It took about a half a year to get a prescription for ed medication.

if you ask, why i didn't break up: i was stupidly convinced to this, which i strongly regret.
About 9 months passed by, i recovered nearly nothing of my old erectily function, penis is still numb. Hormones are all ok now.

I take 5mg of tadalafil daily and 100mg of sildenafil if needed. But i have to say, those pills are not satisfying. To archive an erection i have to be very relaxed and stimulate my penis for a few minutes. No spontaneous erections, no hard nocturnal erections, no spontanity.

The ed is not the only damage i did to my nervous system. I have sleep disorders now, i sleep about 3 hours a night. my memory and my ability to concentrate are impaired, my sphincter is weakened.

i am now back to a normal diet, gained back my 18 kg, ruined my life, absolute worth it for the experience (irony)

[thereishope]

Dude.... get real about yourself. Veganism won't make you impotent. Correlation does not mean causation, and after years reading stuff about ED i never read anything about it. I've read the AUA/EUA websites on urology guidelines and ED. Most prominent doctors websites and their youtube channels and even books about ED.

To say i know everything? it would be stupid of me. to say your diet did not cause you ED? it's super reasonable. you should definitely pursue further diagnostics and tests with andrologists to find out how do you have ED. But don't blame your diet. LOL

[NumbNoodle]

from the research i made, an iodine deficiency can cause hypothyroidism which can cause neuropathy.
after i got the diagnosis i looked at all my foods and calculated all of my nutrient intakes. Non of my salted foods contained iodized salt.

My daily iodine intake was about 40µg per day which is dangerously low. at the last days before diagnosis i had the sick feeling that i can drop dead every second.
This sick feeling disappeared after taking iodine supplements. Also the the insomnia improved from sleeping not at all to 3 hours.

what you also don't consider is that germany is an area with a really (REALLY) low iodine concentration in the soil. More than 100 years ago a lot of people suffered and died from cretinism in germany. These days they put iodine into the animal feed so everyone who drinks at leat one glas of milks gets enough iodine. The use of iodized salt decreased a lot during the last years. I found out all these facts after i got the diagnosis.

[Simbarn]

Dude.... get real about yourself. Veganism won't make you impotent. Correlation does not mean causation, and after years reading stuff about ED i never read anything about it. I've read the AUA/EUA websites on urology guidelines and ED. Most prominent doctors websites and their youtube channels and even books about ED.

To say i know everything? it would be stupid of me. to say your diet did not cause you ED? it's super reasonable. you should definitely pursue further diagnostics and tests with andrologists to find out how do you have ED. But don't blame your diet. LOL

I disagree with you thereishope. Diet is probably one of the most important facets related to our good health and proper functioning alongside lifestyle and genetics. Many of the gentlemen on this forum are suffering with ED as a consequence of diet and lifestyle. Genetics also play an important role. I suggest you do some reading on oxidative stress and diabetes. Dramatically and suddenly changing your nutrient intake with a diet change like veganism can cause problems.
Iodine deficiency is a very real thing thing. In my country our soil is also iodine deficient. It was added to salt and used in the cleaning of equipment used for milking cows at one stage to ensure the population had sufficient iodine, as at the time most of the population consumed one or the other or both. Since then diets have changed and this deficiency has started to become an issue again.
Iodine deficiency can cause sexual dysfunctions.

[miserable]

I don't think veggies are the cause.. let's say you are a non-veganism, and you consume too much meat, then one day you probably gonna suffer from some sort of disease like diarrhea... the same with veggies, maybe u only ate a certain amount of it? While u should eat it variously, make a clear search about what to eat, how to make sure your portions have enough vitamins and minerals...that your body actually needs.

[Lost Sheep]

I don't think veggies are the cause.. let's say you are a non-veganism, and you consume too much meat, then one day you probably gonna suffer from some sort of disease like diarrhea... the same with veggies, maybe u only ate a certain amount of it? While u should eat it variously, make a clear search about what to eat, how to make sure your portions have enough vitamins and minerals...that your body actually needs.

You hit the nail on the head (but I suspect, not recognizing it). The OP's diet of veggies was not really the cause, it was the veggies lack of particular nutrients that he identified as the cause.

So, his (defective perhaps?) vegetarianism caused a deficiency in nutrients that caused his ED.

Or, did I miss your point and misunderstand your post?

[NumbNoodle]

There is not one single vegetable, fruit, grain or what ever that has enough iodine. Only iodined salt and food from animal sources have enough iodine.

[alfa88]

Seaweed has a considerable amount of iodine It's available as a seasoning or slightly flavored with soy sauce. It's called Nori.
There's a recipe out there for vegan scallop and Nori is the magic ingredient.

[NumbNoodle]

A little update.
2 years after I got ED from nerve damage from nutrient deficiency from vegan diet:

i have absolutely zero healing progress. Pills work unreliably. Public health insurance doesn't cover implant treatment.
a few month ago i started distance learning to archieve a higher degree. After graduation I will have a better income (hopefully). In 3 to 4 years I will be able to pay the surgery out of my own pocket and have a normal life again. I don't want to live with this for the rest of my life, I want this fixed as early as possible.

I realized that crying doesn't get me further, I have to work hard to get me out of this situation.

[Txagq8]

To the original poster who went vegan and had nutritional imbalances cause nerve problems:

Don’t give up. Yes, keep working on your degree. Yes, keep the goal of making more $$$ in a future career that will enable you to get implant surgery etc etc.

Those are all great goals regardless. But don’t give up on your body’s ability to repair itself. Given time, the body is really amazing at that sort of thing.

I have twins born at 26 weeks. Immediately after birth they both had severe cerebral hemorrhages, wiped out the part that controls motor skills. The nervous system found new pathways and even though they were delayed they eventually crawled, walked, ran, even danced (daughter went to college on dance team scholarship).

That’s one of the reason venous leakage has been so impossible to fix via vascular surgery. Yea, you can rip out the veins causing the leakage. Tie those suckers off. But the body will find new ones and restore itself to its original state of equilibrium.

People who lose a sense, be it eyesight, hearing….almost universally report a profound increase in the intensity of their other senses.

So……keep doing what you’re doing. I don’t guess I need to emphasize you ought to eat as good a balanced diet as you can, get plenty of exercise and rest, have some fun. Give your body the best possible life you can in the interim and allow it a chance to repair the damage done by a lack of nutrients.

It might not be quick. It might not happen at all. But most of the time, given the opportunity, the body will find a way to fix a lot of insult. That’s especially true with nerves and vascular system. Not so much when it comes to growing a spare limb.