If I take my testosterone at 6 a.m., I don't feel it until 10 p.m. Not a now and then thing; it's consistent. Rare nocturnal erections and no morning wood. I've tried different injection times, such as noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 8 p.m. I suspect this is tied into bipolar illness and misaligned circadian rhythms. Currently 34 mg, IM, EOD, Test E. Perplexing and frustrating.
Libido/erectile function only in late evening
- Thread starter MIP1950
- Start date
Things like thyroid and cortisol did more for my dick than test ever did, being somewhat permissive to test. Have you tried small doses of Cialis? I’m assuming you have. I never really had problems with my dick before messing with thyroid hormones, but those do help me a lot with other things, so most of my protocol at this point has been trying to manage that over the past year.
Personally, I don’t really ‘feel’ anything from injecting test once you’re consistently on it, at least not acutely. I do with HCG but not test.
I'm self treating, currently, now up to 96 mcg T3 in the morning and 80 mcg T4 at night the latter to normalize sleep and slowly decrease Klonopin. The T3 is moderating my depression and my sleep quality has improved a bit with T4. I've been on and off T since 2013 and only in the past couple of months have I been having more libido and erectile function, only at night. It likely could be a result of using thyroid, which I started about 3 or 4 months ago. Also, after reading a post on Ray Peat Forum by a biochemist on the combination of pregnenolone and DHEA as an alternative to TRT/HRT, I've started 150 mg preg & 12.5 mg DHEA. My urologist suspects that my poor response to testosterone is likely due to dysfunction of the HPA axis.
Oral pregnenolone as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in humans
- Thread starterhaidut
- Start dateDec 22, 2020
- Tags growth hormone hgh hrt hypogonadism oral p5 pregnenolone steroidopenia
Regarding a PDE-5 inhibitor, experimented with Cialis and Vardanifil and all I got were headaches and other side effects. I'm going to take a break from test for a couple of months, then see my urologist for comprehensive labs.
Last edited:
Golfboy307
Active Member
Shows we are all different. My erectile function is great from 3am well into the morning. Drops off quite a bit after dinner until bedtime. I am on a stable TRT protocol and take 3mg Cialis every night along with other NO boosters. At age 54, guessing it has to do with fatigue, stress hormones etc. Good thing the wife enjoys morning sex.
Cool. In bipolar illness it seems to be accepted that the HPA axis malfunctions. Until I relapsed 18 years ago, my erections were solid, including random daytime erections. The irony is that from 1994 until 2005 I was on Cytomel, prescribed by my psychiatrist. Damn, I was horny all the time and I had erections to spare, LOL. After the relapse, Cytomel stopped working. My endocrinologist couldn't explain why and my psychiatrist was back in Baltimore working in public medicine. I was one of his few private patients. Something happened in my neuroendocrine system. I experienced trauma because I could no longer work. Too sick. So, I've spent 18 years consulting doctors, researching and experimenting on myself. I refuse to accept that I'll never sexually function again. I can't use arginine or citrulline. They make me manic.
I came into all this from PFS and have tended to have low cortisol, and I’m on 400mg of pregnenolone in the morning. That helped immensely across the board. I asked about Cialis because there’s a lot that can break about your dick. For me, and another poster here, thyroid meds (typically T3 / Liothyronine) make our dicks go numb when used in some contexts. If Cialis lets you boner then you know it’s more blood flow related, but if it doesn’t do anything, then the issue lies elsewhere. T4 before bed also helped me with a lot of things and is seemingly calming. T3 in the right contexts, like if I wake up at night, is also very calming.
When I came into all this my dick was fine, it was unbound thyroid meds, T3 in my case, that marked it breaking, but they help with other dire things, so I’m managing my dick around that at the moment.
When doctors, even good ones, don't know what to do, we have to become researchers and lab rats. I'm impressed by what you've figured out.
My libido starts to ramp up in the late afternoon/early evening and by 9 or 10 pm, I'm semi erect. Playing with it get its solid hard which leads me to think it's not blood flow related. When I masturbate, I have an intense orgasm. The 'why' of no nocturnal erections, morning wood and any daytime erections are works in progress. I believe, over time, I'll improve sexual function. Regarding T3; for me it's for depression/low energy. I have to use whatever I can tolerate to manage bipolar. It's a dangerous, destructive illness, as are Major Depressive Disorder and PTSD. In all of them, there is dysregulation/dysfunction of the HPA axis. Thyroid and/or neurosteroids have a place in their treatment/management.
Charliebizz
Well-Known Member
What were your thyroid numbers before you started treating ?
They varied but 3-3.2 for my free T3, TSH varied but was always in range usually on the lower end, don’t recall T4, RT3 was 25-26 and sometimes a little higher than the reference range but after seeing some people with crazy RT3’s over the years probably not all that high compared to them, just consistently on the top end of the reference range and a little over.
Highest I’ve had it after treating was 4.6-4.8 free T3 as I recall. My TSH never changes much with supplementation of any kind. If I take Ashwagandha with unbound thyroid meds like T4/Levothyroxine, my free T3 goes up a lot on blood tests, though my cortisol’s low so I overall do better without Ash. It’s more about what’s getting into the cells than floating in your blood so symptoms and how you feel and the rest of your blood work is usually a better way to judge things than your free T3 and T4 levels if you’re replacing thyroid I’ve found with unbound thyroid hormones since they don’t operate the same as bound ones. If you’re not replacing or are on NDT they’re a better gauge. NDT never broke my dick or had any affect there.
If libido is low, I would suggest considering some of the newer compounded testosterone creams to apply to your scrotum twice a day. These creams applied this means more testosterone gets converted into DHT which is 10 times more potent than T, and will help faster and effectively for symptoms of low T. When I started on HRT, libido was one of the first things I saw huge increases. I was 15 again, morning noon and night. I loved it, my wife not so much. Lol. But seriously, libido will improve, but know there is more to libido than just T. It is a complex brain chemistry.
Thank you. Perhaps, aside from the concentration of the cream I was prescribed a couple of times, I went by the standard prescribed dosing of once per day and the first time around, wasn't applying it to the scrotum or inner thighs. Also, there are men augmenting injections with T cream to increase DHT. I still have a few tubes. Nothing lost in trying twice daily application. If it works, I have something to discuss with my urologist.
How is your glycogen retention on that much T3?
My appetite isn't ravenous but I don't know if that alone is an accurate gauge of glycogen retention. I still have to take clonazepam at night to get 7 hours sleep and I hate that because it's a medication induced sleep. But with bipolar, I don't know anyone who isn't taking one or more meds for to stabilize them and bring about sleep. With all that said, perhaps there needs to be more food consumption, especially near bedtime, to ensure adequate glycogen to carry the person through the night. It's the one thing I don't do even though it might make a difference in the quality of my sleep.
Check this dr Paul Robinson from UK. Gentleman has mastered the art of T3 dosing throughout his 10 year struggle with hypothyroidism. He is strong advocate of T3 only. His book/protocol CT3M (circadian T3 method) is about dosing t3 in 3 to 4 doses (night dose fixing the circadian cortisol cycle) . It's mostly 50 mcg t3 spread throughout the day in small doses .
I definitely have very different reactions to T3 based on when I take it, and in what amount. Generally, little hits in the morning hours or right before waking are more towards stimulating, whereas in the evening it’s the opposite. Matching the daily rhythm of it mattered less than take more hits of it in the morning to afternoon rather than at night or just 1-2 doses of a higher amount.
Keep in mind if you’re a fit person that tries to exercise, T3 at times can work against that. Not to be rude to them, but a lot of the people advocating for using a bunch of T3 only are usually pretty skinny and weak from what I’ve seen. You can also reduce your need for T3 by eating less carbs and more fats, which for many hypothyroid patients even on medication find lowers their TSH because if you’re eating other things you simply don’t need as much T3. T3’s very catabolic. Even TRT levels of test aren’t going to be enough to counter that.
We’re all very different with this and everyone should approach any protocol with caution to see how they themselves do on it.
Keep in mind if you’re a fit person that tries to exercise, T3 at times can work against that. Not to be rude to them, but a lot of the people advocating for using a bunch of T3 only are usually pretty skinny and weak from what I’ve seen. You can also reduce your need for T3 by eating less carbs and more fats, which for many hypothyroid patients even on medication find lowers their TSH because if you’re eating other things you simply don’t need as much T3. T3’s very catabolic. Even TRT levels of test aren’t going to be enough to counter that.
We’re all very different with this and everyone should approach any protocol with caution to see how they themselves do on it.
This is interesting. Am I understanding this correctly -are you suggesting that thyroid meds could potentially have negative effect on erections due to change in hormones? I am on Levothyroxine and it seems like my issues began about the same time as I started. My TSH was around 4.2 before starting.
Also are you still on testosterone?
In my case thyroid meds have a direct impact on my erection quality, more than most things. For me I need a good base of T4 going and enough T3 to be well there. Just T3 and it’s not as great. Just T4 and at least the last time I tried it, it’s not even wood. Has to do with my ability to retain blood in the penis, which thyroid hormones do heavily control. Hell, just a few days ago I was on almost no T3 as T4 was ramping up and my dick was broke. T3 back and my dick’s back.
Yes, I’m still on test.
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