Poor Penis Sensitivity - Extremely High SHBG - "Normal" E2 & Testosterone Levels

[Mark5]

Hello,
Would deeply appreciate any advice on where to go from here.

40 yr old slim/fit male, circumcised, don't drink or smoke. I've been haunted for most of my adult life by extremely poor penis sensitivity. It's to the point now where it's become difficult sometimes to even masturbate.

Getting erections isn't an issue. It's mainly a tactile lack of sensation thing that's increased with age. Somewhat also a lack of libido thing; though there have been times where I'm horny but still very lacking in sensation.

Every sexual experience I've had since my mid 20s has had experiences of being startled by feeling close to nothing from regular sex and blowjobs. Longest relationship I've had has been 2.5 months, partly because of this.

I've stopped masturbating for weeks and months long stretches to see if that cures it - and that definitely does help some - but even with that sensation is lacking to where it's difficult to have intercourse and stay erect.

Wasn't until recently that I connected dots thinking that something might be wrong hormonally causing my issue. Prior to this I just blamed circumcision and masturbating.

Just had test results come back:

SHBG: 69 / Normal Range: 10-50
Free Testosterone: 79 / Normal Range: 46-224
Bioavailable Testosterone: 169 / Normal Range:110 -575
Total Testosterone: 1060 / Normal Range: 250-1100
Estradiol: 33 / Normal Range <39
Prolactin: 10 / Normal Range: 2-18

As you can see my SHBG is extremely high, but unusually I don't have any corresponding abnormal levels of E2 or testosterone.

I also had my ferritin level tested, and my thyroid levels, because I've had for yrs really cold hands and feet. I thought maybe the penis sensation issue might be a related lack of circulation thing.

Ferritin: 35 / Normal Range: 38-380
Thyroid levels: all in the middle of normal ranges.

I'm higher on the blood sugar side, but not diabetic. I went to a neurologist in regards to random muscle spasms I've had over the last few years and also noted to them the lacking penis sensation. They couldn't diagnose anything wrong after putting me through an MRI.

Something else strange may be related hormonally. My whole adult life I've had a chest acne issue even with showering daily. No facial acne issue.

I'm brand new to this.

Any advice and guidance would be deeply appreciated!

Thank you

 

[Systemlord]

Ferritin: 35 / Normal Range: 38-380

Here’s your problem, you can have low normal ferritin and be devoid of iron in the bone marrow.

Iron testing isn’t accurate, which can change drastically after eating. Ferritin is the gold standard for iron status, second is iron saturation.

You can still have iron deficiency with normal hemoglobin.

I’ve been iron deficient (iron deficiency without anemia) multiple times, and each time I had cold hands, feet and poor penal sensitivity. I also had muscle pain, spasms and twitches as well.

Also, low vitamin D affected my penal sensitivity and low vitamin D can lead to iron deficiency.

 

[FunkOdyssey]

Here’s your problem, you can have low normal ferritin and be devoid of iron in the bone marrow.

I’ve been iron deficient multiple times, and each time I had cold hands and feet and poor penal sensitivity. I had muscle pain, spasms and twitches as well.

If he isn't on TRT and ferritin is that low he needs to find out why. Assuming he's not a vegan or on some crazy diet, there might be occult GI bleeding or something else going on.

 

[sammmy]

Tactile sensation is the feeling of touch. When you touch your penis with a nonsexual purpose, do you feel the touch at all? I am asking because the nerves responsible for the touch and the sexual pleasure response are not the same.

If you are not on TRT, try taking 0.25 - 1mg Anastrozole on days of sex - it is reported to boost the penis sexual sensitivity but the mechanism is not clarified (other aromataze inhibitors are not reported to have the same effect). Don't take more than 1mg Anastrozole per week, it will crash your estradiol and will make you feel bad. You can also try taking L-Histidine before sex.

Feeling cold hands and feet could be a sign of a vascular problem or it could be due to nervous damage of the sensory nerves if you hands and feet are not cold to touch but you feel them cold. Neurology is not that advanced - scans can detect only severe damage like Multiple Sclerosis.

Did they find the reason for your muscle spasms and did the spasms resolve? Have you checked for vitamin and mineral defficiencies - B12, magnesium....

 

[Mark5]

Here’s your problem, you can have low normal ferritin and be devoid of iron in the bone marrow.

Iron testing isn’t accurate, which can change drastically after eating. Ferritin is the gold standard for iron status, second is iron saturation.

You can still have iron deficiency with normal hemoglobin.

I’ve been iron deficient (iron deficiency without anemia) multiple times, and each time I had cold hands, feet and poor penal sensitivity. I also had muscle pain, spasms and twitches as well.

Also, low vitamin D affected my penal sensitivity as well.

Wow. Thank you for sharing such meaningful intelligent personal insight.

How have you changed your levels? Simple iron supplementation?

What kind of iron and D supplementation do you recommend?

It'd be LIFE CHANGING if I could solve the muscle spasm and penis sensitivity thing together. I can't put into words how challenging both of those things have made my life. Fear of homelessness has hung over me like a sword of damocles because of pain associated with hard to understand random muscle spasms causing me to struggle to remain stably employed. I've had a good 5 months of remaining stably employed now. I have a good dialed in daily exercise regimen helping with it, but I can still feel the spasms lurking if I push it sometimes. Causing me to not do physical things for long.

 

[Mark5]

If he isn't on TRT and ferritin is that low he needs to find out why. Assuming he's not a vegan or on some crazy diet, there might be occult GI bleeding or something else going on.

I'm not on TRT and am not a vegan, but I don't consume a lot of meat. The nature of your reply makes me want to set up a doctor's appointment to try to better figure this out.

You exhibit a lot of intelligence in this area with your reply so thank you for taking the time to comment.

 

[Systemlord]

Wow. Thank you for sharing such meaningful intelligent personal insight.

How have you changed your levels? Simple iron supplementation?

What kind of iron and D supplementation do you recommend?

You’re welcome,

I have to supplement iron on TRT, because TRT utilizes more iron and at the same time suppresses ferritin in some individuals.

I have a hypersensitivity to vitamin D, vitamin D levels 30> causes unbearable symptoms. I take 600 IU gummies daily. If I go outside in the sunlight, I have to take 400 UI that day, or later on in the day I experienced nausea.

With ferritin as low as it is, you need to get MCV, MCH and MCHC tested as well.

 

[Mark5]

Tactile sensation is the feeling of touch. When you touch your penis with a nonsexual purpose, do you feel the touch at all? I am asking because the nerves responsible for the touch and the sexual pleasure response are not the same.

If you are not on TRT, try taking 0.25 - 1mg Anastrozole on days of sex - it is reported to boost the penis sexual sensitivity but the mechanism is not clarified (other aromataze inhibitors are not reported to have the same effect). Don't take more than 1mg Anastrozole per week, it will crash your estradiol and will make you feel bad. You can also try taking L-Histidine before sex.

Feeling cold hands and feet could be a sign of a vascular problem or it could be due to nervous damage of the sensory nerves if you hands and feet are not cold to touch but you feel them cold. Neurology is not that advanced - scans can detect only severe damage like Multiple Sclerosis.

Did they find the reason for your muscle spasms and did the spasms resolve? Have you checked for vitamin and mineral defficiencies - B12, magnesium....

I do have normal non sexual non pleasure sensation - though that too feels reduced. The reduction I speak of is primarily reduction of pleasurable sexual sensation.

I haven't heard that about anastrozole, I will definitely look into this.

My muscle spasms:
They've resolved somewhat through exercise and restricting physical movement.

The way they present is a single twitch/spasm which will cause me to be in pain for like a week - or get exponentially worse with more twitches/spasm if I don't all of sudden severely restrict movement. To keep them at bay I've spent so much time developing a very dialed daily exercise habit and avoid a lot of physical stuff beyond that.

It's been debilitating. I feel a constant sword of damocles over my head because it's caused me to struggle to remain gainfully employed.

I've had a good 5 month stretch of remaining gainfully employed and not having much in the realm of chronic pain sideline me. Though I absolutely still feel the spasm stuff lurking if I push it too much. So it does restrict me. And a lot of looming worry for me is still presented because I can't do other forms of work if I lose the job I currently hold which is extremely low impact.

"Have you checked for vitamin and mineral defficiencies - B12, magnesium...."

I had B12 checked and it was normal.

No other vitamin or mineral tests though have been pursued. What do you suggest?
I've tried to supplement magnesium for the spasms, but didn't seem to notice any difference. Perhaps I didn't supplement long enough to see a change. How long do you think I should supplement and what form of magnesium do you think is best for me to see a change?

Such impressive comments! God damn, does everyone here have medical schooling on their resumé? So glad I posted here!

I've Googled so MANY things over the years trying to figure out how to recover from loss of penile sensation - AND THIS forum was one of the only lights out of this particular tunnel. I saw some guys talking about regaining sensitivity lost.

 

[Systemlord]

The way they present is a single twitch/spasm which will cause me to be in pain for like a week - or get exponentially worse with more twitches/spasm if I don't all of sudden severely restrict movement.

Are these muscle spasms and twitching most prominent in the legs?

 

[Mark5]

Are these muscle spasms and twitching most prominent in the legs?

The primary area these painful spasms happen are in the areas below each shoulder blade and also in the left and right middle of my back.

I sometimes have random non-painful twitches in my legs when laying down. It's very infrequent though.

 

[Mark5]

You’re welcome,

I have to supplement iron on TRT, because TRT utilizes more iron and at the same time suppresses ferritin in some individuals.

I have a hypersensitivity to vitamin D, vitamin D levels 30> causes unbearable symptoms. I take 600 IU gummies daily. If I go outside in the sunlight, I have to take 400 UI that day, or later on in the day I experienced nausea.

With ferritin as low as it is, you need to get MCV, MCH and MCHC tested as well.

Thank you for this suggestion of what steps to take next wth the MCV MCH & MCHC testing.

I started iron supplementing a few days ago.

 

[Systemlord]

I started iron supplementing a few days ago.

It will take up to 2-3 months to to get ferritin up. The goal for anyone iron deficient is to get ferritin 100> or until symptoms are completely gone.

Your best chance at a speedy recovery is choosing iron chelate or elemental iron. Ferrous sulfate iron isn’t always the best choice, due to some people not absorbing it very well.

 

[sammmy]

The only significant finding so far is the low ferritin so the origin of that must be investigated.
From your description, your muscle spasms seem to be triggered by physical work but are still unusual.
The loss of sexual penis sensitivity could be due to nerve damage or a vascular damage.
The non-painful twitches in your legs when you lie down might be vein twitching. I had those before, they felt like weird bubbles bursting gently in my legs when I lie down. Later I developed varicose veins, which are currently suppressed by not eating sugar (it triggers my immune system which attacks blood vessels) - a mystery that traditional medicine could not solve.

You should start with basic broad general health tests:
CBC with differential (covers MCV etc)
Comprehensive Metabolic Panel
Lipid Panel
vit A
vit C
vit D
Magnesium

 

[Mark5]

The only significant finding so far is the low ferritin so the origin of that must be investigated.
From your description, your muscle spasms seem to be triggered by physical work but are still unusual.
The loss of sexual penis sensitivity could be due to nerve damage or a vascular damage.
The non-painful twitches in your legs when you lie down might be vein twitching. I had those before, they felt like weird bubbles bursting gently in my legs when I lie down. Later I developed varicose veins, which are currently suppressed by not eating sugar (it triggers my immune system which attacks blood vessels) - a mystery that traditional medicine could not solve.

You should start with basic broad general health tests:
CBC with differential (covers MCV etc)
Comprehensive Metabolic Panel
Lipid Panel
vit A
vit C
vit D
Magnesium

Thank you for the suggestion of what to do next. I'm left wondering just that. I ordered the previous blood tests myself - so went outside of the framework of getting a doctor to guide me.

That route is much quicker, costs more, and doesn't put me in the spot of trying to tell a doctor how to do their job. But I'm left then (as I am now) wondering what to do next with this info.

I had previously went to a doctor and neurologist for spasm issues, but they didn't seek out blood tests on iron or magnesium, vitamins.

"The only significant finding so far is the low ferritin so the origin of that must be investigated."

You don't think the high SHGB of 69 when 10-50 is the normal range is something to be further investigated or is related?

 

[sammmy]

There is no indication so far that your lack of sexual penis sensitivity is hormonal: your free testosterone is low normal and it has to be much lower than that to cause sexual problems. Your high SHBG is of no consequence because your total testosterone is also high and compensates.

The tests that I suggested are cheap (one of them costs about $10 to the health insurance), basic, and routine and you should request them from your doctor. If you pay a health insurance every month, you are entitled to basic testing in the absence of diagnosis. You should advocate more for yourself and argue with doctors or what's the point of paying health insurance and paying a doctor for consultation if they don't give you basic testing and you have to pay everything out of pocket?

I regularly tell my doctors what tests I want. If that doesn't fly, then I go to another doctor or pay out of pocket. However, a doctor that refuses basic common sense testing will get fired immediately by me. Doctors are gatekeepers to testing and prescriptions and they are often more aligned with the interests of the health insurance i.e. to save money. Your interest is to improve your health which is something entirely different, so you will have to argue with them to get what you want.

 

[Mark5]

You’re welcome,

I have to supplement iron on TRT, because TRT utilizes more iron and at the same time suppresses ferritin in some individuals.

I have a hypersensitivity to vitamin D, vitamin D levels 30> causes unbearable symptoms. I take 600 IU gummies daily. If I go outside in the sunlight, I have to take 400 UI that day, or later on in the day I experienced nausea.

With ferritin as low as it is, you need to get MCV, MCH and MCHC tested as well.

I just revisited my healthcare provider's medical records online and it turns out I did have a comprehensive metabolic panel and CBC (which covered MCV, MCH, and MCHC) back in Feb. 2023.

Everything was within normal values:

MCV: 90 / Normal range: 78 - 100 fL​

MCH: 30.8 / Normal range: 26.5 - 33.0 pg​

MCHC: 34.4 / Normal range: 31.5 - 36.5 g/dL​

WBC Count: 5.6 / Normal range: 4.0 - 11.0 10e3/uL​

RBC Count: 5.36 / Normal range: 4.40 - 5.90 10e6/uL​

Hemoglobin: 16.5 / Normal range: 13.3 - 17.7 g/dL​

Hematocrit: 48 / Normal range: 40.0 - 53.0 %​

RDW: 12.8 / Normal range: 10.0 - 15.0 %​

Platelet Count: 291 / Normal range: 150 - 450 10e3/uL​

Sodium: 141 / Normal range: 136 - 145 mmol/L​

Potassium: 4.4 / Normal range: 3.4 - 5.3 mmol/L​

Chloride: 104 / Normal range: 98 - 107 mmol/L​

Carbon Dioxide: 25 (CO2) / Normal range: 22 - 29 mmol/L​

Anion Gap: 12 / Normal range: 7 - 15 mmol/L​

Urea Nitrogen: 8.6 / Normal range: 6.0 - 20.0 mg/dL​

Creatinine: 0.91 / Normal range: 0.67 - 1.17 mg/dL​

Calcium: 8.9/ Normal range: 8.6 - 10.0 mg/dL​

Glucose: 97 / Normal range: 70 - 99 mg/dL​

Alkaline Phosphatase: 53 / Normal range: 40 - 129 U/L​

AST: 26 / Normal range: 10 - 50 U/L​

ALT: 24 / Normal range: 10 - 50 U/L​

Protein Total: 6.8 / Normal range: 6.4 - 8.3 g/dL​

Albumin: 4.6 / Normal range: 3.5 - 5.2 g/dL​

Bilirubin Total: 0.9 / Normal range: below <=1.2 mg/dL​

GFR Estimate: >90 / Normal range: above >60 mL/min/1.73m2​

 

[sammmy]

The above are normal. Do you have Lymphocytes and Neutrophil counts?

The remaining are Lipid (cholesterol panel) and the vitamins and magnesium. Also, could test the C-reactive protein - shows the overall inflammation in the body.

 

[Mark5]

The above are normal. Do you have Lymphocytes and Neutrophil counts?

The remaining are Lipid (cholesterol panel) and the vitamins and magnesium. Also, could test the C-reactive protein - shows the overall inflammation in the body.

Thank you for your continued attention.

I don't have these other tests you mentioned. I'll look into getting those.

I'm particularly curious about the magnesium.

From mid 2021 to early 2023 I was having such a desperate time with chronic pain via spasm - I kept reading about magnesium deficiency causing spasms.

As a result: I'd try out various kinds of magnesium but only for a few days expecting to see some positive sign in that window of time. I realize now how naive that was. I just googled the matter and it seems changing magnesium levels can take many months.

Do you think magnesium deficiency could have a hand in loss of penile sensation?

 

[excelnelg]

Do you think magnesium deficiency could have a hand in loss of penile sensation?

Sometimes magnesium supplementation can contribute to a decrease in sensitivity because it has an analgesic quality. HCG helps some people (including myself when I used it) improve sensitivity and sometimes libido. Also, just as a word to the wise, no matter how smart people sound with their replies, take it all with a grain of salt. They may be onto something, they may not be, but you'll do yourself a disservice if you take the advice as anything other than a starting place for something to consider.

 

[sammmy]

Low magnesium could be related to the muscle spasms, not so much penis sensitivity. I in general prefer to test first before supplementing anything.