We often see someone complaining about some form of sexual dysfunction, whether it be low libido, ED, or anything else under the sun. The typical advice given is to take a look at E2, lower the dose of that drug, look at your prolactin levels, maybe it’s all in your head, don’t watch porn, etc.
We do the same drugs, and just ONE day our libidos go to shit. We start thinking maybe our E2 got out of range, so we adjust that. The problem only gets worst for some people. Now they are stuck in a loop of fixating on a perfect e2 number. Or it might be in their head their told? Things start getting confusing.
Or maybe, things are just thickening up in your blood.
The drugs we inject our selves with have a SEVERE impact on our blood, usually after a while of injecting our selves side effects start showing. But what if these side effects such as poor libido are a direct result of things that are mostly overlooked when looking at someone’s blood work when figuring out why someone is suffering from ED?
This study shows a direct relationship between high hemaglobin and erectile dysfunction. Matterfact, more than 50% of the participants had erectile issues who were suffering from high hemaglobin and high cholestrol VERSUS the 18% who were diagnosed with low testosterone.
This could also potentially explain why some people get a better libido / erections when crusing as opposed to blasting. Blood flows easier maybe?
Would love to hear some opinions from people with more knowledge and experience on this, guys.
These tests and their normal values included serum testosterone (280 ng./dl. or greater)
280 is a very low number to conclude somebody has low T. Symptoms may arise earlier which would lead to more than the stated 18.7 % with low T which can lead to low libido and ED.
The cholesterol thing.
Undiagnosed or poorly controlled diabetes mellitus, defined by an increased hemoglobin AIc, was identified in 53% of 1,739 men, while hypercholesterolemia was identified in 48% of 3,014 men.
This doesn’t indicate only what you think. They state that these men have chronically elevated blood glucose (HBA1c) AND high cholesterol values, which points to obesity and am unhealthy life style. It points to type 2 diabetes. What is the number 1 problem with type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol? Aha. Fucked up blood vessels. Clogged blood vessels. Stiff blood vessels. What doesn’t get stiff then? Your friend down there which you can’t remember seeing the last time.
So, short term cholesterol rises as seen in AAS users are generally not the problem. It’s high cholesterol over a long period of time.
The erythrocytes thing.
Anemia was detected in 26.5% of 3,420 men, while increased creatinine was detected in 11.9% of 3,423 men
These are in direct contradiction. I know why you got confused. Hemoglobin A 1c is a measurement of blood glucose not blood thickness. The researchers actually state that 26.5% had LOW hemoglobin. But, often not in isolation. The researchers linked this to high creatinine which is an indicator of kidney disease which is a consequence of high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes. Both damage blood vessels big time. Also, multi-morbidity very likely,
So yes, the cardiovascular system plays a major role in the average ED patient, but did you look at the average patient? In this study he’s over 60 years old, not some dumb cunt messing with roids in his 20s to look good. We are not the standard ED patient and therefore these things often don’t apply to us the same.
Tried to make this entertaining as long rants without some swearing seem to get lost in translation.
For AAS users abusing substances long term (I myself abused tren ace for 6 months at high doses along with test), wouldn’t that possibly clog up the vessels as well resulting in worse erection health? I will provide a sample example of my blood test from about 2 months after stopping tren ace (keep in mind i was still on 400mg test c twice a week and 0.5mg adex at the time of injections at this point):
Yes, if you are an AAS abuser, taking continuously high doses and especially the ones that kill HDL and raise LDL, then you are at risk of damaging your CV system and inducing cardiomyopathy, high blood pressure, ED, stroke,…
6 months of use is not enough (usually) to not recover from CV wise, if you are going natty or low dose TRT afterwards.
Yes your red blood cells are more than they normally are, but isolated that shouldn’t be a problem. Also; after stopping this reverses.
I can’t see your HDL and LDL here. Tren is known to trash lipids for some, so I guess you walked around with shitty lipids for 6-8 months. Maybe the Testosterone time too.
Not much has changed from back then looking at the blood work, if anything a bit worst
ED is also still persisting even though my libido is very well in place. It seems as if even with the help of high dose cialis I cannot stay fully erect.
This is kind of universal amongst all AAS. Even absent of significantly skewed HDL/LDL ratios oxidative stress/systemic inflammation, elevated hs-crp + homocysteine, (various) cytokine release will play a role regarding plaque formation, arterial stiffening etc.
Some drugs are harsher than others. Primobolan probably isn’t going to kill you as fast as nandrolone, or perhaps even high dose testosterone would.
Yes, didn’t mean to diminish the other toxic effects. My assessment was about bad cholesterol over long periods of time and the possible consequences thereof in isolation. Thanks for the addendum.
I read your study and another one, there aren’t that many on this subject. Important points:
“However, in recent studies, high RDW has been found to be strongly associated with atherosclerosis, ischaemic heart disease, acute and chronic heart failure, hypertension, inflammatory bowel disease and some cancers”
Which means that likely people with ED and high RDW (12% of ED patients) have some co-morbidity.
“ That a strong correlation exists between erectile dysfunction (ED) and coronary artery disease has been widely discussed, with endothelial dysfunction and vascular ageing being described as the underlying pathophysiology (Gandaglia et al., 2013; Gazzaruso, Coppola, & Giustina, 2011). RDW, one of the biomarkers used to measure vascular ageing, is known to correspond with cardiovascular diseases (Balistreri et al., 2019). As coronary artery disease and ED are both caused by the same shared pathophysiology, it was hypothesised that it might be possible to utilise RDW as a parameter in predicting and evaluating ED.”
The idea was that RDW is a measurement of vascular tightening (CAD) and therefore can be used to evaluate ED which is caused by CAD.
„Multivariate analyses showed that only the patients’ BMI, FBS, TG, LDL‐C, HDL‐C levels, TG/ HDL‐C ratio and RDW levels’ relationship with ED were statistically significant.“
BMI, Cholesterol, triglycerides were other factors which did coincide with ED.
The data they collected showed a few interesting things. Testosterone was lower in ED group, LH was higher. FSH was lower. Makes sense.
Fasting glucose was higher and all metabolic values. Now leading to the next point.
Inflammation.
It is believed that chronic inflammation, endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress all con‐ tribute to the development and progression of ED, reducing the number of red blood cells, thereby causing an increased eryth‐ ropoietin production and leading to an increase in RDW. A study conducted by Förhecz et al. demonstrated that in patients suffering from heart failure, high RDW levels correlate with the elevation of CRP, erythropoietin, interleukin‐6, tumour necrosis factor (TNF) alpha and beta, and TNF receptors levels. This study, therefore, confirmed the association of RDW with chronic inflammation (Förhécz et al., 2009). Metabolic diseases cause chronic low‐grade inflammation, a well‐known risk factor for sexual dysfunction in both sexes. In a study carried out by Arana Rosainz Mde et al. with patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and nonsymptomatic coronary artery disease, ED was found to be concurrent to systemic endothelial dysfunction and a low‐grade inflammatory response (Araña Rosaínz Mde et al., 2011). RDW, which is associated with inflammation, was found to be higher in patients with ED compared with patients in the control group.”
In conclusion, it seems to be that not high RDW is the problem or the cause but rather a symptom often coinciding with ED. High RDW is a sign of systemic inflammation.
Keep in mind that ED in obese, metabolically fucked people is completely different than ED in non-metabolically compromised people.
Example: 60 year old guy with ED, fit healthy. Testosterone is low. Gets on TRT, sexual function improves.
Another 60 years old guy, weighs 280 lbs on 5’10. LDL is elevated since he was 40 yo. He gets on TRT nothing changes, he takes cialis, only slight improvement. Why? His blood vessels are clogged and dilation mechanisms don’t work because his NO producing neurons are dead too.
The second guy probably has high RDW, the first one probably not.
But here you are with high RDW. What to do about it?
First, don’t stress about it. Maybe you were stressed, maybe your body took a hit. Maybe you had a cold?
Second, high RDW is only a symptom of something going on, not a problem for your dick without other confounding factors (in the context of these studies: metabolic disease).
Third, try living healthier. Stressed out? Get you life under control. Worrying about your health too much? Try shutting it out and don’t allow yourself to google every day. Eating shit? Eat greens, preferably organic, stave off the fast food. You overtrain? Train less. You only sit on the couch? Move more, train more. Sleep 8 hours every night.
Then if you got these, you’re 90% good. If you want to get an extra boost, look up which herbs or plants can help with inflammation. Fish oil and other stuff comes to mind.
