# Prednisone and Sexual Disfunction



## DarrylP_Ajax

I guess this is a question for the guys, have any of you experienced erectile dysfunction while tapering off prednisone? The first time i took Pred and taperd i had no problems, this time around things have been a little more difficult, only made it to 15mg before things flared back up, so it was apparent i had become steroid dependant this time around...i also got a pretty strong bought of depression this time around while tapering too, which i never got the first time, the depression is gone now though and i am back at 15mg and attempting to taper again. Anyways, for a 23 year old who has NEVER even come close to having any issues with the intimate side of life, its pretty frustrating right now having the erectile issues (i wont give explanation as i am pretty sure you can all figure it out). I guess personally i am looking for someone to say that they suffered from it too while tapering and that once the taper was done everything went back to normal, its really embarassing and depressing to have this issue at 23 when i am supposed to be an unstoppable force in bed, not an unstoppable laugh. I hate prednisone with a passion right now, i am just super lucky i have a gf who isnt superficial and understands what i am going through right now.


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## Lee1975

I cant say that I had that trouble when I was on prednisalone as sex was the last thing on my mind.  The trouble I had with prednisole was that I gained serious weight within a couple of months as thy'd forgotten that I was on a high dose .  I'd had a severe flareup and my weight went down to approx 120 lbs but balloned up to over 240 lbs in just a couple of months.

Glad you have a supportive gf and am sure that it will all sort itself out.  Especially if you say that it resulted in you having depression after taking them this time.


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## drew_wymore

Prednisone actually helped me but I had/have low testosterone levels to begin with. I understand about the embarrassment though. I finally talked to my doctor a couple years ago and here I was 26 at the time and it just felt so wrong having to ask for help. You'll get through it though for sure. If all else fails maybe check into getting some extra "help" from the doc while you taper.


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## DarrylP_Ajax

I actually got Testosterone tests done 2 weeks back because of the depression stuff, and the feeling extra fatigued, so i asked my doc to get the testosterone tests done to see if that was the cause, anyways, the reading for testosterone shoudl be between 0.5-5.0 (i forget the units, but this is the "normal" range given by the lab for an adult male) and my reading was 2.92 which i guess sits dead centre in that range, so if i sit in that range doesnt it mean i have "normal" amounts of testosterone for someone my age and sex? You would think that if my hormones were normal everything else would be too?


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## DarrylP_Ajax

On a side note, at the gym i havent been having too much problems with strength, i definitly havent gone down in size or strength since going on another run of prednisone...havent really gotten much bigger either, as expected until i get on a lower dose of the steroids, but i havent really been suffering there.


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## DarrylP_Ajax

Well. i guess i am all alone on this one, lol


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## Kev

Wellll, I've heard that the corticosteroids that some athletes use for enhanced performance AND the steroids we get in pred., etc., are radically different. the accuracy of that I can't comment on..  But the horror stories often related re 'steroids' and long term use/abuse commonly refer to decreased 'testosterone'  levels..  even shrinking or atrophy of the male testes.  Whether those are accurate, reliable.. or just scare tactics from a worst case basis scenario, I don't know.  I have heard/seen old wrestlers who purportedly 'over-indulged' in steroids to add weight/mass, and many seemed to be on crutches, or have hip joint replacement issues due to the loss of bone density.  no matter how you slice it, seems that steroids aren't good for a person long term (shame, seeing how they do seem to really put IBD in it's place)...  but whether the 'reports' coming out are exagerated in the field of illegal use AND at the same time downplayed for legitimate use is a $64 question.


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## DarrylP_Ajax

Kev said:
			
		

> Wellll, I've heard that the corticosteroids that some athletes use for enhanced performance AND the steroids we get in pred., etc., are radically different. the accuracy of that I can't comment on..  But the horror stories often related re 'steroids' and long term use/abuse commonly refer to decreased 'testosterone'  levels..  even shrinking or atrophy of the male testes.  Whether those are accurate, reliable.. or just scare tactics from a worst case basis scenario, I don't know.  I have heard/seen old wrestlers who purportedly 'over-indulged' in steroids to add weight/mass, and many seemed to be on crutches, or have hip joint replacement issues due to the loss of bone density.  no matter how you slice it, seems that steroids aren't good for a person long term (shame, seeing how they do seem to really put IBD in it's place)...  but whether the 'reports' coming out are exagerated in the field of illegal use AND at the same time downplayed for legitimate use is a $64 question.


Yes, the steroids body builders use are anabolic, whereas pred is catabolic, one makes your body build muscle protein, pred destroys it, i never had problems on pred the first time, and i have only been on it for 3 months this time, but for some reason this time i am having problems with both sexual function and also getting off of Prednisone....i feel the getting off part is partly due to my lack of effect of the imuran i am on this time around, but i find it hard to believe that i have done that much damage in the form of shrinking of my adrenal glands when i am only on 15mg a day and my testosterone levels are still in normal range, i have noticed that all round i am less vascular then i usually am though, i dont know if prednisone has been known to cause a reduced flow of blood, but i think i am going to start doing cardio again, something i havent done in 8 months, to see if an increased amount of blood flow will help....maybe i can get a little help from the Doc if my Health Insurance covers it, i wouldnt mind taking Viagra until i get off the steroids and things return to normal.


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## Kev

well, I did notice that my first taper off pred was way easier than any of my later tapers...  In fact, what I thought was a flare turned out to be pred withdrawal..  tho I tapered much slower this last time than in previous ones.
My GI said there were no studies as such as to a 'best practice' scenario re pred and tapering..  Pretty much an individual thingy based on the doctors and patients personal experiences..  Regardless of the differences between anabolic and catabolic, there does seem (or at least anecdotally it seems to be common) to be a wide overlap in similar issues between former and latter.


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## DarrylP_Ajax

Kev said:
			
		

> well, I did notice that my first taper off pred was way easier than any of my later tapers...  In fact, what I thought was a flare turned out to be pred withdrawal..  tho I tapered much slower this last time than in previous ones.
> My GI said there were no studies as such as to a 'best practice' scenario re pred and tapering..  Pretty much an individual thingy based on the doctors and patients personal experiences..  Regardless of the differences between anabolic and catabolic, there does seem (or at least anecdotally it seems to be common) to be a wide overlap in similar issues between former and latter.


Very true on the overlap of issues, however, if i am going to get the steroid side effects with either one i would rather be on the anabolic steroids, at least then i would be getting huge! lol. Ya, this taper has sucked the big one for me, not easy at all, my first taper it was 10mg drops until i was at 10mg then it was 10mg 2 weeks, 5mg 2 weeks and off...no problems....this time i only got to 15mg, had to go back to 20mg because i dropped too fast, and now i have to drop by 2.5mg every week, week and a half

This is WAY slower and annoying, i am tired of breaking those dumb pills in half, lol


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## amor151

yeah my first tapering of of steroids didnt go so well. i seem to remember getting to about 10 or 15mg and then just feeling awful (i think it was also because i was taken off them too fast). I went back up to 30mg and am still in the process (6 months on from my first dosage!!) of tapering off them. im now at 5mg and am going down 2.5 on a weekly basis as all seems to be okay. cant wait to finally get off the steroids as ive been on them for so long. and i no what you mean about having to break those tablets in to 2 pieces! just as i find some 2.5mg ones my doctor tells me ill have to start going up on azathioprine so it looks like im still going to be breaking some pills! typical.

Best of luck and hope you're off the steroids ASAP.


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## Kev

Yeah...  And the taste of those half pills...  God I hated .5 weeks


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## DarrylP_Ajax

Whoa, wait a minute? You dont like the taste of Prednisone? I love it, sometimes i grind my pills down and dust my cereal with it in the morning for that special touch, lol


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## Kev

As Mr Rogers would say...  "Can you say glutton for punishment? I knew you could"....

Thanks, but no thanks..  I'll stick to licking ashtrays whenever I want that taste sensation


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## drew_wymore

Pred is nasty tasting ugh. My first "taper" sucked because they screwed up and dropped me from 20mg to 0mg cold turkey, I don't think I've ever felt worse in my life.

Most health insurances will cover Viagra for a decent price. I have blue cross and it covers 6 doses per calendar month for 35 dollars which I find to be a good enough price/balance.


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## DarrylP_Ajax

drew_wymore said:
			
		

> Pred is nasty tasting ugh. My first "taper" sucked because they screwed up and dropped me from 20mg to 0mg cold turkey, I don't think I've ever felt worse in my life.
> 
> Most health insurances will cover Viagra for a decent price. I have blue cross and it covers 6 doses per calendar month for 35 dollars which I find to be a good enough price/balance.


I will assume you dont live in Canada since i think Blue Cross is american. I have both OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) and Manulife Health Insurance, so i am hoping out of the two Insurance options it will be covererd...my Pred and Imuran is 100% covered by my health insurance, all i pay is the $3 dispensing fee.


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## DarrylP_Ajax

On a side note, tapered down to 12.5mg today and going to be at this for a week, then down to 10mg and 2.5mg every week until i am off of it. I have a doctors appointment today (Thursday) to get back 3 weeks (6 tests) worth of blood tests. It will be interesting to see what the results say about my WBC's


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## Kev

Blue Cross is multi-national... but broken down into separate entities. Here in Canuckville, it changed names/identities to one that was more 'user friendly' to our French speaking compatriots...  Blue Shield/Blue Cross became 'mediavue'  ..  I don't know if this was a name change, or total 'buyout'.  When I was working for LSI (an American based company) here in Canada, our private insurance was from the largest California based provider...   So, insurance companies respect no boundaries in their quest for 'subscribers' dollars.


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## DarrylP_Ajax

Well found out two things today, 

A) what i thought were my testosterone levels were actually my thyroid levels, somehow the lab screwed up what they were supposed to test for

So my Thyroid levels are perfect, lol

B) got my blood tests back today and i spent 4 DAYS!!! in the normal range for WBC!!!

normal range is 4.0-11.0 X10e9/L and mine were as follows

Jan 21 - 16.3
Feb 8 - 14.5
Feb 11 - 13.4
Feb 15 - 12.5
Feb 19 - 10.8
Feb 22 - 11.0
Feb 26 - 12.3

My Doc agrees with me that the increase from 11.0 --> 12.3 is probably becuase i had three midterms this week and starting around Feb 21st to Feb 27th i was averaging about 5 hours of sleep a night since i was studying like crazy, he thinks that once i start getting proper sleep this weekend and such that it should go back down to the normal range...none the less, its progressivly getting better since its been about 3 months since i have dipped into the normal range, and i am tapering off Prednisone as well, woohoo


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## DarrylP_Ajax

Went down to 10mg yesterday, so far so good


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## amor151

best of luk Darrylp Ajax today was my first day since being diagnosed that im FINALLY off the steroids. its sure been a long 6 months since i had my first preds tablet.

oh prednisolone may have helped me on my science exam today! a question asked us about prednisolone being used to treat people with inflamed bowels and for 3 marks we were asked to name some side affects of the drug. some easy marks for me there 

good luck to any and all tapering at the minute hope it goes well for you.


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## Kev

See...  and some folks believe there are no benefits to having this darned IBD


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## drew_wymore

So I had an interesting conversation regarding pred and testosterone and sexual dysfunction etc today. 

Pred can lower testosterone levels, which as we know yours are normal correct? Or did you get those results back yet? One thing I learned was that there is a possible link with pituitary issues as well, I am getting a test done tomorrow to see if the pred is causing the problem or not. 

So if you haven't had pituitary tests it might be worth discussing with your doc and see if that might be causing the sexual dysfunction ... 

pred/testosterone/pituitary link .. good times!


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## DarrylP_Ajax

Wooooooo! I am incredibly happy! Down to 7.5mg at the moment of Pred and about to go down to 5mg and got my blood tests for March 11th back today and my white blood count is the lowest its been since October! 8.4 for a normal scale of 4-11! And i feel unstoppable, lol, time to get back in the gym hard now! And all the other problems seem to be getting a little better, should be 2-3 weeks and then i will be Pred free once again, perfectly in time for the summer as usual!


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## Laas87

DarrylP_Ajax said:


> I guess this is a question for the guys, have any of you experienced erectile dysfunction while tapering off prednisone? The first time i took Pred and taperd i had no problems, this time around things have been a little more difficult, only made it to 15mg before things flared back up, so it was apparent i had become steroid dependant this time around...i also got a pretty strong bought of depression this time around while tapering too, which i never got the first time, the depression is gone now though and i am back at 15mg and attempting to taper again. Anyways, for a 23 year old who has NEVER even come close to having any issues with the intimate side of life, its pretty frustrating right now having the erectile issues (i wont give explanation as i am pretty sure you can all figure it out). I guess personally i am looking for someone to say that they suffered from it too while tapering and that once the taper was done everything went back to normal, its really embarassing and depressing to have this issue at 23 when i am supposed to be an unstoppable force in bed, not an unstoppable laugh. I hate prednisone with a passion right now, i am just super lucky i have a gf who isnt superficial and understands what i am going through right now.


Ya i feel ya sucks and not a good feeling, not making your fiancé feel wanted when she is the most beautiful person i ever seen, definitely keeps your head down and confidence at a all time low


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