Originally Posted by
lastnoirking87
My formal introduction is pretty overdue at this point. I took saw palmetto (standardized extract) for about 6.5 months. Looking back on it, I was getting warning signs as early as month 2, but was not making the connection to SP. I recall waking up one day and feeling lethargic, with achy joints. This went on for a few days and then disappeared. Somewhere around that time as well, I began having elevated anxiety, but since I could always relate the anxiety to some cause in my life, I figured it was "normal," although this sort of prolonged anxiety really isn't normal for me. Shortly after this period, I started having a hard time finding enjoyment in anything that normally brought me pleasure. All of these symptoms coinciding led me to pick back up drinking, which was something I had done a good job of leaving behind shortly prior to starting SP. Alongside these bothersome symptoms, however, was a recurring libido spike I kept experiencing. I believe this somewhat took my mind off of the other anxiety/depression symptoms and led me away from considering anything serious was awry. Anyhow, around month 6 in, I began having intermittent ED with my fiance. I initially blamed it on the drinking, although that had never caused any issues in that department before, but after a handful of times, those warnings about PFS and the possibility of SP inducing the same condition suddenly resurfaced in my mind for the first time since beginning to take it, and I immediately ceased intake.
As I've heard a number of others attest, I experienced a remission of symptoms for maybe a week prior to things going downhill fast. Libido and energy dropped off significantly, and I continued to drink for about a month after stopping the herb, due to the depressing side effects I was noticing. Some time in early September I found CD's protocol by way of first landing on Maxout's recovery thread via a Google search of some combination of terms like "saw palmetto, pfs, erectile dysfunction," etc., and made a sort of half-assed effort by ordering a few herbs and committing to quitting drinking. A large part of me at this time was in a sort of self-denial/fear about the whole situation still, and was hanging onto some possibility that what I was experiencing was a result of something else, or just needed a few months to work itself out.
Over the next few months, a few interesting things occurred, despite my not adopting the protocol yet. Some time in early November, my semen was white for the first time in a few months, after which point it returned to the clear watery consistency I had become familiar with. A few weeks later, around late November, it was again white, and has remained so up to this day. The duration of those few months also saw a few episodes of testicle aches which typically lasted for a few hours, or in one case a whole day. Back in October, I experienced mild shooting pains in my penis which came and went for a few weeks, in addition to the cold sensation and numbness down there (it not only was cool to the touch, but I was also mentally aware of it feeling internally cold) which was also off and on for about a month. The penis and testicular pains and cold sensation were particularly frightening to me, and I am happy to say that it has been about 1.5 months since those symptoms have occurred. Also during that time I had a few instances of a sharp pain in my pubic bone/prostate area, and at other times, much more frequently, a perineum twitching that could sometimes go on for 5 minutes straight. Around early December I began implementing almost every aspect of the protocol aside from the herbs and the juice feast, and it was around late December that I stopped getting the perineum twitching. At this point, I decided to go full on with the protocol for the new year, so I undertook a xenoestrogen purge within my house and stocked up on about 15 herbs. I finished the 7 day juice feast on January 9th, and shortly thereafter began the herb rotation/rest of the protocol, along with daily probiotics/L-tyrosine/sorghum flour/continuing to drink a juice every day, and semi-daily pine pollen powder.
At this point, all of my neurological symptoms have subsided. Though I didn't mention them all, I was experiencing blurry vision, vertigo, and inability to concentrate along with the anxiety/emotional numbness. It has been a month since I had a major crash, that last one including testicular ache/blurry vision/ stomach and groin pains. Physical symptoms such as muscle weakness and twiching, and as I said, the prostate issues, have seemingly resolved as well, whether through natural healing over time and/or the implementation of the protocol, I cannot say for sure.
Where I stand now, and as of the last month or so, is looking to mostly get my sexual symptoms resolved. I occasionally have normal (or maybe mostly normal) sexual functioning, but more often than not, my erections take longer than normal to achieve, and it is a task to maintain them. The slightest deviation of focus from the subject of my arousal leads to an almost instantaneous weakening or loss of erection, and it then takes me some time to get back into the aroused state of mind. Orgasms are somewhat muted, to be sure, and not nearly as pleasurable as they should be. Ejaculation force is strong, however, and as I mentioned, semen is white (things I never thought I would be particularly grateful for). I very often have what I suppose would be classified as a tendency to prematurely ejaculate, but this is particularly bothersome since its almsot as if my dick wants to go from unaroused/disinterested to ready to ejaculate within a matter of seconds. As you can imagine, sex is problematic, and being that I am with my fiance, these sexual issues are extremely irritating to me, after 4.5 months of dealing with them, despite my being immensely grateful for having left behind the neurological problems.
The strange thing now is, I almost wonder if my body thinks it has done its job with healing, since so many other things have been resolved. It would seem that at least some improvement in the sexual department would have accompanied all the other improvements in other areas, but this seems to be the really hard to reach spot. I didn't specifically state it, but libido is much lower than normal, and the related visual stimulus arousal seems highly impacted. It almost feels like some section of my brain/personality has been removed, to not experience arousal at the sight of things which you are accustomed to being made insatiable by. Very strange. I feel confident that these remaining sexual symptoms will be resolved with dedication to the protocol, since I've experienced so much healing already at the start of it. I gather from others on here that the sexual stuff typically takes the most time to fix, so I'm prepared for that. While I've done a massive amount of research into the various facets of the protocol, the one area I'm still pretty clueless on is the prohormones, but I feel I will be itching to get into them once 2-3 months of herb cycling has gone by (assuming I'm still dealing with sexual issues).
I have difficulty with keeping things short and sweet, so that was pretty involved. Maybe once I'm healed it will be a worthwhile record for someone else in the future with similar symptoms. All in all, my research into the protocol has sparked a new passion for health in me, and I have completely lost interest in alcohol, and genuinely wish to not only achieve a resolution of PFS symptoms, but to go far beyond that into new territories of physical and mental/emotional/spiritual health....thanks for listening.