Genital numbness/anesthesia: the science

This is a place to post research you have done on the topic along with your conclusions.
User avatar
Meso
Posts: 1020
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2019 3:00 pm
Contact:

Genital numbness/anesthesia: the science

Unread post by Meso »

Although I haven't done an extensive research reviewing about this symptom yet, I'd like to share what I currently know regarding this issue since it keeps coming up.

Brain region responsible for genital sensations and erotogenicity (is this a word?) is the parietal lobe. In particular, the postcentral gyrus and the paracentral lobule. Stimulation of erogenous tissues (penis, clitoris, nipples, etc) leads to activation of these regions. After that, they send downstream signals to the pleasure pathway and regions responsible for libido. (i.e. mPOA/NAcc)

There are 3 types of genital numbness:
- Frank mechanical numbness (reduced feeling of touch, friction, pressure, heat, cold temperatures)
- Erogenous numbness (you can feel things normally, but you don't feel any pleasure from stimulation when fully aroused)
- Pseudo-numbness (reduced feeling of pleasure, but it's due to loss of libido itself. i.e. you never become aroused enough to begin with)

- If you have good libido but experience no pleasure from genitals, that's erogenous numbness.
- If you have frank mechanical numbness affecting your genitals and other areas of your body, then it's frank mechanical numbness.
- Some people also mistake loss of libido with genital numbness. If you don't have a libido, of course you won't feel pleasure from your genitals (pseudo-numbness).

As for having a pleasure response, but losing it minutes into coitus:
Over-rapid habituation/desensitization happens when a sexual stimulus isn't enough to pass the action potential threshold any longer. One region that plays an important role in this sexual 'tolerance' to stimulus is the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC).

Think of it as listening to the same song over and over again until your brain "gets bored of it" and no longer finds it pleasurable. You can still hear the music, but no longer feel the pleasure. This soundtrack starts sounding like just noise to you. This is 'tolerance' or habituation to a stimulus. This process takes a relatively long time for the normal brain. In the PSSD-brain, it happens over-rapidly, within minutes.

What can we do about it?

SSRIs mess up bodily sensations and can numb several areas of the body unrelated to the gentialia through messing up these areas of the parietal lobe (centrally), and TRP channels, spinal channels/receptors like NMDAR/5HT2, and the genitals/AR (peripherally).

The main culprit for inducing this is elevated cortical and spinal serotonin. Reducing serotonin in the cortical areas limits their inhibitory effect on sub-cortical limbic areas.

Another thing we can do is improving glutamate firing. SSRIs upregulate GR expression, leading to blunting of HPA axis. Cortisol is a glutamate enhancer, so you end up with less glutamate firing and beta-endorphin. Glutamate is absolutely crucial for the pleasure response.

Last thing we can target is AR activation. Serotonin might downregulate central and peripheral AR expression. Lowering serotonin is an important part of the puzzle, but if that's not enough, improving testosterone level might be needed.

-Treatments Summary-

Mechanical numbness:
- Reduce central serotonin.
- Improve TRP channels (i.e. hot chili pepper, laser therapy,..)
- Improve NMDAR signalling in particular.

Erogenous numbness:
- Reduce central serotonin.
- Increase glutamate firing (phasic > tonic).
- Increase testosterone / AR expression.
- Increase phasic dopamine and beta-endorphin firing within the pleasure pathways (optional).

Pseudo-numbness:
- Improve libido.
"The Research Zone" is permanently down.
You are welcome to join my Discord research server: Click Here
finities infinities
Posts: 222
Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2019 9:37 am
Contact:

Re: Genital numbness/anesthesia: the science

Unread post by finities infinities »

Your mention of quickly boredom from song is the quintessence of my condition! So you know that perfectly well! Yes, and something like that applies to everything!
User avatar
Meso
Posts: 1020
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2019 3:00 pm
Contact:

Re: Genital numbness/anesthesia: the science

Unread post by Meso »

finities infinities wrote:Your mention of quickly boredom from song is the quintessence of my condition! So you know that perfectly well! Yes, and something like that applies to everything!
I can help you with mesolimbic rapid desensitization. Please update your thread.
"The Research Zone" is permanently down.
You are welcome to join my Discord research server: Click Here
PittieLady
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Apr 03, 2019 4:16 am
Contact:

Re: Genital numbness/anesthesia: the science

Unread post by PittieLady »

Great article! Meso can you talk about whats needed to do this? Supplements that help?
Another thing we can do is improving glutamate firing. SSRIs upregulate GR expression, leading to blunting of HPA axis. Cortisol is a glutamate enhancer, so you end up with less glutamate firing and beta-endorphin. Glutamate is absolutely crucial for the pleasure response.
User avatar
Meso
Posts: 1020
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2019 3:00 pm
Contact:

Re: Genital numbness/anesthesia: the science

Unread post by Meso »

PittieLady wrote:Great article! Meso can you talk about whats needed to do this? Supplements that help?
Mesolimbo wrote:Another thing we can do is improving glutamate firing. SSRIs upregulate GR expression, leading to blunting of HPA axis. Cortisol is a glutamate enhancer, so you end up with less glutamate firing and beta-endorphin. Glutamate is absolutely crucial for the pleasure response.
Unfortunately, there aren't any supplement that increases glutamate firing to a significant degree. You can try a NMDA-glycine subunit agonist such as Sarcosine or D-aspartic acid.

There are drugs that can increase glutamate release:
- Caffeine: very mild glutamate releaser.
- Amphetamines: moderate glutamate releasers.
- Serotonergic psychedelics (Psilo/DMT/LSD etc): potent glutamate releasers.
- Semax: glutamate modulating agent.

It depends on the person which of the above is a suitable option.
"The Research Zone" is permanently down.
You are welcome to join my Discord research server: Click Here
User avatar
anacleta
Posts: 695
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2015 5:47 am
Contact:

Re: Genital numbness/anesthesia: the science

Unread post by anacleta »

I'm female and I have pssd with erogenous numbness. I no longer feel excitement in the genitals and pleasure from the clitoris.
I found a doctor who performed genital laser-evoked potentials. these, unlike the classic evoked potentials, are able to examine the small nerve fibers in the genitals.
If I have erogenous numbness but not mechanical, could this exam show anything abnormal?
User avatar
Meso
Posts: 1020
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2019 3:00 pm
Contact:

Re: Genital numbness/anesthesia: the science

Unread post by Meso »

anacleta wrote:I'm female and I have pssd with erogenous numbness. I no longer feel excitement in the genitals and pleasure from the clitoris.
I found a doctor who performed genital laser-evoked potentials. these, unlike the classic evoked potentials, are able to examine the small nerve fibers in the genitals.
If I have erogenous numbness but not mechanical, could this exam show anything abnormal?
If you don't have mechanical sensation abnormality, it's highly unlikely that there's an abnormality affecting the peripheral nerves themselves. The pleasure response isn't produced locally; it's completely a central phenomenon (brain + spinal cord reflexes). Therefore, isolated erogenous numbness has to do with central/spinal malfunction.
"The Research Zone" is permanently down.
You are welcome to join my Discord research server: Click Here
ziran0
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2019 10:11 pm
Contact:

Re: Genital numbness/anesthesia: the science

Unread post by ziran0 »

Hello Mesolimbo . I am new here. I get Mechanical numbness and Erogenous numbness from Escitalopram . I lost all my sexual pleasures. When my genitals being touched , i can hardly feel it , and it can not generate pleasure at all. When i am kissing or my perianal and prostate being touched i can feel it but i can not feel any pleasures. Any other parts , such as neck , that would have made me feel happy disappeared. In short , I lost all my sexual pleasures and my genitals is numb. But luckily , I don't have any other problem. What should I do.
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests