Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy- Timberline OP

[suedehead]

I’m interested in this theory. I have had pelvic discomfort since this problem started consisting of dull ache/burning feelings in perinium/prostate area. I rarely sit down on my office chair now, as it feels uncomfortable for long periods. I was reading a propeciahelp topic on same idea earlier. Chi has some interesting theories here.

http://www.propeciahelp.com/forum/viewt ... 120#p48719

[Ghost]

The best thing that anyone could do is see a PT who specializes in pelvic floor (PF). If you're a man, get one that specializes in male PF. They will know a lot more than I do.

However, I will say that I found this through Goldstein inadvertently, and then some other chance events. Afterwards, I could pee like I hadn’t in years, and within a few days I had the best reversal of symptoms EVER. I was 80-85% cured for a day or two earlier this month. It was just a few days after my PT with Goldstein. Even soft glans was better. Erections felt like they started under my anus, which doesn't happen anymore. Every symptom felt better, and only then did my fear and anxiety about PSSD start to lift. I thought I was better for good. Later, when I went to see a girl, I tensed up and got anxious. When most people get anxious, they might have other physical symptoms, but because my insecurities revolve around my dick, and I've been holding tension there for years... That's where I tensed up (unconsciously even). My boners that had been raging an hour before were now weak and numb. This was not hormonal. This was not Lexapro. This was the clenching of my pelvic floor, and by association, anxiety. Goldstein had told me that onset of PSSD and PFS usually coincides with high stress periods. That's what people on the Hard Flaccid forums said also, and Accutane people...etc...etc...



The first question: Is PF dysfunction sufficient to cause PSSD symptoms?

Yes. I believe that it is. There are people with only PF dysfunction with similar symptoms as us.

- Numbness
- ED
- Soft Glans
- Loss of Morning Wood
- Loss of Libido - this is a hard one to separate. If you lose the brain - penis connection, libido will fall a bit. Also, if you don't get hard, you won't really have full libido. Then, if you stress, you won't get full libido. This makes you depressed...again...hurting libido. It's a cycle
- Anxiety/Depression - Leading in many cases to changes in personality, mood, confidence, secondary symptoms...

I don't know how this could happen, but PF dysfunction often comes at times when people are stressed or change medications. I've seen stories of people who think they have PSSD or PFS and then fix the pelvic floor and realize that they don't.

My thinking also changed noticing the endless ways that men injure their cocks. There are countless forums and treads from just about every single type of medicine, exercise, or stage of life. We are naive to think that SSRIs are the only thing damaging people, and that we have a worse scenario than anyone else.

There needs to be some sense of responsibility from people on here. I can't say if your problems are from SSRI or a Pelvic Floor muscle. I can't even say that for myself. People keep telling me that fixing their mental state is essential for recovering. If you have a pelvic floor problem, it isn't serious. It's like a cramp in your leg. Go to the best PT you can find and rule this out.

This is from the early part of this thread from 2015

"Now think about this for a minute. As someone with OCD or chronic anxiety, you are already clenching your pelvic floor too often - you might have low grade pain or constipation that you don't even associate with this phenomenon. Then you start taking SSRI's and you develop anorgasmia or delayed ejaculation, or erectile dysfunction. Now you are clenching every time you have sex or masturbate in order to keep an erection or get off. You do this for months or years and create a vicious cycle of more contraction and even less sensation and blood flow. Even when you get off SSRIs (regardless of the persistence of the neurohormonal imbalances), you still have reduced sensation and blood flow. Which of course worries you to no end, contributing to an ongoing cycle of clenching and dysfunction."

[Bunny]

Loss of Libido - this is a hard one to separate. If you lose the brain - penis connection, libido will fall a bit. Also, if you don't get hard, you won't really have full libido. Then, if you stress, you won't get full libido. This makes you depressed...again...hurting libido. It's a cycle

This was my gynecologist's theory (specialist in PF dysfunction), only with the vagina.

I'm in my seventh week of Pelvic Floor Therapy. It's definitely helped with pain during, and my vagina is lubricating again. However, I don't feel desire, interest, or am capable of an orgasm.

[Ghost]

Loss of Libido - this is a hard one to separate. If you lose the brain - penis connection, libido will fall a bit. Also, if you don't get hard, you won't really have full libido. Then, if you stress, you won't get full libido. This makes you depressed...again...hurting libido. It's a cycle

This was my gynecologist's theory (specialist in PF dysfunction), only with the vagina.

I'm in my seventh week of Pelvic Floor Therapy. It's definitely helped with pain during, and my vagina is lubricating again. However, I don't feel desire, interest, or am capable of an orgasm.

Sounds like a very good start. It proves that PF dysfunction played a role in your symptoms. I would continue doing treatment, enjoy the new gains, and then see if anything changes in the coming months. I don't think that this is the only factor in all cases of PSSD, but more that it ranges from a small factor for some, and a majority factor for others.

[expendable]

Shit, Ghost. This may well explain why my symptoms exponentially start to get better whenever I don't touch my dick for a while.

[Janie]

What I don't know how would this explain the loss of sensitivity in all other erogenous body parts? And other SSRI related symptoms what many people have (loss of emotions, attention issues, memory issues etc.)

[Ghost]

It might not explain loss of sensation throughout the body, but most people with HF/ PF problems get very anxious and/or depressed. Depression and anxiety could cause emotion loss, attention issues, and memory problems. In fact, I think many of those problems are probably from secondary stress from PSSD. But if your entire body is numbed, then this clearly doesn't explain everything.

The point of treating the PF is not to say that PSSD doesn't exist, but to accept that PF issues could cause most if not all of your PSSD symptoms. If you treat the pelvic floor and still have issues, then that's fine, but without trying this first, it is hard to claim that it's 100% for sure PSSD.

[Janie]

Ok, I will try, I think there is nothing to loss.

So are you saying that it is possible that pelvic muscles are clenched and can stay clenched for years or decades? For me this sounds not very believable unless SSRIs do something to keep it clenched all the time. So relaxing those muscles is what we could try?

[hs1312]

I feel my balls hang higher than pre pssd. Scrotum is stretched and closer to the body. Is this also PF problem? what do you think ghost?

[Ghost]

Yes this is most likely a PF problem. There isn't anything from the SSRI that should change the physical appearance of your genitalia. For years I wondered why urologists told us that our penises were normal (and some have noticed fibrosis, but from the outside there isn't anything wrong). If you think about it, it's way more likely that your fear of what the medication did to you is changing your penis shape than it is that the medication did it. The problem could either be hormonal, neurological, psychological, or physical.

The problem here is that the pelvic floor + mental health CAN explain all PSSD symptoms - I'm not saying that this is the case for all people and still believe in PSSD. Remember that PSSD technically refers to sexual symptoms only, so I'm not saying that the pelvic floor is the cure to al human suffering. There are members of PF communities who got PF problems after one day, and there are others that had it come on slowly. It can last for decades, and go away within days. Let me explain both cases:

Fast Case: This person is likely a stressed-out person. They take an SSRI for a short period of time like me, or for a long time and one day it snaps them. What I think happens is they notice the ED from the meds, or the numbness, or something else that is wrong, and the natural thing to reach orgasm or hold boner is to clench the pelvic floor. You wake up the next day scared. You never let go of that tension. This is possible. It's the same exact thing that people have with a knot in their back or chronic stress headaches. The only difference here is that you're stretching up against all the nerves and blood vessels for your genitals. That will shut them down fast, and break the feedback look with the brain. Making them feel like rubber and not attached.

Slow Case: Similar, but in this instance the person does it over a long period of time. They train themselves to clench when they have sex. Additionally, coming off the medication might cause muscles to pull tight. SSRIs are muscle relaxants, usually, and used for a lot of pain syndromes. SSRIs could even cause damage to muscles or nerves. We don't know this. PSSD could seem like muscle problems because the SSRIs have done physical damage to the muscles - I don't know.

The suspicious parts of PSSD are (Again, I believe in PSSD, but I think that understanding the following is essential - This is why so few doctors believe us):

- The rate of PSSD is so low that it is similar to that or randomly occurring sexual dysfunction and nerve/pelvic problems. There are 100,000s of people in the US with pelvic problems. People on SSRIs are not immune to pelvic problems, and are actually at higher risk because of mental health problems.

- People claim they get PSSD after going on/off SSRIs for many years. Even using the same drug.

- Psychological disturbances are terrible for sex. Anxiety and Depression will kill your sex drive. People claim that they had these before with normal sexuality, but their anxiety before never focused on sex. If your anxiety now focuses on sex, this changes the game. You need to overcome your mental illnesses. Your body cannot heal without it.

- PSSD fluctuates in "waves".

- Many recovery stories come during times of low-stress.

- Pelvic Floor Dysfunction has symptoms very similar to PSSD.