Aa
Aa
A
A
A
Close
Avatar universal

sexual issues after yohombine 15mg

Hi all,
Last night I tried 15mg of yohombine for a boost, along with 100mg 5htp in the aftertoon, and once in wore off hours later I think I developed ED/crotch numbess which was awful. The numbness/mild pain has subsided but I still have trouble really feeling it down there are I am a bit freaked. Some sensitivity remains but all and all it doesn't feel right kinda like it's not there! I presume it's adrenal related like a rebound/comedown effect from it.

Wondering what the cause could be really and when it should subside, thanks, help put my mind at ease.
3 Responses
Sort by: Helpful Oldest Newest
207091 tn?1337709493
It's really hard to say what it could be. How long did you have sex? Was it rough? Could you just be experiencing some tenderness from that?

It could be all a rebound effect from what you took - and why are you taking those? Do you have ED? If you don't, you don't need those, and in most places, they aren't regulated.

I'd give it 24-48 hours before really worrying, and if it's not better, see your doctor. If you notice anything like a rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, etc., see your doctor.
Helpful - 0
7 Comments
well it was masturbation but go figure. taking it for a boost I have mood-related issues but not ED although i don't feel as aroused most of the time... nah the panicking thing is health anxiety I have that too. ok, i'll give it a day or two, there is a sexual wellness clinic in my area as well, so I can consider that,
Oh you took it for a mood boost?

Have you thought of seeing someone for what may be depression? Or maybe low testosterone? Maybe thyroid? Always rule out the physical possibilities first. You could be taking all these things when you have something very treatable.
thought about it the solution apparently is ADs which are just gonna cause me sexual issues anyway, and i have my own depression regimen. anyway, i don't think it's thyroid or anything i think it's directly linked to yohimbine, although i don't know of any major interactions between yohimbine and 5htp.
i just dunno how long it will be before it returns to normal, is this an uncommon reaction?
It's really hard to say - the yohimbe can cause anxiety, tremors, and irritation, but there's nothing about numbness or a lack of sensation.

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-759/yohimbe

5htp can cause "sexual problems" -

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-794/5-htp -

https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/5-htp-side-effects-dangers#side-effects

You also aren't supposed to take it if you are taking any meds that increase serotonin, which a lot of antidepressants do.

These just are really not studied well, and you took two of them together, and there isn't a lot known. If you're concerned, call a pharmacist or your doctor. Since it's Thursday, and we're heading to a weekend, it might be a good idea to do that today.
i heard of the 5htp sexual issues, a bit like that condition "pssd", its also why I am iffy about trying st johns wort. really freaked out about that for obvious reasons. Taken before, 5htp doesn't seem to cause any direct sexual issues I used it in the past (although I should have been more careful) without any issues namely with l-tyrosine 10:1 ratio. It came later so I am thinking it's the yohombine, I mean this enhances erections and sex drive and the like, once i wears off under certain circumstances I get the opposite would happen. I like in the UK, dunno if I could just call a pharmacist but it's an idea, usually everything starts with a gp unless it's an emergency.
You can't just call a pharmacist with a question in the UK? I don't know how that works there.

Have you combined the two before? It might not just be one or the other, but a combo. How are you feeling? If it's not better, you should be checked out. Give your GP a call. You can consider all the possibilities, but that won't help if there's something actually happening to your body. :(

Avatar universal
like 5htp before would usually be alright to use every other week or so, safe like that, for a measured serotonin boost in the absence of taking anything else that could boost serotonin.
Helpful - 0
9 Comments
Lots of misinformation here.  I don't know what form of yohimbe you took, so there's a start.  15mg is a very low amount, so it likely did nothing at all.  The amount of yohimbine in yohimbe is fairly low -- there is a drug that is yohimbine but yohimbe doesn't have that much in it.  If it was standardized for yohimbine, it might have more, but might not than non-standardized.  Extracts are more potent than powder.  5-HTP is likely to do absolutely nothing at all if you just took it once.  Tyrosine can make people anxious, it's good for depression but can be a problem for anxiety.  Yohimbe can also be a problem for anxiety.  I'm a little perplexed as to why anyone would take it in order to masturbate, that's just odd.  But again, you took so little it's just hard to believe it would have any effects at all, let alone side effects.  5-HTP works taken apart from food, but it takes awhile for it to work, assuming it's going to work and you take enough of it for it to work for your anxiety or depression.  It has no beneficial effect on sex, but also most likely has no negative effects on it, either.  Look, 5-HTP doesn't work the same as an antidepressant, and antidepressants don't work as mentioned above.  Antidepressants don't increase the amount of serotonin.  It does alter how the brain uses it and it does prevent the breakdown of it and does cause it to wash around longer in certain receptors.  Of course, this causes other receptors to shut down.  If there's no serotonin in your brain in the first place, antidepressants that target serotonin can't work.  The serotonin comes from where it always comes from, which is consuming tryptophan, B6, Vitamin C and other co-factors.  But the body will use an enzyme to break down and evacuate what it doesn't need or what it's already used.  Antidepressants prevent this last step, which looks like there's more serotonin but there really isn't, it just doesn't go away as the body wants it to -- the body evolved to like fresh serotonin, not used serotonin.  But again, 5-HTP, like antidepressants, doesn't work right away, it takes some time, it doesn't work for everyone, it does have side effects, the most common being sedation and increased anxiety for some.  It's most common use, after all, is to help us sleep.  I don't think anything you took had anything to do with whatever you imagine happened down there.  No idea what happened.  To recap:  antidepressants don't increase serotonin, they alter the natural way the body uses it giving the effect of having more of it in one or two places.  5-HTP takes time to work unless you're using it for sleep.  Yohimbe only works if you need it for ED, but you'd probably need more of it.  If you had a regular problem, you'd also need to take it more than once in a day to keep it your system, as herbs are digested like food and evacuated like food.  Supplements are regulated.  There is a myth that they aren't, but they are.  Some have been banned.  It is true the FDA and the FTC don't do all they could do because they want people to believe supplements are unregulated so they don't compete with pharmaceutical products, which the gov't supports the sale of as it brings in a whole lot more revenue than supplements and because the FDA is a wholly owned subsidiary of the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession -- there aren't any naturopaths or herbalists around there, folks.  If you want 5-HTP to work to increase serotonin, you would have to take it every day more than once a day.  Taking it once will have a minor effect, not anything you'd notice except, again, it might help you sleep.  It also might not actually boost your serotonin unless your brain decided it needed it.  It can't force the issue like antidepressants do, as the latter are not digested like food, they are forced past the blood/brain barrier.  They have no relation to how the body works naturally.  As for St. John's wort, same thing, it has to be taken regularly and more than once a day to work, if it's going to work, and it's for depression, not anxiety.  If you don't know anything about drugs, you see a professional to help you with them.  You should do the same with natural medicine.  It's still medicine, it can still have side effects, and it still has to be taken properly if you want to see if it will work.  Peace, all.
And let me add, antidepressants don't generally affect the ability to get an erection.  What they more often effect is the desire to have sex and the ability to orgasm, and it doesn't happen to everyone who takes them.
it does happen to some though. anyway thanks for the information, the doctors don't seem to be mega interested doing it my way they seem too busy, and just want me to go on AD's. now 5htp used for a while may, as far as I know, have a so-called 'downregulation' of serotonin receptors, especially used for over 8 weeks. i tried it with l-tyrosine 10:1 ratio for like, 3 days, actually did help my mood related issues but I was thinking, and as you said, yeah I can't do this forever. i tried l tryptophan, but it absorbs poorly and gave me weird mild brain shocks, but it also had this very very mild psychedelic feeling/visual thing that felt quite natural where I was more aware of the room. some guy on erowid said the same, like he became aware of the electronics in his room, not totally sure if this would be good for it though long term.

anyway once again thanks for the refresh of information, my gp said to avoid 5htp, after looking into it yeah it's probably best. the last thing was AD's don't cause ED, but I am doubtful, and delayed orgasm/pssd is a very real risk. i have st johns wort available, i will be trying it soon, if i notice good effects I'll keep it on for a month. is st johns wort a good choice.
Listen to Paxiled on this. He has waaaay more experience with supplements than I do, and I definitely did misspeak on the antidepressants.

In any case, my bottom line is that you aren't feeling "right" - that's my main concern. Whether it's the supplements, or something else, it still bears getting it checked out if it lingers. Your symptoms - your original symptoms - could be low testosterone or thyroid, which docs love to write off as depression. Maybe it is depression, and maybe you'll have a hard time getting those checked in the UK, I don't know, but you could take a bunch of supplements that won't help if you don't know.

I understand doctor frustration, and being frustrated that they just want to throw big meds at you. It's irritating. Hang in there.

First, listen to auntjessie -- whenever anyone suffers from anxiety or depression they absolutely must get the most thorough medical exam you can get because if it's being caused by a physiological disease no amount of antidepressants or therapy will fix it.  Now, as to 5-HTP.  It's not exactly the same as using tryptophan itself.  It's what the body converts tryptophan into when you eat a protein meal that contains tryptophan, assuming you have enough B6, Vitamin C, etc. to allow the body to manufacture serotonin.  Your doctor knows nothing about 5-HTP so don't listen to anything a doctor says about natural medicine unless they practice it; those docs practice integrated medicine.  In medical school docs are taught that natural medicine is "alternative" medicine and is dangerous and unregulated and unsafe and ineffective.  This is obviously untrue on all counts, as pharmaceutical medicine is the "alternative."  Natural medicine has been around forever; the chemical medicine we get today is the new kid on the block and as such we know very little about what it's doing to us or for us.  But much of what passes for natural medicine isn't natural and isn't the traditional ways it was practiced and so for all intents and purposes it is more like pharmaceutical medicine than natural medicine because it's new and without a long history of use.  We all know docs take an oath to the father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, who was in the main an herbalist, so there you go.  If it didn't work, most of our pharmaceutical products wouldn't be derived from plants or trying to duplicate and intensify what plant medicine does.  But there's no question that pharmaceutical medicine works more quickly and is much stronger, which also accounts for the greater intensity of the side effects.  And 5-HTP probably has a lower side effect profile than St. John's Wort.  Look, any time you take an isolated substance to treat illness, it might work and it might not work.  It might work better in combination with other things.  The dosage has to be enough to work.  It might cause side effects.  This is true of both pharmaceutical medicine and natural medicine.  If you suffer from anxiety or depression, the only cure is to change the way you think, either through therapy or some other way.  If you choose instead to treat it with medication whether natural or pharmaceutical, you have to keep taking it every day for as long as you still have the mental illness because it doesn't cure the mental illness.  So again, if you want to do a real trial with 5-HTP, you have to take the right amount for you, and you have to take it more than once a day so it stays in your system allowing it to work all the time, and you have to take it at the right time, and you have to keep taking it to see if side effects, if any, go away and wait a sufficient amount of time to see if it's going to work or not and if you're able to tolerate it or not.  Tryptophan doesn't usually get past the blood/brain barrier, so it doesn't work that well for most people.  It does work for some.  The reason we started taking 5-HTP was because the FDA, which you will read over and over doesn't regulate natural medicine, banned tryptophan for several years because one lab made one tainted batch.  Somebody discovered a plant that contained 5-HTP, and discovered it much more easily passes the blood/brain barrier and so it became the more used substance.  It works better.  It's the closest thing in nature to a serotonin-affecting antidepressant.  But do know, when you take it, it isn't the plant and it isn't truly natural because it is standardized in a lab, but the brain does recognize it as a natural substance, which it doesn't do with an antidepressant.  Note that antidepressants also don't work right away, have side effects, and need to be taken at the right dose for you to work.  Most people don't notice beneficial effects until they've been taking them for 4-6 weeks.  So why would you expect a natural substance to work right away?  Doesn't work that way for a chronic ailment.  Most professional practitioners of natural medicine use a combination of herbs, amino acids, diet, and therapy.  One substance usually isn't enough.  You might get lucky.  I've taken several antidepressants in my life for anxiety, and only two of them did anything at all.  The rest I might as well have been drinking water.  I also got side effects I didn't like when I tried 5-HTP.  Life isn't simple.  If you want to fix it without all this grief, get therapy if your life is working well enough that you don't have an emergency situation and give it a chance.  If it works, you're cured.  If it doesn't, all this other stuff isn't going anywhere.  But at this point, you have not tried 5-HTP.  You've taken some, but you haven't used it in a way that will help you with what you have.  Yohimbe isn't a treatment for depression really because so many depressed people are also anxious, and yohimbe can cause more anxiety.  To use it for a better erection would mean you actually need to have a better erection.  Most sexual problems aren't that, they are mental, and depressed people can have a lot of sexual problems.  As for antidepressants, women are more likely to have a problem not being able to orgasm at all and losing all interest than men, but yeah, it can happen to men.  For me, they made it so it took absolutely forever to orgasm, but you can tackle that problem by finding what really turns you on and a willing partner.  Taking it for masturbation is useless.  You can orgasm without an erection that way.  So bottom line, life is complicated no matter what form of medicine you use, and it will be trial and error no matter what form you use for most things.  Peace.
thanks for the response yeah meds seem like the last option i'd rather work one to one with a doctor about trying like 4 supplement/a 'stack' at a time and whether or not they permit it, but I don't think they always know every angle of every supplement.
I don't want to sound repetitive, but medical doctors do not know how to use supplements.  They aren't trained to use them.  They are trained to perform invasive procedures, do diagnosis, and give you FDA approved medications.  Medical schools do not teach natural medicine.  If you want to use natural medicine, you have to see someone who has studied natural medicine.  This would include naturopaths, herbalists, doctors who have gone back to school to learn integrated medicine, most functional physicians (psychiatrists who have decided they are doctors and therefore practice medicine, not just give out drugs.  Some of these have moved into integrated medicine, some have not, they are hard to find, and they almost never take insurance and are very expensive to see, as they order a lot of tests to make sure your problem is psychological, not physiological), ********* physicians, who are generally medical doctors who practice the traditional herbal medicine of India, or practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which means they only use traditional Chinese formulas.  But you won't get this kind of help from your doc.  You never seem to mention therapy.  Why is that?
I have no idea why this is, but every time you try to say the name of traditional Indian medicine MedHelp bleeps it.  They somehow think it's a dirty word.  The word is ayur-veda, but without the dash.
I pm'ed you
Avatar universal
yeah like i get everything you are saying about the FDA and all that, and how doctors tend not to know about 'minor' or 'alternate' substances. i am listening. honestly it's probably a good job I found you on here you do know a lot and have experience with ADs, which sound hit or miss like you said but more on the side of 'miss'.
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
Well, no, because there are so many of them, you do usually find one that works to some extent.  If they worked all the time, of course, there wouldn't be so many.  And I hate that word "alternate," because the plant medicine has been around a lot longer than the drugs, which are the new kid on the block and our bodies are in no way evolved to them yet.  But they are stronger and work more quickly.  Plants need to be taken in formula, which means not just one, most of the time, so it's a longer time period to find something that works, assuming you ever do.
Have an Answer?

You are reading content posted in the Men's Health Community

Top Men's Health Answerers
1622896 tn?1562364967
London, United Kingdom
139792 tn?1498585650
Indore, India
Avatar universal
Southwest , MI
Learn About Top Answerers
Didn't find the answer you were looking for?
Ask a question
Popular Resources
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.
Discharge often isn't normal, and could mean an infection or an STD.
Chlamydia, an STI, often has no symptoms, but must be treated.
Bumps in the genital area might be STDs, but are usually not serious.
Get the facts about this disease that affects more than 240,000 men each year.