I am a 25 year old young man with epilepsy. I have low to moderate difficulty in bed with a woman. My question only recently came to my mind because my difficulty has been around since I was young, and later than I was diagnosed with epilepsy. So to the point, can epilepsy or certain epileptic meds cause any sexual issues?
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Sexual question.
- Thread starter finalpoet
- Start date
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Hi finalpoet,
It has been proven that sometimes do to the meds a person takes or the area of the brain especially the temporal lobe can effect a man or woman's sexual issues. I have temporal lobe epilepsy and after I had surgery to reduce my seizures and scar tissue was removed from my brain I saw a big difference for the better. This is also something that you may want to bring up to your neuro and get more info. I do know that some drugs can lower the testosterone level in a man. I wish you the best of luck and May God Bless You!
Sue
It has been proven that sometimes do to the meds a person takes or the area of the brain especially the temporal lobe can effect a man or woman's sexual issues. I have temporal lobe epilepsy and after I had surgery to reduce my seizures and scar tissue was removed from my brain I saw a big difference for the better. This is also something that you may want to bring up to your neuro and get more info. I do know that some drugs can lower the testosterone level in a man. I wish you the best of luck and May God Bless You!
Sue
resaebiunne
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Yes, meds have side effects including those similar to erectile dysfunction. They can go away in time if you're lucky. Topamax caused this for me.
When I get home,I will forward a link to my study on men with epilepsy and sexual dysfunction.Both epilepsy and epilepsy medication can affect this.Tell your neurologist.He/she can draw a free testosterone level And check your meds. There is treatment!
As others have said, yes both can cause issues. If it is medication related, sometimes it can change if medication is switched.
Often, neuros don't want to do this if you have good seizure control and won't know what to look for with regard to any signs that meds may be causing this as a side effect (due to hormonal changes, etc.).
My recommendation for any man with E that is taking meds is to get a full hormonal lab workup done. Ideally, this would be done when you were functioning normally in order to establish a good baseline from which you could compare any future changes in performance against. But, in your case, it would be good to know just the same.
Your neuro likely wont do this, so you would need to seek out an internist, endo, or uro who is sympathetic and willing to do this tests even if there is nothing for them to treat. Many don't want to do it strictly to look or monitor the situation, but you can usually find someone to do it at least once.
By a full workup, I mean more than testosterone. You want testosterone and free testosterone, estradiol, LH, FSH, DHEA, DHT, Prolactin, etc. Meds can increase or decrease many of these and they can cause issues. However, if you come back in normal ranges, perhaps it simply the E itself or just the medication shutting you down in that department by the way it acts on your brain.
Often this is a nebulous area and difficult to see exactly what the cause is, but some baseline labwork is a good place to start with physicians and neuros you trust and who understand your goals (in terms of outcomes you want to see occur).
Finally, don't be afraid to consider something like Viagra if need be. If you have good seizure control, but feel like the AED is causing decreased sexual performance and drive, and you and your neuro don't want to change seizure meds right away, then at least checking if something like Viagra may benefit you may be worth it. It is not ideal, but if it works, it might be a good stopgap until you figure out what is going on. It can also let you know if the vascular component is still functioning and at least remove that as a possible issue from the equation.
You will need to be your own advocate here, but finding the right doc is good start.
Best of luck to you.
Often, neuros don't want to do this if you have good seizure control and won't know what to look for with regard to any signs that meds may be causing this as a side effect (due to hormonal changes, etc.).
My recommendation for any man with E that is taking meds is to get a full hormonal lab workup done. Ideally, this would be done when you were functioning normally in order to establish a good baseline from which you could compare any future changes in performance against. But, in your case, it would be good to know just the same.
Your neuro likely wont do this, so you would need to seek out an internist, endo, or uro who is sympathetic and willing to do this tests even if there is nothing for them to treat. Many don't want to do it strictly to look or monitor the situation, but you can usually find someone to do it at least once.
By a full workup, I mean more than testosterone. You want testosterone and free testosterone, estradiol, LH, FSH, DHEA, DHT, Prolactin, etc. Meds can increase or decrease many of these and they can cause issues. However, if you come back in normal ranges, perhaps it simply the E itself or just the medication shutting you down in that department by the way it acts on your brain.
Often this is a nebulous area and difficult to see exactly what the cause is, but some baseline labwork is a good place to start with physicians and neuros you trust and who understand your goals (in terms of outcomes you want to see occur).
Finally, don't be afraid to consider something like Viagra if need be. If you have good seizure control, but feel like the AED is causing decreased sexual performance and drive, and you and your neuro don't want to change seizure meds right away, then at least checking if something like Viagra may benefit you may be worth it. It is not ideal, but if it works, it might be a good stopgap until you figure out what is going on. It can also let you know if the vascular component is still functioning and at least remove that as a possible issue from the equation.
You will need to be your own advocate here, but finding the right doc is good start.
Best of luck to you.
As others have said, yes both can cause issues. If it is medication related, sometimes it can change if medication is switched.
Often, neuros don't want to do this if you have good seizure control and won't know what to look for with regard to any signs that meds may be causing this as a side effect (due to hormonal changes, etc.).
My recommendation for any man with E that is taking meds is to get a full hormonal lab workup done. Ideally, this would be done when you were functioning normally in order to establish a good baseline from which you could compare any future changes in performance against. But, in your case, it would be good to know just the same.
Your neuro likely wont do this, so you would need to seek out an internist, endo, or uro who is sympathetic and willing to do this tests even if there is nothing for them to treat. Many don't want to do it strictly to look or monitor the situation, but you can usually find someone to do it at least once.
By a full workup, I mean more than testosterone. You want testosterone and free testosterone, estradiol, LH, FSH, DHEA, DHT, Prolactin, etc. Meds can increase or decrease many of these and they can cause issues. However, if you come back in normal ranges, perhaps it simply the E itself or just the medication shutting you down in that department by the way it acts on your brain.
Often this is a nebulous area and difficult to see exactly what the cause is, but some baseline labwork is a good place to start with physicians and neuros you trust and who understand your goals (in terms of outcomes you want to see occur).
Finally, don't be afraid to consider something like Viagra if need be. If you have good seizure control, but feel like the AED is causing decreased sexual performance and drive, and you and your neuro don't want to change seizure meds right away, then at least checking if something like Viagra may benefit you may be worth it. It is not ideal, but if it works, it might be a good stopgap until you figure out what is going on. It can also let you know if the vascular component is still functioning and at least remove that as a possible issue from the equation.
You will need to be your own advocate here, but finding the right doc is good start.
Best of luck to you.
Excellent advise!:agree:
resaebiunne
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How did you guys get passed the difficulty brought on by meds? Was it switching seizure meds, just accepting it, or something else?
If you don't mind me asking..
For me the issues were mostly temporary, starting with my initial dose of Topamax. After the first few months it went away and I've not had any hints of it since even all the way up to 400mg/day (which resulted in near toxic blood levels). I'm a mostly asexual person, but even for me the lack of "go" was a bit alarming. I just waited it out and stuck with it to see if it would go away, and it did, and here I am. :twocents:
Thanks for discussing this. My male patients often think it is THEM.no one has bothered to talk to them.For me the issues were mostly temporary, starting with my initial dose of Topamax. After the first few months it went away and I've not had any hints of it since even all the way up to 400mg/day (which resulted in near toxic blood levels). I'm a mostly asexual person, but even for me the lack of "go" was a bit alarming. I just waited it out and stuck with it to see if it would go away, and it did, and here I am. :twocents:
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I am on TRT (testosterone replacement therapy)
I inject 100mg of testosterone a week because of how badly all the meds drag down my natural levels.
Goto your normal doc, he'll test you and see where your at. Mine took into account that i am on 6 drugs as well and found a decent dose for me.
Its annoying injecting yourself, but a month in......You feel like a new man.
If injecting tes will not help you....IDK
but my money is saying it will, no questions asked.
GL
I inject 100mg of testosterone a week because of how badly all the meds drag down my natural levels.
Goto your normal doc, he'll test you and see where your at. Mine took into account that i am on 6 drugs as well and found a decent dose for me.
Its annoying injecting yourself, but a month in......You feel like a new man.
If injecting tes will not help you....IDK
but my money is saying it will, no questions asked.
GL