Quarantined
Last October one of the key researchers on PSSD noticed a thread on Reddit about sexual dysfunction post vaccine. Apparently the thread has been quarantined and you have to join the Reddit group to access it – this is likely true about a lot of vaccine related threads.
Here are two testimonies that appear. These are striking for anyone who has PSSD or PFS or post isotretinoin problems.
Anyone else experience a loss of sensitivity in the genital area and a loss of sex drive after covid vaccination? I get this isn’t a life threatening issue but it’s extremely frustrating. I find that if I try to have sexual thoughts that I used to have to get me aroused, my brain and vagina area are disconnected. Though when I masturbate I find I can still orgasm but it’s not to the same intensity and I find I take a longer time to have it and use higher intensity to get there. It feels like I’ve lost overall sensation in the area. My sex drive wasn’t affected at all after the first dose but it did after the second in August. Did anyone experience the same and if so did anyone notice improvement or overall recovery and how long did it take? Are there alternative treatments or supplementation that helped? Many men have mentioned this issue but not so often that women do. 25F here, always had a high sex drive prior.
33m Yes 100% having all these problems. My brain and dick are disconnected, that’s a good way to put it I hadn’t thought of it that way. Sensitivity is lower, orgasm intensity lower, libido lower. I am 5 months removed from a single J&J shot. Started taking cialis recently, although sporadically because it makes me feel like trash, have noticed a little improvement when I take it but overall things are not good. I’m still having days where I feel like maybe things are improving and then inevitably I downturn and unable to get hard for like 4 days in a row. I’ve tried a whole bunch of supplements and nothing has seemed to make any difference. Doctor said the culprit is likely endothelial dysfunction, possibly what’s happening to you as well
There the matter stayed until two weeks ago, when Jean Rees (@JeanRees10) whose tweets are among the most followable in the twitterverse, let me know that there were 166 reports of Erectile Dysfunction and 5 of anorgasmia on VAERS, the US vaccine adverse events reporting system.
I have only looked through twenty or so but these give a different picture to the Reddit posts. They are mostly men presenting within a few days of vaccination to an Emergency Department (ED) with ED (Erectile Dysfunction).
Given that VAERS is said to only get 1% of reports for matters that are not life-threatening and that this is something that many people are coy about, although perhaps not quite so coy as when the problem starts very closely linked to an event like a vaccination, who knows how many the true total might be.
Being medically trained I’m supposed to know something about these things but it was not clear what could be going on – until an extraordinary accident happened.
The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy threw an infinitely improbable bit of text at me. It didn’t come from VAERS, Reddit or any social media source. It came from material as heavily guarded as the contents of Fort Knox and should not have come my way. It seems likely that not even Pfizer, whose vaccine trial it came from, or FDA will know about it.
This is the google translation.
The pain is occasional and mild. I attach by mail the reports of the ultrasounds. Soft tissue ultrasound: Penile region is explored. Glans and bulbocavernosus echo structure preserved. No pathological images are observed at the time of the study. Penile color Doppler: In basal conditions, the cavernous arteries are explored, observing them with its light permeability and speeds at the lower limit of normal (average speed of 15 cm per second) and flow pattern preserved.
At the level of the ventral face, an echogenic image is observed inside the vein, coinciding with the indurated area. dorsal, compatible with thrombosis, which generates total occlusion of the lumen of the vessel. The dorsal arteries are located permeable. The patient is outpatient, oligosymptomatic awaiting consultation with the specialist.
This man has thrombosis (a clot) in the dorsal vein of his penis. Googling this and possible causes will bring you to Mondor Syndrome. The good news is that Mondor Syndrome will usually clear up in six to nine weeks – but we don’t know for sure in the case of this never previously recorded cause. It can be painful but does not kill libido as happened to the people reporting to Reddit.
The next step was to google the published clinical safety report from the Pfizer trial and search under sex – nothing. Several hours later it occurred to me to search under erectile – semi-bingo. There were 5 cases – one on the vaccine and four on placebo.
The interesting bit of this was the trick Pfizer, or Icon, or someone, then played to make placebo look even worse and produce a table with one on vaccine and six on placebo. The trick is to express the figures in terms of patient exposure years – wherever you see patient exposure years you should suspect a drug company is hiding something. Patient Exposure years is all through the Comirnaty Clinical Safety report.
Googling thrombosis didn’t turn up the missing dark matter. There was one mention of penile vein thrombosis – on placebo. Everybody knows that Comirnaty and other Covid vaccines can cause thrombosis but googling all thromboses gives almost no cases, seven on the vaccine versus five on placebo which become seven versus seven – when converted to patient exposure years.
So what’s going on? Well the infinitely improbable case description above came from a file where Pfizer (or Icon the company that really ran the trial – or some subcontractor in between) appeared to be actively trying to make cases disappear.
Did I just happen upon a trace of one of the four placebo cases of ED from a trial of 40,000 people? Or were this man’s problems about to vanish because he wasn’t on placebo? If Pfizer, or Icon who subcontracted to the Platinum Research Network, who subcontracted to Ventavia or any of the other operations monitoring this trial in several different countries could be trusted, we could opt for improbable draw of one placebo case out of 40,000 people. It seems more likely that there is less infinitely improbable explanation.
Are Vaccines Safe
People who have been dependent on SSRIs or who have post SSRI syndromes like PSSD, or people previously harmed by almost any drug have contacted us and asked is it safe to take these vaccines. The answer has always been – that RxISK has no reason to think its not safe.
What’s being said is that we haven’t had convincing stories from people previously harmed who now have a superimposed harm.
What’s not being said is that the academic literature in the very best journals about all our treatments is the greatest concentration of fake literature on earth and there is therefore little reason to believe any of the data these articles offer that indicating there are no harms on treatment.
The Guardian and New York Times and BBC and Facebook will tell you that the trials of these vaccines showed that there were only very few, pretty minor and transient adverse events from any of these vaccines.
Unfortunately the academic articles on which both mainstream and social media depend are not believable. Everybody likes to blame the media but in fact we’d be safer having our trials published in the New York Times rather than the New England Journal of Misinformation.
See New England Journal of Medicine and Disappeared in Argentina.
This report of Sexual Dysfunction is not meant to put anyone off taking the vaccine. It is like the Unexpected Gall Bladder report last week.
Report to RxISK
It would be great to hear from anyone who is on Reddit or other media where these cases appear and from anyone who has any sexual changes – for good or bad – following the vaccines or other treatment for Covid.
We can guarantee a much greater concern for your privacy than Pfizer seem to have. Any comments on this post that are sent in will be anonymized. There are all sorts of things it would be good to know more about – whether vaccine induced Mondor Syndrome clears up quickly and whether there are states that are more like those reported on Reddit.
L says
Intrigued by the description resembling PSSD, I looked for updates on the first story (25F). She also talks about changes in her menstrual cycle caused by the vaccine, which is a possible side effect already noted and discussed by the EMA as well.
I report some of her updates regarding sexual function (the first in this post is from October 15, 2021).
November 7, 2021:
– I’ve had significant loss of libido after 2nd dose, did anyone experience the same? And if it has improved or normalised how long did it take? Is there anything I can do in the meantime to speed up the improvements?
– Maybe, it only started after my second dose which was in august. I lost a lot of sensation in the saddle area in general even not having the urge/sensation for needing to urinate but that has started to return 2-3 months in. Not started any other medications. I’ve had my hormones checked and they’re apparently fine however I don’t know what they were like before vaccination. I don’t think it’s related to physiological or emotional changes as that’s never affected it. I’m thinking it’s something to do with inflammation harming nerves maybe, I need to get my GP to look into it more.
– It’s something to look into. I’ve never had issues with my libido at all ever. Definitely going to do something about it, it’s not what I need I’m a healthy 25F with no underlying comorbidities whatsoever.
– I seen the doc a while back they’ve ruled out cauda equina syndrome. I’m thinking it could either be peripheral neuropathy, endothelial dysfunction or Guillane Barre Syndrome.
Finally, privately, she briefly informed me that she is having improvement:
February 19, 2022:
“Libido started to slowly return 5 months after 2nd dose. I’m 6 months out now. It has improved but not quite where I need it to be yet”.
March 1, 2022:
“things have improved a lot”.
L says
Two PSSD topic opened by a guy on Reddit are having good visibility
The first one was closed after a few hours by the moderators (i.e. it is no longer visible in the main page of the subreddit but still online and commentable). Now 465 comments and 1100 likes: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/t3ewb7/til_antidepressants_can_cause_enduring_sexual_and/
The second one after one day has got 360 comments and over 5800 likes: https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/t6erjn/ysk_antidepressants_can_cause_enduring_sexual_and/
Dr. David Healy says
A recent article on MedPage today noted by Jean Rees.
No one knows for sure why COVID-19 is linked to male sexual woes, but growing evidence, including a new study in monkeys, has suggested that the SARS-CoV-2 virus directly infects the male reproductive system — just like other viruses such as mumps and Zika.
Thomas J. Hope, PhD, a cell biologist at Northwestern University in Chicago, who co-authored the monkey study published as a preprint on bioRxiv, told MedPage Today that his team saw “the same pathology [in monkeys] that we’ve seen recorded in human studies. To an extent, we feel comfortable in saying it’s probably direct infection that’s causing all these problems.”
Hope and co-authors hadn’t intended to break ground on COVID-19 and male sexual health research. They launched their study in rhesus macaques inoculated with the virus to determine if a scanning technology known as immunoPET, which is used in cancer and simian immunodeficiency virus research, could detect signs of SARS-CoV-2.
They used an intravenously injected probe to light up areas that showed signs of infection and conducted PET/CT scans at necropsy to take a closer look. This strategy works because it points the researcher toward elusive antibodies that are akin to needles in haystacks, Hope said.
“If we just take random samples, we can’t learn anything. But if I can make the needle glow, I can grab a handful of hay, hold it up, and open my hand to see if I captured the needle. If not, then I go grab another handful. Through this kind of approach, I can find a tiny little piece of tissue,” he explained.
The technology worked, but not in the way that the researchers anticipated. Unexpectedly, they didn’t find much infection in the lungs, but they did discover a “robust and dynamic signal” of infection in the penises, testicles, and prostates of all three monkeys examined.
These findings suggest that COVID-linked erectile dysfunction, swollen testicles, and semen dysfunction in humans are “likely a consequence of the direct viral infection of the tissues” in the male reproductive tract, they wrote.
Hope said that this study confirms previous research that has found signs of the virus in the male reproductive system. At least two studies, published in 2020 and 2022, have suggested COVID-19 lurks in the testicles.
As a whole, the findings challenge the idea that the male sexual problems linked to COVID-19 could be caused solely by systemic inflammation or symptoms such as fever. “This is all valuable information because we know so little right now, and this virus is hard to follow,” Hope said. “Once we know where the virus is in the body, we can use the appropriate therapy that will get to that spot.”
Why study the virus in the male reproductive system of monkeys instead of humans? “We can’t get access to these tissues except for cadavers,” Hope explained. In vivo tissues are ideal, he added, but men are unlikely to agree to allow a researcher to poke around their privates for research purposes.
Research like this in animals also offers a benefit because scientists can better track how long it takes for cells to become infected with COVID-19, Hope noted. In human cadavers, “the pathology associated with a specific organ could have happened 6 months ago, or 6 weeks ago. It’s variable.”
T. Mike Hsieh, MD, a urologist at the University of California San Diego, told MedPage Today that it will be helpful to understand whether COVID-19 causes male sexual problems via direct infection of reproductive organs or by some other route such as systemic inflammation.
He pointed out that other viruses — most famously, mumps — can target the testicles. An estimated one-third of adult men who get mumps develop swollen testicles, and their sperm count may also drop. More rarely, women can develop swollen ovaries.
Hsieh said that while he has seen cases of erectile dysfunction in patients after COVID-19, “I haven’t seen any convincing long-term, chronic sexual problems from COVID-19.”
What’s next on the research front? While funding is running out, Hope said that his team expects to explore the effects of COVID-19 on the female reproductive system. “I’m optimistic that by the end of the spring, we’ll have multiple female animals that will provide us insights into what’s happening in women,” he added.
Previous research has linked COVID-19 in women to ovarian injury and higher rates of preterm births, ICU admission during pregnancy, and maternal deaths.
author[‘full_name’]
Randy Dotinga is a freelance medical and science journalist based in San Diego.
Test says
Could you please post the document containing the information from Reddit? The current link is broken. If you also have the original URL, that might also be helpful.
Ling says
It has been over a year now since my 1st and 2nd Pfizer vaccination which was in July and Aug 2021. I experienced major fatigue and a total loss of libido. Initially, I thought I was having a burnout from work. Months passed even through periods when I was working out and having a long break. My libido did not return as what it was before. In fact even after a year, it remains to be a mystery of where it has disappeared to. I’m aware there aren’t many studies of the vaccine on women and I hope more women can report more on their side effects. I am a healthy 44 F. I have no prior health conditions as well.
low_water says
I was vaccinated twice, around the end of 2021.
Caught Covid twice, 1st time around the time of vaccination, the other by November 2023.
That’s when I developped long covid (full ME/CFS symptoms, worsening by the day), for about 6 months..
After a single pill of ashwagandha (Solgar root extract, 300 mg) around April 1st 2024, I developped what seems to be a severe form of PFS/PSSD.
The first thing I did was to self-institutionalize 10 days in a psychiatric hospital : extreme anxiety and constant suicidal thoughts, 24/7.
I’ve never been a psychiatric case.
I obviously suspect a link vaccine -> long covid -> pssd.
Long covid’s linked to pssd as many seem to develop it in the same order (after intoxication by a medication, obviously).
I don’t mean to discourage people from vaccination (though I have a hard time figuring out what that vaccine protected me from), but rather to incentivise PSSD researchers to seek collaboration with long covid research, given the momentum this research has gained as of mid-2024 (check the polybio [dot] org consortium of scientists, and the recent bill passed by senator Bernie Sanders on the 10 billion USD to be allocated on lc research over the next 10 years).
I’m also wondering how can ashwagandha still be freely available anywhere in the world (but Denmark) with absolutely no control, given the number of severe PSSD cases reported everywhere on the web… That is absolutely apaling.
Ricardo says
I had both Long COVID (me/cfs phenotype) and PSSD.
Contrary to what people say, these conditions are totally distinct (the vocabulary used by both communities overlap, but that’s just vocabulary).
But there is an undeniable causal link between both : people with long Covid will tend to develop PSSD very easilly from SSRIs (that are criminally given for any condition when physicians are short of any better idea, LC making no exception). I’ve talked to a good dozen of guys who had long Covid and developped full-fledged PSSD from the SSRI they were given for LC. I myself developped what is ostensibly PSSD from a single pill of ashwagandha.
I also talked to some guy (smart, educated) who developped Hard Flacid syndrome (the genital contraction syndrome observed in PSSD/PFS but not only) right after the Covid vaccine. He was diagnosed by skin biopsy as auto-immune Small Fiber Neuropathy, and had been suffering from it for 3 years. He noted he had diskal hernia. He didn’t suffer from any emotional/psychiatric symptoms (dysphoria/anhedonia or fatigue etc) typical of PSSD/PFS.
So that seems to clearly separate the genital set of symptoms as a distinct syndrome within PSSD, and unlinks it from what happens in the mind. There’s rather a common mechanism thst triggers several distinct syndromes in PSSD.
I myself suffered from horrendous anhedonia in the first months of PSSD, that went with complete emotional blunting and panick attacks, even a form of dyskinesia, together with digestive and other physical symptoms (muscle shrinking etc). I also suffered from Hard Flacid right from the start. But I haven’t experienced genital anesthesia before a good 6 months.