Anyone experience ED after using Saw Palmetto?

Posted by kleinbottle @kleinbottle, Jan 27, 2023

I only used it (1x/day) for a few weeks but I have a sudden onset of ED. Stopped using it a few days ago. Any thoughts?

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Profile picture for bewarestudies @bewarestudies

When I was in my early 40s, maybe 41 or 42, about 35 years ago, I decided to try Saw Palmetto, which had been recommended for prostate and male sexual health for a few years at that point. I just took an over-the-counter standardized extract gel cap supplement, 30 capsules, one capsule a day. After about a week I could feel something was different, a little duller blah feeling, but I continued to take it for the full month. By the end of the month it reduced my sexual response about 50%, so in some situations I couldn't even get an full erection or achieve orgasm. In other situations it didn't interfere so much, but it completely dulled the acute response I had before, even after I stopped taking it, and although it's hard to tell exactly when it came back, it took about three years for my sexual response to fully recover. Numerous times over the last number of decades I have reported this problem to an organization and vitamin company I've been a subscriber to since the mid 1980s, which sells supplements that include Saw Palmetto. I reported my experience and I mentioned that there are reports on different forums of many such cases, which in some cases they never regained their sexual function and it ruined their lives, including one report of a particularly tragic outcome. I told the organization there should be a warning or an acknowledgment of the issue. They claimed that they had no reports of such effects. I'm not sure I believe it. They also tried to counter by saying that studies show that Saw Palmetto increases testosterone. This may well be, because by inhibiting the conversion of testosterone to the more potent DHT, it leaves more regular testosterone in the bloodstream, but it's the DHT that is most potent for the sex drive, in most cases, something they fail to comprehend. And in fact people who suffer this effect may have normal levels of testosterone yet still have ED, even after having taken Saw Palmetto for a relatively short time, and having been off it for a long time.

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@bewarestudies this is absolutely correct, and on behalf of everyone that suffers these devastating, confusing and unnecessary effects, I genuinely thank you for sharing your story and for being diligent in following up and reporting these effects to the source of the products in question. You are right on the money in your explanation and the science behind the mechanism. Well said.

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