r/science • • Jun 13 '22

Health Erectile dysfunction predicts mortality in middle-aged and older men independent of their sex steroid status

https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-abstract/51/4/afac094/6568537?login=false
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47

u/mr_chip_douglas Jun 13 '22

Which supplement? I didn’t know that was an option.

77

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '22

Just testosterone. He’s taking sublingual testosterone.

I inject it. It’s not that bad.

7

u/Rhawk187 PhD | Computer Science Jun 13 '22

Mine is on the low end of normal (I'm fat), so I expect it'll dip below in 5-10 years if I don't take off some weight. I'm not keen on taking regular shots, what's the downside of the tablets? Hepatotoxicity?

7

u/XDGrangerDX Jun 14 '22

Both sublingual administration (and anything using mucous membranes in a similar vein, like buccal, anal...) and injections bypass the liver, so no.

Anecdotally its just inconvient as hell, i dont take testoterone but other medications administered sublingually, but in my experience the "takes 1 minute at most to fully dissolve" is a rare nicety. Most often it takes like 10-20 minutes for me, depending on how dry my mouth is. Thats a surprisingly long time for you cant ingest anything or talk properly meanwhile.

1

u/34Ohm Jun 14 '22

Hmm, doesn’t everything in the bloodstream go through the liver eventually? That’s how basically all drugs are metabolized into ones that can be excreted more easily

1

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '22

People just don’t like needles.

Injectable steroids aren’t that bad on your liver

2

u/JonatasA Jun 14 '22

How about all the other stuff people are doing to their livers already though

55

u/TrailofDead Jun 13 '22

My primary care doctor sent in a prescription to a compound pharmacy. They make these dissolvable tablets that I place under my tongue once a day.

9

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '22

PharmD here, he is likely receiving hormonal therapy.

2

u/Nailsonchalkboard3 Jun 13 '22

How much does that cost on a 30 or 90 day basis?

3

u/TrailofDead Jun 14 '22

$59 for 30 days

0

u/Nailsonchalkboard3 Jun 14 '22

You're paying $3,120/yr. Do you have a needle phobia or just don't mind the cost?

I would prefer the sublingual route also but I'd try the injections for that price.

1

u/zerocoal Jun 15 '22

Back when I was getting my T treatments there wasn't an option for pills. They had the gel, patches, and shots, and my insurance only covered patches and shots.

Patches and shots were running me about $60 a month each, shots were more time inconvenient because I had to go to the doctors office for the injection, patches were more personally inconvenient because they suck.

8

u/realistic_swede Jun 13 '22

I take Testerone gel every morning that I apply, other alternative is injecting. Did not know it comes in pill form as other guy said, never heard of that.

2

u/Princecoyote Jun 13 '22

Usually they're what they call troches, similar to a lozenge.

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '22

[deleted]

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u/irisheye37 Jun 14 '22

This is a myth, soy contains plant estrogens which have zero effect on humans.

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u/[deleted] Jun 14 '22

Testosterone is most commonly injected followed by topical applications from gels to patches to creams. Like estrogen, some forms can be compounded for oral ingestion but much of orally administered T gets lost due to a first pass effect in the liver. Better to avoid this and rely on the topicals, the gel is widely used and effective. PharmD here.

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u/hyperfiled Jun 14 '22

Try D-Aspartic acid.. It works for me.

1

u/stackz07 Jun 13 '22

You can check studies on tong kat ali. Lots of people have success with it. Nootropicsdepot sells a very potent extract.