[Claret]

Texasred it has nothing to do with being anecdotal, and yes men will and do say "I haven't been able to get it up in years". There are men and boys of a very young age that "can't get or maintain an erection". It has nothing to do with age. Sexual trauma can and will affect the body as will other mitigating factors. My point was merely to show that men in their 80s can still have an active sex life. There is no "age" at which things stop functioning which was the initial question.

What Stillness was saying was these mitigating factors include physical issues which in men can cause erectile dysfunction.

Amy40, having had children has nothing to do with the women. Our bodies only have so many eggs and when they stop producing them they stop. Our hormones change over the years causing lack of interest, our secretions dry up causing an imbalance in our bodies and yes lubricant is our best friend. But it just seems that the body doesn't respond the same way when your 80 as when your 20, and over the years it would appear that the "need" to have sex diminishes in a way that it may not in men.

[jns]

What the Mayo clinic and other sites fail to note is that several of the commonly used meds for other purposes, e.g., cholesterol, blood-pressure, even common antihistamines, will cause ED. It's annoying to have to discover this yourself.

Cholesterol is necessary for the production of testosterone. Blood pressure is necessary for a hard erection. Yeah, the doctors don't tell you this as they strip you of your ability to have normal sex. And they tell you that testosterone just above the minimum is still OK. OK for what? Certainly not a normal sex life. Yeah, I found it out on my own, too. I have deliberately skipped those meds before but not my diabetes meds. A lot of deceit in the medical community.

[jns]

Amy40, having had children has nothing to do with the women. Our bodies only have so many eggs and when they stop producing them they stop. Our hormones change over the years causing lack of interest, our secretions dry up causing an imbalance in our bodies and yes lubricant is our best friend. But it just seems that the body doesn't respond the same way when your 80 as when your 20, and over the years it would appear that the "need" to have sex diminishes in a way that it may not in men.

Some women still enjoy sex during their senior years and some men don't care about sex any more during their senior years. There is no set formula, but more men seem to be active at any given age during senior years.

[Stillness]

I've had this conversation with my cousin, who's a physician. I was complaining about medicine and her profession and she gave me her perspective: "You warn people that they need to get a grip on their health issues over and over again, but they don't do it. What are you going to do, not give them medicine? Then they die and/or you get sued for not treating them."

It opened my eyes a bit. It's easy to blame medical professionals for health issues, but whose body is it? A good doctor is key, but so is recognizing that they're on your team, not the other way around. We know the medical profession is flawed, but so is everything. Instead of pointing fingers, we need to take control of our own bodies.

HBP, cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, and a lot of these diseases can be halted, reversed, or diminished with lifestyle changes. It’s a question of values and worldview.

[Texasred]

Cholesterol is necessary for the production of testosterone. Blood pressure is necessary for a hard erection. Yeah, the doctors don't tell you this as they strip you of your ability to have normal sex. And they tell you that testosterone just above the minimum is still OK. OK for what? Certainly not a normal sex life. Yeah, I found it out on my own, too. I have deliberately skipped those meds before but not my diabetes meds. A lot of deceit in the medical community.

SO true! I've finally found a doctor who's of the opinion T levels should be at or above the mean, not merely within the normal range, and from my own experience (this is what "anecdotal" means...), T-level is critical to having a normal libido. And critical to having a normal, healthy outlook on life.

[Texasred]

My guess is that the same phenomenon is true for both men and women, and that having normal hormone levels is key to having a healthy libido.
One more thing: I ve read that iirc plant sterols in beer act like female hormones and suppress testosterone levels in men, in turn reducing libido. Not instantaneously, of course, but over time. I rarely drink more than one beer, and not very often, for that reason.

[amy40]

HBP, cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, and a lot of these diseases can be halted, reversed, or diminished with lifestyle changes.

agree

[amy40]

just heard something this past week on the health news about beer
wish I could remember what it was but know it was good news

[Texasred]

just heard something this past week on the health news about beer
wish I could remember what it was but know it was good news

I'm sure it's like most things: in moderation it's OK, and if I had the excess of testosterone I had when I was young, that small effect from beer would be negligible. Now, though, I steer clear of anything that reduces testosterone.

[WaveRider]

Biology is always controlling.

From my limited knowledge of ED, it seems there's a cause and effect of medication for a health malady and sexual performance.

My ex-g/f told me that her ex-husband developed symptoms of mental illness as he grew older. His psychiatrist prescribed psychotropic meds for him. She told me that she thought meds prevented his achieving maximum erection, and she had to work on him for a long time before he could orgasm. She told me that his meds caused his cum to become the worst she's tasted. Hence, it was his mental malady that caused prescription meds to moderate, and meds caused a decline of his sexual performance. Keep in mind that she's told me many times, the last a week ago, that he was the worse dude she's ever banged. Besides lacking sex skills, his ED caused her to expend considerable effort to put a smile on his face. Hence, she avoided sex with him until she was no longer able to deny him.

From what she's told me, I think his mental issues were present long before diagnosed. He had naive sexual knowledge. His illness probably prevented him from allowing her to teach him how to thoroughly enjoy sex. He made it worse by ridiculing her for wanting innocuous sex acts. The psych meds made bad worse.

I do know dudes who are younger than me who take ED meds. I've never inquired as to why.