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Get Your Sex Life Back! What Everyone Gets Wrong About Sex, Libido & Erectile Dysfunction - Dr Khera

January 09, 2025 / 01:38:29

This episode features Dr. Moitra, a board-certified urologist, discussing sexual health, including the concept of "sex span," testosterone's role in sexual function, and the prevalence of sexual dysfunction among men and women. Key topics include the importance of diet, exercise, sleep, and stress reduction in improving sexual health.

Dr. Moitra explains that sexual dysfunction affects a significant portion of the population, with 43-48% of women experiencing female sexual dysfunction and 30% of men facing premature ejaculation. He emphasizes that many individuals suffer in silence and that these issues are often linked to underlying health problems.

The conversation covers the psychological aspects of sexual dysfunction, including how anxiety and stress can exacerbate issues like erectile dysfunction. Dr. Moitra highlights the importance of addressing both partners in a relationship to improve sexual health.

Additionally, Dr. Moitra discusses treatment options, including testosterone replacement therapy and lifestyle changes, as well as the need for open communication between partners. He also touches on the impact of obesity and diabetes on sexual health.

Finally, Dr. Moitra encourages listeners to seek help for sexual dysfunction and to understand that there are effective treatment options available.

TL;DR

Dr. Moitra discusses sexual health, the impact of testosterone, and effective treatments for sexual dysfunction in men and women.

Video

00:00:00
this term sex pan which I've never heard before what is that sex span is how long you are able to engage in satisfying
00:00:06
sexual activity and most men most women want their sex fan to last as long as their lifespan and there's many things
00:00:13
you can do that significantly prolong your sex fan and I called it the four pillars so let's talk about sex Dr moit
00:00:20
Cara is a board certified urologist and Professor who specializes in male and female sexual dysfunction his
00:00:25
groundbreaking research has significantly contributed to improving sexual health and fertility millions of men and women are suffering from sexual
00:00:31
problems like infertility and sexual dysfunction for example in the US roughly 43 to 48% of women suffer from
00:00:38
female sexual dysfunction which involves four components that we're going to talk about but we also know that premature
00:00:44
ejaculation affects 30% of men globally and also 40% of men at 40 will suffer
00:00:49
from erectile dysfunction and it's the first sign of other major adverse medical problems for example 66% have
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some degree of depression and 15% of them will have a heart attack or stroke within 7 years and if you look at the
00:01:01
causes for Ed one of the biggest factors is obesity which causes the testosterone levels to go down but men need
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testosterone for sexual functions so do women because low testosterone increases low Lio but the issue is people don't
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talk about their sexual problems they suffer in silence and they start avoiding sex but it's curable and I have two ways to raise their testosterone
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techniques to significantly improve the quality of your directions and natural ways to improve sexual function in men
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and women so number one most important is this has always blown my mind a
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little bit 53% of you that listen to the show regularly haven't yet subscribed to the show so could I ask you for a favor
00:01:38
before we start if you like the show and you like what we do here and you want to support us the free simple way that you can do just that is by hitting the
00:01:43
Subscribe button and my commitment to you is if you do that then I'll do everything in my power me and my team to
00:01:49
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00:01:54
you want me to speak to and we'll continue to do what we do thank you so much
00:02:01
Dr Mo Hera who are you and what have you spent
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your life doing so I'm a urologist and I specialize in male and female sexual
00:02:13
dysfunction testosterone replacement therapy and infertility for the past 17 years I've been working as a professor
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at Baya College of Medicine Houston looking at ways to improve sexual health improve testosterone and improve
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fertility and we talked just before we started recording about this term sex pan which I've never heard before what
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is the sex pan and why do you care about it yeah so Stephen you know what lifespan is it's how long you're going to live right and you also know what
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health span is how long you're going to live in a healthy lifestyle but you may not have heard of the concept of sex
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span sex span is the ability to engage in sexual activity satisfying sexual
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activity and so how long you are able to engage in sexual activity is important to most men right um so let's give you
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an example the average lifespan in the United States is 77 years old the
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average Health Span in the United States believe it or not is 67 years old in fact if you look at the CDC and they
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talk about how long you'll live without a disability it's actually 63 so there's a Delta here there's at least 10 15
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years where you will be in some kind of disability and cannot live to your fullest now think about the concept of
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sex span how long you'll have the ability to engage in sexual activity satisfying sexual ity we most men most
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women want their sex span and their health span to last as long as their lifespan yes so I think it's
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important and there's things that I can do to make my sex span last as long as my lifespan there's many things you can
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do and I call it the four pillars the first is Diet exercise sleep and stress
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reduction I don't have a pill on the planet stronger than diet exercise sleep
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and stress reduction and each one of those can significantly improve a man and a woman's sex span but also their
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health span and their lifespan the other is hormones testosterone extremely
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important testosterone supplementation can significantly improve a man and a woman's sexual function and fortunately
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for women in the United States we don't have very many options actually globally for women there's not many options um
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but I think it's important a hormone replacement therapy and I one more thing I think about the couple think about sex
00:04:28
ban as a couple's disease let me give you an example tomorrow Stephen are are you married or yeah well I'm in a
00:04:34
long-term relationship you're your partner so let's say your partner tomorrow says to you I am no longer going to have sex with you unless uh you
00:04:41
cheat on her or you leave her you're not going to have sex again right think about the importance of the couple um so
00:04:47
I talk about this quite often keep your partner engaged keep your partner healthy if you want to prolong your sex
00:04:54
fan so I got two questions here the first of which is who have you worked with in your career and the second
00:05:02
question is what is your CV give me a rundown of your professional experience yeah so I started my residency in 2000
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and uh I did my residency in 2 one year of general surgery I did five years of Urology training and then I did one year
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of a fellowship in men's health soon as I finished my training I joined uh the University at Baylor College of Medicine
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and I started a basic science laboratory where we do a basic science research in sexual medicine and testosterone for the
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past 17 years and I just started a clinical trial so I start have a clinical arm we do clinical research I
00:05:33
see approximately 150 patients a week every week I do approximately 68 surgeries every week and I still work at
00:05:40
the VA hospital it's a veteran government Hospital one half day a week working with the veterans so it's quite
00:05:45
busy um but you know my passion really is education research and clinical care and um and that's what we do and so you
00:05:53
know when I started my where how I really got into this was when I finished my training I was so proud of myself I
00:05:58
was able to get these men these amazing erections these great libidos and uh I
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realized one day this woman called me and she was frantic and she said look uh you're treating my husband you're able
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to get him these great erections great libido but I don't want to have sex with him and he wants to have sex with me all
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the time and now we have a terrible relationship you've ruined our relationship and I thought to myself
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wait a minute uh you know I this doesn't make sense but she was right you know in
00:06:26
in sexual medicine either leave both Le low or raise them both but don't raise
00:06:32
one or the other it's a setup for disaster so very quickly that year I went out and flew out to meet with Dr
00:06:39
Irwin Goldstein who's considered one of the Godfathers of female sexual dysfunction spent some time with him
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went to his courses and for the past 16 years I've been treating women as well you can't just treat one patient without
00:06:51
addressing the other and so therefore it's a couple's disease and give me a flavor of the types of conversations you
00:06:58
have on day one when they walk into your practice when they come to see you what is the issue that they say they have and
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how do they express it like what are the words that they use and if you could just give me like five of the most popular things people say to you when
00:07:10
they come to see you so listen first of all men and women are very different how they express it you know so we'll talk with men most men uh let's backtrack
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most men and women do not get any kind of medical care when they see their primary GP in fact most GPS don't
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address sexual dysfunction there was a study looking at medical students only 65% % of us medical students get
00:07:30
training in sexual medicine and of those 65 50% of those students said that the training was terrible so we don't get
00:07:37
the sexual medicine training to address the problem for patients so the majority of patients are never uh discussed about
00:07:44
their sexual problems but when men come in there's a most of them are coming in because they already have tried some
00:07:50
medications that haven't worked and they're looking for other Solutions now there's a very two simple questions you can ask a man they're very
00:07:56
straightforward are you able to get an erection sufficient for penetration it's either yes or no are you able to
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maintain that erection to orgasm or pleasure it's either yes or no if he answers no to either one of those
00:08:06
questions he suffers from erectile dysfunction right and so it's very important to get a detailed history you
00:08:13
want to ask particularly are you able to get an erection on your own are you able to get erection with masturbation do you
00:08:18
wake up with morning erections if he says look doc I get great morning erections or with masturbation I have
00:08:23
great erections then this has to be psychogenic right with my partner I cannot get an erection but when I'm by
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myself everything works fine psychogenic psychogenic Ed it's a big component what is psychogenic many something in the
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mind that's bothering you or inhibiting you from engaging in sexual activity and
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that's where the sex therapist comes in right because if I if someone tells you I get great erections uh by myself but
00:08:47
with my partner I'm not able to get good erections psychologically when with their whe they're with their partner
00:08:53
they're not able to achieve a good erection sex for men and women has a huge psychogenic component
00:09:00
a huge psychogenic component so I think it's very important to get detailed history are they able to get direction
00:09:06
what did they try what medications have they tried you know you have to query about depression 66% of men who come in with
00:09:13
Ed have some degree of depression 66% right and that's important anxiety 35%
00:09:18
is very important and more importantly we'll talk about this Ed is the first sign of other major adverse medical
00:09:25
problems for example if a man comes into my office today 15% of them will have a
00:09:31
heart attack or a stroke within 7 years 15% the day they get Ed 15% will have a
00:09:36
heart attack or a stroke within seven years it's the first sign other studies Dr monori showed that if a man presents
00:09:43
the emergency room with a heart attack on average 39 months earlier that's when the Ed started so it is the first sign
00:09:50
now there are many reasons for this one theory is called the arterial diameter Theory the penal arteries are the
00:09:57
smallest arteries 1 to 2 mm the coronary arteries are 3 to 4 mm the
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kateed 6 to 7 mm so if you remember from physiology if you're going to block an artery 50% occlusion of an artery causes
00:10:11
a damage so if you're going to block an artery you're going to block the penina arteries before the coronary arteries you're going to block the coronary
00:10:16
arteries before you block the kateed right so men will get Ed before they get a heart attack more more likely to get a
00:10:22
heart attack before they get a stroke that's a theory but it makes sense so I worry when a man comes into my office
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could this man have a cult cardiovascular disease in fact there was a wonderful study that came out of
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Greece they looked at 50 men that walked in and they gave them an echocardiogram or stress test if it was positive they
00:10:42
wanted onto a coronary angiogram what they found is that roughly 20% of men
00:10:47
one in five actually had some occlusion in their heart whether it was one vessel two vessel or three vessel disease so I
00:10:54
think to myself every time I'm writing that prescription is this one of the five that could have occlusion and is
00:11:00
there opportunity to intervene at this point so it's really important to think about cardiovascular disease as well one
00:11:07
of the big subjects that I hear a lot about even in my friendship groups is about libido I've I've got so many
00:11:13
stories in my friendship group of either one or both Partners losing their libido so on this subject matter of libido is
00:11:19
kind of where I wanted to start this conversation what is the most frequent and popular reason why men and women
00:11:26
struggle with libido problems and
00:11:32
how much of of that is about compatibility yeah good question libido
00:11:37
is multifactorial there's many pieces of libido it's very complex and I'll give you some important components first it
00:11:44
could be hormonal and the pneumonic I teach the residents is pet the four hormones that can affect someone's
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libido are prolactin estrogen thyroid and testosterone so you have to check
00:11:56
the pet if the prolactin is elevated the libido goes down the testosterone's low the libido goes down so maybe it's a
00:12:02
hormonal issue which could be it and particularly many women who go through menopause suffer from hormonal issues
00:12:07
and it could be a hormonal issue the second is something called neurotransmitters so in other words
00:12:13
serotonin norepinephrine dopamine dopamine goes up libido goes up serotonin goes up libido goes down so
00:12:19
these all regulate how someone's libido will function so one of the biggest um
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uh culprits for low libido are anti-depressants what do anti-depressants do they increase
00:12:30
serotonin and they decrease libido so sometimes it's a medication or something
00:12:35
that a patient's taking that will shut down their libido for example a medication that men take for urinary
00:12:41
function called finasteride shuts down their libbido so that is there are certain things that you have to look at
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the other components are um lifestyle diet exercise sleep and stress reduction
00:12:53
particularly fatigue and stress if a woman is tired and she's exhausted and she has to between sex and sleeping at
00:13:01
night many times she may choose sleep if me as well right I'm just saying so
00:13:06
fatigue is important stress and there's this cliche this pneumonic this this saying that um with stress is kind of
00:13:13
interesting typically if a man has a very stressful day he will want to have sex to relieve his stress uh women have
00:13:20
to relieve their stress to engage in sexual activity it's kind of the opposite you know what I mean so I tell
00:13:26
men if you really want to have sex with your wife uh do the dish just take out the trash H do everything you can to tuck the kids in bed early relieve her
00:13:33
stress because that will significantly increase her desire to engage in sexual activity but the other one is uh
00:13:39
psychogenic so you know we talked about that earlier you know sex has a huge mental component your relationship with
00:13:46
your partner your uh your the how close you feel with your partner so sometimes patients come to me and they're an
00:13:52
abusive relationship and say and they say give me the pill that improves my libido I said I it's not going to work I
00:13:58
mean the the essence the core the foundation is not working and therefore it's really important for them to see a
00:14:04
sex therapist one thing for men that actually shuts down their libido is when
00:14:09
they start developing erectile dysfunction so if a man starts getting erectile dysfunction let's say he gets a
00:14:16
good erection 50% of the time and he's starting to have some problems and it's 10 o'clock at night and he says look I
00:14:21
can try to engage in sexual activity but it may or not work and it may be frustrating and embarrassing or I can just go to sleep it's probably just
00:14:28
going to go to sleep right and it becomes a vicious cycle because the less sex he has the more difficult it is to
00:14:34
engage in sexual activity later on and so you may interpret this as a low libido but he's really just avoiding it
00:14:41
because he doesn't want to deal with it right but the partner also uh looks at this as maybe I'm not attractive anymore
00:14:47
maybe there's something about me that's not appealing and it becomes a vicious cycle so one thing you can do is
00:14:53
significantly improve the quality of the erections in a man and that actually helps improve his libido so for example
00:15:00
if I tell a man if every night you uh have anere great erection and every morning you wake up with a great
00:15:07
erection what are you going to probably do probably going to use it right so libido inherently goes up right so I
00:15:13
think e Ed and libido are tied very closely how do you define the Tam labido in simp it's a desire to engage in
00:15:18
sexual activity right for men and women and you have to you know when it's a true problem they have to be bothered by
00:15:25
the condition so I just want to be very clear there are women who have low libido and say I really don't care I'm happy that I have a low libido well then
00:15:31
it's not an issue right you have to be bothered by the issue so on this psychogenic element where it becomes a
00:15:37
vicious cycle I've seen this in my own life um several times Well at least once
00:15:43
and I've seen it in some of my friends where because there's a bedroom issue when you go to the
00:15:48
bedroom you're both a little bit anxious and then one of you can't perform and if
00:15:54
you can't perform it exacerbates the issue and it creates this sort of vicious downward spiral of like it makes
00:16:00
the bedroom like a really awkward place to be and this is how I think about when you're talking about psychogenic component so in the in the case of
00:16:07
erectile dysfunction if you're thinking as a man God if I go to the bedroom I'm not going to be able to get it hard I'm not going to keep it up it's going to be
00:16:13
embarrassing she's then going to ask me questions she's going to think I I'm not into her which just makes it even harder
00:16:19
because as a man like I perform best when I'm really not thinking about it
00:16:24
and I'm like not anxious when I'm stress free right and if seems to me that the like antithesis the opposite of great
00:16:33
sex is like overthinking you're 100% correct and this is what happens let's say a man
00:16:39
gets Ed just one time just one time young man he says that was really odd and I I what's wrong you know what he
00:16:46
does next time he has sex as he's having sex he says to himself I hope I don't lose my erection I hope I don't lose my
00:16:52
erection the second he says that to himself as he's having sex he's going to lose his erection right because he's so
00:16:57
worried that he's going to lose the erection and not enjoying the experience so now it's happened twice so now he
00:17:02
engages sex third time and now he's even more freaked out because it's happened twice and it happens again we call this
00:17:08
the Vicious Cycle right because the now sex has become an anxiety event anxiety
00:17:14
provoking event and so you really have to work on decreasing that anxiety and not thinking about it that's where Sex
00:17:20
Therapy comes in hand and that's where a medication called daily Calis has become unbelievably helpful for my young
00:17:26
patients because daily Calis is a medication that men take daily you've heard of Cialis right it's like the
00:17:32
Viagra yeah it's like Viagra right so there's Viagra there's Calis Levitra there's stender there's four different brands but one of the four is meant to
00:17:40
be given daily it's a lower dose 5 milligrams every day and the larger dose
00:17:45
is 20 milligrams when you give a man Calis 5 milligrams every day what it
00:17:51
does is essentially is having that medication on board all the time when he engages in sexual activity he doesn't
00:17:57
have to take a pill he just has has sex whenever he wants to and I found that to be unbelievably helpful in Breaking
00:18:03
psychogenic Ed now that's exactly what that is on the table yeah that's exactly what it is yeah and so these are these
00:18:09
are these are pills um that are in the US but what's nice is they used to be very expensive uh now they if you look
00:18:16
at Mark Cuban and a lot of the uh good RX um companies they men can get 90
00:18:21
pills for5 or $20 which is very cheap you use the word young men yes young men presumably shouldn't be taking pill
00:18:28
shouldn't but what happens when they have psychogenic Ed cuz they think about it the most is they need to break the
00:18:34
cycle what's the cost cuz I'm a I'm got to be honest I'm a pill skeptic yes so I try and avoid taking pills to solve my
00:18:40
problems if I can right obviously there's going to be situations where I can't and I accept that but my bias is
00:18:45
towards figuring out if there's another way before I take a pill right um because everything in life comes with a
00:18:51
cost all things yeah so there must be a cost to taking a pill to solve this problem well the the actual monetary
00:18:57
cost is unbelievably cheap monetary cost is I'm thinking about like do I then get
00:19:03
dependent on this do I have to take this for the rest of my life so so there's no dependency let me tell you why I think that drug is so important that daily
00:19:10
seis has one of the only things in my opinion that actually reverses erectile dysfunction so let's backtrack I give
00:19:17
you an example let's say today you break your leg okay I have two options Stephen I can fix your leg or I can give you
00:19:24
vicadin a narcotic and if I give you the vicad or the narcotic you'll still be able to walk until the vicadin no longer
00:19:31
works and we're in trouble Viagra is a vicadin it is not a cure for your erectile dysfunction it's just masking
00:19:38
the problem daily seis in my opinion is one of the few things that helps cure Ed
00:19:44
if you look at studies and you look at a penal tissue and we biopsy the tissue and then you biopsy three months later on daily seals it physically gets
00:19:51
stronger so let's say you go to the gym today and ask you to lift dumbbells what's going to happen to your arm it will hypertrophy with daily seal we see
00:19:58
hypert of the smooth muscle meaning it gets physically stronger so in my opinion it's one of the best things to
00:20:04
prevent Ed in the future help reverse the Ed process more importantly daily
00:20:10
Calis protects the endothelium and we have to spend some time talking about that that is the lining of the blood
00:20:16
vessels it's the brains and the lining of the blood vessels is very important because once that gets injured you start
00:20:22
getting clot or plaque which will get a heart attack a stroke and a rectile dysfunction so it protects the lining of
00:20:27
the blood vessels two other indications it's FDA approved to help a man urinate better FDA approved it's FDA approved to
00:20:35
protect the heart in terms of something called pulmonary hypertension so in my opinion it's an excellent medication
00:20:41
patients say do I get dependent on I say you do not get dependent on it and H I feel like you're better had you taken it
00:20:46
than had you not you take it for three months you get strengthening of the penal tissue what happens if I stop taking it if you stop taking it there's
00:20:53
a wonderful study by a versa and what he showed was that those patients that stopped taking it after 3 months versus
00:20:58
Placebo still had benefit in terms of endothelial function protection and erectile function protection than those
00:21:05
people that took Placebo so thinking about saying hey if I go to the gym and I work out for three months what happens
00:21:10
if I stop I say well Stephen you're better off had you gone to the gym for three months that's my opinion what is the downside they're side effects so
00:21:16
every drug has side effects right but they're low with five milligrams back pain stuffy nose um headache can occur
00:21:23
in these but it's quite small but I do think that this is one of the medications that really can make an
00:21:29
impact uh in men's health think about it if I told you there's a medication that protects your heart helps your prostate
00:21:35
and helps men with erections it's affordable I think that most men would say I'm in what are the big side effects
00:21:41
that people report when they're on seis so on the larger dose headache stos back
00:21:47
pain is more common with Calis and other medications um but it can be reported remember you shouldn't take these
00:21:53
medications if you have you're taking a nitrate because it can drop your blood pressure um but other than that these
00:21:58
are very commonly used medications throughout the world and they're not suitable for certain people that have certain cardiac disorders I'm guessing
00:22:04
well you know the way this was invented uh this came at first one Viagra came out in 1998 Viagra was in the clinical
00:22:10
trials designed to be a blood pressure medication and accidentally men were getting erections in the trial so these
00:22:17
medications are in my opinion cardioprotective a guy named a very famous uh physician B Dr cloner
00:22:23
published an article recently showing that those men who took daily seis had 133% reduction in cardiac events and a
00:22:31
25% reduction in mortality that just came out because of the potential effects of protecting the endothelial
00:22:37
lining of the blood vessels how does this work to solve for the sort of psychogenic component that we talked
00:22:42
about that vicious cycle people get into with like I'm guessing you're telling me that increases your probability of
00:22:48
having a good erection right but this still isn't really working on a liido is it right so let's say um you started
00:22:55
falling through the Vicious Cycle and you started having Ed and it was two times three times and now I put you on
00:23:00
this medication and every time you have sex you have the most amazing erection of your life and 30 times 40 times three
00:23:07
six months go by and you're having these amazing erections you're relaxed and you're calm then I start going to every other day you still get amazing
00:23:13
erections then I go to once a week you still get amazing erections then I stop you still get amazing erections right I
00:23:19
just need to show you that everything is perfect again and that has a huge value what about for women this is the
00:23:24
unfortunate part we don't have a lot of treatment options for women and if you
00:23:30
look about it if I want to give you an example in 2015 if you and I went into the drugstore in the US Walgreens and
00:23:37
said give me all the drugs to treat women to treat men for sexual dysfunction they would put 30 drugs on
00:23:43
the counter these are all the wonderful treatments for men in 2015 there was not a single FDA approved drug to treat
00:23:50
women for any sexual dysfunction very sad in 2015 the first drug to treat
00:23:55
women for female sexual dysfunction came out and it was called ad or fanin and fanin basically is a drug that a woman
00:24:01
takes every day and increases her desire for sex that's it that's the FDA indication increases her desire for sex
00:24:08
several years later the second drug for women came out this was called VII or
00:24:13
brontide essentially it's an injection that she takes 45 minutes prior to intercourse and it increases her desire
00:24:19
for sex but again we have only two drugs the reason being is because the research
00:24:24
the funding that we have for female sexual dysfunction is far less than we have for male sexual dysfunction and
00:24:31
it's unfortunate because as I mentioned earlier this is a couple's disease and so many times I have to use drugs that I
00:24:37
use for men to help treat women so I do use Viagra for women but Viagra for
00:24:43
women helps arousal so let me explain female sexual dysfunction has four
00:24:49
components one is decreased libido the second is decreased arousal third is
00:24:54
orgasmic dysfunction and the fourth is pain with intercourse these are the four if a woman has any one of these four and
00:25:02
she's bothered by it she suffers from female sexual dysfunction in the US
00:25:07
roughly 43 to 48% of women suffer from female sexual dysfunction significant
00:25:14
number only 19% seek therapy will get therapy so there's a huge number of
00:25:19
women that I say are suffering in silence they suffer from the condition they don't know where to get help and
00:25:25
unfortunately they're not many treatment options available right so it's a big problem and a big unmet
00:25:31
need and on the hormonal component you talked about how if dopamine is up we're
00:25:37
much more likely to be aroused and if serotonin is up then we're much less
00:25:43
likely to be ared correct so this kind of ties into something I was thinking when you were talking about stress and tiredness when I'm stressed and tired is
00:25:51
my dopamine down it can be your cortisol goes up right your C cortisol goes up so
00:25:57
your ability to get excited will go down your fatigue goes up so it makes it much more difficult these and there's more
00:26:04
than just dopamine and serotonin there's norepinephrin there's melen Corton uh there's many other neuro neurosteroids
00:26:11
and it's really just what we call a plus minus game if I have more positives than negatives I'm going to have desire and
00:26:17
I'm also going to have orgasm right that's important also so if you give someone uh too much serotonin and it
00:26:23
goes this way not only does a libido go down but it's difficult to achieve climax or an orgasm so one of the ways I
00:26:30
treat premature ejaculation is I give them an anti-depressant because it delays the orgasm so we have to be very
00:26:37
careful on these neurotransmitters how we use them but if you talked about ad the drug I mentioned all it does is it
00:26:43
increases dopamine and norepinephrine which increases libido so they increase neurosteroids many women particularly
00:26:50
with the hisyory breast cancer like this because they don't want to use testosterone or estrogen hormones this
00:26:56
is non hormonal right it's just neur steroids increasing the desire for sex
00:27:01
can I think about dopamine and serotonin as like a scales yes where if I if I put weight on one end the other one goes up
00:27:07
and if I put weight on the other end the other one goes up yes there is a very famous uh Michael Perman came up with
00:27:12
the Tipping Point and it's basically a scale looking at the pluses and the minuses and if you have more pluses than
00:27:18
minuses liido goes up orgasmic function goes up if you have more minuses essentially your ability to orgasm and
00:27:24
your liido will go down so I want my if I want to be aroused and have a desire for sex and have good sex then I want my
00:27:29
dopamine levels to be high dopamine High oxytocin High norepinephrine High serotonin low what are the types of
00:27:36
activities that make my dopamine High uh well um exercise is can be really high
00:27:44
dopamine other things increase dopamine as well right so um gambling there's
00:27:50
there's certain things that are highs like gambling anything that gives you a high certain foods will cause a dopamine Rush um but they're temporary right and
00:27:57
so that's a problem right because if it goes up and it goes goes back down it crash so you want your dopamine to go up
00:28:02
in men and women so we use medications like Wellbutrin have you heard of Wellbutrin it's an anti-depressant but
00:28:09
that anti-depressant increases dopamine so I use that to help men increase their libido or women to increase their libido
00:28:16
or sexual function I use ad e in men and off label in men and in women to increase dopamine I don't want to do
00:28:22
drugs though I don't want to take any pills so then I would say I need you to exercise and you do but exercise is
00:28:27
critical I need you to sleep I need you to um reduce your stress right those things will significantly improve uh
00:28:34
your libido so what things then lower dopamine because I've spoken to a few
00:28:39
like dopamine expert experts on the show before and they talked to me about this sort of I mean Andrew hubman was telling me that yeah when you do an exercise
00:28:45
like let's say gambling or go on Tik Tok your dopamine's going to go up but then it's going to crash below the base Point
00:28:51
yes and some of us live in this kind of dopamine roller coaster where we're doing these dopamine inducing activities
00:28:56
dopamine goes up it then crashes below and when it gets low we have cravings for dopamine inducing activi so we go
00:29:02
out and want to gamble or go on Tik Tok again or eat something and then it goes up again and then and we kind of live in
00:29:08
this kind of roller coaster of dopamine one of the things that I was told by a dopamine um expert on the show recently
00:29:14
that does that as well that links to some things I found in your work is pornography yes and when we talk about
00:29:19
this psychogenic component we talk about um do dopamine levels how much is pornography
00:29:28
causing this libido crisis yeah pornography and Ed in libido is somewhat
00:29:35
controversial there's some data suggest that it does not cause an issue and there's some data suggest that it does
00:29:41
the first question I ask a patient when I ask a man I say is your Ed present
00:29:46
with pornography also so if he says look I have rectile dysfunction with my partner and I have a rectile dysfunction
00:29:53
with pornography that's very different than when he says I have a rectile dysfunction with my partner and I have
00:29:58
amazing erections with uh pornography right because then I know that there's a psychogenic component as well this is
00:30:05
what I believe I believe that when a man watches excessive amounts of pornography what his expectation is becomes hair and
00:30:12
his reality becomes hair and that Delta causes them to have erectile dysfunction
00:30:19
and low libido they're not getting what they're expecting to get so many times I
00:30:24
question men when they come in uh all when all men who come in for to ask how much pornography are you watching in men
00:30:30
who watch excessive pornography if I ask them to stop watching pornography for a while many will report improvements in
00:30:36
their rectile function and libido so again I do think that pornography in excess can have a negative impact only
00:30:44
because of your expectation and your reality the Delta uh can be an issue I'm
00:30:50
reading some stats here from jamama Network that says the percentage of men between 18 and 24 reporting no sexual
00:30:55
activity in the past year increased from roughly 18 % to roughly 30% in the space
00:31:01
of what looks like just a few years and simil similarly the average number of times American adults engaged in sexual
00:31:08
activity per year has decreased from 60 between 1989 and
00:31:15
1994 to 50 roughly 50 between 2010 and
00:31:20
2024 these shifts suggest a notable shift in sexual behavior over recent
00:31:25
decades why do you think this is happening I think it's more multifactorial so I think one is I think that Ed and sexual dysfunction is on the
00:31:31
rise uh and if you look at uh the causes for Ed uh it's very simple you look at
00:31:37
uh obesity diabetes metabolic syndrome it's a pandemic it's an epidemic throughout if you look at just diabetes
00:31:43
from 1990 to 2022 uh 100% 7% to 14% of the population
00:31:49
one out of eight people globally are obese one out of eight people so these can make it very difficult uh as obesity
00:31:57
and diabetes that go on the rise what happens testosterone levels go down right so testosterone levels go down so
00:32:03
the ability to engage in sexual activity the desire to engage in SE activity will be impaired by these uh conditions I've
00:32:11
got some some graphs here um which show Global obesity Trends Global diabetes Trends I'll put them on the screen for
00:32:17
anyone that's watching on video um also there's been an increase in pornography consumption from what I was able to tell
00:32:23
from doing some research a 2020 study by the University of ant found that 40% of
00:32:29
people aged 35 to 45 who watched 300 minutes of porn a week had erectile
00:32:34
dysfunction in a 2021 study by GMA public health and surveillance and 3,400
00:32:41
men between 18 and 35 years old 20% of the participants suffered from erectile dysfunction and researchers found that
00:32:47
the greater the viewing frequency of pornography the greater the development of this dysfunction yeah and that's 300 minutes is quite a bit of time a week 5
00:32:54
hours minutes five hours five hours a week right so this so that's quite a bit yeah that's quite a bit how important do
00:33:01
you think that is as a component to this sort of fracturing relationships we think about people having sex with each other less yeah we're heading towards a
00:33:08
world of like virtual reality and AI yes what role do you think that's genuinely playing and you you must have private
00:33:14
conversations with men that are really suffering with these things so I I definitely think it's it's a role and it definitely plays a factor but not as
00:33:21
much as the epidemic of diabetes obesity metabolic syndrome we are as a
00:33:26
population becoming more and more unhealthy right as time goes on and I look at again as a piie it's
00:33:32
multifactorial right um most of us now are not our socialization is virtual and
00:33:37
so we are not engaging and going into seeing everything is done virtually and so I think that's an issue um and so I
00:33:44
really believe that pornography is a component but the the decline in overall
00:33:49
health is a major component the decline in testosterone levels decade by decade is also another component as well it's
00:33:56
pretty terrifying that young kids at the age of like 12 13 14 when they open their phones these days will be exposed
00:34:02
to sexually graphic images yeah whether they CH chose to seek them out or not yes and i' I've always wondered what
00:34:09
that's doing to a developing brain you know how it's adjusting your expectations how it's creating some of
00:34:14
those psychogenic factors that are making you less aroused and um and it's
00:34:20
difficult right it's difficult to go out and find a partner you have to like put on the After Shave shave take care of yourself you have to like Risk rejection
00:34:26
spend some money right be interesting right so it seems like if from a evolutionary perspective if I was just
00:34:33
trying to like get my nut off or like yeah I don't know ejaculate I've got this really easy way now like it's so
00:34:39
easy yes three clicks on a computer We're Off to the Races versus like all the effort and rejection and pain of of
00:34:47
trying to find an actual human being to have sex with right and then when I do do approach number one when I log on to
00:34:53
some website and click a couple of times I'm getting no headache I'm getting
00:34:59
whatever I want I can order from a endless list of menus and I'm sure in the near future I'll even be able to make my own yes and in not so distant
00:35:06
future I'll have I'll have it in my house and it'll talk to me yes yeah so it's a problem and you think about the
00:35:13
it's it's making it more difficult for people to socialize right so in other words now when patients or people engage
00:35:18
in sexual activity um and they're usually having sex on the Internet or with pornography when you actually have
00:35:25
actually engage in sexual activity with another person it can be cause anxiety right you get anxious it's not something
00:35:31
that you're doing regularly and so I think that it can become an issue I amum I saw an article this week from an only
00:35:38
fans Creator who posted that one one customer of hers had given her $4 million this year oh my God and you
00:35:45
think about like you think about what it would take for you to spend $4 million
00:35:50
on a parasocial relationship with an only fans Creator sending you explicit
00:35:56
pictures and I don't I don't quite believe we fully understand what's around the corner I agree these stats I think are
00:36:03
nothing compared to what's what's around the corner um and I I don't know I think about it a
00:36:08
lot because when I read these stats about erectile dysfunction being on the rise
00:36:14
and I I read that we're having sex less and less um and then I see this rise in these parasocial relationships I go
00:36:20
[ __ ] know I think think we're just at the start of an exponential curve um let's talk about obesity then yeah
00:36:26
because these these stats here are pretty shocking um this one shows the global obesity Trends which just shows
00:36:32
them going straight up yes which is horrific this one shows Global diabetes
00:36:37
Trends which is pretty much straight up as well yes has there been any studies done that show the link between being
00:36:45
overweight and your probability of having low libido and some kind of sexual
00:36:50
dysfunction issu yes numerous and so let's start with this so obesity it's not surprising that diabetes is going up
00:36:56
because as obesity goes up it causes insulin resistance so obesity and diabetes typically go hand in hand the
00:37:02
problem with obesity is the following obesity significantly drops testosterone
00:37:07
levels so fat cells contain something called aromatase aromatase eats up the
00:37:12
testosterone and converts it into estrogen so the more fat you have the less testosterone you'll have because
00:37:18
you'll convert it into estrogen fat cells also secrete something called cortisol and leptin which shut down your
00:37:24
own natural testosterone production so as it's not Sur surprising that decade by decade as you see an increase in
00:37:30
obesity you see a decline in testosterone levels in men because the testosterone levels will come down as
00:37:35
people become more obese and low testosterone equals low libido low testosterone increases low libido the number one driver the number one hormone
00:37:42
for libido in men and women is testosterone it's a strong driver men and women men and women and don't forget
00:37:49
that testosterone is also signif really important in erectile function men need testosterone for sexual function so do
00:37:57
women right it's extremely important so now I have a hormone that's going down that's going to make it more difficult to get an erection I have a hormone
00:38:03
that's going down that's going to decrease my libido and it's mainly due to this obesity that's occurring one of
00:38:08
the biggest factors so obesity obesity also um uh if you look at the risk factors for Ed obesity diabetes
00:38:16
cardiovascular disease these are all risk factors and so as obesity goes up erectile dysfunction goes up and the
00:38:23
number one condition is diabetes diabetics are four times more likely to have Ed than any other population four
00:38:29
times so I get worried when we see this obesity diabetes pandemic going up because it's increasing only the
00:38:35
erectile dysfunction um Stephen if you look at the Obesity the group that's having the greatest rise in obesity is
00:38:42
adolescence obesity not adult obesity the kids younger and younger ages are
00:38:47
having that age group has the greatest rise of obesity so what does that turn into the younger population are starting
00:38:53
at at lower tea levels and has an implication on fertility because you need testosterone to produce sperm
00:39:01
that's very important so if I just lose a little bit of weight that'll have a big impact on my testosterone levels let's talk about
00:39:08
that it's not a little bit so the best study was at the European male aging study Fred woo and what he showed was
00:39:14
this it's a bidirectional relationship if you lose 10% of your body weight you
00:39:20
can actually gain 85 nanogram per deiler in serum testosterone if you lose 15% of
00:39:26
your body weight you can actually gain 250 nanogram per deciliter in serum so it's actually significant if you can
00:39:32
lose but it also goes the other way you gain weight you drop the tea proportionally as well the only issue is
00:39:39
I can get the patients to lose the weight but I can't get them to sustain it many times they gain it back right
00:39:46
but if they can keep the weight off it significantly increase uh the testosterone levels the the best data
00:39:51
we've seen is in the bariatric surgery data if I do bariatric surgery on a patient which to help them lose weight
00:39:57
weight you can shrink the stomach we do surgery to help them lose weight they lose quite a bit of weight their tea
00:40:02
levels go quite up right and so again there is a strong correlation between weight and testosterone have you gotten
00:40:10
examples of patients where you've given them testosterone treatment in some form
00:40:15
you've done something to increase their toest testosterone and you've seen a remarkable reported difference in their sex life all the time yeah so so first
00:40:23
let's backtrack there's two ways to give a person testosterone uh if I give a
00:40:29
young man testosterone remember it causes infertility so you would never give someone testosterone if they're
00:40:34
planning to have children right that's very important right so I have two ways to raise their testosterone I can give
00:40:40
you medications to raise your natural testosterone there's several there's a pill called chopine citrate there's HCG
00:40:47
I can use medications to raise your own natural testosterone and they preserve your fertility the second option is I
00:40:54
can give you medications like testosterone there's seven of them but they will shut your natural production
00:41:00
down not only will they shut your natural testosterone production down but they will shut down your sperm
00:41:05
production now if you've already had your kids you're 60 years old your testosterone level is already low in the
00:41:11
first place what are you preserving okay it makes a lot of sense and there's seven ways to do it my favorite way are
00:41:18
the injectables and the oral testosterone they are fantastic oral testosterone is quite interesting you
00:41:23
know first of all testosterone was invented in 1935 this is not a new drug 1935 and oral testosterone initially was
00:41:31
feared because it would actually cause liver toxicity and liver cancer and it wasn't until the 1970s when they were
00:41:38
able to make oral testosterone uno8 and what's nice about uno8 it bypasses the
00:41:44
liver no cancer but it had to be taken three to four times a day it was available in the UK as a drug called
00:41:50
andreal all over the world but not the US the US we did not get our first oral
00:41:56
testosterone till 2019 and then 2022 we received two more and now we have tando
00:42:03
jatenzo and Kaiser Trex is our oral they're taking twice a day with a meal what's nice about Kaiser TRX it's
00:42:09
actually available in the UK so in the UK now they can actually get Kaiser TRX as well but oral testosterone most
00:42:14
patients don't mind taking a pill uh it seems very easy to do so should someone like me be taking testosterone if your
00:42:21
levels are low yeah and you're symptomatic and I think that's very important if a man comes in with low
00:42:27
levels of testosterone and says I feel great I have no symptoms I said I'm not giving it to you these are the symptoms
00:42:33
low energy yeah low libido erectile dysfunction decreased muscle mass increased fat deposition poor sleep and
00:42:40
depression these are some of the common symptoms you'll see most sensitive symptoms are the sexual symptoms
00:42:46
erectile dysfunction and low libido so if he says I have these symptoms and my
00:42:51
levels are low and I recheck it and confirm that it's low that man is a candidate for testosterone therapy
00:42:57
but if he's young hasn't had has have children yet I'm going to say look let's hold off on giving you testosterone and
00:43:03
use medications to make you make testosterone and if you don't want to take medications actually there are many
00:43:10
things you can do on lifestyle modification to raise your testosterone we talked about weight loss as well so
00:43:15
let's live in this area here you are too young to take testosterone now but
00:43:20
conversely let's say a patient comes in and has every single sign and symptom of low testosterone but his testosterone
00:43:26
levels are normal I'm not giving him testosterone because it could be something else maybe he's depressed
00:43:31
maybe he has a low thyroid something else is going on so you must have signs and symptoms and a low tea level to be a
00:43:38
candidate and if you fit that then you may benefit what about women so this is important in 1935 when testosterone was
00:43:44
invented uh it wasn't many years later till they actually started using testosterone in women and early reports
00:43:50
of testosterone women were actually quite remarkable the earlier manuscripts describe improve uh quality of life
00:43:56
improve libido and if you and I walked into the drugstore today and said give me the testosterone for women it does
00:44:04
not exist there's not a single FDA proof testost for women in the United States um but we have well over a dozen for men
00:44:12
can you explain this to me just because I want to make sure I'm clear why would a woman take testosterone because when I
00:44:18
think of T testosterone I think of men yes so women make more testosterone than any other hormone in their body make
00:44:24
more testosterone than any other hormone in their body right and when women have higher levels of testosterone they tend
00:44:31
to see a greater Improvement in libido muscle mass bone mineral density uh sense of well-being uh some of reported
00:44:38
improvements in cognition as the testosterone level goes down we start seeing these symptoms particularly low
00:44:44
libido if you give a woman back her testosterone she will many of these women see a significant Improvement in
00:44:50
their libido but the issue is that we don't have an FDA approved product for
00:44:56
testosterone in the United States I think in the UK you call it off license we call it off label now in the UK they
00:45:03
did have one they had a wonderful patch called intrinsa and then the women in the UK could get the patch for testosterone go into the drugstore NHS
00:45:09
covered it and it was fine uh then they had andram and andram was actually approved and now no longer is approved
00:45:15
so now in the UK you also don't have an onli medication the uh you can still get
00:45:22
andram from Australia but unfortunately uh it's very difficult to get so do we do we use the drugs for men and we give
00:45:30
it to the women in on10th the dose that's all we do so if we have a packet that's a man puts on a day we say use
00:45:36
one tenth of the packet every day for the women and they can see significant improvements it is not illegal to give a
00:45:42
woman testosterone it's just considered off label or off license but they they see significant improvements in what
00:45:49
sexual function by far the most libido goes up no question I many women report
00:45:54
that muscle mass if you think of testosterone bodybuilders take testosterone for a reason why it
00:46:00
significantly improves muscle mass it can decrease fat deposition many patients will import improvements in
00:46:06
cognition it can help with bone mineral density as well in men and women and I also believe in depression so I think
00:46:12
testosterone does help with depression I just want to just make a very important Point testosterone is not just about sex
00:46:20
there are five other things that you need to think about uh in men and women and I want to talk about those men with
00:46:26
low testosterone l levels are much more likely to have a heart attack non-negotiable men with low testosterone
00:46:31
levels are much more likely to have diabetes obesity men with low testosterone levels are much more likely to suffer from depression men with low
00:46:38
testosterone levels are much more likely to have a bone fracture so it's not just about sex it's about their overall
00:46:44
health and if you were to check one blood test to assess a man's overall health it's his testosterone level one
00:46:50
blood test to check his overall health it will be because I have it affects heart diabetes obesity um bone mental
00:46:57
density energy muscle mass erections libido one blood test I can't think of another blood test that is a better
00:47:04
barometer of overall health I want to get clear on something because I've heard people talking on my podcast before about HRT yeah and women taking
00:47:11
HRT because of menopause and things like that should they be does HRT have
00:47:17
testosterone in it no so typically when we say HRT we're talking about estrogen and progesterone typically yeah and
00:47:24
typically when we talk about trt testosterone placement it's a little bit different in a woman there's something I
00:47:29
call the triangle and it's just basically estrogen progesterone and testosterone just simple and if you have
00:47:36
a woman who's deplete in estrogen testosterone and pro estrogen progesterone testosterone and replace it
00:47:42
many of those women feel better right so many of them do there are other hormones that are also important I call it the
00:47:48
outside Circle cortisol thyroid growth hormone we look at those as well and so
00:47:54
I think those are also very important and I tell them we're going to going to optimize your uh hormones but what
00:47:59
you're going we're going to optimize your medical condition but that is only 50% of the story the other 50% again is
00:48:06
Diet exercise sleep and stress reduction and if you do your part and I do my part
00:48:12
we're on fire we're absolutely on fire but you have to do your part same with men I put you on the testosterone I
00:48:17
optimize your medical conditions and but you got to exercise you got to eat right why aren't women being prescribed
00:48:23
testosterone then right because it's considered well in many countries it's on in Australia it's available in the UK
00:48:30
it was available and many women are being prescribed testosterone it's just off label it is the first time that I've
00:48:35
seen someone on my show anyway really emphasized the point that testosterone isn't Just For Men it's for women as
00:48:42
well um and it can significantly improve their quality of life talking about testosterone one of the big
00:48:48
conversations that's rattling on on the Internet is about this decline in male test testosterone over the last couple
00:48:53
of years what exactly is that decline if you had to sort of quantify it if you
00:48:59
look at the original studies we call it the Framingham heart study back in the 70s testosterone levels were roughly
00:49:04
around the 700s average men between the ages of 18 and 40 were around the 700s and every decade we're starting to see a
00:49:11
decline almost by 50 nanogram per deciliter and so the latest in the 2015 numbers are roughly in the mid 400 so
00:49:18
we've seen almost a 300 nanogram per deiler decline in serum testosterone which is significant because has two
00:49:24
implications uh it's not just about uh the way you feel and um energy muscle
00:49:29
mass erectile function but that low testosterone can have implications on fertility that's really important so we
00:49:35
didn't talk about that but fertility Testo sperm need testosterone low testosterone decreases your sperm count
00:49:42
sperm counts have also been on the decline as well so you know I think it's really a testament to the fact that
00:49:48
decade by decade we're becoming a more unhealthy population do you think that's
00:49:53
really the heart of it is that is the sort of our diets and the way we live and becoming more sedentary less exercise more um processed food Etc do
00:50:00
you think that's the hard of I think that's the key that's absolutely the key the types of foods we eat the processed
00:50:06
foods that we eat high fructose High carbohydrate diets um in and if you and and the way we know that is just look at
00:50:12
the Obesity look at the look at the diabetes there has to be a reason why it's on the rise right and on that point
00:50:19
of fertility I'm in a season of life where I'm going to be trying to have kids pretty soon what's the most
00:50:26
important things I should be thinking about from a lifestyle perspective in your view yeah so I I tell patients Darwinism in other words survival of the
00:50:33
fittest healthier people are more fertile right you're passing on the genes so uh so so essentially uh we tell
00:50:40
patients the number well the number one cause of infertility in in the world for men is a verical a verical is the
00:50:47
swelling of the veins around the testicle you know how women sometimes can get swelling of the veins in their legs you see those veins that are kind
00:50:53
of obvious well men can get those veins dilated around the testicle and those varicoses can impair sperm production
00:50:59
now 15% of men in the world walk around with varicus seals but up to 40% of men with infertility will have verical so
00:51:06
it's really important to assess for the varic casales but lifestyle modification each one again diet exercise sleep have
00:51:12
been shown to help improve fertility in men as well so I say healthier people are more fertile I need you to start
00:51:19
getting healthier that's very important we raise the testosterone level in many of these men naturally we don't give it
00:51:24
to them to help improve their fertility as well but check Stephen check your SE analysis that's the simplest thing you
00:51:30
can do check it right I did yeah it's a great predictor it's not just you know there was so many amazing studies
00:51:36
showing that a semen analysis is a phenomenal predictor of overall health
00:51:41
many studies showing that if your semen analysis today is impaired it's a predictor of you having comorbid conditions today like diabetes obesity
00:51:48
metabolic syndrome it's also predictor of prostate I mean Cancer so we know that if you have infertility you're at a
00:51:54
higher risk of having testicular cancer than those that don't have infertility it's also a predictor of who will have
00:52:00
problems in the future Mike Eisenberg once showed a very nice study men who have low sperm counts uh can have a 30%
00:52:08
increased risk in diabetes 50% increased risk in hemic heart disease in the future uh Tom wall showed those men
00:52:14
could have 2.5 times higher risk of high-grade prostate cancer in the future so again to me it's just a marker of
00:52:21
overall health check the Sean analysis I did that and it was quite I was actually to be honest I was really quite nervous
00:52:26
about it because as someone who's you in my early 30s and wants to have kids I was really scared that it would come
00:52:31
back and say that like my sperm is um dysfunctional and I've got a huge amount
00:52:37
of empathy and um you know feelings for people that do
00:52:42
those analysis and get bad results back 15% of all couples in the world 15%
00:52:48
suffer from infertility that's a lot and if you think about it um 30% of the time
00:52:53
it's a male Factor 30% 20% the time it's a male and a female Factor combined so
00:52:58
indirectly a male is involved 50% of the time when you have infer an infertile couple and it can be devastating for
00:53:05
that couple I mean psychologically devastating and what's also interesting is that um most couples most couples 50%
00:53:12
of couples don't seek therapy and of those couples that do seek therapy this is globally only 25% of those couples uh
00:53:19
actually go forward uh and and and and so I call this a group of individuals
00:53:24
that also suffer in silence they should know that there are excellent treatment options available this um this graph that I had
00:53:32
printed out is just shocking to me it's going back to the point about testosterone but the the really shocking
00:53:38
thing is how quickly this has happened yeah because this is the year 2000 and
00:53:43
this is the year 20156 year and the decline there is from roughly
00:53:49
600 nanograms is it yes nanogram per deciliter nanog per deciliter to roughly
00:53:55
for some age group groups here 400 yes m per deciliter and that's only in 16
00:54:01
years yes so if you play that forward another 16 years there's going to be a bit of an infertility crisis there is
00:54:08
fortunately on that graph it's plateauing a little bit which makes me feel a little comfortable okay oh yeah it is actually fling just a little bit
00:54:14
um but you're right it could be a significant crisis um and again as I mentioned it's the adolescence the
00:54:20
younger folks who are having the greatest rise of obesity and that's where fertility comes in because
00:54:26
fertility obesity in someone in 60s is not concerned about fertility but a young patient who has infertility
00:54:32
obesity will have a higher risk of infertility if you're an entrepreneur you're probably going to want to listen to this it's a message from one of our
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00:55:35
and my partner came to you and we said listen we've got sexual problems in the bedroom um what are the steps that you
00:55:41
would the things you'd look at that we haven't focused on so much today is there anything particular you'd say okay
00:55:47
and I I'm trying to stay away from being prescribed a pill so I want to do anything natural I can before I get to
00:55:52
that and then we'll talk about some of the other more drastic measures one can take natural things because everyone wants to know about what's the natural
00:55:58
things I can do so when we talk about diet there's certain diets that have been helpful to improve sexual function
00:56:03
for me it's the Mediterranean diet the Mediterranean diet is rich in whole grains legumes um fruits vegetables and
00:56:10
if you look at red meat and sweets It's once a month if you look at poultry it's maybe once a week but mainly fish those
00:56:16
diets have typically been anti-inflammatory diets many Studies have shown that that diet can
00:56:22
significantly improve erectile function and one study the medita trial actually showed that it improves sexual function
00:56:27
in men and women so I'm a big believer in using the Mediterranean diet when Esposito did her first trial it was a
00:56:34
prospective trial 110 be obese men 55 men get the Mediterranean diet 55 men uh
00:56:40
don't get any intervention at all she falls in prospectively for two years what does she find not only a
00:56:46
significant Improvement in endothelial function remember that lining of the blood vessel but a significant Improvement in erectile function in
00:56:52
these men no Viagra no pills nothing simp simply changing the diet improved
00:56:58
the erectile function the same with sexual function in women so that's an important one the second is sleep let's
00:57:05
talk about sleep so studies show that if you're getting less than six hours of sleep a night it significant increases
00:57:11
your risk for sexual dysfunction in men and women right your ideal amount of sleep should be 7 to8 hours now let's
00:57:18
say you say well that makes sense maybe I'm going to get sleep sleep for 9 to 10 hours because the more sleep I get the
00:57:24
better my sexual function but that's not true it plateaus so if above 9 hours it
00:57:29
does not increase your ability or sexual function so 7 to eight hours of sleep at night I need you to get third is I
00:57:35
really need you to focus on um uh exercise so I published a very nice
00:57:41
study looking at uh it was a metanalysis on how much exercise one needs and what type of exercise to actually improve
00:57:47
erectile function in this study typically you need 160 minutes a week so 40 minutes four times a week for a
00:57:55
course of six months of moderate or to severe exercise vigorous exercise and so most people can get 160 minutes in a
00:58:01
week of exercise but that's getting your heart rate up and doing the exercise significantly improved erectile function
00:58:07
in men if you did that and the more severe your Ed was the greater Improvement you saw in erectile function
00:58:13
strictly by exercise alone no other intervention St just exercise so here you have a patient that now starts doing
00:58:20
some exercise starts sleeping better starts changing the diet it's all additive you are now sick significantly
00:58:26
improving erectile function just by lifestyle modification alone pretty profound that exercise can
00:58:32
have such a big impact isn't it is that the same for women it is true because many of the things so unfortunately once
00:58:39
again the research we have in women is not close to what we have in men but the med trial was also in women the sleep
00:58:46
studies were also in women um and so these studies also show that sexual function can be improved with um uh
00:58:53
sleep and with diet um I think that men and women are not that different I mean if you see a significant Improvement in
00:58:58
a male sexual function uh with diet exercise sleep um you can also see it in women as well actually there was a great
00:59:04
study this looked at 110 women and they had coronary artery stenosis they did angiograms on 110 women and they showed
00:59:12
that the greater her stenosis she had the worse her sexual function so the greater the blockage in her heart the
00:59:18
worse her sexual function they put those women on a cardiac rehab program to actually improve their cardiac function
00:59:25
so a diet and ex exercise program and those women that actually put through the were through the program fourfold
00:59:31
increase almost in their sexual function well 400% fourfold that's right because we use a questionnaire called the fsfi
00:59:36
which is a questionnaire so significant Improvement in sexual function just on improving cardiac function so remember
00:59:43
cardiac function and sexual function are related and it's bidirectional you improve one you improve the other it's
00:59:49
very important we didn't we talked about this earlier 40% of men in the in the
00:59:54
world at 40 will suffer U from erectile dysfunction 40% 40% Jes 50% at 50 60% at
01:00:02
60 70 at 70 80 80 you do the math it essentially is a very prevalent
01:00:07
condition this condition is associated with increased cardiovascular vents it's a first sign of a heart attack we talked
01:00:13
about that this condition is associated with two and a half times more likely to be anxious three and a half times more likely to suffer from depression and
01:00:20
this condition is also associated with diabetes in other words men with Ed two times more likely to have undiagnosed
01:00:27
diabetes and yet only 50% of men even talk about it because they're so
01:00:32
embarrassed so you show me another condition in the world that affects more men's lives that's associated more
01:00:38
adverse conditions and they're too embarrassed to speak about it they suffer in silence there's not another
01:00:43
condition there's not another condition but yet we're embarrassed to discuss it I used to give these lectures and I would look out to the audience I'd say
01:00:50
please raise your hand if you suffer from hypertension and many people raise their
01:00:55
hand and they have high blood pressure they say okay please raise your hand if you suffer from sexual dysfunction no
01:01:02
hands go up but statistically you know that over 50% of those people had sexual dysfunction so why is it okay to raise
01:01:08
your hand if you have hypertension but not okay to raise your hand if you have sexual dysfunction it's got to stop we
01:01:13
have to destigmatize it's okay to have sexual dysfunction it's a common Condition it's curable why don't men
01:01:19
raise their hands from a psychological standpoint why is that I think they're embarrassed I think that I think that we're historically sexual dysfunction
01:01:26
looks as a like a weakness I'm not a man less of a man you know you have hypertension it doesn't mean you're less
01:01:31
of a man right but they have this assumption that it's a weakness a less of a man and I and I think that it's
01:01:38
okay you have to be comfortable saying that you have sexual dysfunction there are amazing treatment options for sexual
01:01:44
dysfunction amazing that work very very well you just have to raise your hand
01:01:49
and let me know that you have it I just want to make one other comment about diabetes there was a study that came out
01:01:55
of St Louis looking at young men 18 to 40 years old and they were screening
01:02:00
them for erectile dysfunction and what they found was when those men came in for erectile dysfunction 30% of those
01:02:08
men had pre-diabetes or diabetes on that day on the day they were being diagnosed
01:02:13
30% and I thought to myself young men do not go get screened I remember when I
01:02:19
was 30 years old I didn't go in for my annual blood pressure check and my anual sugar check there's no way I'd get my
01:02:24
glucose checked but if I young man gets erectile dysfunction he is at my front
01:02:29
door first thing tomorrow morning they show up that's the first thing they're going to do because it's a very big condition to them and they want to get
01:02:35
treated and that is the opportunity to treat these young men and treat the
01:02:41
condition if you see a young man or someone who comes in for Ed and you screen them for uh diabetes and I catch
01:02:47
the diabetes at 30 as opposed to 40 that is 10 years of damage on the vessels
01:02:53
that you're saving because you catch the disease early early so Ed is the gateway
01:02:58
to Men's Health and to treating men early before it's too late so I really use Sexual Health as a tool a vehicle to
01:03:05
improve overall health because men take Sexual Health much more seriously particularly young men have you ever had
01:03:11
sexual dysfunction I have not never in your life I have not I have I have
01:03:17
not it doesn't mean that it's not but it's okay if I did it's not it's there's nothing wrong with it right there's
01:03:23
nothing it's normal it's okay and it's it can be temporary and come back right it's it's nothing wrong with having
01:03:29
sexual dysfunction we must destigmatize it it's completely Okay the reason I'm sharing this is because if anyone else
01:03:35
has been in the situations the situations I've been in are um generally my sex life has been been good my whole
01:03:41
life but there's been certain times with certain Partners or you know you might be drunk a little bit or in the day when
01:03:48
I was single there was like the oldd person who for some reason it just
01:03:54
wasn't working for me and or there was other instances in a previous relationship where near the end
01:04:00
of the relationship I'd like lose my erection during sex and that became a
01:04:06
little bit bothersome for me because I was like oh my God like it almost made me not want to have sleep with this person or it convinced me that maybe I
01:04:13
don't like them anymore or something else was going on and for me it has always been what's the word used
01:04:19
psychogenic yes it's always been in my head that the problems have arose and the other part of thing that I've
01:04:24
experienced a lot is in terms of libido I have like no libido when actually slight
01:04:31
different when I'm when work is very very busy and I'm very very tired and I
01:04:37
come home very very late it's not that I'm not horny but I
01:04:44
just the act of sex is just really unappealing but you're just like everyone else you're not unique when it
01:04:50
comes to that yeah but that much of my life is like that like I come home late a lot and
01:04:56
so I'm I'm I'm like tired and stressed quite a lot right but what if I took you and your partner and put you on a
01:05:01
beautiful island in Hawaii for two week we have great sex okay yeah so that's what we kind of like how we've orientated our life honestly okay that's
01:05:08
genuinely how we've orientated our life because I just don't think the way I obviously want to make lifestyle changes to make sure that I'm not always coming
01:05:13
home tired and stressed at 11: p.m. but one of the things that's really helped us is you know going away on the
01:05:19
weekends right and going away maybe on Friday and coming back on Monday and getting out of the same context so like
01:05:24
getting out of the house going to a even like going to a hotel room it's actually a bit of a game changer that you can just like go to a hotel room in the same
01:05:31
city like a Booker station yes and that seems to have a big impact because it just removes you from the context right
01:05:37
and then like yeah going away for the weekends holidays and stuff a lot of my friends say to me they go when they're struggling with their sex life they just
01:05:43
like book A book a local a local sort of station yeah and I wonder why also I
01:05:48
don't have kids so I've not experienced the impact that kids can have have a significant impact really right because
01:05:54
it increases your stress right particularly for your many times for the partner as well so if you both are stressed because of the children sex
01:06:01
goes lower and lower on the totem slept as well right if you're not sleeping if you to wake up and like oh gosh isn't
01:06:07
there stats that say like when someone has a kid their sex life like vanishes for 18 months or something I don't know I'm not familiar with that St but I
01:06:13
believe it I believe it I believe it I read something about post having a kid
01:06:18
liido but also like sexual function it makes sense I see it in in couples and particularly you know many times um it's
01:06:25
take years for them to start engaging sexual because the stress is so high particularly when they originally have the child there was a British study done
01:06:32
that found over 80% of women experienced sexual problems 3 months postpartum with nearly two3 still affected at 6 months
01:06:39
yes which is which is a lot of it's a lot of women a lot of women and that's significant amount of time so what about
01:06:45
premature ejaculation let's talk about it very important 30 so sexual disfunction we've been talking about Ed
01:06:50
today right but there's many different types of sexual dysfunction there's premature ejaculation there's Peron
01:06:56
disease there's delayed ejaculation we're just focusing on one aspect premature ejaculation affects 30% of men
01:07:04
globally 30% of men how do you define that there's two ways to think about it when they come in you have to figure out
01:07:09
is this lifelong going their whole life or is this acquired it's very important because it takes me down two different
01:07:14
roads if you say look I've never had premature ejaculation and yesterday it started that's very different than if
01:07:20
you come to me and say my whole life I had premature ejaculation and we now Define premature ejaculation as having
01:07:25
an ejaculation less than 2 minutes used to be 1 minute less than 2 minutes you have to have a loss of control like I
01:07:31
couldn't control it and you have to be bothered by it so if you tell me Stephen look I ejaculate in 30 seconds and I'm
01:07:37
happy I say great then we're done you know you are content you have to be bothered by the condition the EAC
01:07:43
average ejaculatory time in the United States is 5.4 minutes on average right the average time for a woman to achieve
01:07:49
orgasm is typically 13.4 minutes so there's a big discrepancy here as you can see right so 30% of men suffer uh
01:07:57
but we know that only a small percentage of these men 9% of these men will ever seek therapy and it can be a significant
01:08:03
problem in a relationship um uh and that needs to be addressed okay so there's not like a time limit it's not like okay
01:08:10
if you're coming within two minutes then you got a problem well let's say you're not bothered by it let's say you and your partner are completely satisfied
01:08:15
with it what's the problem okay what's the problem and and sometimes let if you think about acquired uh means that
01:08:22
typically we Define it as 50% less than your normal time so if you say look I typically used to ejaculate in 8 minutes
01:08:29
and now it's 4 minutes and it's bothering me I'd say okay that that's an issue um you know so we talk it's
01:08:36
relative what what's comfortable for you and some men will say you know so I think it's very important to look at the
01:08:42
definition the treatment options are actually quite simple one of the best treatment options is sex therapy because
01:08:47
we can train your mind we can train you to delay that ejaculation there's techniques the start stop technique The
01:08:53
Squeeze technique how we can delay it no but there is but most men say just give me a pill I don't I don't have the time
01:08:59
for this just give me a pill but there are ways to do it with Sex Therapy which I think are fantastic sex therapy is a
01:09:05
cure the pill is just a Band-Aid right Sex Therapy is a cure but the pills that we use the most common Ed pills are
01:09:12
anti-depressants because they increase serotonin and make it harder to ejaculate well that's what we want in
01:09:18
this situation we want to delay the ejaculation so we can use anti-depressants they sometimes have be
01:09:24
taken daily which work better or you may have to take it on demand but if you take it on demand 6 to8 hours ahead of
01:09:31
time so you need some notice but there's going to be significant side effects of taking anti-depressants there are side
01:09:36
effects of anti-depressants so I try to stay away from them and the other ones I try to use are topical Liane sprays
01:09:42
because if I decrease the sensitivity of the penis you're more likely to be able to engage in sexual activity for a
01:09:47
longer period of time so those are commonly used so sex therapy and sprays are very easy to use you don't need a
01:09:53
prescription for sprays uh and they're common use one thing that we have to talk about
01:09:58
that's really important is the Traverse trial it's really big everyone
01:10:03
historically has always said that testosterone is dangerous it causes prostate cancer and it causes a heart
01:10:09
attack and a stroke and in 2015 there were some studies that suggested
01:10:14
testosterone may cause a heart attack before 2015 all the studies suggested that there was no increased risk so in
01:10:19
the United States they mandated that there' be a large trial 5,200 patients
01:10:24
six years long strictly to decide does testosterone increase the risk of a
01:10:30
heart attack so myself and eight others designed the study ran the study for six
01:10:36
years and we published it last year it finally came out and it showed that there was no significant increase in
01:10:42
cardiovascular events finally but until that time until that came out many people said I still believe that
01:10:47
testosterone causes a heart attack but when the Traverse trial came out the largest randomized speciic control trial ever published we finally showed that
01:10:54
giving testosterone didn't not increase the risk of a heart attack in fact the study also showed it did not increase the risk of prostate cancer many people
01:11:01
were worried that testosterone causes prostate cancer and no negative effect
01:11:06
on urinary symptoms so many people have thought that if I give testosterone the urinary symptoms become worse the study
01:11:12
showed no worsening of urinary symptoms so very important study the Traverse trial finally came out it's the largest
01:11:19
trial in men ever published on testosterone will it reduce my lifespan will at low testosterone I
01:11:26
believe will reduce your lifespan I mean taking like testosterone injections and stuff sometimes I think about like again
01:11:32
I don't don't really know what I'm talking about here but I think about athletes taking steroids different
01:11:39
those athletes are taking super physiologic steroids so the normal range is typically 300 to a th000 is the
01:11:45
normal range and they will take testosterone levels to much higher 2, 2500 okay and there's a reason for
01:11:52
that um there's something called a plateau effect so so if you take testosterone and you have better libido
01:11:58
you intuitively would think if I take more testosterone I'll feel even better liido but that's not true is's a certain
01:12:05
point at which it plateaus so the more you take you've already hit an onoff button you've hit it you're done the
01:12:11
exception is muscle the more testosterone you your body sees the more it upregulates uh Androgen receptors in
01:12:18
the muscle and you put on more muscle so bodybuilders are addicted to higher levels of testosterone but they're also
01:12:24
taking other off Lael medications anavar Deca wistol they're taking other
01:12:30
medications and those testosterone formulations have a lower androgenic
01:12:35
ratio androgenic means facial hair acne they're more anabolic so it's very different than what you're taking You're
01:12:40
simply what you would be taking is just all you're trying to do is take a medication that you had before and put
01:12:47
yourself back into the normal range nothing fancy so I The more I've learned about testosterone The more I've started
01:12:52
to think that maybe when I've had my kids and I'm done having kids and maybe I'm
01:12:58
45 um I should consider it providing that my levels are low and you're
01:13:04
symptomatic if you're 45 and you say I feel great I'm gonna say Stephen you're not getting it right I feel great so if
01:13:11
you say look I'm 45 my levels are low and I'm starting to have symptoms say
01:13:16
Okay Now's the Time to consider taking the medication those symptoms you said were like tiredness energy levels well
01:13:23
the most specific are my libido's gone down my are worse my Energy's gone down
01:13:28
increased fat deposition decreased muscle mass poor sleep and depression
01:13:33
and we have to talk about depression so uh earlier on in my career I conducted a very large trial looking at depression
01:13:40
in testosterone and we had almost 850 patients and we showed that men with low
01:13:45
testosterone levels were much more likely to suffer from depression almost 92% of those men with low testosterone
01:13:51
had some degree of depression and when we treated 17% of those men actually had severe depression we treated these men
01:13:57
for one year with testosterone supplementation that 177% dropped down to 2% now I'm not advocating to treat
01:14:04
major depressive disorder with testosterone but what I am advocating for is to at least check a testosterone
01:14:09
level in men who are depressed because it can help them in fact in our study even the men who were on an
01:14:15
anti-depressant uh like say Prozac we put them on testosterone those men also saw significant improvements in
01:14:21
depression so may be some Synergy between testosterone and what we call SSR eyes so again it's very important to
01:14:27
check a testosterone level in men who suffer from depression you wrote a book called recoupling yes a couple's
01:14:35
four-step guide to Greater intimacy yes and better sex yes what are the four
01:14:40
steps in this book and you wrote this alongside over 10 years ago yes so I wrote it with the sex therapist she's an
01:14:46
amazing sex therapist her name is Mary Joe Rini and we decided to write a book together to really help couples get
01:14:51
through so the four steps really are number one foremost communication you got to communicate you got to at
01:14:57
least be able to tell each other did you know that only 44% of men who start
01:15:02
developing Ed even tell their Partners now think about that You' say what do you mean they don't tell their partner you know what they do they just start
01:15:07
avoiding sex they just start avoiding sex so they got to communicate number one and making excuses right I if if I
01:15:15
lost my reaction i' I'd probably say oh sorry I'm just tired or you know because
01:15:20
I want to just on this point there's much of the reason why it's hard to communicate is because it it can sound a lot like
01:15:28
blame and it also can make someone feel like you're not into them right so if I
01:15:34
said and maybe you're not that into them and also maybe you're not like that attracted to them so like that could be
01:15:40
yeah that's an issue and that's why the sex therapist is amazing right that's what they do right that's what they do
01:15:46
they work through these issues with couples and they're fantastic but the number one step we put in the book was
01:15:52
communication you have to communicate the second chapter was my main chapter
01:15:58
what I wrote about what can we do to improve sexual dysfunction in men and women testosterone placement therapy
01:16:05
using Viagra vaginal lubrications local vaginal estrogen therapy we didn't talk about that it's critical for
01:16:10
postmenopausal woman local vaginal estrogen therapy is very important decreases this risk of UTI decreases
01:16:17
pain with intercourse um so very important um the third chapter really sir what is that vaginal so uh younger
01:16:24
women have estrogen in the vagina that estrogen is so important it keeps all
01:16:31
the bad bacteria away and keeps the good bacteria within the vagina it keeps the W the lining of the wall thick it allows
01:16:38
for the vaginal wall to function with arousal properly and as she gets older
01:16:44
and she goes through menopause the estrogen goes away the bad bacteria come in the risk of urinary tract infections
01:16:51
go up the wall starts to atrophy means gets thinner it's more susceptible to
01:16:56
injury and tear it hurts okay right so you can't ask a woman to enjoy sex if it
01:17:03
hurts every time she has sex a lot of women I've heard a lot of women talking about that about this idea that the reason they don't like to have sex is
01:17:09
because it hurts it hurts because when they lose the estrogen the wall gets very thin and it can tear it hurts but
01:17:16
even young women young women but it's usually typically a different reason they could suffer from vaginismus there's other things that could cause
01:17:23
the cultis but in old older women the most common cause is atrophy of the
01:17:28
vaginal wall because of the lack of estrogen so what do you do you give back local estrogen therapy it can be in the
01:17:34
form of a suppository form of a cream it doesn't happen overnight I tell my patients it can take up to three months
01:17:40
but after three months they notice a difference and the urinary tract infections go away the pain goes down
01:17:46
right so these are simple things that women can do to help because again if someone's having pain with intercourse
01:17:52
man or woman they will tend to avoid it right it's an important concept so the second chapter is really important on
01:17:58
what are the many different things that you can do to improve your sexual function uh the third chapter is really
01:18:03
about intimacy it's the really the intimacy and the fourth chapter really is uh ways to improve uh your sexual
01:18:10
experience it was written by my sex therapist she talks about vibrators masturbation so there's a four-step guide um that I think is very helpful
01:18:17
and I think what's unique about this book is that really it's it's really two perspectives it's one who is the um the
01:18:24
medical care that I provide and the psychological care that she provides now she's obviously handling the
01:18:29
psychological side of things and she's not here but just on this point of improving communication what is the best
01:18:35
advice you give to people that are currently in a situation where they're both kind of suffering in silence
01:18:41
because they're just not communicating with each other number one most important is time we don't spend enough
01:18:46
time it's basically the shadows in the night you coming in I'm going out and it's you have to make time that's
01:18:52
extremely important and the second one is open dialogue you have to be able to express to your partner what you're
01:18:58
suffering from otherwise you can't get treated you just have to be able to express it but time I think is important
01:19:04
and open communication and dialogue um there's nothing embarrassing about this it really is um something that needs to
01:19:12
be D destigmatized and the consequences of addressing it so couples who engage
01:19:18
in regular sexual activity have a significant Improvement in their quality of their relationship they tend to be happier and suffer from less uh me uh
01:19:25
depression I mean there's there's there are physical and emotional benefits from regular sexual activity in the um opener
01:19:32
of the book where you start talking about communication there's a sentence that says when sex isn't going well it can
01:19:38
become 90% of the relationship and couples seldom know how to communicate about any of these problems and that is
01:19:44
true you know we've done a couple of conversations now on the DIY about sex and Intimacy in these subjects and the amount of messages that I get from
01:19:50
couples saying that everything else in their relationship is great yeah everything is great love this person so
01:19:56
much but there's this massive elephant in the room right no pun intended which is um the lack of sexual intimacy now
01:20:04
when we talk about sexual intimacy does it mean penetration yeah
01:20:10
it doesn't because we with the definition of sex span is the ability and the desire to engage in satisfying
01:20:17
sexual activity I have patients that come to me and say we do not have penetrative sex but we have a wonderful
01:20:22
sex life I say great if this is working for you because it's satisfying sexual activity you're set right it's if you
01:20:30
want penetrative sex and you cannot have it then we will address it and we can fix it but you get to Define Stephen you
01:20:36
define what is satisfying sexual activity on chapter four where you talk
01:20:41
about things like vibrators and stuff like that um I know that was the a chapter handled by your sex therapist according to what you said is there any
01:20:48
risk that using vibrators or other toys and tools will impact
01:20:55
normal intimacy without vibrators like is there any studies that say okay you get desensitized to the real thing if
01:21:00
you start using a vibrator yeah I've seen the opposite I've seen that the studies showing that vibrators and these kinds of uh Toys can actually enhance
01:21:07
the ability of the relationship so that you can because you're communicating as you're doing it right so you're communicating with your partner what is
01:21:13
giving me pleasure what is not giving me pleasure you're learning about each other it's a great tool to use to learn
01:21:19
about each other so when you're engaging a sexual activity you're more aware I think it was a a game changer to me I'm
01:21:25
going to be honest I think like just having having other things do you know why do you know why it's a game changer
01:21:30
and I'm not just talking about vibrators I'm talking about all toys in the bedroom whether it's like dice or handcuffs or whether it's something else
01:21:36
or blindfold is just because novelty doing new things for me is so critical
01:21:43
as it relates to being excited sexually yeah and there's only so many things you
01:21:48
can do there's kind of there's a a a relatively limited list of things you
01:21:54
could do if you're not bringing in other tools and toys and stuff you know so I
01:22:01
think that for me it actually has helped me to prolong the novelty of my sexual um relationship in a way that nobody
01:22:08
told me about before yeah because I think think as a guy especially I think you kind of think that toys are something your partner buys for herself
01:22:15
maybe yeah something she uses for herself and now I think if anything I'm the instigator of using other things
01:22:21
yeah that's chapter four I mean and we and we prescribe vibrator for men we use something called vict it helps with men
01:22:26
with delayed orgasmia these toys can be very helpful in a relationship I think she prefers the
01:22:33
toys to me personally but that's another conversation for another time in terms of energy there are so many reasons why
01:22:39
I'm a big matcha fan if you don't already know by now and so much so that I actually invested in the UK's leading matcha company called perfect Ted and
01:22:46
one of my favorite perfect Ted products is these delicious matcha pouches that come in every flavor from salted caramel
01:22:52
to Peach flavor to mint flavor to Berry flavor one of my favorites is this
01:22:58
vanilla flavor which I'm going to make in just two seconds you just take this mixer here get a little bit of the
01:23:04
powder pop it on top of the shaker like that put the lid
01:23:10
on shake shake shake delicious if you haven't tried
01:23:18
this yet you can find perfect Tad at Tesco and Holland Barrett stores or online where you can get 40% off with my
01:23:23
code diary 40 head to perfect ted.com and put in code diary 40 to try this
01:23:29
delicious multi-flavored match now highly recommend and if you do it please tag me send me a message online what's
01:23:35
the um what's the most important thing we haven't talked about that we should have well there's a couple things I want to talk about one is we didn't talk
01:23:40
about Peroni disease it's an important disease 9% of men in the world suffer from Peron disease 9% of men in the
01:23:47
world Peron disease is an abnormal coverture of the penis when it's erect so I want you to think about this the
01:23:53
way I can describe it is I have a balloon I put a piece of tap tape on the balloon I blow the balloon up what's
01:23:58
going to happen it's going to curve in the direction of the tape right so if a penis curves greater than 60 degrees
01:24:04
it's prohibitive for intercourse these men are suffer many of these men suffer from severe depression it's
01:24:10
disfigurement it's disfigurement of the penis right so think about it 9% of men in the world suffer from this condition
01:24:16
and most men have never even heard what Peron disease is and uh essentially in the US we have now one FDA approved
01:24:23
treatment for this it's an injection called collagenase where we can put an injection into the Rock plaque and break
01:24:29
it up there are surgeries that we can do to make the penis straight again but again it's very important to realize
01:24:35
that patients who have Peron disease are also suffering in silence they don't know where to get the treatment and
01:24:40
there are many good treatment options whether it be surgical or medical to solve this condition so you know my
01:24:46
whole takea away from this is this is that I know that millions of people right now men and women are suffering
01:24:51
from sexual dysfunction I know they're silent and they're not saying a word because they don't know where to go they don't know what to do but they have to
01:24:57
realize that there are excellent treatment options available and they should seek therapy they're not suffering
01:25:03
alone what else I want you to think about sexual dysfunction as no no longer a Band-Aid
01:25:11
uh we are not looking for Viagra we are looking for a cure we want a cure for ED
01:25:16
and a cure for ED could be based on many things as I mentioned earlier diet exercise sleep stress we've also moved
01:25:22
into a new generation of regenerative Therapies in my field stem cells PRP
01:25:28
shock wave therapy now we're starting to look at radio frequency in our laboratory we're looking at hyperbaric
01:25:33
oxygen men are looking for ways to cure this condition they no longer want to
01:25:38
take a pill uh to solve the problem and so I think that's very important um and many of these uh new therapies are
01:25:44
promising I think Shockwave therapy is very promising where we have a device that deliver shocks to the penal tissue we' been doing this it's like um [ __ ]
01:25:52
like said that but but I'll tell you it we've been doing it now for 5 years um and uh it was invented in 2010 it's
01:25:59
actually quite brilliant if I take your finger and I take a hammer and I hit your finger multiple times what do you think your finger is going to do your
01:26:06
finger is going to start bringing in new blood vessels and new ways to heal your finger so before Urology the
01:26:12
cardiologists have been doing it for the heart for many years and they would shock the heart many times and you would see new blood vessels formed it's called
01:26:18
neoangiogenesis orthopedic surgeons have been doing it for a long period of time in terms of injury in terms of healing
01:26:24
injury that use shock wave therapy we are new to the game but what we see is when you give these shocks it can
01:26:29
potentially improve the blood flow and sexual function in men and I think the new era could potentially be hyperbaric
01:26:35
oxygen therapy and also radio frequency radio frequency is a a way to increase heat within the tissue and improve
01:26:42
sexual function as well so again I think what you're going to see uh 5 to 10 years as we move forward is new ways to
01:26:48
cure erectile dysfunction stem cells potentially have some promise as well but patients don't want a pill anymore
01:26:56
one thing we haven't talked directly about but we've talked about it indirectly is the role that trauma plays in sexual dysfunction and Trauma in all
01:27:03
of its forms um I think I had a partner who was very public again about the fact
01:27:09
that the reason why they had sexual dysfunction was because in their view because they had been through a sort of traumatic experience how often do you
01:27:16
see that in your office how long often do you see a patient come to you man or woman with a some kind of trauma we we
01:27:21
we query all men and women if they've had any kind of trauma sexual or just physical trauma it doesn't have to be sexual trauma be any kind of physical
01:27:28
trauma um I will tell you that most patients don't disclose or not very
01:27:35
commonly described to have having it but they will many times disclose it to the sex therapist and I'll find out on the back end to be honest with you um but I
01:27:43
think when someone discloses sexual trauma or trauma it takes more of a relationship and time on the first visit
01:27:49
sometimes they're not forthcoming what's that that you haven't in front of you on the desk it's I've
01:27:56
been hesitating talking about it so this is a penal implant oh gosh and this yes
01:28:01
that's exactly what it is and this is a device that was invented in 1973 by a very famous uh urologist named
01:28:08
Dr Brantley Scott Brantley Scott I will have to brag a little bit was from my institution at Bay College of Medicine
01:28:14
and this has been around for 51 years and the the penis actually has two bodies sitting on top and they has the
01:28:21
urethra sitting on the bottom and those two bodies have muscle inside them or casing and what this device is a surgery
01:28:27
that I warm quite often where we put these balloons or cylinders into those two bodies and fill them up there's a
01:28:34
small pump that goes into the scrotum and there's a small Reservoir that just holds water normal saline that goes
01:28:41
behind the pubic bone typically when a man squeezes this he starts filling up
01:28:47
these cylinders with water and it gives him a very rigid very good erection when
01:28:53
he finishes engaging in sexual activity he'll press this button here and it will actually release and all the fluid will
01:28:59
come out of the penal bodies and go back into that Reservoir so theoretically
01:29:05
anyone who's willing to have this surgery we can cure Ed but it's a surgery and what's the consequence and
01:29:12
cost of that in terms of sexual experience monetary cost I would say that in the US Medicare covers this
01:29:18
product so that's that's actually quite good in terms of pleasure and Men report
01:29:23
no significant decline in pleasure if you look at overall satisfaction is greater than 92% for patient and partner
01:29:30
with uh with the penal prosthesis so um it is a very um it's a GameChanger it
01:29:36
really is a GameChanger most patients have never heard of it or most people have never heard of this uh penal
01:29:41
prosthesis um but you know let's be honest you know if you had a bad shoulder you'd get a prosthetic if you
01:29:48
had a bad hip you get a prosthetic it's a prosthetic that fixes an organ um and it Stephen it the satisfaction rate is
01:29:55
extremely high but I'll tell you something you owe me something because when I brought this on the plane uh and I went through security they made me
01:30:01
pulled us out and explain what this was and nobody had heard of it no one had seen this um yeah well I had to explain
01:30:09
it and I had to pump it up and show them and uh but I had a little bit of an audience but um yes but I will tell you
01:30:14
this this is a this is something that really has revolutionized the way we treat men for rectile
01:30:19
dysfunction but this is surely like a last ditch attempt it is because it is a lastage attempt because if I take it out
01:30:27
no other treatments will ever work again oh really it's it's the end right so if
01:30:33
I take it out no other the treatments will work again so I want you to try
01:30:39
every single option before we come to this what situation does someone have to
01:30:44
be in for you to insert this into their penis so remember when I told you that 40% man at 40 50% at 50 and most
01:30:50
patients will take Viagra but I told you Viagra is not a cure it's a Band-Aid so what's going to happen that Viagra is just like that pain pill and that pain
01:30:56
pill eventually going to happen is you can't walk well the same thing happens with Ed eventually the meds stop working
01:31:02
so once the meds stop working and then the second level we use something called penal injections some manual we use
01:31:07
penal injections once you've tried everything and nothing works what are you going to do okay so this is like a
01:31:13
last what are you going to do if you still want to get but if I look at satisfaction rates if I give men
01:31:19
questionnaires for the pill for the injections vacuum reduction device for the implant High highest satisfaction
01:31:25
with the implant at what point how what you mean
01:31:30
how satisfied from the starting point to right if I because from starting at a point where I'm completely unable to get
01:31:37
an erection right if anyone helps me get that thing up my satisfaction is going to be really high right but let's say
01:31:42
you have an erection with a pill you get an erection with an injection you get an erection with a vacuum and you get an
01:31:48
erection with this all all four you know over time gave you an erection which gave you the best erection and which
01:31:53
which one were you most satisfied with this will win it's crazy and can you still ejaculate with this yes no
01:32:02
issues gosh no I mean again I have I have tremendous
01:32:08
sympathy because it's ruins people's lives right it does if if you can't perform in that way and it destroys your
01:32:14
relationships and relationships are like the essence of life so but essentially you're taking someone who can't have sex who can now have sex again and some
01:32:20
would argue that they can have sex whenever they want as long as they want with this device right it only goes down
01:32:26
when you tell it to go down Dr Mo we have a closing tradition on this podcast where the last guest leaves a question
01:32:31
for the next guest not knowing who they're going to be leaving it for yeah and the question that has been left for you no is have you ever experienced
01:32:39
anything that you cannot explain from a position of rational
01:32:46
materialism yeah I mean I think so many things in science that we can't explain so many things that are idiopathic that
01:32:51
I have no explanation for um uh for example for fertility which is something we talked about 40% of men who come to
01:32:57
me our explanation is no explanation we don't know why you're infertile right so
01:33:03
obviously that's very uncomfortable for many patients to hear that but many things in science I have no explanation
01:33:09
for um and many things that I do have an explanation for we find out 10 years later were
01:33:14
wrong um so I think that's what comes to mind what about any personal experiences at all in your life spiritual religious
01:33:23
yeah um I'm very spiritual I'm very religious um sometimes death it's hard
01:33:30
to explain hard to understand why um it's real I see it every day uh you know
01:33:38
we see it we do at work um my I see it personally in my own life my father passed away at an early age um from
01:33:46
idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis um it's a very it's a condition where your lungs
01:33:51
start to scar it's probably the worst condition you could asked for and um and he had have a lung transplant at 70 so
01:33:58
he pretty young um and he retired at 69 um and said you know one he worked very
01:34:03
hard he was a general surgeon single you know solo practice and um he said one day I'll enjoy one day I'll enjoy and
01:34:11
then at 69 he retires he's ready to enjoy at 70 gets idiopathic pulm fibrosis at 70 gets a lung transplant
01:34:18
and lives for five years with someone else's lungs um which is pretty tough um
01:34:24
and his one message was you know don't wait till the end enjoy the ride I wish
01:34:29
I'd enjoyed the ride because waiting to the end um sometimes there may be no
01:34:36
end and by that I interpreted that to me that he had worked his whole life very very hard extremely hard and he sort of
01:34:43
delayed the gratification to a point that right it didn't really come necessarily he thought it would come at
01:34:48
70 and he' enjoy the last 15 years and enjoy but at 60 9 he got idiopathic
01:34:55
pulmonary fibrosis at 70 we got a lung transplant and at 75 he passed away and
01:35:00
I think that um if anything I Learned was don't wait to the end enjoy the ride
01:35:08
are you doing that I am every second I can and how how do you do that sort of practically when you're so busy so I
01:35:15
make time I meditate every morning I work out every morning I have my own time to myself I pray I'm very religious
01:35:22
I think those are very important things to keep me going um I spend I I it's it's God family work patience I mean
01:35:28
it's an order my family is extremely important to me and I make time for them as well and uh I think that keeps me
01:35:35
grounded Dr Mo thank you thank you for the work you're doing because as you say in your work there's a huge proportion
01:35:40
of people couples men women that are suffering in silence and there are in search of answers and there's not a lot
01:35:45
of people in your friendship group that are necessarily going to know this stuff or even talk about their own experiences with this I think it's important to have
01:35:51
these kinds of conversations um that anyone in the private or comfort of their own home or with their airpods on
01:35:57
can tune into to get a better understanding if there was a closing message for for those people that are
01:36:02
suffering in silence in some way whether they're couples individuals what is that closing message
01:36:07
to them it's okay to suffer from sexual dysfunction it's normal as we age and
01:36:15
there are many treatment options good treatment options that can help you today and I ask you to seek therapy
01:36:22
raise your hand tell your doctor you suffer from sexual dysfunction because they're excellent treatment options and
01:36:27
if people want to learn more about you and your work where's the best place for them to find you well uh it's my website
01:36:33
Dr drit cara.com and um sexan health.com I have sexan health.com where you can
01:36:39
learn all the different ways to improve lifestyle modification I started a nonprofit I just want you to know called the testosterone project just so you
01:36:46
know that uh it's really geared at education advocacy for testosterone we're trying to get testosterone approv
01:36:52
for women in the United States I that's important we're trying to get testing done uh as well we want everyone to be
01:36:57
tested for testosterone it should be Norm as well and we're trying to get it deregulated so the test aom project.com
01:37:03
is a great way to get information as well I'll put all of those links below Dr May thank you so much for the work
01:37:09
you're doing and please do keep doing it because it's so incredibly important Stephen pleasure to talk to you thankk you do you know that 80% of New Year's
01:37:15
resolutions fail by February it's because we focus too much on the end goal and we forget the small daily
01:37:21
actions that actually move us forward those actions that are easy to do are also easy not to do in life it's easy to
01:37:27
save a dollar so it's also easy not to making one small Improvement each day one tiny step in the right direction has
01:37:33
a big difference over time and that is the 1% mindset which is why we created the 1% diary a 90day journal designed to
01:37:41
help you stay consistent and focus on the small wins and make real progress over time it also gives you access to
01:37:47
the 1% Community a space where you can stay accountable motivated inspired along with many others on the same jour
01:37:53
Jour we launched the 1% diary in November and it sold out so now we're doing a second drop join the wait list
01:38:00
at theed diary.com and you'll be the first to know as soon as it's back in stock I'll put the link below
01:38:05
[Music]
01:38:24
oh [Music]

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Episode Highlights

  • The Importance of Testosterone
    Testosterone plays a vital role in sexual function for both men and women, impacting libido and health.
    “Testosterone supplementation can significantly improve a man and a woman's sexual function.”
    @ 04m 09s
    January 09, 2025
  • Erectile Dysfunction as a Warning Sign
    Erectile dysfunction can be an early indicator of serious health issues, including heart disease.
    “15% of men with ED will have a heart attack or stroke within seven years.”
    @ 09m 31s
    January 09, 2025
  • Impact of Medication on Men's Health
    A medication can protect heart health, improve prostate function, and enhance erections.
    “This is one of the medications that really can make an impact in men's health.”
    @ 21m 23s
    January 09, 2025
  • Female Sexual Dysfunction
    In 2015, there were no FDA approved drugs for female sexual dysfunction, highlighting a significant gap in treatment options.
    “Women suffer from female sexual dysfunction in silence; they don't know where to get help.”
    @ 25m 19s
    January 09, 2025
  • Obesity and Testosterone Levels
    Obesity is linked to lower testosterone levels, which can significantly impact libido and erectile function.
    “Obesity significantly drops testosterone levels, which affects libido.”
    @ 37m 02s
    January 09, 2025
  • The Importance of Testosterone
    Testosterone affects overall health, not just sexual function. Low levels can lead to serious health issues.
    “One blood test to check overall health? Testosterone levels.”
    @ 46m 50s
    January 09, 2025
  • Lifestyle Changes for Fertility
    Diet, exercise, and sleep can significantly improve fertility and testosterone levels in men.
    “Healthier people are more fertile; you're passing on the genes.”
    @ 50m 33s
    January 09, 2025
  • Destigmatizing Sexual Dysfunction
    Sexual dysfunction is common and curable; men need to feel comfortable discussing it.
    “It's okay to have sexual dysfunction; it's a common condition.”
    @ 01h 01m 13s
    January 09, 2025
  • ED as a Health Indicator
    Erectile dysfunction can signal underlying health issues like diabetes in young men.
    “ED is the gateway to Men's Health and treating men early.”
    @ 01h 02m 58s
    January 09, 2025
  • The Importance of Communication
    Open dialogue about sexual issues can significantly improve relationship quality.
    “Communication is key; you have to express what you're suffering from.”
    @ 01h 18m 58s
    January 09, 2025
  • A New Era in Treating ED
    Innovative therapies like shockwave and stem cell treatments are emerging for erectile dysfunction.
    “We want a cure for ED, not just a Band-Aid.”
    @ 01h 25m 11s
    January 09, 2025
  • Don't Wait to Enjoy Life
    A personal story about the importance of living fully, inspired by a father's experience.
    “Don't wait till the end, enjoy the ride.”
    @ 01h 34m 29s
    January 09, 2025

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Couple's Disease06:51
  • Female Sexual Dysfunction25:19
  • Weight Loss Benefits39:20
  • Oral Testosterone History41:23
  • Destigmatizing Sexual Dysfunction1:01:13
  • Communication1:18:58
  • Peyronie's Disease Awareness1:23:40
  • Trauma and Sexual Health1:26:56

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