Question about Siterone(anti-androgen)

[vzballa33 (imported)]

Hey all! If you are reading this still, thank you! Well, I think I have decided to stop the siterone early. I enjoyed the effects, especially on my penis and libido, but I think they are effecting my emotions too much with being depressed a lot more and such...I think if I were not dating my gf, I may continue on them until I ran out, but I'll stop them for now...If you guys think I should continue taking them, let me know...I like encouragment...Thank you for following me, hope you are all well, and if you have any questions please ask here or PM me!

Much love,

Vince

[plix (imported)]

I would not recommend continuing chemical castration just because some of us here may tell you to. This is definitely something you ought to decide for yourself. But if continuing is right for you, then I would suggest you do what you need to do in order to find happiness

Being in a relationship will definitely make pursuing castration tougher. Many older partners agree to it and some even seek it out, but it generally will not go over well with a younger partner.

The depression you experience upon losing T is usually only temporary, but for some people it is bad enough that they have to go back to T anyway.

I do wish you nothing less than the best no matter what you decide to do!

[butcherbaby (imported)]

You said that you took spiro before. Can you tell me what the differences were between spiro an siterone when you took them?

[Riven (imported)]

You said in a previous post that you couldn't afford to buy more Siterone. Obviously, if that's still the case then you have no choice but to stop, but otherwise, if you have decided to quit this trial but you still have some tabs left, don't just suddenly quit from 100mg daily to nothing. Reduce your daily dose to 50mg then after a week or two cut the 50mg tabs in half and take 25mg a day, and so on. Sudden changes are bad/dangerous.

I have tried this drug (cyproterone acetate) on about 3 occasions now and found that I am super-sensetive to it. ie. I only need a very very low dose to achieve impotence. However, along with that goes tiredness, lethargy and (for me) sleeplessness caused by hot flushes - particularly hot legs at night. I dare say that if I can tolerate the side effects for long enough the effect might reduce somewhat, but I haven't managed to do that yet.

My wife is happy to be supportive should I want to try again, but to be honest, I think she'd rather I didn't feel the need. We have had many conversations about this and I think she's right when she suggests that I (like a lot of men) crave sexual novelty, and that castration is just another avenue I feel I could pursue in search of that novelty buzz (or rush, whatever you call it). I tend to think she has a point.

I think it's a good idea for us (guys like you and me, and the others who are reading this) to try to tease apart the threads of thinking that have led us to this place. For some it's an obvious gender issue. For others (myself included) there's a history of body modification that leads us to think about castration as a modification, and perhaps as an end to the urges that drive us in this direction. And that last bit (the desire to control sexual urges) can arise without a history of piercing, cutting, etc.; sometimes due to feelings of our sexual urges being somehow 'wrong' or inappropriate.

I think the constant need to have sex with your partner can be fueled by insecurity as much as by your sex drive. ie. you need confirmation of her love. The probelm is that if she shows signs of needing less sex than you, it's very difficult not to take it personally and feel she doesn't want you. That can make you pester her for sex more, and as you realise you're being inappropriate, you then start to resent your sex drive. I'm speaking from experience here.

I always thought that I grew up not feeling guilty about masturbation, but sometimes I wonder if we all take on board 'society's view' that it's dirty, wrong, weak, blah, blah. What do you think? Maybe we resent being left to masturbate away our sexual urges?

I'm glad you started your thread vzballa33. I would urge you to keep talking about your issues, both with your girlfriend, and with us. Castration may or may not be the right way forward for you. Keep an open mind and please don't do anything irreversible for a long time yet. You're young and there's plenty of time to have fun with your life and your body.

Try to be positive and encouraging towards your partner. That makes it easier for her to do the same for you. Strengthen your relationship with positive thoughts and actions and do lots of nice things together.

[vzballa33 (imported)]

Wow thank you all for responding again! In response to the question about Spiro vs. Siterone. I have to say the major difference is that siterone worked right away and Spiro takes time, plus spiro made me use the bathroom a lot more.

In response to Riven, Wow thank you! honestly, words like that change me and the way I think. I had weened myself off the siterone, taking 50mg a day for a week or so, and then just stopped. I have been ridiculously depressed the past couple days, since stopping the siterone. I don't know if that is a result of the sudden lack of the pill or my own mind just messing with me. but holy crap I have been soo freakin depressed its insane, like I just couldn't get happy at all, for anything, and I've just been down and sad about my life and scared and everything, and I've wanted to kill myself. It's been very bad, but I havn't done anything to kill myself, just been trying to deal. I have to say the effects this had on me, I thoroughly enjoyed, like the penis not getting as hard and the "edge" of having sexual urges being gone, it was nice. I wish I could have that without having to damage my genitals, or become impotent. I don't know what the solution for me is, but its very frustrating and is terribly interferring with my life. I love my girlfriend and I don't want to lose her, and maybe whats been going on the past couple days are the result of stopping siterone, but I'm hoping I get better soon.

Please if you have any other words of encouragement or any suggestions, feel free to discuss them. I just want to be happy, and satisfied or content with myself and my body. If i could learn to like my penis and be okay with it, then I'd go that route, but for some reason in my mind it says its bad and needs to stop being hard, and I would rather have a vagina.

Thank you all again,

Vince

[Riven (imported)]

If you're that depressed vince, I think you really ought to talk with a therapist. Your doctor should be able to refer you to one. You need to get to the bottom of this. It's probably a pattern in your life, but it's never too late to tackle these problems. Depression is a recognised side effect of low testosterone, and your teatosterone hasn't had time to recover yet, so it's likely that this is the effect of the cyproterone acetate. After my short trials of this drug I was surprised how long it took for my hormones to recover. To be honest, I don't think I have come back to my previous t levels. Either the cyproterone acetate has permanently damaged my testosterone production or my trials coincided with naturally falling t levels due to my age. I found that a few days after stopping taking cyproterone I started feeling very irritable. I'd fly into a rage more easily than I had done since I was in puberty. I was impotent for a further few weeks.

I advocate walking. Take yourself for long brisk walks, and do it regularly. This will help to cheer you up. Try it. But please also ask your doctor for help in finding a therapist who can help you unravel the tangle in your head.

[fhunter]

I advocate walking. Take yourself for long brisk walks, and do it regularly. This will help to cheer you up. Try it. But please also ask your doctor for help in finding a therapist who can help you unravel the tangle in your head.

In my case it was rollerskating. Only one thing - rollerskating in the city, when feeling depressed and slightly out of it can be dangerous. After the first trial I almost flew over a police car, turning to the side street.

One more thing - in my case, after first trial I had a friend to talk about the experience. She wasn't approving, with the attitude "just don't harm yourself", but she listened and offered tissues after my crying.

During and after the second one...well I noticed that my mobile phone bill was higher .

I too got depressed and moody and irritable after both trials. It is a bit less now. And yes, recovery is slow - even 3 months after the first trial, I haven't felt fully recovered.

Ok. hope I am making sense and this is readable.

[Riven (imported)]

Yes. Walk, skate, cycle, swim... Anything aerobic will lift your mood. But do it regularly. It's better than sitting around feeling sorry for yourself and hopeless, and it seems to do much more than just distract you. It seems that burning the calories releases endorphins and positively cheers you up.

fhunter. I'm interested to hear that you too think cyproterone has done long term damage to your testosterone production. It will be interesting to hear from other guys who have experienced permanent changes from relatively short periods on this drug. I was seeing my inability to endure the side effects as some kind of failure. However, the reason I was doing it was because I wanted to reduce my testosterone. So if all it takes is 2 or 3 short trial runs on the drug to have a long term affect maybe it has already done what I wanted after all. The general advice is that you can take cyproterone acetate for 6 months and then quit and go back to 'normal'. But I think maybe we have to look at this again. It might be that our hormone balance can be upset in a permanent way much more easily than has been supposed.

[fhunter]

There was a thread on permanent damage:

http://www.eunuch.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=12514

[Sutaraito (imported)]

Well this has been an informative read...Sorry it didn't work out for you.

Wow thank you all for responding again! In response to the question about Spiro vs. Siterone. I have to say the major difference is that siterone worked right away and Spiro takes time, plus spiro made me use the bathroom a lot more.

So the diuretic effects are not universal...Interesting. I have a friend on Spiro that also reports having to go almost every hour due to the drug's effects. Thanks for the detail!