hi I am geoffrey and just joined this website. I am 22 and have suffered from a paraphilia as long as I can remember and my sex drive has always been a problem for me. I recently have been going to a counciler and he has diagnosed my paraphilia and is recommending that I get my sex drive lowered. I am open to whatever works as long as i still appear male, I just want to get rid of my sex drive so I can concentrate on school and not get in trouble. i am looking to meet or talk with others that have solved this problem and if they are happy with it. it was mentioned I should look into orchectomy because it is most "healthy" way to get rid of sex drive and doesn't put chemicals on your body. anyways, happy I found this site and I hope I can solve my problem soon.

Even if you want to avoid chemicals in the long run, it's probably best to start with them to get a sense of how lowering your testosterone levels will affect your mood and so on.

I totally agree, the last option would be castration as that is final for life and your only 22. You could take a castration drug to lower your T but not turn it off completely or take more and lower your T to zero and take castration on a test drive, which we all recommend to everybody.

Your 22, as you get older your T will drop naturally, I know at your age 30 seems a lifetime away but believe me at 67 - 30 was only yesterday. This last comment will make more sense when your 40 which is really not that far away.

Work with your doctor, get some blood work done, get a T count, then talk to him about lowering your T with drugs.

Good luck to you and welcome to the board

River

Welcome Geoffrey, You will find a warm welcome here and a ton of wisdom and good advice. Not all of which i have listened to over the years and I have made some rather large dangerous mistakes. I have been fortunate, but i could have done myself some serious harm. The best advice I can offer you is take your time and read. Riverwind has already advised a chemical trial, which is reversible. Once your gonads are gone they are gone forever and it is not something to take lightly.

If you are not really up for it the psychological damage of their loss could be worse than your current sex drive.

Welcome and I hope you find what you are looking for.

jcat (imported) wrote: Sat Jan 04, 2014 1:42 pm Welcome Geoffrey, You will find a warm welcome here and a ton of wisdom and good advice. Not all of which i have listened to over the years and I have made some rather large dangerous mistakes. I have been fortunate, but i could have done myself some serious harm. The best advice I can offer you is take your time and read. Riverwind has already advised a chemical trial, which is reversible. Once your gonads are gone they are gone forever and it is not something to take lightly.

If you are not really up for it the psychological damage of their loss could be worse than your current sex drive.

Welcome and I hope you find what you are looking for.

Thanks for your replies. At this point it will all depend on what my insurance can cover. I am not sure it will cover chemical castration, it may cover most of surgical castration, and there is a possibility of some sort of 1 year implant that will shut down my male hormones for a year. this is supposed to be expensive but can be covered by insurance if the doctor says I have a serious condition. So anyways, i am much more interested in staying out of trouble than having a sex life so I think the surgery might be the best way to go for me and seems to be what my counciler is recommending.

It's not just about sex. Hormones play all sorts of roles in the body. Some people do just fine after castration. Others sink into deep, dark, suicidal depression. Take things slowly and deliberately. Chemical castration is definitely a good idea, but don't dismiss the potential to address the paraphilia psychologically and otherwise. You are very unlikely to make it go away, but you may well be able to find other ways to deal with it: situations to avoid, strategies to cope with temptations, etc.

Welcome, Geoffrey. Many of us, including myself, have been in that place of frustration and desperation that you describe now.

There is absolutely a psychological component to this type of thing; simply removing the T will not remove all unwanted thinking, actions, etc. Not to say that lowering T levels is not necessary, for many of us it is, but don't expect to suddenly wake up completely free from the problem. I tell myself this every single day, many times a day. Lowered T levels takes the edge off, the unbearable intense physical sensations... the rest is still up to me, through my day to day living and staying mindful of what my true needs are.

thesmallone (imported) wrote: Mon Jan 06, 2014 12:51 am Welcome, Geoffrey. Many of us, including myself, have been in that place of frustration and desperation that you describe now.

There is absolutely a psychological component to this type of thing; simply removing the T will not remove all unwanted thinking, actions, etc. Not to say that lowering T levels is not necessary, for many of us it is, but don't expect to suddenly wake up completely free from the problem. I tell myself this every single day, many times a day. Lowered T levels takes the edge off, the unbearable intense physical sensations... the rest is still up to me, through my day to day living and staying mindful of what my true needs are.

Got some good news this morning. Talked to my counciler and he said I have been approved for "gnrh agonist" a shot that will last for three months and shut down my testosterone and sex drive. Hopefully I can get the shot later this week or next week, it is supposed to have the fewest side effects of other kinds of chemical castration. He said if it works well I can keep taking it as long as I need and it basically shuts down the testicles completely.

Good news! Sounds like leuprolide, which does just what you say, but takes a week or so to work. Then you'll see what it feels like to be functionally a eunuch. Hope you like it!

I believe that in the long-term leuprolide works out expensive, but maybe insurance or whatever is paying. Anyway it seems a wise way to go to start.

Great. Do keep us updated as to how you feel.