gluten issues with libido?

[cyclonis]

I'm haven't been diagnosed with celiac disease or anything, but I do get bloating and was reading about it and what a pain it is to avoid it in foods. Anyway I found this woman's post regarding her husband (who by the story, did not have celiac disease or there were no apparent symptoms)

Low Thyroid And Testosterone - Celiac Disease and Gluten-Free Forum (Home)

My husband was diagnosed with low testosterone a few years ago. It was so low that his doctor was surprised that we have two kids without needing fertility treatments. He started using daily Androderm patches and his mood, his libido and his exhaustion all improved very quickly.

Every once in a while he would stop taking his testosterone patches, thinking he was fine, and it was always glaringly obvious within a day or so. His symptoms came back almost immediately. Not fun for either of us. He eventually stopped forgetting on purpose and got it that he really needed to use his patches every day. It made such a difference that once he accepted that it made a positive difference in his life, he kept some at work just in case he forgot in the morning.

A couple years ago we put the whole house gluten-free when we figured out our kids needed to be on the gluten-free diet. So from that point on he has only eaten gluten if he went out to lunch.

Then last fall we ended up with money problems AND really, really bad medical insurance. We were told that his patches would cost us over $200 a month because they didn't cover it. We barely had the $20 copay we expected, so we had no choice but to not get them. I was dreading it. Also, because of the money problems, he was coming home for lunch, not eating out at all. So he was on a 100% gluten-free diet

The surprising thing was that when he stopped his patches he didn't get his low testosterone symptoms at all. His libido never changed. He wasn't falling asleep all the time. He wasn't irritable or angry. He was fine. If I hadn't known better, I would have assumed he was still taking the Androderm.

It was really obvious that the gluten free diet had something more to do with things than we thought.

About a month ago he had to go out of town for a conference and ate gluten all week. When he got home it was awful. His mood was absolutely horrible. He was exhausted and irritable. I have no idea if his libido was down or not because he was being such a jerk I didn't care. It took a couple of weeks for him to start feeling better and now about a month later he's back to his awesome husband status.

I have no idea if going gluten-free will improve your low testosterone on it's own, or if you'd need at least some time on hormone replacement in combination with the gluten-free diet to see an improvment in the low testosterone symptoms. But I totally believe that there is a connection.

Has anyone read about this connection? Can it apply to someone who does necessarily have celiac disease? But maybe he did but just did not have typical symptoms.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Nothing works better than a fart while having sex. That works great for libido!

 

[1erCru]

My testosterone jumped 50% about three months into a gluten free diet. Small bowel biopsy tested negative for celiac. I had slightly elevated IgG antigliadin antibodies. My gastro doctor completely missed it. I had terrible GI symptoms for close to seven years. Almost all the GI symptoms are gone now including other symptoms such as neuropathy. Id like to stress my antibodies were barely elevated but the symptoms were horrendous. Ive even heard that gluten issues do not necessarily present as GI disturbances.

 

[hardasnails1973]

My testosterone jumped 50% about three months into a gluten free diet. Small bowel biopsy tested negative for celiac. I had slightly elevated IgG antigliadin antibodies. My gastro doctor completely missed it. I had terrible GI symptoms for close to seven years. Almost all the GI symptoms are gone now including other symptoms such as neuropathy. Id like to stress my antibodies were barely elevated but the symptoms were horrendous. Ive even heard that gluten issues do not necessarily present as GI disturbances.

i had a few clients that had same exact issues. They both where on TRT and came off. The food allergies where removed and restart on clomid was started. The clomid with removal of food allergies resulting in levels higher then when they where on t gels. The intestinal wall needed to properly heal with recommendations that were made. 5 months later test levels are in the upper 500 with out TRT and enjoying life. I have several people that suspected celiac and tested negative. The symptoms were pure celiac and when putting them on a gluten free diet for 2 weeks symptoms went away. I told them it takes 3-6 months for gut to heal properly and if they have gluten they will be reminded. I got a call,. One of them decided to have gluten and next morning had explosive diahreaa for several hours. They learned lesson the hard way, but biopsy was negative. When intestinal wall is inflammed it can cause elevated cortisol levels (which was indentified in saliva test) which only gave more credence to food allergies. One of the people did test positive for wheat allergies. 5 months later saliva cortisol was retested and was completely back to normal .

 

[cyclonis]

Wow, thanks for the replies. Very interesting posts. But I agree, I don't get what was up with Michael Scally's post. I guess trying to simply be funny.

And as I mentioned I haven't been diagnosed with anything regarding this, but I'm trying for a couple of reasons. The first reason is I get massive bloat after eating breads/pasta. I'm actually fairly thin, but my stomach becomes so hard and bloated.

Anyway, day 1 so far. Had some rice pasta for lunch instead. The other reason I'm trying this is because I've had geographic tongue for years. They say there is no treatment, but I've read things about connections with gluten with that as well.

I also read a zinc deficiency can cause this. I stopped taking zma a long time ago and couldn't recall if I had the tongue issue while on zma so I took a zinc and it was completely gone the next morning. That's the first time I haven't had symptoms of that in ages. Unfortunately, it came right back regardless of me continuing taking zma. I'm still curious why zinc seemingly gave me a one day reprieve from this but it's one of those things I'll probably never know.

So in googling I came across the potential gluten connection to geographic tongue and then was really surprised to read about this potential testosterone connection. So I'm sticking with this for a good while to see the results. All my searching about testosterone and I never came across this. It's funny how things like that work sometimes.

I'll continue to post here if I notice any improvement in any of the above.

hardasnails, so none saw improvement with simply avoiding gluten but also needed clomid?

 

[hardasnails1973]

When having low LH the body needs a little support till the stress is identified and removed.

 

[sako]

i had a few clients that had same exact issues. They both where on TRT and came off. The food allergies where removed and restart on clomid was started. The clomid with removal of food allergies resulting in levels higher then when they where on t gels. The intestinal wall needed to properly heal with recommendations that were made. 5 months later test levels are in the upper 500 with out TRT and enjoying life. I have several people that suspected celiac and tested negative. The symptoms were pure celiac and when putting them on a gluten free diet for 2 weeks symptoms went away. I told them it takes 3-6 months for gut to heal properly and if they have gluten they will be reminded. I got a call,. One of them decided to have gluten and next morning had explosive diahreaa for several hours. They learned lesson the hard way, but biopsy was negative. When intestinal wall is inflammed it can cause elevated cortisol levels (which was indentified in saliva test) which only gave more credence to food allergies. One of the people did test positive for wheat allergies. 5 months later saliva cortisol was retested and was completely back to normal .

What are the symptoms?

 

[hardasnails1973]

Typical symptoms of low T and low thyroid
By correcting the gut issue resolved both.

 

[sako]

List some symptoms from your own experience

 

[hardasnails1973]

List some symptoms from your own experience

Cloudy thinking
lack of libido
fatigue
cold body temperature
inability to build muscle
in ability to loose fat
sleep difficulties
tsh >3
FT3 well above top range no thyroid meds taken at time reflecting lack of tissue response.
Pale
bloating after meals
excessive water retention

 

[BBC3]

[)] Glad to know I am healthy...

Actually brings back memories. I was actually first to fart in my marriage. I remember laying there after sex one day at the apartment (still inside her), I looked deep into her eyes, and ripped one....... She is still jealous that I drew first fart to this day.

Nothing works better than a fart while having sex. That works great for libido!