“The Frog who slowly boils to death” I’ve been happily married for over 40 years to an incredible, beautiful woman. Everything about our marriage has been great except for our physical intimacy, which also affected our emotional and personal closeness. I had declining libido and increasing erectile dysfunction that the little blue pills couldn’t fix. A masturbation habit from childhood didn’t help matters much, especially since my limited libido kept it under control.
I also ended up sleeping on the sofa about 95% of the time because sleep disruptions in a standard bed were bothering me. I’m usually a back sleeper, but when lying in bed, I would roll onto my stomach and wake myself up repeatedly. I tried many things without success. Sleeping on the sofa stopped me from rolling over, so most nights I slept through until morning. Of course, my wife was very unhappy with this setup initially, but after years she came to accept it.
My ED had become embarrassing and upset my wife. As a result, I went longer and longer without initiating sex. I began turning to porn in the wee hours of the morning to stimulate myself and satisfy the morning erections I still got around 3 or 4 am. I also found that on days when I felt depressed due to guilt, frustration, or fatigue, I would resort to masturbation fueled by porn. This was a way to make myself feel better… like taking a shot of some feel-good drug.
What I didn’t realize until January of this year was that high cholesterol, though treated with medication for years, had caused calcium deposits to build up in my arteries. A CAC scan revealed extremely high amounts of these deposits even though I appeared perfectly healthy with no heart issues or symptoms of heart disease. This turned out to be the cause of my low libido and ED. It seems I’ve also had low testosterone levels, which explains both my hair loss and slow hair growth.