Opioids opioids and endocrine changes / gender identity

[Gray808]

so I guess this is sort of a weird question but if people would want to answer it I would probably find it useful and maybe someone else would because this is really niche (I think), I cant find much discussion about it on the internet though I don't really know where to look. my question is for people taking opioids long term or like methadone patients: how do the endocrine disrupting effects of long term opioid use interact with your gender identity? no gender identity is excluded by this question even if you've never questioned yours at all. like are people uncomfortable with the changes long term opioid use can present? if so do people go on some form of hrt along with methadone or whatever opioid you take to bring you back to wherever you want to be? are there people who prefer their endocrine system working the way it does while it's being effected by opioids? or just like any stories people have related to this.

 

[LokitriX]

Opioids, opiates and most downers, actually; like if I mix a hard opiate with some pregabalin and maybe a benso or eight; have always worked as an aphrodisiac for me. I can literally get an uncontrollable hard on if I do a lot or pregabalin after a little brake. along with like oxy, hero or even subs. I think My natural GABA has naturally always been shit but I probably do need TRT today because of all these hormone affecting substances.

 

[Slingtard]

I've did opiates on and off from 16-20 and then transitioned to hardcore fentanyl use from 20-24 and id say that during the hard use of the fentanyl that my body totally changed and my endocrine system became a wreck. I'm not someone that jacks off that often anyways, but at the height of my usage i never thought about sex or intimacy at all. Not unless it was then and there with a girl that i had met at a bar or something of that nature. Even that being said sex was a hard thing to do, from the not being able to get hard and stay hard, or the not being able to finish. Though I will say that during my first 2 years of fentanyl use when i was with my ex-gf she was on the more open side about gender identity and being around her definitely made me reconsider mine in ways i hadnt previously, not to say i wanted to transition or something of that nature. But the things i was attracted to about women changed. So i think this is a good topic to look into and talk about. Because the shit def destroyed my testosterone production otherwise!

 

[Deru]

so I guess this is sort of a weird question but if people would want to answer it I would probably find it useful and maybe someone else would because this is really niche (I think), I cant find much discussion about it on the internet though I don't really know where to look. my question is for people taking opioids long term or like methadone patients: how do the endocrine disrupting effects of long term opioid use interact with your gender identity? no gender identity is excluded by this question even if you've never questioned yours at all. like are people uncomfortable with the changes long term opioid use can present? if so do people go on some form of hrt along with methadone or whatever opioid you take to bring you back to wherever you want to be? are there people who prefer their endocrine system working the way it does while it's being effected by opioids? or just like any stories people have related to this.

Interesting question. There are so many uncontrolled variables, and so this is 100% anecdotal, but when I was using opioids I felt more towards the feminine spectrum. As the years have progressed since I've stopped using them, this has significantly changed. I've always thought of this mechanism, but no one actually ever discusses it. And it's so relevant, because as endogenous testosterone decreses, personality changes will happen (and vice versa)!

 

[Gray808]

Interesting question. There are so many uncontrolled variables, and so this is 100% anecdotal, but when I was using opioids I felt more towards the feminine spectrum. As the years have progressed since I've stopped using them, this has significantly changed. I've always thought of this mechanism, but no one actually ever discusses it. And it's so relevant, because as endogenous testosterone decreses, personality changes will happen (and vice versa)!

ya a lot of potential confounding factors and all but still interesting and idk it does feel useful and somewhat meaningful when people discuss their subjective experiences with drugs even if its not real scientific data I think it matters in some way I cant really explain. it just feels important that people talk about these things that are pushed to the back culturally. the complex humanity of opioid users being on display I guess.

 

[knockout_mice]

I was reading reports from opioid-addict women "losing" their periods. My ex also had irregular periods while she took stronger opioids.
Does anyone know the exact mechanisms behind these effects? How does it exactly mess with the endocrine system?

 

[Gray808]

I was reading reports from opioid-addict women "losing" their periods. My ex also had irregular periods while she took stronger opioids.
Does anyone know the exact mechanisms behind these effects? How does it exactly mess with the endocrine system?

"Direct action of opioids on the hypothalamus reduces the release of GnRH, and thereby adversely affects LH levels, and subsequently testosterone synthesis and secretion.

Symptoms include infertility, decreased sexual function, loss of muscle mass and anxiety and/or depression"
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Opioids and endocrine dysfunction

The endocrine effects of opioids used for the management of persistent pain are poorly understood by clinicians and patients, and hormone levels are rarely measured. It is recognized that opioids exert this effect via the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

this appears to be on both male and female endocrine systems though the study does state there has been less research into opioid's effects on the female endocrine system "Although the clinical effects can be as severe for women as for men, the outward or visible changes are not so obvious and have not been studied in any detail, especially in postmenopausal women." kinda shitty but.

essentially it seems like they just inhibit hormone release in general so hypogonadism. Im not very knowledgeable on endocrinology at all but it would make sense to me that what this would mean on a practical level is lowered libido, potential worsened fertility, maybe no periods or just menstrual disturbances if female sex, potentially gynecomastia (growing breast buds) if male sex stuff like that. idk I'll admit I just kind of skimmed the paper I could be doing a bad job with this reductive analysis but I think that's the general basics. the papper I think is pretty friendly to people who aren't endocrinologists it literally explains what the hypothalamus is. "The hypothalamus is central to the regulation of sex hormones." so I'm pretty sure its written to be entry level and if you want to really learn about it in detail I think that's a pretty good place to start.

 

[Señor Moreno]

I use mdone long term. I don't know how high or low my levels of hormones are because I did never check them, but I am confortable.
Of course, I don't have a " no using me" to compare to the "using me" that I am, but I do experience sexual desire and I have a more or less okish sex drive for my age.
And for the gender identity thing, I don't know what to say. I am a male, was born as a male, was rised as a boy and know I am a middle aged guy, and I allways have been confortable with it all.
I did identify as a man before having tried opioids and I still do after many years of using them