Men require sensitivity to feel pleasure and to eventually climax. So if you’re searching phrases and questions like, “Why does my member feel weird? What causes tingling in private area? Is lost sensitivity ED?” then it might signal you’re experiencing intimacy problems.

It’s possible for you to experience a loss of sensation, reduced sensation or even numbness in your privates. When numbness is severe, you may even find it difficult to develop and maintain arousal. 

Below, we’ve answered questions about “numb member” as well as what you can do to treat numbness and bring your sensitivity level back to normal.

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Symptoms of “Downstairs” Numbness

A numb member can mean different things to different men. Some feel nothing, others tingling sensations, burning or the pins and needles discomfort that’s often associated with the feeling of a body part that “falls asleep.”

While symptoms of “downstairs” numbness can vary in type and severity, you may notice one or several of the following symptoms:

• No feeling in member

• Member is cold or tip of member feels cold

• Tingling or a “pins and needles” sensation

Severe numbness may affect your ability to get hard and enjoy intercourse. You may experience issues like: 

• Reduced intimacy pleasure

• ED

• Delayed climax

• Anorgasmia

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Why is My Member Numb?

Feelings of numbness or tingling in the privates may be due to a number of common causes like injury, nerve damage or even hormone imbalances.

The first hunch for explaining these symptoms is often nerve damage, because it’s the nerves — specifically the pudendal nerve and those around it — that transmit sensation from your member and other reproductive organs to your brain. These nerves can become damaged, injured or interrupted in a number of ways. We’ve explained the potential causes of numbness below. 

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Injury to the Member

If your privates are injured or compressed for a long period of time, or there is damage to the nerves that innervate your member, you may notice that it feels less sensitive than normal — the way your arm might after an hour of cuddling as the big spoon. In some cases, your member may feel completely numb.

Injury and nerve injury can come from many sources. Your privates can be injured from trauma to the perineal region or nerves can be injured during certain types of surgery — including some medical procedures to treat prostate cancer.

Some sports and exercises can also cause your member to feel numb in the same way that you might get a pinched nerve elsewhere on your body. For example, cyclists often experience numbness and ED, particularly those that ride long distances on a frequent basis. 

A 2019 study of 2,774 male cyclists found that more than half the participants experienced some numbness, primarily in the privates. More years of riding, more frequent cycling, cycling longer distances, lower handlebars and not using padded shorts were all associated with more numbness, while body mass index and age were not.

The good news is that the researchers also found that “downstairs” numbness in participants wasn’t associated with ED. Although cycling is arguably the most infamous sport for numbness, other sports that put pressure on your perineum might also cause a loss of sensitivity. Even sitting down in a position that puts extra pressure on your member or the nerves that supply it may temporarily cause numbness.

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Low Testosterone

Most men associate their testosterone levels with hair volume, muscle mass and fertility, but testosterone is also associated with member sensitivity. Specifically, low testosterone, which affects almost 40 percent of men 45 or older, may reduce the sensitivity level of your member.

Low testosterone levels are also linked to a range of other intimacy symptoms, including reduced arousal quality, lower levels of interest in intercourse, reduced feelings of pleasure during intercourse and difficulties or delays in reaching climax. This guide to signs of low testosterone has details if you want to learn more.

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Diseases Causing Nerve Damage

Diseases and medical conditions that affect your nerves — like multiple sclerosis — or those that specifically damage the nerves in your groin and lower body may cause you to develop numbness or reduced sensitivity in your privates. 

A large variety of diseases and medical conditions can cause general nerve damage, including: 

• Diabetes

• Autoimmune disorders

• Lupus

• Metabolic disease

• Thyroid conditions

• Poor blood flow

• Certain forms of cancer

Other medical conditions may reduce sensitivity by affecting the tissue of your member. For example, Peyronie’s disease — a condition in which the member can become curved — can cause scar tissue to develop, which may cause discomfort and affect sensitivity.

If you have any of these diseases and are experiencing reduced sensitivity, it’s important to talk to a healthcare professional as soon as possible. Some nerve damage from diseases and medical conditions can be reversed. However, in some cases, disease-related nerve damage is difficult to treat or can become permanent.

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Medication Side Effects

Several different types of medications can cause “downstairs” numbness. For example, numbness is a known side effect of certain antidepressants; other intimacy side effects, such as a reduced level of excitement and difficulty reaching climax, are often associated with antidepressants, too.

Selegiline, a medication used to treat Parkinson’s disease, is also known to cause a reduction in member sensitivity.

If you suspect your medications may be causing a drop in your sensitivity, talk to a healthcare professional, but don’t discontinue the medication without their approval — a numb member can be a bummer, but the side effects of stopping certain medications cold turkey could be far worse.

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How to Treat a Numb Member

Most cases of “downstairs” numbness can be treated by addressing the underlying conditions at fault, by modifying your use of medications or making other changes to your habits and lifestyle.

A healthcare provider will consider your symptoms, medical history and more to narrow the potential causes and suggest changes to your medications or lifestyle, or recommend treatments to deal with the problem. Your treatment will vary depending on what’s causing your numbness, but it’s likely that it will follow one of these paths: 

• Treat underlying medical conditions. If you have a disease or medical condition that may affect your sensitivity level, it needs to be treated. Luckily, many diseases and medical conditions that cause sensitivity loss can be treated, improving both your general wellbeing and your intimacy health.

• Increase your testosterone. If your sensitivity issues are caused by low testosterone, your healthcare provider may work with you to bring your testosterone levels back up to normal. This may involve testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) or other methods to increase your testosterone production. This guide to increasing testosterone goes into more detail on the techniques you can use to improve your hormonal health.

• Switch medications. If you’re prescribed a medication that’s associated with a loss of sensitivity, reach out to your healthcare provider to make sure they’re aware of your issues and ask to switch meds. Switching from one drug to another may decrease or get rid of intimacy side effects — for example, many people prescribed antidepressants experience fewer bedroom side effects when they start using medications such as bupropion. A healthcare provider can also adjust your dosage or make other changes to help with the side effects.

• Avoid sports and activities that cause member numbness. Your bike seat is not always your friend, so maybe stay off the bike, fellas. Sports like long-distance cycling are infamous for leading to “downstairs” numbness and other crotch injuries, like saddle sores. If you’re an unstoppable cyclist, try temporarily reducing your cycling distance to see if this improves your symptoms, or consider buying a broad bicycle seat, which may be less likely to reduce blood flow to your privates while you ride.

• Consider using ED medication. ED medications like Viagra (sildenafil) and Cialis (tadalafil) do not treat member numbness, but if your numbness is reducing your arousal function, they may make it easier to get and stay hard even with reduced sensation. This guide to ED treatments and medications goes into more detail about what you can do to treat ED.

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“Downstairs” Numbness: What to Do Next

Your intimate life already has its foes — as men get older, drive can diminish, blood vessels can constrict, mental health can falter and confidence can waver.

“Downstairs” numbness can be a frustrating annoyance, but it can also be a sign of serious illness or major health conditions. To recap, here are the most important things to remember about a numb member:

• Don’t panic. A couple of occasions where your member feels numb aren’t necessarily signs of intimate dysfunction, but a pattern might indicate something is wrong.

• Figure out why. Numbness can be caused by a variety of factors, from injuries to the privates to neuropathy. But your specific symptoms may help you figure out the cause. Men with tissue damage can experience painful arousal and reduced sensitivity for example, while people with neurological issues may experience neurological ED.

• Plot a course of treatment. Making lifestyle changes (including biking less) and treating underlying conditions are some of the most effective ways of restoring sensation to your privates. If you have low testosterone, seek treatment options. You can also look into switching medications if yours may be reducing your sensation, like some antidepressants can.

• Consider some ED support. No ED treatments help with numbness, but if your numbness is causing you to struggle to stay hard, medications like sildenafil, tadalafil or chewable ED meds hard mints could help.

Most of the time, a numb member is treatable. If you notice that your privates feel less sensitive than normal, talk to your healthcare provider to learn more about your options for restoring sensitivity and preventing numbness from affecting your bedroom performance.

This article originally appeared on Hims.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.

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