The Gaming Den

It comes down to me saying that pain by itself doesn't kill people in response to the actual question. OS made an argument that didn't exactly disagree with that, but went on a strange and probably wrong tangent about stroke. So I took that apart because I felt he was being wrong on the internet.

I do agree that this is kind of silly.

So, lately I've been noticing that every so often I can hear what I think is my pulse directly in my ear (just the left one, as far as I can tell). It's only for a couple beats at a time (1-3), and it doesn't seem like it happens very often, though when it happens at all it tends to happen multiple times in a row. It's honestly pretty minor and I haven't been paying a lot of attention to it, but I'm wondering what's up with that? Is my left ear gunked up or something?

If it feels like you are hearing your pulse, that may be, but maybe not - all kinds of ear noises can turn up when the auditory system is somehow disrupted. It's possible that your ear is clogged or overpressurized and not getting external sounds normally makes it hypersensitive to body noise it would normally tune out. Or you have mild otitis media and what you hear is basically a technical disturbance as your auditory cortex tries to work around a sudden change in input quality. Or there is really something around your left ear that pulses (like, blood vessels) and your hearing is fine. In the latter case, that is called objective tinnitus.

I'd have your GP take a quick look inside and check if they can hear anything - otitis is not always painful or apparent from your percieved hearing, and it's not possible to narrow this down without a visual.

Nachtigallerator wrote:It comes down to me saying that pain by itself doesn't kill people in response to the actual question. OS made an argument that didn't exactly disagree with that, but went on a strange and probably wrong tangent about stroke. So I took that apart because I felt he was being wrong on the internet.

I do agree that this is kind of silly.

'Took that apart'? What an extraordinary performance. No admission of error or misjudgment, much less ignorance.

You're definitely either a medical professional or a politician.

Soo...
I've been solo for quite some time, and masturbated regularly. I hear that can lead to ED if done in excess. That hasn't happened to me. However, when I have sex with a partner, I am not able to ejaculate. I do orgasm, but without shooting my load. My partner doesn't care (just stated "your body is weird"). However, I would like to know what's going on.
Is that kind of thing common/reversible? Should I actually go see a doctor, considering that as long as I don't want to procreate, this isn't a problem at all?

Also... my partner is into tease&denial and chastity. That's not really a kink I considered, but in principle, I'm willing to try. Most information I found on this topic doesn't seem to be written by medical professionals. Since I already seem to have screwed up how my body works a bit (see above), I'm afraid of going along with it, in fear that this might have even more weird effects (ED being one consequence that's floating around as a rumour/desired end result by some).

Stop grabbing your dick so hard when you jerk; that's usually the case when you can nut with your hand but not with your partner.

That ED/masturbation thing is bogus. Frequent ejaculation reduces the quantity of sperm that comes out in each ejaculation, but it does nothing to erectile function - which is not what your problem is, anyway. I assume you've been able to ejaculate before, so my first guess would be some kind of mechanical blockage. Sperm is produced in the testicles, but has to travel through a convoluted system of tubes (the epididymis) before it enters the vas deferens and then the ejaculatory duct that connects with the urethra. Any of these stations could be blocked from an infection you haven't noticed otherwise.
It could also be retrograde ejaculation - if the muscles around the bladder opening fail to contract during ejaculation, sperm can flow backwards into the bladder instead of outwards, because the way backwards is shorter. I'd be surprised if you've had prostate surgery where this phenomenon is expected, but it can also occur as a side effect of antidepressants or from urethral strictures.

My recommendation would be to see a urologist at your convenience - I recall you're german, so there's little reason not to, unless you're deathly embarrassed by the idea. You can run that idea about jerkoff technique by him - I wouldn't feel confident refuting it because I'm certain there's a lot of specific things not mentioned in my exam prep books, but it sounds a bit weird.

Mask_De_H wrote: Stop grabbing your dick so hard when you jerk; that's usually the case when you can nut with your hand but not with your partner.

Nachtigallerator wrote:I assume you've been able to ejaculate before, so my first guess would be some kind of mechanical blockage.

Sorry, haven't been entirely clear. Everything still works normal when I masturbate alone, but I get orgasms without ejaculation even if I use my hand after she came and I finish myself off. So that probably rules out infection and maybe makes jerkoff technique more likely?

My recommendation would be to see a urologist at your convenience - I recall you're german, so there's little reason not to

I guess I'll do that, thanks!

-never mind, didn't read the second post-

That possible reading occured to me a while after, yes. I'd agree with the conclusion, but now I'm genuinely curious how that would work. Do you have any insights to offer, Mask?

I wonder if you're not dribbling the entire time and then climaxing on an empty chamber. Either in a retrograde fashion, or in a way that is concealed by your sexual habits; if you're only practicing penetrative sex (and not, for example, oral) you could be dispersing it into the general froth of the activity the whole time, and for that reason, overlook signs of it during clean-up.

Eikre wrote:I wonder if you're not dribbling the entire time and then climaxing on an empty chamber. Either in a retrograde fashion, or in a way that is concealed by your sexual habits; if you're only practicing penetrative sex (and not, for example, oral) you could be dispersing it into the general froth of the activity the whole time, and for that reason, overlook signs of it during clean-up.

Unlikely to be concealed by sexual habits. We use condoms, I think dribble inside them would be visible. I don't take antidepressants, either. That would leave urethral strictures as a reason for retrograde ejaculation.

Hey !

No health problem to bring up here, just wanted to thanks the helpful people that give a little of their time, knowledge and brain-processing power !

Very surprised that such a thread did exist, that's nice.

Nachtigallerator wrote:That possible reading occured to me a while after, yes. I'd agree with the conclusion, but now I'm genuinely curious how that would work. Do you have any insights to offer, Mask?

If you use reverse grip, try standard grip and use lube. If you use standard grip, lube up first and/or use a condom, then only put as much grip pressure as you would when holding your SO's hand. Don't literally jerk your dick when you jerk off. Take a week off from fapping, then fuck your SO and see if the problem persists. If so, I'd see a urologist.

Gripping too hard, especially during climax, might cause a bit of retrograde ejaculation, but I'm no doctor.

Or you can be like me and not give a shit. Then again, I'm into some weird shit and go places with my partners most people couldn't get back from.

If I recall some Dr. Ruth articles correctly, there's sometimes a problem with men being rougher with themselves during masturbation than their partners' bodies are during sex, and accustoming themselves to higher levels of physical stimulation than sex provides. The result is that masturbation works normally, but partner sex leaves them unable to finish, which sounds a lot like what you're describing.

The suggested solution was to temporarily swear off masturbating and train the body to respond to gentler stimulation.

I have no idea if this is related to your issues, but I'm pretty sure you can find discussions on the matter from serious and respected sexologists on the web.

Just got new glasses after not having had any for a month or two. The glasses work...sort of. My eyes keep going in and out of focus when I have them on. When focused, I can see fine, but I keep defocusing to even worse than without the glasses. Is this normal? Will it go away?

Not that I expect to help at all, but are your new glasses the same prescription as your old glasses? Do you wear them all the time or only for certain activities (like driving)? Do you have this issue when focusing close? Intermediate? Far? All of the above?

deaddmwalking wrote:Not that I expect to help at all, but are your new glasses the same prescription as your old glasses?

Either the exact same, or very, very close. Eye doctor said my eyes were pretty much unchanged.

Do you wear them all the time or only for certain activities (like driving)?

Only for certain activities.

Do you have this issue when focusing close? Intermediate? Far? All of the above?

All of the above. Ordinarily near vision is clear, far vision is blurry. With glasses, vision at any distance will constantly jump from blurry to clear.

The eye doctor called me today to inform me that oops! They gave me someone else's glasses. The person in question had stigmatism, which means wearing their glasses was like having a stigmatism myself. Other than that, they had basically exactly the same prescription as me, though. Exchanged the other guy's glasses for me, and now I can see fine, plus I got a free warranty on the glasses. Yay, I guess.

Glad they got it sorted out at least.

I was gonna say. You had me stumped with that one. I was gonna guess dry eyes or allergies since you reported shifting between clear and blurry, but it didn't seem to fit so I just kept my mouth shut.

I'm guessing your vision in those glasses shifted as you squinted causing a pinhole effect negating some astigmatism. Or had constricted pupils when looking at brighter lights which similarly reduced the astigmatism.

So after the latest raft of tests, the results are that I need more tests, but in good news, it looks like I just have high blood sugar levels (and iron, ferritin etc. potentially consistent with iron overload) but good blood sugar control. So it's good to have cut soft drink out (I imagine doctors would always recommend doing that), and I won't go back to it in general but will feel safe ordering a Coke when going out for dinner. Similarly I won't be going back to an intake of 8 terrajoules* per day, but it's nice to be able to safely eat sweets. Phlebotomy might be necessary, which is just "giving a bunch of blood regularly", nowhere near as intimidating as the word sounds (for reasons I don't even know).

Anyway, until further testing can happen, one of the things we're looking at is a dietary change to see if that has any effect on my digestive system, and some of the things I can't have any more are a whole bunch of grains and apples. So naturally, this brings up the issue of alcohol (most things do).

Actual Question How much apple is typically contained in cider? Similarly, does grain alcohol actually have anything in common with the grain from which it is made? Am I safe having my lovely Somersby cider and Glenfiddich single malt whisky on the low podmas diet?

Also, under the "eat more of these" it lists parsley, rosemary, thyme in that order. You have no idea how infuriating it is that they left out sage. KNOW THE LYRICS YOU ASSHOLES.

*I may be exaggerating.

Low podmas diet? I tried googling that and didn't come up with anything useful. Is it low fodmap?

The juice of apples contains the vast majority of 'stuff' in an apple. What's left after pressing is mostly fiber, some of which still ends up in the juice. So any vitamins, minerals, specific proteins, etc. is in juice.

Cider, if fermented, has lost quite a bit of the sugar, and proteins have been surprisingly thoroughly scavenged. (It's still a custom to suspend pieces of beef in barrels of fermenting cider to feed the yeast, and they generally dissolve long before the cider's done.)

But if you're concerned with FODMAPs, I think most of the fermentable stuff has been... well, fermented already.