Wild sex can cause penile injury
Q. I have an embarrassing question. What are your suggestions regarding penile fracture?
I admit to being too wild and crazy one night. I bent a fully erect penis about 90 degrees. It was very painful and turned purple, black and blue. It no longer hurts but has a tendency to veer to the left.
Urination and ejaculation work painlessly. Should I look into surgery, or will the tissue repair itself?
A. From your description it seems as if you are suffering from Peyronie’s disease. A penile “fracture” that occurs during overly vigorous intercourse is actually a tear in the tissue. This leads to bruising, which can cause scar tissue. During an erection, this fibrous area cannot expand normally, which leads to the kind of curvature you have observed.
Physicians frequently recommend prompt surgical repair to reduce painful symptoms and prevent complications such as erectile dysfunction. Although Peyronie’s disease sometimes disappears all by itself, you should consult a urological surgeon for an assessment. For more details, you might wish to search our Web site for Peyronie’s (www.peoplespharmacy.com).
Q. I have just been through detox hell after stopping the antidepressant Cymbalta. After a week of dizziness, nausea, diarrhea, sweats, chills, itching, disorientation, mood swings and headaches, I am angry! My doctor did not tell me that this might happen.
I had been on the drug for about a year and was weaned off it by gradually dropping the dosage. I expected some emotional repercussions, but I didn’t expect to be unable to function for more than a week, a prisoner in my own home.
I would have assumed I was dying of a strange flu, but I found accounts of similar withdrawal problems on the Internet. My doctor was out of town, and his fill-in confirmed that these were typical symptoms of stopping Cymbalta.
I just don’t understand why I wasn’t warned. Why hadn’t I been told upfront, before starting the drug, about the possibility of severe withdrawal?
Is it up to the consumer to read every line of the insert to determine the safety of a medicine before taking it?
It terrifies me to think about other patients going off this drug with no idea of what might happen to them! The withdrawal hell should be explained so the patient can know what to expect and prepare himself for the possibilities.
A. It often comes as a rude shock when patients discover that stopping antidepressant medications can cause distressing withdrawal symptoms. We have heard from folks who stopped Effexor, Paxil or Zoloft who felt disoriented and dizzy. Many report distressing shocklike sensations in their heads.
We are sending you our Guides to Antidepressant Pros and Cons and Psychological Side Effects that discuss these problems in greater detail and offer some withdrawal strategies. Anyone who would like copies, please send $2 in check or money order with a long (No. 10), stamped (58 cents), self-addressed envelope to: Graedons’ People’s Pharmacy, No. MX-23, P.O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027.
Q. Months ago, I heard about a new prescription drug for weight loss that also lowered cholesterol and blood sugar levels. It was awaiting approval. Has it become available?
A. The drug is rimonabant. Although it is now available in Europe, a panel of experts recommended to the Food and Drug Administration that it not be approved due to an increased risk of depression or suicidal thoughts.