- In the video above you can see: 3 habits destroy your liver without alcohol
Any bet that many can’t figure out which organ is responsible for having fun with sex? Of course you already guessed it: the liver. Because the liver metabolizes all sex hormones. Although they are produced in the sexual organs – in women in the ovaries, in men in the testicles – they are then broken down again in the liver.
In case histories, we would like to explain to you how this works and what different effects it can have on the desire for sex in men and women. Felix’s is the first.
Felix (45): His wife thought he was cheating – but he suffers from one
liver cirrhosis
liver cirrhosis
On a Sunday walk with the dog, Anna dropped the bomb: “Do you have another…?” Her husband Felix (45) stopped dead and was speechless at first. Then, “I swear to you on the lives of our three children, there is no other woman involved.” He considered. There have been no performances in his head cinema for a long time. So – the marital routine, the stress of work, the increasing age are to blame? Yes, that can be a reason. But not only.
Felix went to the urologist. The hormone test initially revealed a testosterone deficiency. However, a complete blood count then showed abnormal liver values. An internist did further tests and indeed:
Felix suffers from cirrhosis of the liver, i.e. progressive scarring of the liver tissue. In medical terms, the cause is haemochromatosis. In English: the iron storage disease.
Book recommendation: The Silence of the Liver (Advertisement)
The liver is one of the most important organs in our body because its abilities save our lives every day. But what do we know about them? Usually relatively little. Professor Ansgar Lohse is a liver expert and clinic director at the University Hospital in Hamburg-Eppendorf. Together with the journalist Ulf Goettges, he published the book “The Silence of the Liver” by TRIAS Verlag, in which the two provide information about the fascinating abilities of the liver.
In Felix’s case, the cirrhosis caused a fatal chain reaction: Since the liver was no longer fully functional as a result, the breakdown of hormones in the liver was also disrupted. This applies, among other things, to the sex hormone testosterone already mentioned. It is gradually chemically altered and reduced in size in the liver.
When it is broken down, some estrogens, i.e. female sex hormones, are formed as an intermediate stage. In the case of cirrhosis, more of this estrogen intermediate is produced because the estrogen is broken down more slowly in the liver, which is no longer fully functional. As a result, male phenomena tend to develop easily, sometimes more, sometimes less – but overall: the more cirrhosis, the more “feminization”. The hair becomes softer, there is less chest and body hair, there is less baldness, some mammary gland tissue forms, the testicles get a little smaller – and the desire decreases or disappears!
In medical terms, there is a loss of libido and erectile dysfunction. That’s exactly what happened with Felix.
This can help:
A bloodletting can help because the body loses up to 250 milligrams of iron per treatment and thus relieves the liver. Add to that more exercise and sport, then the desire will come back.
Ronnie (32): Zu too much testosterone destroys the libido
Ronnie is 32 years old, drives a vintage Mercedes convertible, works as a tiler – and loves Lena. That means lately he only loved her in a spiritual sense. Because his desire for sex decreased alarmingly. And also physically, with all the associated joys, it was slowly over: It just didn’t work anymore…
The fitness-loving kickboxer had taken too many testosterone supplements, possibly illegally manufactured ones with dubious ingredients. When he not only got weaker and weaker, but also got a strange yellow skin color, Lena began to worry seriously. She dragged her reluctant friend to the family doctor, who in turn immediately referred him to a liver specialist.
His diagnosis was:
Jaundice (jaundice)
, that meant off to the clinic. The liver values were very high, the liver function already in the basement. Tests for viruses were negative. So a liver biopsy, i.e. the removal of a tissue sample, should bring certainty. The result:
Significant liver inflammation, “drug-toxic” or “drug-allergic damage”
.
Protein powder contains additives that can cause such liver inflammation, and testosterone can primarily trigger additional cholestasis (bile buildup in the liver), but also allergic liver inflammation. And it was this inflammation of the liver that destroyed his libido. Fortunately, not the whole organ.
This can help:
With intensive cortisone treatment, the medical team got the severe liver inflammation under control. After two weeks he was able to leave the clinic. Ronnie was lucky, because in the worst case, liver cancer can also develop.
