Why Is Magnesium Hurting My Libido

serling78

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Long time lurker, first time poster. I'll start off by saying that everything I've ever read about the connection between magnesium and libido says that magnesium will improve libido. I've never been able to find anything to suggest it could seriously lower your libido, but that's what my experience has been.

I'm a 41 year old man and I've been testing taking magnesium supplements over the course of the last couple years. Each time I will change nothing else in my routine to eliminate any other causes, but the result is always after 2-3 days my libido is basically non existent. Most recently I've been using a magnesium citrate powder that I mix with water. The reason I'm so determined to make it work for me is because it does actually give me a couple great benefits such as: eliminates my mild restless leg syndrome (this isn't a huge benefit to me but does suggest I'm magnesium deficient I think), greatly reduces my anxiety, reduces facial flushing, and lastly it gives me much better results from working out. Regarding the last one, I workout 4 times a week typically. Normally I'm a classic hardgainer but the magnesium does help to give me some mass.

But again, the huge tradeoff is I lose my sex drive. If I stop taking the magnesium my libido comes back full force in about 3 days. My normal baseline libido is pretty solid.

I'm wondering if I should be taking something else with the magnesium to counteract the loss of libido? I only take 350mg a night when I'm on it, which I think is a pretty reasonable amount.

Has anyone else had this experience with magnesium? I've tried oxide, citrate, ionized, glycinate ,etc. In the past I've also tried supplementing zinc and also vitamin D by themselves. These both also kill my libido but that seemed to make sense because they're aromatase inhibitors and I've read that can really affect a certain percentage of men. But again, I've never read about magnesium having this effect. I'm just at a loss. Not sure if magnesium is just so calming that it makes my body no longer care about sex or what. One last thing is in addition to the loss of libido there is also a noticeable physical change to my penis. It shrinks and becomes very flimsy. Almost like no bloodflow is going down there. It does go back to normal though when I stop the magnesium.

If anyone has any info or suggestions I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks
 
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Most magnesium powders i've tried irritate the intestine, which produces serotonin. Taking too much magnesium is a guaranteed way to give me bad dreams at night, the same way people get crazy dreams when they take melatonin supplements, many of which actually contain serotonin. And yes it does dull the penis as well, which is why I unfortunately never supplement it and try to get it from food instead. I wouldn't use it if I were you.
 

PhilParma

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Loss of penile sensitivity too? It sounds like what a lot of guys complain about when they supplement too much progesterone. I think zinc and magnesium are both integral for progesterone synthesis. So maybe your progesterone is outpacing your DHT. Just a guess.
 
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serling78

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Loss of penile sensitivity too? It sounds like what a lot of guys complain about when they supplement too much progesterone. I think zinc and magnesium are both integral for progesterone synthesis. So maybe your progesterone is outpacing your DHT. Just a guess.

Interesting. I hadn't thought about progesterone. If this was the case what would the solution be?

Not sure if you are suggesting supplementing zinc and magnesium together or if there is something else I should take with magnesium to help out.
 

Kunstruct

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Depends on a lot of things.
Magnesium citrate orally in general made made feel not good. Some people on another forums talk about taking magnesium and can't stop the erections, surely had an opposite effect on me. Also seemed to lower blood pressure too much as in general my blood pressure is never high.
As for libido seems to do absolutely zero.
I started using magnesium chloride dissolved in water and apply it on my legs. Seemed that is less problematic, but definitely a bit of calcium carbonate here and there helped overall.
Zinc Magnesium B6, the kind of ZMA stuff, yeah it can give some overnight boners here and there, after a while does the opposite, lack of erections. Seems the younger you are and the less depressed you are ZMA can help, otherwise I would not recommend zinc magnesium to someone with low test and low mood, low energy, etc.
Try magesium choride topically and be careful at Calcium supplementation, see how much you need to balance the magnesium out, a bit of trial and error. Theoretically should be more Calcium intake than magnesium intake, some may disagree, but surely magnesium can cause shrinkage and if someone is already in full shrinkage and takes magnesium and gets no "monster boners like on the internet" will get feeling really bad.
 

PhilParma

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Interesting. I hadn't thought about progesterone. If this was the case what would the solution be?

Not sure if you are suggesting supplementing zinc and magnesium together or if there is something else I should take with magnesium to help out.

I dunno, penis shrinkage just sounds like low DHT to me. So hopefully you aren't consciously taking any DHT blocking supplements to combat hairloss or whatever. Zinc is supposed to be good for T/DHT as well as progesterone, but I've seen people report lowered libido with zinc. I guess it just depends on which pathway your steroid hormones have been set to travel down. Maybe you can search the forum/internet for 5 alpha reductase, and how to increase it. Off the top of my head:

Provide: carbs, long chain saturated fats, fat soluble vitamins, coffee/caffeine, glycine/gelatin, maybe creatine
Avoid: PUFA, soy, beer, tea, most herbs and oils, Finasteride
 

Arnold Grape

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I have a similar thing go on when taking magnesium bicarbonate water and fat solubles together — it’s not long lasting, but I have noticed progesterone type feelings and side effects, including some that you are describing. Typically I take magnesium in the morning, and usually any sides go away into the day. It’s not entirely clear to me what the solution might be? Maybe try to stagger the dosage if you think it is bad.
 

whit

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Magnesium Chloride and Sodium Bicarbonate in water at a 2:1 ratio works for us you can apply it to the skin after showering.
Lower concentrations for drinking it can work, if you don’t mind the taste.
 

Lokzo

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I want to chime in and add my 2 cents here.

Firstly OP, I am in the same boat as you.

I no longer take Magnesium supplements for this reason. Just makes me feel more fatigued, weaker in the gym, and generally more flat. It does hurt my libido too.

I always thought it was TOO low cortisol, but I could be wrong.
 
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serling78

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Which form do you take? And what dose? Thanks in advance.
Personally I think calcium by itself may also boost my libido, but the problem is I can't take enough to confirm. Any non dairy form of calcium (eggshells, citrate, carbonate, blackstrap molasses, stinging nettle etc) causes really bad constipation and bloating to where I can't even keep taking it after a couple days.

When it comes to calcium from dairy it kills my libido. I don't know if it's the hormones, the vitamin a and e (both have been shown to kill my libido from experimenting with supplements over the years. It's the aromatase inhibition), or what, but dairy isn't an option.

I would love to be able to consistently take calcium on its own, but it just seems to be impossible to digest. My digestion is best when I avoid all calcium. But of course that's bad for my body, hair, teeth, bones, etc. If anyone who has similar experiences has a way to digest calcium I'm all ears.
 

Lokzo

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Personally I think calcium by itself may also boost my libido, but the problem is I can't take enough to confirm. Any non dairy form of calcium (eggshells, citrate, carbonate, blackstrap molasses, stinging nettle etc) causes really bad constipation and bloating to where I can't even keep taking it after a couple days.

When it comes to calcium from dairy it kills my libido. I don't know if it's the hormones, the vitamin a and e (both have been shown to kill my libido from experimenting with supplements over the years. It's the aromatase inhibition), or what, but dairy isn't an option.

I would love to be able to consistently take calcium on its own, but it just seems to be impossible to digest. My digestion is best when I avoid all calcium. But of course that's bad for my body, hair, teeth, bones, etc. If anyone who has similar experiences has a way to digest calcium I'm all ears.

Did you ever try doing an oral cycle of BPC157 to heal gut?
 

Dr. B

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I want to chime in and add my 2 cents here.

Firstly OP, I am in the same boat as you.

I no longer take Magnesium supplements for this reason. Just makes me feel more fatigued, weaker in the gym, and generally more flat. It does hurt my libido too.

I always thought it was TOO low cortisol, but I could be wrong.
Calcium on the other hand... always boosts my libido.
that makes it seem like magnesium is raising pth/prolactin somehow then. it can antagonize calcium especially if you use the larger amounts. calcium being lowered can raise pth/prolactin. calcium should lower cortisol too.
 

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