Genital numbness, or numb penis or numb vulva, refers to a loss of sensation or decreased sensitivity in the genital area. It can be ...

feeling-numb-down-below-why-you-have-a-numb-penis-or-vulva-and-what-to-do

Feeling Numb Down Below? Why You Have a Numb Penis or Vulva and What to do!

have you ever felt like your genitals might be getting a little numb or it takes a little more stimulation than usual to get you to climax I'm Dr Rena Malik urologist and pelvic surgeon and I'm going to be talking about everything you need to know about decreased sensation in the genitals first off let's talk about causes so genital numbness can show up in a few different ways you might notice a loss of sensation in the testicles perineum or the skin around the penis or the vagina you might notice a burning or tingling or needle-like feeling or even coldness in the genitals or you might see kind of bluish or purplish skin now why would this happen I'm going to go over eight causes of genital numbness the first off is age unfortunately age is one of the reasons that you might be noticing that your genitals are a little bit more numb just like when you age your muscles and Bones get older your neurons or your nerves also get older this means that specifically your peripheral nerves of the nerves on the ends and fingertips and the genitals they can't transmit signals as effectively as they used to from when we were younger these nerves are responsible for sending messages from different parts of the body including our genitals to the brain like hey I feel some pressure or I feel someone touching me and so when they stop working well you might notice this decreased sensation or numbness and this probably happens because of several factors like reduced blood flow to the nerves damage to the cells over time and even changes in the tissues around those nerves and how do we know this well in 1997 they looked at What's called the penile vibratory threshold so they said okay at what point do people notice vibration when we start from a really low setting and they plotted this over the time of age and you can see here that that threshold went higher and higher as you aged and it got worse by almost five standard deviations by the eighth decade of Life number two hormonal changes so it changes like low testosterone in men or menopause in women that result in decreased estrogen levels can also result in changes in sensitivity in women low estrogen can cause thinning of the vaginal tissues which can then affect sensation in the vaginal Canal number three activities that put a lot of pressure on the nerves these can be things like sitting for long periods of time we saw a lot of this during covid because people were sitting all the time at home using a bicycle seat that tends to put more pressure on the genitals and the perineum so certainly a lot of very Avid bicyclists or even Peloton users May notice this or even in some cases wearing really tight underwear or clothing can sometimes lead to Temporary numbness now the good news is usually this goes away now if you're cycling or you go on really long rides you might notice that this numbness lasts for some time now this is because that seat itself applies pressure on the perineum and that's the area between either in women the vagina and the anus or in men the areas between the scrotum and the anus anything you're sitting on then compresses the blood vessels and nerves that pass through the perineum that then causes that reduced sensation the next cause is underlying conditions or medical problems like diabetes multiple sclerosis spinal cord injuries or even skin conditions like lichen sclerosis all of these can affect nerve function and cause issues with sensation and specifically diabetes is a huge one that most people don't know about but having poorly controlled diabetes can cause so many issues with your sex life including numbness next cause is pelvic floor dysfunction or stress so when you have pelvic floor dysfunction sometimes people develop what's called high tone pelvic floor dysfunction what that means is the muscles in the pelvic floor tense up really really tight and don't relax and this is just where some people hold their stress and so if that's occurring with you and you wouldn't really know it you might just be stressed you might have no other symptom except for numbness and this is because that tenseness in the muscles then prevents blood from flowing through to the areas that need blood flow especially when it's very very tense and sometimes it can lead to things like inflammation in the area and other issues next is medications so side effects of many medications can cause some form of problems with nerve function or numbness some of these medications include celegine which is the medication people take with Parkinson's disease and also finasteride or antidepressants which I've talked about previously as having an impact on ejaculation and orgasm in small numbers of patients next is a rare one so I don't want you to take this out of context but idiosyncratic masturbation now what that is is when you're masturbating using the same technique over and over again usually with a lot of pressure or using really rigorous sex toys or vibrators set on a really high level all of these things can cause over stimulation and over time can result in a change in sensation now again usually this is temporary but if you're doing it the same way every single time your body can get used to that specific stimulation and can have difficulty enjoying other Sensations and I've also talked about this in a video about is masturbation harmful so check that one out if you want to learn more next is trauma specifically things like childbirth in women can cause stretching of these nerves which can cause some changes in genital sensation fortunately a lot of those get better weeks to months after giving birth also if you have direct injury to the pelvic area like having a high impact car accident or having a fall this can lead to changes in sensation now if you develop numbness in the genital area back pain lower extremity pain as well as loss of control of your bladder or bowels you may have developed something called Kata aquina syndrome now this is extremely rare but if it does happen it's a surgical emergency so you need to get to the emergency room right away and bottom line if your numbness is constant it's not improving it's really important to see a doctor to then get assessed to make sure that there's nothing more serious going on and specifically nothing correctable going on now what happens when you see the doctor so the diagnosis of genital numbness is typically made with a history and physical in some cases there are other tests like penile Doppler ultrasounds that can assess the blood flow to the genitals or even special screening tests called biothesiometry and these assess the sensation on your fingertip as well as the genitals to vibration a lot of times you won't get those treatments because unfortunately there's very few things that can reverse genital numbness when it's there however sometimes you can be referred to a neurologist for some more additional testing of specific nerves like the pudendal nerve for men you also may want to get your testosterone checked to see if there's any hormonal abnormalities that might be contributing to loss of sensation now what can you do at home if you're dealing with this problem so treatment options depend on what the cause is but you can take some steps to kind of prevent or reduce the risk of getting temporary numbness so one is make sure to take a break from sitting for prolonged periods try a standing desk and when you're biking try to use a seat that's wider in the beak area and wear padded cycling shorts and you can even find like ergonomic bike seats that absorb more shock from the road so that can minimize pressure on your nerves if it's due to a medical problem like diabetes for example it's very important to get those medical problems under control for diabetes keep good glucose control to prevent further damage to the nerves also if you're having issues during intercourse there's a few things I always tell my patients so one you know it's important to understand the spinal cord has certain areas that are sensing types of sensation one is pressure which is the one that's most often used when you're having sex but also temperature and vibration so if you're having lack of sensation and all the other things are normal you can try using temperature which means you may want to try heating or cooling lubricants now be careful with these because they can be irritating so I always tell people check them on your arm or your hand to make sure that one you're not sensitive to them and two start with really small amounts and increase as needed you can also try vibration so there's lots of different sex toys on the market that you can use to increase vibration to the area either during intercourse before and those may allow you to have better sensation or reach orgasm or climax faster if you are worried about pelvic floor abnormalities or your doctor told you that you have pelvic floor dysfunction see a pelvic floor therapist and they can work with you to determine how to relax certain muscles and strengthen others so you can really improve the function of your pelvic floor so that's not causing any issues or pressure on the blood flow or the nerves to the area I hope you guys found this helpful I see so many patients who come to me and say you know what doc it just feels a little bit numb and it's a hard problem and so I'm sorry if you're suffering with this if you enjoyed this video you may want to check out my video on what causes low libido and what you can do about it as always if you enjoyed my content Please Subscribe and share this Channel with your friends and always remember to take care of yourself because you're worth it

Dr.

Related Videos

Consultation & Treatment

Consult With Loading Doctor Data