u/Playthecards091

Hi everyone,

I'm 20M and I've never experienced any sexual pleasure. Not as something I lost, it has always been like this. My very first ejaculation already felt like nothing. As far as I know I've never taken any medication that could have caused it.

What it looks like for me:
- Erections are easy and strong, from visuals, touch or just thoughts
- Genital touch feels completely normal (pressure, temperature, pain) but has zero erotic quality. It's like being touched on my arm
- No felt arousal, even with a full erection
- I feel the point of no return and the contractions, but the orgasm itself feels like nothing
- I do feel attraction to women
- Everything else I enjoy normally: food, music, sport etc (depression partly caused by this condition, not the other way around)
- Hormones checked: testosterone above average, prolactin normal

My working hypothesis (not a diagnosis):
The signals clearly reach my brain: I feel the touch, I notice the erection, I feel the ejaculation. What seems to be missing is the step where the brain attaches pleasure/reward to sexual input specifically.

There's a known condition called "specific musical anhedonia": people who hear music normally and enjoy everything else, but get no pleasure from music, linked to weaker connectivity between the auditory cortex and the reward system. I think mine could be the sexual version of that. It would also explain why my desire feels like a direction rather than a pull: if sex never felt rewarding, the brain never learned to want it.

Why it's like this, I don't know. Possibly something innate, possibly something I was exposed to before birth (still need to ask my mother).

Honestly: I don't expect to find a solution. The sexual medicine guidelines call this "primary anhedonic orgasm", but almost nothing is known about it and no medication has been shown to reliably help. I'm not posting for a cure. I mainly want to find people who actually recognise this, because most people either think it's in your head or that there's an easy fix.

So my questions:

1. Does anyone else have this lifelong, rather than after medication or illness?
2. Did any tests or doctors ever find anything?
3. How do you deal with it, in relationships or in general?

To everyone here dealing with this: because it's so rare and so few people truly understand it, I see you as family. Even if it often feels that way, you're not alone in this.

Thanks for reading.

TL;DR: Lifelong, no known drug trigger. Erections and normal touch sensation, but zero erogenous sensation and orgasms feel like nothing. Looking for similar cases and thoughts on a shared mechanism.

Hi everyone,

Unlike most people here, I don't have PSSD, PFS or post-Accutane syndrome (as far as I know). But I share some of your core symptoms: no sexual pleasure and no erogenous sensation at all. For me it's lifelong. My very first ejaculation already felt like nothing. To my knowledge I've never taken anything that could explain it.

What I have and don't have:
- Erections are easy and strong, from visuals, touch or just thoughts
- Genital touch feels normal (pressure, temperature, pain) but has zero erotic quality. It's like being touched on my arm
- No felt arousal, even with a full erection
- I do feel attraction to women
- Testosterone above average

I've gone through a lot of research. Part of this has a name in the sexual medicine guidelines ("primary anhedonic orgasm"), but very little is known about it and no medication has been shown to reliably help.

Asexual people experience the exact oppositie of what im experiencing: they are able to experience erogenous sensation , but dont have any sexual attraction towards anyone. This sub is the only place where I've found people describing the same experience. Even though I don't know what I'm missing, I understand how isolating it is when people either think it's all in your head or that there's an easy fix.

My working hypothesis (not a diagnosis):
The signals clearly reach my brain: I feel the touch, I notice the erection, I feel the ejaculation. What seems to be missing is the step where the brain attaches pleasure/reward to sexual input specifically.

Why I'm posting here:
The PSSD diagnostic criteria paper separates "somatic" genital numbness from loss of "erogenous" sensation, where genital touch feels like touching any other body part. The second one is exactly what I have. The same paper also proposes "post-SSRI asexuality" for people exposed before birth or as children, who would never have known anything different. I don't know yet whether my mother took anything during pregnancy; I'm going to ask. Or maybe it's simply something I was born with

Questions:

1. I don’t think this will be the case but does anyone have these symptoms lifelong, without a known drug trigger?
2. Has anyone developed this from something other than SSRIs/finasteride/isotretinoin (e.g. antihistamines, tramadol, antibiotics, antipsychotics)?
3. Does anyone know researchers or clinics looking into this?

Thanks for reading.