METHADONE why wasnt i informed of side affects!!!!!!

[mac15]

Hi All,

Havnt been on here for ages so i hope everyone who knows me are all good and well!!!

I am totally rageing,my partner and i have been trying for a baby for a number of months now without success.My partner has a condition which means she doesnt ovulate as normal but can be sorted with a course of medication,she is waiting on a referral to the hospital!!

We decided i would get my sperm count checked incase there was any problems on my side!!!

Im just back from the Doctor and was sadly informed that i have a low Sperm count,the Doc asked the usual questions about smoking,which i do and alcohol and drugs which i have been sober 16 years and havnt used street drugs in four!!

I then asked if Methadone can reduce your sperm count and i was amazed to find it DOES SIGNIFICANTLY,why was i not informed of this when put on a script that if i ever wanted a family Methadone could reduce the chances of this happening??

Its back to the usual,get them on a script and make the Government be made to look as if they are winning the war on drugs!!!!

Please if anyone else has any experience of this please reply to my post as i feel the lonliest and inadequate guy in the world at the moment!!

Best Wishes Mac

[Jim]

sorry I have not heard of methadone reducing sperm count and I thought I knew all the side effects.  I can certainly lower libido but that's a different thing.  I will have a look to see if I can find anything

[Jim]

seems the answer is that it doesn't effect sperm count.  here were two studies thatr found a small effect but they were probably counfounded by alcohol use.  It does seem that methadone may reduce testosterone levels (which may account for the reduced libido) and one nig study found higher sperm counts in MMT patients compared to controls but that the sperm had lower motility

[sapphire]

Hi All,

Havnt been on here for ages so i hope everyone who knows me are all good and well!!!

I am totally rageing,my partner and i have been trying for a baby for a number of months now without success.My partner has a condition which means she doesnt ovulate as normal but can be sorted with a course of medication,she is waiting on a referral to the hospital!!

We decided i would get my sperm count checked incase there was any problems on my side!!!

Im just back from the Doctor and was sadly informed that i have a low Sperm count,the Doc asked the usual questions about smoking,which i do and alcohol and drugs which i have been sober 16 years and havnt used street drugs in four!!

I then asked if Methadone can reduce your sperm count and i was amazed to find it DOES SIGNIFICANTLY,why was i not informed of this when put on a script that if i ever wanted a family Methadone could reduce the chances of this happening??

Its back to the usual,get them on a script and make the Government be made to look as if they are winning the war on drugs!!!!

Please if anyone else has any experience of this please reply to my post as i feel the lonliest and inadequate guy in the world at the moment!!

Best Wishes Mac

I'm not sure if that's entirely true for everyone Mac, as when Mr Sapph and I went through fertility testing he was on methadone (and had been for a while, at a not small dose) and his sperm count was fine.

In males what methadone can sometimes, in some (not all) do is lower testosterone, which might cause low motility in the sperm, but it doesn't happen to everyone.

I thought it was quite widely known now that methadone MIGHT cause low testosterone in SOME males.

Think about it though, when you were offered the methadone in the first place, would you have turned it down if they had said "This may at some point in the future cause low testosterone levels"?

There are patches and pills you can take to bring your testosterone levels up to normal, so it's nothing too drastic.

But for your doctor to say that methadone significantly lowers sperm counts in all men - that's just your doctor talking BS I'm afraid.

[mac15]

Thanks   folks for your replies,the doctor didnt actually know if Methadone affected sperm count and actually googled it whilst i was there!

I have since done the same and according to many specialists it DOES REDUCE SPERM COUNTS!!!

Best wishes Mac

[froude]

Got to admit ,my sex drive has diminished a little(which is the methadone),as for the low sperm count,cant see Methadone lowering your sperm count,ive had 2 beautiful children while on methadone.Then again we aint all the same us males,could be something else.All the best Froude

[sapphire]

It lowers testosterone, which Can and might, lower sex drive in some males. It won't definately lower your sperm count in every bloke on methadone, and for doctors to be be saying that is to cause hysteria for no reason, and another reason for the purple brigade to diss methadone.

[froude]

Couldn't of put it better my self Saphh.Seems like the Methadone Sabotage Squad are out and about again,im not referring to the thread but something that was said to me the other day while in Town.I was stood outside the paper shop and someone mentioned they had been off Methadone for a week now,and he thought it was shit,I felt compelled to smash him in the face ,but instead managed to remind him the last time i saw him before Christmas he was saying"Methadone was great, he wasn't feeling anything during this reducement", apparently he was on a couple of mil every week reducement.PRICK!!,Did mention to him at the time of him saying it he was steaming drunk,so probably didnt even remember saying it,in the end the conclusion,at some time or another Methadone had or was saving our lives .Funny That,All the best Froude

[sapphire]

I know froude,it seems the purple brigade are pulling any pro maintenance funding, and chucking as much crap at maintenance and methadone as they can, in the hope that it will stick and everyone'll be forced off scripts.
There is enough false info about methadone anyway (eg. it rots your teeth, it rots your bones, you are tied to a chemist everyday) without more of this anti methadone propaganda.

That'll be great if all maintenance is pulled, 12 months down the line we'll all have lost our jobs, houses, families, credibility, respect (our "recovery capital").

Yeah, nice work there NTA, or whoever is behind this.


Do they not think that if we could live without maintenance, we'd already be dping so? No one wants to take medication for anything for everyday for the rest of their life, but those of us that manage well on a script, well, that's a choice we should be able to make for ourselves - not have it forced upon us by the purple rinse brigade who seem to think we sit on our arses all day gouching, taking other drugs, and getting "high", off the "awful green gloop".

What a farce, when will someone with a brain take the reins here, we need some help in our corner, and we need it fast.

Come on Ken, what;'s going on??

[angiesims AKA true grit :)]

I felt compelled to smash him in the face  Froude you make me LOL 

[froude]

Never will i get to the point where im against Methadone,or Maintenance and they will have great difficulty getting me to reduce for at least a year,We will not bow down to the Methadone Sabotage Squad in their purple waistcoats and bow ties, threatening the entire Methadone Maintenance Squad with pathetic nonsense,we must draw the line,where is the help that is needed for the people who are getting on with their lives and  Maintenance does work for them .Like you said Saphh if nothing is done this kind of treatment will be a thing of the past.All the best Froude.

[sapphire]

They're trying the old "try 1 ml a week, you won't feel it honest", on me at present. BUT!!!!! I may have light at the end of the tunnel!
Due to another health condition, my neurologist has said it would be best to taper off the meth, whilst titrating up on mst or similar (oramorph), prescribed by an actual doctor!! No DSP!!!

Although it's bad news cos I've got a bad health problem, it's fucking good news that the DSP is hopefully gonna be a distant vague purple memory!

[simon]

Diamorphine gets in your testicles, if you have them.

[sapphire]

Well Simon, as I have 6 testes on either side of my head, I suppose I must swear off the old diamorph for fear of my little swimmers, well, not swimming?!

[froude]

I'd like to know why i wasnt told of the side effects of methadone,talking of testes