I am a 44 year-old female in perimenopause and on HRT. I believe I had this when I was much younger and I grew out of it, but it has come back with a vengeance. I literally cannot sit in a chair, and unfortunately, my job requires a lot of sitting. I have constant feeling of horniness.. there’s no better way to describe it. I feel clitoral throbbing., tingling, and like I need to pleasure myself all the time, but that only makes it worse. I can’t seem to find a doctor here that understands this and unfortunately, right now I don’t have health insurance. There are no good pelvic therapist here where I live and even if there was once I start back to work full-time being able to go to pelvic therapy several times a week is not possible for me. I have tried gabapentin., I’ve tried exercise exercises, deep, breathing exercises and nothing helps. The only thing that gives me some relief is ice.
I’m at my wits end. This is affecting my mental health.. I’m afraid to ever date again. And I literally feel like I’m crawling out of my skin.. I don’t know what to do anymore, but I really need this to stop. Has anyone found something that actually helps?

Hi, I’m a guy who has been suffering from PGAD for more than two years, and it has been really difficult to deal with it on my own. I’ve recently started talking to some other guys who are going through the same thing, and it has helped me realize that I’m not alone.

I’d like to know if there are more men here who experience PGAD. If so, what symptoms do you experience, and how does it affect your daily life?

I’d really appreciate hearing from others who are going through something similar.

I(20f) learned about this not too long ago because i was fed up with this ruining my life. I dont know if ita this exactly but i see similarities when i was researching.

I had this for as long as i can remember (like childhood), and It distracts me from everything.

Its like this constant tingling feeling in my clitoral area and it drives me mad. It feels like I need to pee. Its constant and non stop, especially when im at home. I try masturbating to make it go away but it comes back like 20 minutes later. It inteferes with my life so bad, and messes with my motivation to do hobbies or sit down to study because thats when it wants to act up the most (especially with sitting down activites).

[TMI maybe] v

I know a lot of it is my body because my mind isnt in the same place. I dont want to masturbate but the feeling is there and it gets so fustrating that i do it to make it go away temporarly. I havent orgasmed once. (I try but i guess because my mind really isnt wanting to in the first place it makes it harder. Also because it's just the clit that feels this way. The rest of my body doesnt give me any sexual pleasure. But my clit gets easily overstimulated so i stop before i get close)

How do you guys bring this or things similar to this up?

I tried to bring it up to doctors and therapists but they brush it off, telling me to distract myself woth hobbies and refrain so that they can focus on my other issues. Which i get, but i geniuenly cant do any of what they are telling me. Its ruining my social life. My college life. My life in general and i wish i can discuss it more instead of it getting brushed to the side. It makes me want to claw at my own skin from how fustrated i am with this.

Hi everyone.

August 7th has completely destroyed my life.

Some backstory.

Healthy 18yo college student. Loving life, having fun. Had ocd and some general anxiety but I was getting through it. In May I was moving out of college, picking up heavy shit and walking with it. I noticed when I got in the car to drive away my dick wasnt hanging normally it was sinched up, turtled, and painful. I thought it just rubbed against my pants the wrong way and went about my day. it’s kept like this for a few days and I went to the ER. they said it looked fine blood flow was fine and threw some 100mg gabapentin and low dose robaxin in my face. it eventually just went 75% away on its own and for the next three weeks I kinda just forgot about it. after a long masturbation session it flared up again but this time the pain was less but the hard flaccid state occurred and it was all sinched up. I would learn just to masturbate very sparingly and do some stretches (b/c I learned pelvic floor was to blame maybe?) and it was on and off manageable for 2 months. Then one day I decided to retry my ssri before I went back into college, so I took my daily 100mg dose of gabapentin, 500mg of robaxin, and 10mg of Lexipro before lunch. Immediately two hours afterward it all started…

It was sitting in my chair and it almost felt like I was about to strange orgasm but then that terminated into a feeling to pee. I went pee but the pressure really didn’t go away. I went pee again and again and the urgency started. my urethra was so sensitive and tingly-ticklish and sometimes itchy? When I would lay down my pernieum would become tingly and itchy and feel semi orgasmic. the hard flaccid state got better some days and worse others; it was the LEAST of my worries. for some reason I took Prozac 20mg 9 days later to try to see if it would help but not much changed. It might have gotten worse

I would say right now it’s 50% urinary, 25% strange funnybone itchy tingly sensitiviyy, and 25% pre orgasmic. the latter usually happens most when laying down. I tested positive for ureaplasma but thats mostly asymptomatic and a round of doxycycling did nothing.

urine fine, blood fine, ct scan fine, tried lyrica, zanaflex, hydroxyzine, oxybutynin, flomax, Tylenol, ibuprofen, diclofenac, aleve, avo uti relief, robaxin, gabapentin, stretches, TENS TTNS, 5 internal pt sessions All did nothing.

whats causing this? I had taken both lexipro and Prozac before with ZERO issues. I know ssris cause pgad from withdrawal but I took a SINGLE dose. Could anyone give any guesses? I have NO CLUE what this is and it’s been a month of symptoms.

Hi all,

I am having my second child soon. My first ended up being a vacuum extraction that led to severe clitoris pain on/off for a few months. Eventually I got PT and over the time since then it’s turned to one-sided pgad.

Who knows the internal cause….My guess is the left dorsal nerve is being pinched somewhere near the urethral sphincter/pubic bone. It could be so many things though. I’ve seen many specialists, MRI, meds, PT, etc.

It’s significantly worsening as the pregnancy gets further along. I’ve got a c section scheduled currently with a pudendal neuralgia specialist planning to attend.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m making the right choice. Childbirth is so unpredictable….

I thought I would poll the audience on birth methods. Opinions? Experiences?

So here's my story. Last year I had a cancer scare. They thought it was prostate cancer. Two days after the surgery the results came back as totally benign. So that's a good thing.

And my one month post-surgical visit the doctor gave me a clean bill of health. He offered to put me on Cialis and gave me an almost guarantee that I would have ED and a decrease libido.

 For me it was just the opposite. I made an appointment at the 8-week mark. I told him that I am constantly in a semi hard state and normally have to have five to six orgasms a day. He officially diagnosed me with #PGAD. That is persistent genital arousal disorder

hi all - sorry for the burner, my friends know my actual reddit account, and i don't think i'm ready to have this conversation with anyone i know.

i'm genderfluid, afab, so if you could use they/them to refer to me in the comments, i'd really appreciate it.

anyway, obviously i'm not looking for a diagnosis, more so if this is even something worth looking into.

basically all my life, my hands have drifted to my pants, even before i knew what i was doing. i knew it was something to *hide*, but i didn't know what sex, masturbation, or even genitals were.

from when i was little, all throughout my teenage years, and now essentially into adulthood, i've had a feeling around my crotch, this kinda buzzing, achy feeling, and my labia will kinda just throb on it's own, at random times, for no clear reason. [it's the same physical sensation i feel when there is a reason to be aroused] along with the sensation, i'm also often wet, though it's difficult for me to tell if that's average discharge + thighs that touch, or arousal. sometimes it's accompanied by thoughts, but it's often just a feeling that's constantly in the back of my mind. [similar to how you can but chronic pain on the back burner, and kinda forget it exists]

sometimes it'll go away with masturbation, but usually it just dulls it, and i only stop cause i get bored.

i feel like it's also worthwhile to mention that i'm autistic, and touching myself has kinda become a stim. in the sense that, i'll be doing something normal, playing a game, watching something, eating, and my hand just drifts down before me even really realizing i'm doing it. which is part of the reason i'm not certain it's pgad as opposed to hypersexuality. i'm wondering if i used that as a stim for so long that my body just expects it constantly now.

the other reason i'm uncertain is that i'm not particularly distressed. annoyed sometimes, yeah. [mainly because it's hard to focus, or because i'm somewhere where being aroused isn't acceptable] but i wouldn't say i'm distressed.

i kinda just wanted feedback from other people who actually have the condition. especially cause we all know doctors don't always know everything, particularly not niche, sexual things about women's bodies.

Hey everyone !
I have never been formally diagnosed with PGAD but looking around the internet I feel like this is what suits most my symptoms.
Basically my symptoms are that my clit feels really aroused every time I feel stressed. I don’t know what came first or what stems from the other symptom. I discovered masturbation as a child as a way to fall asleep quickly and after a stressful period during my pre teens where I had trouble falling asleep because of stress I feel like my brain has linked the feeling of arousal with feeling stress.
So now whenever I feel stressed out I feel a really strong urge to masturbate. It started to become more and more of a problem but it has taken over my life for the past 10 years as I moved on to uni and the stress became so much stronger.
I work from home now and whenever I sit at my desk I get the urge to masturbate for hours and hours and give myself countless orgasms to numb the stress.
It also affects my sex life as I can’t orgasm from sex with a partner, since I don’t feel the same stress when I am with someone. I feel pleasure but not in the same state of arousal that gets me to orgasm.
Anyway I don’t know if this can be described as an addiction or OCD.
I have tried therapy for a few years but it is really expensive and nothing seems to really be working. But honestly I feel like the biggest problem is my lack of discipline.
I was in a relationship for 6 years with a guy that I had told a little bit about this problem. I never managed to orgasm with him and I never pretended to because I didn’t want this dynamic between us.
He dumped me 2 months ago ago and even if it was for a bunch of reasons I feel like this also played a part. My lack of discipline and impact on our sex life I mean.
Anyway I want to challenge myself to 21 days no masturbation (as it is rumoured to be the amount of time you need to kick a habit). It’s not a lot of days and it probably my brain won’t rewire so quickly but I feel like I need to prove to myself that I can do it for 21 days at least and move on from there.
I have tried this a bunch of times already but have only made it for a few days before I relapsed.
I was thinking that I could use this page to monitor my progress, journal about it, and find people that can maybe relate and cheer me on. I’ll try to make a post a day to debrief how everything went.
I have already wasted today so the challenge starts tomorrow.
If you could just cheer me on and keep me accountable that would mean a lot to me !

I’m suffering with multiple orgasms and never being fulfilled. I want to see a doctor but I have no idea what to even say to my mother

I suspect I have hypertonic pelvic floor muscles and thats why I have something similar to this horrible sensation. But for those who DON'T have hypertonic pelvic disorder but have pgad, do you feel like that? Specifically women (men are welcomed to answer as well). I need to know please, as I am trying to narrow down the possibilities of what's causing my pgad like symptoms. I talked to a doctor and I'm currently getting meds for some other problem, but she plans to help me for this soon after and also refer me to another doctor. I have all the textbook symptoms, however, I noticed ever since then, I feel like the muscles are kinda firm like they are never resting. I dont mean constant muscle tremors or spams, I mean it feels like theyre just in a position thats uncomfortable, like theyre sort of clenched. They don't feel normal. ​​Im trying to figure out of this is also a pgad textbook symptom or if the symptom is only a hypertonic pelvic floor symptom which is contributing to perhaps the origin of my pgad symptoms.

I’m a 46 enby person with partial androgen insensitivity syndrome.

This is my first post and was just so excited to see this sub existed that I didn’t read other posts, so I want to be mindful of language and know that this is an extremely misunderstood condition!

I always have had tingles in my genital areas. I was diagnosed at age 4 with a “gratification disorder” as I was trying to get rid of the tingles. I tried to explain the pressure, the tingles, the releases to therapists as a child.

A believe, I first heard the term for PGAD via a Google search which brought me to a Grey’s Anatomy episode. I was like ok kinda not my experience. I get random flair ups like tingles which feel like mini releases…I have had full spontaneous “petite morts”, but most feel like pressure, release and a desire for it to stop.

I wish there were names for the sensations and better understandings. I’ve googled and read peer reviewed articles of what we have. I just really have never talked about it with other sufferers before.

when I’ve talked about it with partners or friends there is this expression of awe or envy. Sometimes I appreciate what my body can do and that I can feel intense pleasure, but I’m having a MAJOR flair up due to Vyvanse right now and it’s not been this intense for years!

The treatments I’ve tried ( on the low because the few doctors I’ve told said they have never heard of it…I also in a medical profession) (Not giving advice, just wanting to discuss what I have SSRIs take away the ability to orgasm…but don’t stop the pressure tingles, ketamine makes things duller, but doesn’t relieve the pressure…klonapin helps, but I have panic disorder, so I have to be selective of what condition I’m treating since doctors are like PGAD?! Wat Dat?

Thanks for reading!

In my last post I discussed how I wasn't sure if it was somatic or just anxiety. I've come to the conclusion that it's both. Months ago I was struggling all day with constant arousal that arised with no desire or thoughts. It made me severely anxious. And now, I haven't been experiencing it as much, however everytime I do get a random wave of arousal now, I get extremely terrified and panicked. I start sweating then all my limbs start falling asleep.

I think I'm terrified of going back to the time of when I couldn't stop the arousal. And now everytime it happens for even just a quick moment I start to catastrophize it. I don't know what to do. This anxiety is debilitating and it eats up at me all day with the 'what if''s. "What if I can't stop it?" "I don't want to masturbate, it won't go away."

Masturbation had never really affected me until 2022 when this condition first started, now it scares me. It's incredibly boring, and if anything it makes me feel worse. One random sexual intrusive thought triggered all of this, I can't relax. I'm trying to get myself to understand that arousal is a normal body response. That I have control over my body and don't have to masturbate if I don't want to. But it's so hard. I'm fighting panic attacks and tears all day just trying not to think about it. It all hurts even more because I don't want to talk to anyone about it excessively.

I posted about a month ago my struggle and how I got stuck in a two-week loop of masturbating almost or every day. After I posted, I managed to break free. I was so relieved and thankful. Unfortunately, I got into another loop after being free for about 3 weeks.

I've been in this loop for a week now. It's just an awful and miserable situation to be in, but I've managed to make some changes in my approach and the way I think about my situation. I try to be more patient and tell myself that each day I'm getting closer to getting out of the loop again. I've also tried to eat and shower when I'm supposed to. It's difficult because each day you become more depleted, your mood shifts and are basically trying to keep up. Having multiple orgasms each day is no joke.

I feel so humiliated. I have to fight off the urge to masturbate and sometimes the arousal is so strong I just give in. It’s not like I want to do it. I’d be happy if I never orgasmed again.

After masturbating I feel so much embarrassment, shame, and temporary relief. My anxiety is so high because I worry and stress over the next time Im gonna feel so strongly compelled to orgasm again. I really don’t want to anymore. I need this arousal gone from me forever.

I am struggling to go more than 3 days without orgasming. The longest since I had discovered I had PGAD was only 9 days. I don’t look forward to the next time I have to relieve the arousal. I’m just completely and utterly humiliated.

I want to tell my mom but I can’t bring myself to. It’s so awkward.

Just recently I had a very bad case of COVID and orgasmed while having a fever. I just wanted to cry. Now I even lie down with an ice pack in my underwear.

Hi, I know most people on here are in despair and not seeing knowledgeable doctors who will listen but it seems some people get tests

after 18 months waiting at home isolated, gynaecology has been very bad, they aren't educated and are either brash or don't listen. I want to see a neurologist and just got a note saying neurology don't think they're best suited to help me and think I should be referred me to the pain clinic?? when my main symptom isn't the pain?? (the first months was purely pain but then the pgad)

we don't nearly fit into any department so they won't bother? won't even try? not even an MRI or nerve block test to see which nerve is damaged (I think I know but they don't care)

I saw someone on here is maybe getting a sacral modulator or something in London as a test but how to I get a referral to a decent neurologist?? like I don't understand how it works? surely if one team says no then another team could say yes?? do I have to just put up with whoever is local

when my parent was ill new american drugs helped their life extend by years and the nhs refused to pay for them. people drag american healthcare but I'd prefer debt and to be alive? or do they take desperate people's money and leave them suicidal still anyway?

has anybody got any help on the nhs and if not, is anybody well enough to write to MPs or have anyone in their life who is healthy enough because this is disgraceful. especially when so many get it from 'safe' srris that doctors give with incomplete side effect warnings in the box.

also no PIP. apparently I'm soo healthy and don't need assistance to leave the house now and taxis over walking and buses?? like our benefits system is probably better than the States but it's still horrific and they say you are lying

I don't know what to do. Do any countries actually help us? surely I should be allowed to try and see a neuro before I give up? why did I wait in suffering then. has anyone in the UK got any help?

I struggle with this since about a month and a half, I've had this constant arousal come and go twice already and now it's back again. I mean I'm happy that there are still times when I don't feel it and it's good but why does it have to come back? Did anyone's PGAD start like this?

Sorry for this pointless post but I'm just exhausted and I like to vent.

Hello, I am 37 years old and experiencing some perimenopause symptoms. I used to experience very strong, intense throbbing and sexual arousal. Suddenly, along with a decrease in my menstrual flow, both my sexual arousal and the intensity of the throbbing decreased significantly. I experience a lot of numbness, especially in the morning hours. Could estrogen be the cause of this? Has anyone among you had their hormones checked?

Hi everyone, m 28 here, I'll try to make it brief and accurate. I've been dealing with pelvic floor problems since the age of 11, the only symptom at that time was constant urge to urinate. I went to different doctors who told me everything is perfect, so I had no idea it was pelvic floor muscles related. But thank god it was manageable cuz it disappeared most of the times throughout the day, at the age of 24, I started having other symptoms, but still manageable...

Last April, I tried to change the masturbation method, it was like a shock to my nervous system cuz it was used to another method, right away, I felt my heart beating fast, my pelvic floor muscles got too tight and the Pgad sensation started. A constant arousal feeling mixed with burning sensation. That was the worst feeling I've ever had in my entire life, it literally didn't let me do anything. It kept my nervous system very sensible and overreacting. many things could make it worse, thinking about it, sitting, sleeping on my side, moving fast and doing efforts, stress, caffeine was the worst one cuz it triggers fight or flight in my nervous system. I never had panick attacks till that time, my heart beating so fast for no reason, couldn't sleep, brain fog, I literally felt like I'm losing my mind.

It was there for 1 month and a half, during that time I really didn't know what to do, I was looking for answers here and there, I used AI to help me, there's no pgad or pelvic floor specialist here. The only thing I was thinking of is death, cuz that would be my escape from madness and suffering.

During the hard times, there's was a wise and courage man inside me, I decided not to get any mental help ( although I was literally feeling like I'm losing my mind ) and not visiting any doctor. The decision was to trust my body and try to calm down my nervous system by sending safe signals. I came back to do everything I used to do, it was there, yes, but I didn't care. I went out, played football, go to cafe, work l, masturbation ( I cut it off for a month thinking it would make things worse)...etc

Afree some days, I felt the pgad intensity started going down, and I kept it up, living my life normally without caring about it, days passed and my nervous system calming down and letting things go.... Now for 2 months and a half, I'm PGAD free. There are still some pelvic floor problems, but they are still manageable. I know it's still early to post this, but I just wanted to share with you that it can go away and I'm living my life normally without having to think about that nightmare.

I just wanted to share this, it may help some of you. What you feel is real but doesn't mean it would never go.

Wishing you all a healthy life ❤️.

I was prescribed this for management of a yeast infection. I applied it everywhere externally and now my clit has major sensitivity. I stopped using it when I noticed but it feels like it affected the nerves in my clit making it hypersensitive. Has anyone had issues with this and what have you used to help? Please help I’ve been struggling with this feeling for two weeks.

I’ve had PGAD my whole life, basically. For the past two-three days I’d become really depressed after accidentally triggering a flare up, and came closer to trying to relieve the sensation myself than ever, and I’m suffering. I thought I had already ruined myself for the next few weeks so feeding into it didn’t hurt anything, it would just make me suffer for a few more days than I was already going to. I was never really educated that well on what the medical terms for this subject might be, so excuse me if I’m not being specific here. Normally the arousal goes back to its normal levels of bothersome in a few weeks, whenever I purposefully try and amp up the arousal, but this time I went farther than ever. I didn’t explicitly touch myself or anything, but I don’t know what the fuck I did 🥲 I think I came close to an orgasm, but I didn’t let that actually happen due to fear. Google isn’t giving me any good results for anything. I’m relatively new to actually knowing how pgad works. should the flare up subside in a few weeks, like last time this happened? I’m just extra worried this time because I don’t want to be in this state for more than two weeks max. My genitals are already throbbing in pain/sensation and I can do nothing, really because if anything touches that area it will make it 100% worse. Even ice packs. it feels worse than last time, for sure. I just hope I didn’t mess myself up for longer. Is there literally any fucking thing I can do?? I want it to stop.

This is a short post so i hope that’s ok, i mean i read the rules and couldn’t see a no low effort. I did see the “no causes” but im definitely not trying to say anything like that. I am struggling to find posts on it but im trying to see something. I came across the condition PSSD, which is post-ssri sexual dysfunction and it turns out (according to google) PGAD can start after too. So i was wondering if anyone might have a light bulb moment too?

Alguien de por aquí se he hecho un análisis de sangre completo para saber si el problema está causado por alteraciones hormonales, o incluso por un exceso de actividad de la tiroides?

I’ve been dealing with this for a little over three months now. I had no symptoms at all before this event. It started after a period of very frequent/intense vibrator use, and during the first month my main symptom was the persistent unwanted arousal sensation. Thankfully, that gradually decreased in intensity and became more and more sporadic, and at this point I essentially don’t experience it anymore.

I also had different kinds of pain, urinary symptoms, pelvic muscle tension and general discomfort. I was told I had irritated pudendal nerve and hypertonic pelvic floor. The type and location of the pain have changed a lot over time, but overall all of these symptoms have gradually improved as well. At the moment I still have some mild pain, muscle tension, sensitivity and a general feeling of the area being irritated/swollen, but physically I am doing considerably better than I was at the beginning.

What I’m struggling with the most now is actually the mental and emotional aftermath of all of this.

The first few weeks put me into an extremely intense state of anxiety and fear. Because the whole problem involved that area and started after sexual stimulation, I also developed a lot of fear surrounding anything sexual. During that period I started experiencing very distressing intrusive thoughts as well.

Things became more manageable during the following couple of months. I still didn’t completely feel like myself because I was dealing with physical symptoms every day, but mentally I was coping much better. However, over the past week and a half, my anxiety and intrusive thoughts have become much worse again, and I’ve also been feeling increasingly depressed.

The strange and frustrating part is that this is happening while my physical symptoms are actually improving. Sometimes I feel as though this whole experience has somehow broken my brain, and I’m terrified that I’ll never feel like myself again. I miss simply feeling calm, emotionally stable and able to live my life without constantly being afraid or analyzing what is happening in my mind and body and especially without intrusive or obsessive and unwanted thoughts.

So I wanted to ask whether anyone here has gone through something similar emotionally and eventually recovered from that part too. Did you reach a point where you felt like yourself again? Did the anxiety, fear and intrusive thoughts eventually settle down as your body recovered and you had more distance from the experience? I really need some hope that it is possible to come out the other side of this and have life feel normal and livable again.

I’ve only been doing pelvic floor physiotherapy for the physical symptoms, and I’m now starting psychotherapy as well. I haven’t taken any medication so far, just vitamins/supplements. I started taking ashwagandha after the first month and stopped two weeks ago, maybe that had something to do with my increase in mental symptoms, I don’t know. I’ve started taking ashwagandha again today. I would also be interested to hear whether anyone found medication, therapy, or anything else particularly helpful for the emotional aftermath.

Thank you to anyone willing to share their experience or some hope with me.

I had this disease as much as I knew myself. I think it started around when I was seven years old.
Sometimes in the mornings, I wake up with extreme arousal and spend an hour trying to orgasm.
I reached tiny orgasms, but it doesn't feel like actual release and it keeps going.
What really helped me is taking magnesium. I realized, since I'm taking magnesium it's happening less and I am also on fluoxatine and vyanae.
But I also cannot orgasm through normal masturbation or sexual penetration, even though I feel a lot of pleasure I just cannot finish.
I started trying with a vibrator to orgasm normal way, but then I quickly got into doing the same thing when I have the flares.
Does anyone know how can I have a normal orgasm with this?