Health question: what could cause major fatique and incredibly high libido?

Factual Questions
1

I know, you’re not a doctor, this isn’t medical advice, and all that. This question is about my father, and we have a doctor’s appointment for him on Wednesday. I’m just looking for information about anything we could discuss with the doctor.

Starting last Wednesday, my 73-year-old father became very fatigued. He sleeps all night, gets up in the morning, and goes back to bed an hour later. He’s always been the type to fall asleep in his chair at night, but never during the day.

I also pulled out of my mother the fact that he’s, well, horny. He’s driving her nuts, telling her she’s beautiful, trying to get her in bed with him, etc. They’ve always had a decent sex life, but never anything like this. She said he sits in his chair at night and looks at her, to the point where she’s very uncomfortable and he won’t stop when she tells him she’s not into it. He’s also making comments about women he sees on TV. This is VERY unlike him.

His appetite is a little off, too. I guess he vomited the other day, and hasn’t felt much like eating. But he is eating a little bit - he hasn’t gone off food altogether.

Other than that, nothing. He did have a stroke a few years back, but these symptoms aren’t the same. He’s not slurring his words or anything like that. To people who are not my mother, he seems fine, if a little tired. She says he only does the horndog thing when they’re alone.

He did have a bout of fatigue like this, minus the horniness, last summer. He was checked out by the doctor and they couldn’t find anything wrong. He also had prostate cancer a few years ago, and had his prostate removed. His PSA levels were normal last time they were checked.

So… any ideas? I’m concerned about such a sharp change in personality. My mother did some research and is going to ask the doctor about his Thyroid levels, which seems like it could account for the fatigue but not the horniness.

WTF is going on?

2

Okay, you’ve covered the IANAD part, so I hope the mods let this one stay open and we can discuss this as a hypothetical case, not armchair diagnose this particular man. For the moment, I’m going to treat it as a brainstorming “what things could potentially cause these symptoms in A Person,” not “what’s going on with my dad”, and I hope that’s okay…

The only time I’ve seen something similar, it was due to a UTI, of all things. The “horniness” wasn’t so much romantic in nature as an irritating awareness of the genitals and an urge to masturbate to ejaculation, but the ejaculation did nothing to relieve the urge to ejaculate again. The poor guy literally beat himself bloody, and ended up ejaculating blood as well as semen from the irritation. This was in a fairly young (30 something), otherwise healthy guy.

It’s also possible it’s another stroke; they come with some weird symptoms, and the symptoms from one stroke may be very unlike another, even in the same person.

It could also be some sort of Alzheimer’s or age related dementia setting in and destroying the inhibitory parts of his brain, but the fact that he’s not doing this around other people is a good sign against that.

3

Wow, what a weird UTI thing. As far as I know he’s not getting himself off, but that’s not exactly something I would discuss with my mother. And without a prostate, can he even get off? I thought that pretty much took care of his sex life.

And yes, to reiterate, I am looking to educate myself about what things we should discuss with his doctor, not a diagnosis or other medical advice, because I’m far too smart to trust all YOU people with my Dad’s health. :smiley:

4

That’s why God invented Viagra. Don’t you remember Bob Dole’s Viagra commercials where he talked about “Bob Dole doesn’t have a prostate any more, but thanks to Viagra, Bob Dole can still give Libby the old in and out.”?

5

Vomiting, fatigue, altered personality?

Electrolyte imbalance?
Brain tumor?

6

OMG if my Dad has Viagra, I don’t want to know. I’m not listening! I’m not listening!

Gads. His older sister died of a brain tumor. Let’s hope that’s not it.

So far I’m thinking it might just be a bad case of the flu. He mainly seems to be sleeping all the time, which is pretty much what I do when I have the flu. The libido thing… that’s weird… but maybe just over exhaustion?

It’s also not out of the question that my mother is a worry wart and he’s egging her on. That’s been known to happen as well.

7

Nerves important for erection are very close to to the prostate. Depending on the severity of the disease and the skill of the surgeon, these may be left in intact. If things go well, the only noticeable effect on orgasm will be a much less voluminous ejaculation.

Even without the ability to achieve erection it is possible to orgasm. Or you could take the lil blue pill. AFAIK the main sexual problem from prostate removal is that it may kill the libido, but that’s not a certain outcome.

8

My understanding (and experience) is that the ejaculation is not “less voluminous” but non-existent. There’s orgasm, but no ejaculate because the prostate (which manufactures the fluid) ain’t there.

9

Does your father seem to have any problems with concentrating?
Has he had any slowed speech patterns?
Has he had a lot of physical complaints lately such as headaches or stomaches that have no known cause?

These are behaviors that are observable that may be signs of depression. Three of the things that you described are also signs of depression – the change in sleeping habits, the change in appetite, and the increase in fatigue.

The change in his libido is a surprise though. If it is depression, your mother might be happy to know that some of the meds supress the urge.

I hope he’s feeling better back to normal soon and that you are taking these symptoms seriously no matter what the cause.

10

The prostate is not the sole source of ejaculate. The seminal vesicles also produce a large portion. However, after doing some searching I get the impression that the vesicles are often removed along with the prostate, in which case there would be dry orgasms only.

11

A few years ago I stopped taking my anti-depressant (Amitriptyline HCl), just to see whether I still needed it. The result was chronic insomnia and an amazing increase in libido. I needed to have an orgasm about 10-12 times a day :eek:. I think it had to do with seratonin and HTP-5 levels. After about 2 weeks of this I couln’t stand it any longer, and went back to the anti-depressant.

My guess is that your father’s problem has something to do with depression, specifically brain chemicals.

12

Update: On Christmas Eve, my Dad’s hands and arms started shaking. It got bad enough on Christmas that several people noticed it - he could hardly get a top back on a bottle. Yesterday, he was once again very fatigued, and started vomiting after eating only a bite of breakfast cereal.

We brought him to the ER, where the shaking got worse and worse. At one point he asked for a cup of water, and spilled it all over himself when he tried to drink it. His blood pressure was through the roof - 185/100 when he first went in. He has no history of high blood pressure, in fact, it’s been the exact opposite, he’s had really good blood pressure his entire life.

Yesterday they did blood work, a CT scan, and an MRI. Today they’re doing an EEG, looking at the arteries in his neck, and doing more tests on his heart. The CT scan and MRI show nothing.

As of this morning, nobody really knows what’s going on. The neurologist’s best guess is alcohol withdrawal symptoms, a diagnosis that is bizarre to us since he drinks about the same amount every day and has not cut down in the least over the past few weeks or months. He has his one brandy a day, and maybe 3 days out of the week has a little more. This has been his habit for years. If he had been cutting down, my mother would have been absolutely thrilled and would definitely have noticed it.

The Internist (a guy from the same practice as his primary care physician) does not agree with this diagnosis either. His view is that everything appeared too abruptly, it was an acute change in every way, and that his level of drinking is not so high that he’d expect withdrawal symptoms, especially since he has not been cutting back.

So anyway, that’s the news. It’s an extremely bizarre set of symptoms, so at least it’s caught the doctor’s attention and they’re doing what they can to figure it out.

13

Thanks for the update. I hope they find something non-fatal and easy to fix. Will be holding good thoughts for your dad.

14

Googling around randomly under things like “increased libido fatigue vomiting high blood pressure”, this page keeps coming up. Adrenal incidentaloma is a tumor of the adrenal gland. Emedicine has a good article on adrenal masses.

Now, he may not have that specifically, but it may point to some kind of adrenal insufficiency or out-of-whackness. Try saying “adrenal gland tumor” to his PCP and see if his eyes light up.

15

When I do this with my internist, his reaction is usually, “You’ve been on the Internet again, haven’t you?” Point well taken, though.

16

Yeah, I’ve not had a whole lot of positive reactions from the health care professionals whom I’ve had occasion to confront with a sheaf of Internet printouts over the years. Sucks to be them, I guess. :smiley:

17

Did I understand correctly that the neurologist basically said your dad has the D.T.'s?

18

This is probably a completely useless nugget of anecdote, but anyway… I’m sure it’s a good idea to get him seen by a doc and I can’t say anything about age and pre-existing conditions - I just wanted to mention that I often find that fatigue makes me incredibly horny - so it might only be one symptom that you’re actually looking at - the fatigue.

19

Having one, let alone 68 symptoms, makes the term ‘adrenal incidentaloma’ a virtual oxymoron. Specifically, and by definition, an ‘incidentaloma’, whether of the adrenal, pituitary, or thyroid gland, is taken to mean a mass therein which is discovered ‘incidentally’ (either as a result of routine imaging or while pursuing another problem). On the other hand, if symptoms are present, and their presence led to the x-ray, or CT, or whatever, which revealed the mass, then said mass is not an incidentaloma.

In retrospect, following the detection of some adrenal incidentalomas, one can sometimes elicit symptoms, signs, and biochemical changes which may be reasonably attributed to the so-called ‘incidentaloma’. This type of retrospective diagnosis, especially as relates to mild hypercortisolism (i.e. mild Cushing’s Syndrome) is big in certain European centres and championed by certain research groups in those centres. Still, to be honest, it has its proponents all over the globe.

20

Athena, hope things go well with your dad. My first thought when reading this thread was rabies. I have seen films of a dog that had lethargy progressing to stupor; the dogs only activity was sexual, leading to priapism. If your dad were a golden retriever, that would be my concern.:wink: