In many ways, molly feels like it was made for sex. It makes you hyper-connected to your bang buddies. It makes touching feel extra awesome. It makes you do that one thing you always wanted to try but were too nervous to suggest. However, for some cruel reason, molly can also switch off your pecker.
An inability to get hard is a common complaint among keen rollers. Here are just a few of the bleak ways people on the internet have described their drooping peens after popping a fun pill:
- “Very small.”
- “Like a wet noodle.”
- “A rope.”
- “Shrunk.”
Sadly, the struggle doesn’t end there: Even if you manage to generate a boner while you’re on molly, it’s unlikely that you’ll cum. On Bluelight, an online forum dedicated to the discussion of harm reduction, a molly lover known as TheRapperGoneBad puts it best when they declare, “You really gotta work for that nut.”
As for why molly disables schlongs, there are several possible explanations. The most likely has to do with how it affects your nervous system: It suppresses your parasympathetic nervous system, also known as the “rest-and-digest” system, and stimulates your sympathetic nervous system, which drives the body’s fight-or-flight response.
This delivers a one-two punch to your willy. On the one hand, your parasympathetic nervous system, which is involved in sustaining and maintaining an erection, has been quelled. On the other hand, your sympathetic nervous system, which is anti-stiffy, has been aroused. (The sympathetic nervous system’s fight-or-flight response increases the supply of blood to your muscles, not your penis, so you can challenge or run away from any potential dangers.)
“The whole sexual arousal process is a delicate balance of activation between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems,” says Adam Klein, senior scientist at Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, a company developing novel psychedelics, and volunteer at DanceSafe, a harm-reduction organization.
Along with these changes, Klein tells me that molly causes your body to release loads of the hormone norepinephrine (which is commonly associated with activation of the sympathetic nervous system). This is what makes you feel euphoric and energized, but it also causes your blood vessels to constrict (and your body temperature to increase), which again bars blood from making its way to your cock.
While that’s the most feasible explanation for molly’s unfortunate influence on your dong, there are a few other potential factors. Adulterants like coke, meth and bath salts, which have been known to appear in molly pills, can also cause ED by causing your blood vessels to constrict (since they prompt a greater release of norepinephrine much like MDMA does).
There’s also the fact that molly encourages your brain to release serotonin, which can kill your sex drive in large amounts. It’s the same reason why SSRIs slash your libido. Worse yet, as Klein says, “Serotonin can delay ejaculation in men.”
This flood of serotonin and silencing of the parasympathetic nervous system can make it equally hard for people with vaginas to climax. As one study succinctly puts it, vaginal sexual arousal is “controlled by facilitatory parasympathetic and inhibitory sympathetic inputs.” In other words, when you’re on molly, your nervous system appears to do the opposite of what it does when you’re cumming. That said, some people with vaginas claim they experience the best orgasms of their lives — and even squirt like never before — while they’re on molly, so there’s likely more to the chemical story. “The whole process of sexual arousal and response still isn’t completely understood,” Klein reiterates.
Finally, molly’s psychological effects can also impair your sexual function. Drugs affect everyone differently, and if your mind is too busy running through thoughts, focusing on cumming can become a real chore. If you can make it happen, however, you’re in for a treat — as a seasoned roller on r/MDMA says, “That shit sticks with you.”
If you’re struggling to spurt while on molly, psychonauts have come up with a couple solutions. One involves taking Viagra so you can at least get hard. This isn’t without its risks, however. Viagra and molly both have vascular effects that could theoretically interact. Each one alone poses a risk to people who have heart conditions, so combining the two may be extra dangerous. Also, taking Viagra won’t make it easier for you to cum — it’ll just make you hard.
While not thoroughly documented, there’ve also been some cases where molly appears to result in priapism, or a prolonged boner. The same goes for Viagra, so that’s something to watch out for.
If you manage to sustain a hard-on, the secret to cumming appears to be persistence. As another dude on another molly forum reveals, “I’ve forced a tug out once or twice. It took an hour and some (lovely!) Club magazines, but boy was it worth it! Fireworks!”
For people with dicks and people with vaginas, it can also be helpful to simply focus on the act of sex (or masturbation) and live in the moment, rather than concentration too hard on concrete goals like cumming.
Just try to not rub your wiener or clit raw.
Ian Lecklitner
Ian Lecklitner is a staff writer at MEL Magazine. He mostly writes about everyone's favorite things: Sex, drugs and food.
