How do you deal with sexual side effects of antidepressants?
April 23, 2009 by How To Treat Depression
Filed under More Depression Answers
Nearly everyone I know who are on antidepressants have some level of sexual side effects. I understand that medications have side effects, but I’ve been on many different antidepressants over the past 3 years and it seems that I have problems with orgasms. I either have very muted orgasms or nothing at all.
My question: How do you deal with the sexual side effects? My doctor has tried dosage adjustments, drug changes, all sorts of different combinations of drugs, but it seems that antidepressants affect my orgasm trigger. Please serious answers only. Thanks. If you were able to overcome this problem, how do you do it?
I give all the medications a fair trial, none was less than 3 months. It was my doctor who decides when it’s proper to make a change. I’ve been on antidepressants for years and side effects are part of the drug trial. This question only addressed the sexual side effects and how to deal with it. I’m fully aware of what is a fair trial of these meds. Please, I’m not look for an opinion on just side effects. I would assume that most of the people on an antidepressant will relate to this and they might have some useful advice on how to deal with issues specifically sexual side effects.
Treatment Resistant Depression
Depression Feedback: You cant keep changing doses and drugs left and right, that is why you are having problems, your body has to stick with one medication over a long period of time, and it will eventually work the kinks out on its own, just be patient and stick with one!
Depression Feedback: now i have heard that there are possible hormone treatments for women with these problems. they give them testosterone in the form of a patch. i am not sure if they can do something similar to men or not but i would think so. can your doc put you on some viagra or maybe cialis. those could help. i do know of an herb called horny goat weed but i am not sure how that reacts with antidepressants. so talk to your doc about herbal remedies or the viagra or cialis or even hormones of some sort. good luck and i hope that this helps
Depression Feedback: I tried Viagra and had the side effect of tunnel vision. My wife of 37 years said it must be that a man can only do it so many times and we used up those time. Sex is not only about intercourse. You can have a lot of fun with foreplay and anything else you can come up with.
It is one side effect of getting my head straight that I really don’t give a damn about.
Depression Feedback: I too have been on antidepressants and experienced the same problem. My orgasms were muted and frankly, not worth the effort. Unfortunately the only solution for me was to get off the drugs. I did this successfully by going to a therapist for about 9 months and working on my mental health daily. It’s a struggle but at least I can have a great orgasm again!
Depression Feedback: I have the same exact problem with my antidepressants, and I was told that the sexual side effects typically go away after a month or so. I was on 5 mg of lexapro, and in a few weeks I was able to have orgasms again, but now I had to go up to 10 mg, so I get to wait all over again
Try to research the drugs to see the percentage of people who experience this problem with each drug. Also, if you stop trying so hard to have an orgasm, it will come easier to you.
Depression Feedback: Sexual side effects don’t bother me, nobody is going to have sex with me in the first place so it does not matter.
Depression Feedback: All SSRI medications potentially have this effect. This occurs because these medications are selective for a protein called the serotonin transporter, but they are not completely selective and they also affect other neurochemical systems in the brain. The degree to which this happens varies from person to person. In my case I have not only been unable to orgasm when taking these medications, but I am rarely able to attain an erection.
One way around this is to take medications that raise serotonin without targeting the serotonin transporter.
Please read the following articles to gain the background information that is necessary to understand this.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor - Wikipedia
Antidepressant - Wikipedia
Dietary supplement - Wikipedia
Omega-3 fatty acid - Wikipedia
5-Hydroxytryptophan - Wikipedia
S-Adenosyl methionine - Wikipedia
Tyrosine - Wikipedia
Magnesium - Wikipedia
Zinc - Wikipedia
SPECT imaging, a type of brain scan, has proven that these supplements are as effective if not more effective than many of the traditional medications. They also have very few side effects.
Please see the following answer from a previous question and the book about depression and anxiety. Please ignore the irrelevant information..;_ylv=3?qid=20071002222859AAehqCl&show=7#profile-info-AA12069179
Please email me if you have any questions.
Depression Feedback: You will probably find this with all SSRI’s you try, unfortunately. Sometimes lowering the dose helps, but you may still have a “muted” orgasm.
Have you ever discussed the antidepressant Wellbutrin with your doctor? It is not an SSRI and has fewer sexual side effects. I have been on it for 4 years and I would never go back to an SSRI.
Most antidepressants have this side effect. Certainly the SSRIs and the SNRIs do. Wellbutrin does not. I am now taking Wellbutrin with the lowest possible dose of Effexor–first 75 mg, now down to 37.5 mg. Sexual side effects are pretty minimal on this dose.
Below, I describe what I’ve tried and the results.
I (over years, with the help of my doctor) have tried different antidepressants and combinations to minimize the sexual side effects. Effexor worked very well for me but at the higher doses (over 75 mg, I’d say), forget orgasms. Wellbutrin (bupropion) does not have sexual side effects, but was not entirely effective against my depression, Remeron does not seem to have sexual side effects (but it made me incredibly hungry all the time and I had to switch off it), and I think the MAOIs do not, but I haven’t tried them–I love cheese and you can’t eat cheese on the, though maybe the newer ones are different. Nefazodone may not have sexual side effects, but I had a bad drug interaction with it and an antibiotic, and it may have serious interactions with many common drugs–also it occasionally causes severe liver damage–I’d stay away from that one.
Good luck with this–it’s really unfortunate, isn’t it!?
GH