Hi all, my wife encouraged me to post to see if anyone had similar experience. I’ve been on medication twice now for anxiety and stress and this seems to be having an affect on my certain parts of my sex drive.
I started on an SSRI about 6 months ago and have definitely seen it taking much longer to get to orgasm recently, although this is not causing an issue and she really likes this!
The strangest thing is that for the last 2 or 3 months I just haven’t had any urge or feeling to masturbate at all. Normally I would need to wank around 3 times a week, and have done for a long time, but I’m just not getting any feeling or getting horny where I need to do it and the thought just isn’t crossing my mind. I don’t know if this is a bad thing or a good thing or something I should do something about? It seems quite common from researching the medication but wondering if others had any similar experiences?
I have no personal experience with this but from being on this forum a while it seems very common that SSRI’s lower you sex drive.
If you do a search for SSRI, you’ll find quite a few threads on it, hopefully others with their own experience will comment soon but in the meantime have a search. Anyone on SSRI’s? is a good one to start with.
@hubbymike your situation isn’t one I have looked into before but based on your post… you have lost interest in masturbation but have you also lost interest in sex with your wife at the same levels? Do you still get aroused, it’s only the hands on aspect that doesn’t work anymore?
My OH took SSRIs for about 3 years and I would say they totally numbed him from everything. He had no emotions or feelings so I’m not surprised to hear how you are feeling. Sex dwindled away for a while. With the support of his GP he slowly weaned himself off them and now I have my husband back.
Stress and anxiety is awful. I guess it depends on how you are feeling as to what you do going forwards. If the meds are helping and you’re ‘happy’ with this side effect for the time being then that’s ok. If you’re not, then perhaps you could look at alternative meds or treatments.
@be3169@having-fun That’s the strange thing I am finding, arousal is not seeming to be a problem at all when we are together. The interest is definitely there also and we are probably having better sex as it / I can go longer now., it’s just feeling that urge of needing a wank is just not there.
So I’m torn between thinking of going back to the doctors to discuss it and looking to come off the medication or is it something that is not too big of a deal for a while?
Since changing job to driving lorry’s I thought I’d be parked up and cracking one off each night, but after doing long hours and being parked up next to to other hairy assed truckers, I don’t feel the need to crack one off, but as soon as I’m home on a Friday, me and mrstoysrus go to town, so it’s not all bad!
Ok @hubbymike … two points. If you have only lost the interest to wank, enjoy the time with your wife. You are not losing anything in this deal. Second point would be that if you are willing to discuss this issue with your doctor, definitely start there.
It’s great that you and your wife and still enjoying each other. I think with my OH the tablets built up in his system over time, so looking back the sexual decline was gradual until we realised one day that it just wasn’t happening anymore.
I was also going through the menopause and desire had vanished.
It’s a decision only you can make as to what you do next, but it does seem that the meds are starting to impact you.
Yep this is all side effects from the medication your taking and alas other than coming off it, there isn’t any quick cure should you feel it starts to become an issue. From what I gather there is other medications you can try what give less of this effect but you’d need to consult your doctor on it to see what’s available.
I’ve taken various SSRis over the years and I too found any time I took them, my interest in sex and ability to orgasm just went. Personally I refuse to take them now; I get along much better with therapy and Rescue Remedy. It might be worth popping back to your doctor to discuss your loss of libido?
There is a lot of information out now and it seems they are finding out more regarding the effect of SSRI’s on sex drive that is only now really coming to light. I have been though the same situation with my boyfriend over the last few years and talked about it with him a lot.
He went on a SSRI in his early 20’s for anxiety and tried both sertraline and paroxetine. He saw a reduction in his libido like you mention to the point where he was still fine when we were together but the rest of the time just did not get horny or aroused and it kind of numbed him down there for everything else.
He also went from wanking a number of times a week to not at all, for a long time. He said he just didn’t need to and it didn’t seem to cause any problems not doing it. After about 2 years he decided he just wasn’t keen on the idea of medication any more and decided with the doctor to come off them. It took a few months after he finished on the SSRI’s but everything seems to have gone back to the way it was before for his sex drive.
