depression medication impotence in men

[Knoteven]

Hi I am 26 years old and have impotence from depression tablets I'm taking  this is something I have battled my hole life trying to find the right pills so I can still enjoy a healthy sex life. At the moment it is getting Realy bad I'm scared I will lose my relationship with my girlfriend no sex puts alot of strain on it and I am always feeling less of a man because of it 😞 is there anybody on medication or knows of medication I can take to get my life back on track :(?

Thank you ​

[Doolhof]

Hi Knoteven,

Welcome to the community here at Beyond Blue. To start with I am a female, so don't personally know what you are going through, but do have a husband who has depression and impotence problems. Some of his issues are due to depression, plus 10 years ago he had testicular cancer.

One thing my husband did was to cut me out of his life for years, that was his way of coping. He told me that as he had no pleasure in sex, then he wanted nothing to do with my body at all. He didn't even allow me to touch any part of him, not even to hold hands and we have separate bedrooms.

I am sure you have talked to your Dr about this. Ask if he/she can recommend a sexual specialist for you to see. It is an embarrassing situation I realise, but gaining all the help you can will be worth it.

Have you tried Viagra? My husband suffered from headaches when using it years ago, but it might help.

One thing I urge you is to not ostracise or ignore your girlfriend's sexual needs. Talk about it openly and find ways to please her. You may not be able to hold an erection, but maybe in time, as you still participate in intimacy, you may reduce some of the stress and tension you feel and things might work better.

From a females point of view, love and relationships are more than just sex. You are no less of a man because you are unable to perform as you desire. Being a caring, thoughtful and considerate guy is something any woman would be thankful for.

I also understand the need to try different medications. Good luck with that. I too have tried many and have one that works fairly well now.

Do some research, chat to your Dr and your girlfriend, keep searching and hopefully you will find answers.

Cheers for now, from Mrs. Dools

[geoff]

hello Knoteven, when a male has no desire to want to have sex, or when a man tries to become aroused and nothing happens, and I'll have to mention it, doesn't show in his body that he is excited, in other words get an erection, it does two things, disappoints you and your partner, but perhaps more so for you losing that ability as a man to show your manhood is such an unwelcome and such a let down and then this could mean that you may feel a failure, but it's the medication making this happen.
It happened with me and even though I was not looking for any sex with wife (ex)because of my depressive state of mind, it felt as though my manhood had gone, as it happens so suddenly, so that's when you really need to go back to your doctor, but take this in mind that this particular AD may not affect another person the way it has for you.
This is what is so strange about these AD they differ from one person to another, and just because I reccommend the AD I am taking and suggest for you to try it, is not how your doctor will make his/her decision.
We aren't allowed by the rules of this site to mention the names of any medication, but perhaps if I can say is that if you are taking a SSRI then your doctor could get you to take a SNRI instead, but it's important to see your doctor, and if you decide to suddenly stop taking them then the red flag starts to wave, in other words you could have problems.
Once you start taking any new medication then you will then get back what you have lost within a day or so, but there are two issues here whether you want to overcome your depression and then have a sexual relationship, or whether you just want the latter of these and not worry about trying to overcome the depression, but can I strongly suggest that your ideal situation is to have both of these working, and it can be done.
I hope that you can get back to us. Geoff.

[Lazykh]

Yes, failure to get an erection is a VERY common side effect of the SSRI antidepressants. There are lots of other medications though that you can try - there are so many of them that something will work and something won't have side effects for you. After all if you are taking this medication and become 'depressed' from the side effects, (which would be totally understandable), you're really just ending up where you started. I wouldn't recommend impotence medication, firstly interactions could be a problem (blood pressure and stroke risk from memory but I haven't checked the book), and secondly, it's really chasing your tail. You know you don't have erectile dysfunction when you aren't on the antidepressants, so when you stop taking that one you'll be fine again. Just go see the doc, and try something else. There's no shame in it, as I said it's very, very, very common, and can even affect people who were hypersexual before the medication...

Lazykh