CNN – You’ve started taking an antidepressant, and it’s helping you to finally feel like life is worth living or that you can stop avoiding your friends’ texts. All seems right in the world — until the moment you realize your sex life has taken a hit.
More than one in 10 people in the United States take antidepressants, and at least 8.6 million people in England take them. And since the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of people on antidepressants has surged.
“Some people actually find, when they’re treated for depression, that their sexual function improved,” said Dr. Jonathan Alpert, the Dorothy and Marty Silverman Chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.
“We believe that’s because interest in sexual activity and enjoyment and pleasure are often affected by depression itself, just like other activities that give us joy and pleasure are affected by depression.”
Yet for anywhere from 40% to 60% of people on these medications, that isn’t the case, Alpert said, and the sexual side effects they experience run the gamut.
Some people lose their libido or ability to become aroused, while others have problems with genital sensitivity, genital lubrication, reaching orgasm or having satisfying orgasms, or ejaculation.
Others experience more than one symptom, said Dr. Lauren Streicher, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Streicher is also the founding medical director of the Northwestern Medicine Center for Sexual Medicine and Menopause.
The difficult trade-off of feeling less depressed or anxious, yet not being able to fully enjoy a dimension of life that’s also part of mental health, can be distressing, experts said.
“The ripple effect is very, very significant,” Streicher said, sometimes causing low self-esteem, more depression or anxiety, anger or frustration.
Couples can feel guilt, shame or concern in terms of wondering whether the sexual dysfunction reflects the relationship or sexual performance, as opposed to being a side effect of the medication, Alpert said …
