Mental Health Anti-depressants affecting sex drive. whats the deal?

[Hipster427]

first off, i am a 25 year old female that has been on several different antidepressants since the age of 14 or 15, am now currently taking 20 mg lexapro, 100 mg lamictal, and 5 mg abilify. My girlfriend is 24 and she takes 50 mg pristiq and some type of vitamin to help with the pristiq- im not sure how long exactly she has been on her meds, i know atleast 5-6 years. Her antidepressants help her wonderfully, she is very pleased with the medications, they have helped her depression alot- However, there is one terrible side effect that comes along with the medication and that is that it kills her sex drive and makes it very hard for her to orgasm. And that affects both she and i. I have been on anti depressants and mood stabilizers way longer than her and I have never had this problem, not that i can remember anyway. I am a horn dog. She did ask her doctor if it was the meds that were causing this to happen and did say it was. We are so very much in love but this has started to affect our relationship at times, She gets sad because she feels like she is disappointing me and frankly she hates the fact that she cant orgasm and we all can imagine what this does to my self esteem and my ego.
We were wondering if anyone else has experienced this issue with pristiq or with any antidepressant? Is this a very common side effect? And does anyone know what we can do to fix this problem or a way to get atleast some of her sex drive back? Any suggestions, advice, recommendations? Please help!

 

[Libby]

It's very common with SSRI antidepressants. I'm on citalopram and have the same numbing/dulling of sensation and sexual appetite but for me that's a big part of the reason *why *I'm taking them lol.
You could talk to your doctor about trying a different antidepressent instead? I've heard that wellbutrin does not have this effect on sex drive/function.