Whether it is the condition itself or the medication used to
combat the condition, depression has an adverse effect on libido. The compounding
problem is you just don’t care whether you have sex or not,and very often, you
ONLY have sex so that your partner will will be sexually satisfied for another
period of time.
For women it can be a little easier to fake satisfaction so
that their partner is unaware that there is anything wrong with her drive for
desire, but for men, if you are not interested, it is physically obvious. The
inability to attain and maintain an erection further drives a wedge between
partners and it is seen as a lack of affection, lack of love, lack of
attention, or that satisfaction is being expressed outside the relationship, all
of which can drive a wedge in any remaining positive aspects to the rest of the
relationship.
Sexual side-effects are common with antidepressants, such as
loss of sexual drive, failure to reach orgasm, and erectile dysfunction.
Although usually reversible, these sexual side-effects can, in rare cases, last
for months or years after the drug has been completely withdrawn.
Sildenafil (Viagra or Revatio),
vardenafil (Levitra or Staxyn) and tadalafil (Cialis) are all medications that
reverse erectile dysfunction by increasing nitric oxide, a chemical naturally
produced by your body. Nitric oxide opens and relaxes blood vessels in the penis,
helping you get and keep an erection. These erectile dysfunction medications
don't increase your sex drive and only cause erections when you are sexually
stimulated, therefore if the drive is non-existent, the medication will not
help. The aggravating factor is these medications are not covered by
medical/health insurance plans, so at $15/pill – sold in boxes of four - it can
get expensive to have sex. If you cannot afford it, then you are back to square
one.
So do you continue taking the antidepressants so that plans
for suicide are abated, and take more pills so you can satisfy your partner (if
they work at all), or forgo the antidepressants so that your sexual life will
only be affected by the overwhelming feeling that you are not worth having sex
in the first place?
These are personal
options and decisions that have to be made with your primary physician.
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