[hamster-bamster]

I am a straight woman, age 41. Before meds I was hypersexual. I could even orgasm spontaneously from thinking a thought. Not many women have this ability. I know my bipolar mom had similar orgasms as well.

Enter the meds and I am completely asexual. I am divorced and it does not matter now but I am just curious how other people are affected. On Geodon, I have a wonderful erotic dream say, once a quarter. On Risperdal, I did not have even that. My sexual organs do not feel touch (as if the nerve endings died). I do not have any lubrication. I do not remember what it feels like to want a man. I do not believe I will get aroused ever in my life.

I had my fair share of sex so I am not feeling unfulfilled, but it frightens me to think that if I ever am ready to enter a relationship, I would not have what it takes for the initial bond to form. Also, the asexuality seems so pervasive that I sometimes think that even if Geodon were lifted and substituted for with another drug, my asexuality would stay with me. It seems that the damage is forever.

[hamster-bamster]

Do I take it that no one has any sexual side effects??

[SunAngel]

SSRI's kill your sex drive. There is this med. I am on for restless leg syndrome that is also used for med-induced low libido associated with meds.

I am usually on the manic side and this med has make me a bit more hypersexual because it causes hypersexuality.

I forgot what it is called. I will look in a little while and let you know the name of it.

[moremi]

Originally Posted by hamster-bamster

Do I take it that no one has any sexual side effects??

Definately! It sucks. Im 33 and as soon as Iwas put on this cocktail a few months ago my sex drive is gone. Before that I guess you could say I was hypersexual. Geodon didnt bother me, as a matter of fact Im dumping seroquel and going back on geodon it just takes months to get off of seroquel. Im also on zoloft and tegretol. This is one of the worst side effects i have just never mentioned it on here. I hate it, not only am i depressed and feeling fat i have no want or need for something i have always enjoyed soo much. Hopefully we can all get that back atleast.

[SunAngel]

The generic name of the med. is Pramipexole.

Talk to your pdoc and maybe get started on this medication.

[blossom12]

I was on one once that killed the sex drive. An another one that didnt kill the drive, but made climax impossible.
Can't remember which meds. I have been on a lot.

[hamster-bamster]

Reread my OP. Reporting a big improvement - now have the drive. Paradoxically, it was a result of Prozac. Thanks Prozac, thanks the p-doc who prescribed it! Still no orgasms, because I am still on Geodon. Have to function at work, have to prove myself, have to get a more decent job in the end, one that provides med insurance. Not a good time to experiment with new meds. Geodon does a wonderful job, save for this hugely crappy, as someone called it, side effect.

[purpledaisy]

I'm female, 46, divorced.

Just started back on meds recently (Celexa 1 year ago; Abilify 1 week ago), but I haven't noticed a change.

Although, I haven't had sex since 1998. The sex drive was gone a LONG time before I started the meds.

Now I don't think about it at all. Only when I hear someone mention it, like a health guru on a teleseminar a month or so ago said how important sex is and how important it is to have that connection with someone. Then I thought, "Am I missing a big part of life?"

[BipolaRNurse]

I went through menopause about 6-7 years ago and had long since believed I'd never feel desire again. My husband and I were both severely overweight and middle aged, plus I was on Paxil at that time but just assumed that "fat" and "old" were the reasons why I didn't care about that aspect of life.

Fast-forward to April 2012. First recognizable manic episode hits, and suddenly my nonexistent sex drive shifts into high gear. My poor hubby......he can't do anything much for me anymore along those lines because of his own health issues, but the fact remains that I thought about sex everywhere, anytime, even in inappropriate times and places (work! church! the middle of the damn night!). Now it's mellowed out some since I've been on Zyprexa, but I can still easily summon up the urge and have absolutely NO trouble reaching orgasm on thoughts alone. Good thing I'm not young and thin, or the fertilizer would surely collide with the oscillatory ventilation apparatus and I'd be out of a solid, if unexciting marriage.

[cocoabeans]

Meds have done that to me before. Right now I'm not even on meds and so irritable that sex doesn't interest me. I can think about it but, when it comes down to it? Every sensation annoys me!!!

...medications can do disturbing things to libido and sexual functioning and I've experienced being way undersexed ...weirdly oversexed ...malfunctionally sexed and utterly frustratingly completely oblivious to it!

...my pharmaceutical mis-adventures are behind me now especially the ones that did any of the above...interfering with my libido is unacceptable to me

despite having a non-existent sex life now for a couple years, which doesn't really bother me, my borderline experience has offered lots of sex for a little whiles and absolutely none for longer whiles....

at least I have the drive and I need to feel that to be interested in life....weird thing that?

[Butterflies Are Free]

I had been on meds since I was 22 yrs. old and am now 42. Last summer, my doc was able to get me off(very slowly) the two anti-depressants I was on - I have Bipolar II Rapid Cycling. He replaced them with Namenda and Mirapex and within a month, I finally realized what a more "normal"(for lack of a better word) sex drive felt like. I could not believe it! Also, I have stopped cycling for the most part and am feeling much better.

[bluemountains]

I was really sex needy before my latest round of drugs which includes zoloft, the one I consider the culprit of the loss of desire. I had to resort to the toys a lot though, because my husband was having some troubles with his desire-it was in his mind, but he couldn't keep it up on the other end (thank God he doesn't read my posts!)
Now we have a reversal of roles-my drive is gone and he went and got the little blue pill. With some initiation, I can get some of the good feelings back, but I'm hit or miss on an orgasm.
Btw, I haven't discussed this with either of my medical drs.-the pdoc nor my gp. The pdoc looks about thirty years younger than me and she would probably wonder how I would have the energy anyway And my gp is the one who prescribed viagra for my husband, so she might pity him! I can talk to my t about it, but I don't need to talk about it, I need action!
Btw, I am 51 and haven't quite completed menopause yet.

[hamster-bamster]

Originally Posted by dubblemonkey

at least I have the drive and I need to feel that to be interested in life....weird thing that?

not weird to me, brother, no

[hamster-bamster]

I just want to complete this thread. It has been almost three months off Geodon and I am now fine. I have imagination/fantasy/drive/orgasms, etc. It did not happen instantaneously right after I went off Geodon, but eventually, luckily, I got everything back.

It really was so scary when I thought, for a very long time, that the damage would last forever...

[hamster-bamster]

Originally Posted by hamster-bamster

Before meds I was hypersexual. I could even orgasm spontaneously from thinking a thought.

I actually was never hypersexual before meds. It was a stupid label that one p-doc lady attached based on a single datapoint of fantasy, not even action.

I am not sure that hypersexuality is well defined to begin with, but I have never fit any conceivable definition that I have come across so far.

So stupid.

I am now trying to understand how I got into the frame of mind that allowed me to accept that side effect without any reservation or doubt and not even report it to any psychiatrist for 3 years.

Must have been so depressed, feeling so unworthy... whatever.

I do understand that antipsychotics can cause sexual side effects as can SSRI's and Topamax and some others, but can one accept them without ever complaining?

[hamster-bamster]

To add...

G. knows that I went through this and asked me whether I had dreams or fantasies while on these drugs. I said: "No fantasies and about three erotic dreams over the course of three and a half years."

He then said: "So was it as if back in childhood?"

I said: "No, not at all.

When I was a child and saw a couple kissing outside, I knew very well that I would grow up to do that or something along those lines, too. It was all mine to have and I just needed to wait and I was perfectly OK with waiting.

When I was on those medications and saw couples outside, I did not UNDERSTAND what they were doing, why they were together, and what all of that meant. Just could not comprehend and relate in any way, on any level."

So basically the damage is not physical. It is not just that you cannot have orgasms. It is some very pervasive and deep damage to the brain.

And interestingly enough, the physical damage is easier and faster to fix. I first halved the dose of Geodon and recovered physical orgasms without any fantasy or drive (just completely mechanistic and uninteresting orgasms), then removed Geodon altogether and things got better and only now I can say that I am back to normal.

Have not had a desire most of my life.... but have always been on something (anti-d's) had an ex that cheated off and on for 15 years. No trust, so hard to relax in that regard. I was like a puppy that had been kicked. Neglected as a child. I could write a book, so some of it is not due to meds... but therapy has helped me greatly in that regard.

However, Seroquel has relaxed me greatly and that has really helped.

[moremi]

Originally Posted by hamster-bamster

I am a straight woman, age 41. Before meds I was hypersexual. I could even orgasm spontaneously from thinking a thought. Not many women have this ability. I know my bipolar mom had similar orgasms as well.

Enter the meds and I am completely asexual. I am divorced and it does not matter now but I am just curious how other people are affected. On Geodon, I have a wonderful erotic dream say, once a quarter. On Risperdal, I did not have even that. My sexual organs do not feel touch (as if the nerve endings died). I do not have any lubrication. I do not remember what it feels like to want a man. I do not believe I will get aroused ever in my life.

I had my fair share of sex so I am not feeling unfulfilled, but it frightens me to think that if I ever am ready to enter a relationship, I would not have what it takes for the initial bond to form. Also, the asexuality seems so pervasive that I sometimes think that even if Geodon were lifted and substituted for with another drug, my asexuality would stay with me. It seems that the damage is forever.

I had the exact same problems on Geodon. It took me a couple of months of being off of it for my sexual resposes to come back but they did. It will be fine trust me I felt the same way your feeling.

[purpledaisy]

I have absolutely zero sexual desire, drive, thoughts, fantasies -- nothing. And I haven't had sex since 1997. This is without Geodon and has been going on since long before I (briefly) got back into therapy and meds.

The thought of sex does not even enter my thoughts during the day.

I'm divorced, I don't date, and I don't believe in being promiscuous, so I have no opportunities for sex.

When I mentioned this to my MD back when I still had insurance, she did not seem concerned at all.

I asked if she thought I might need some sort of hormone therapy and she acted annoyed and said I must've been reading Suzanne Somers' books.

So, here I sit.

[hamster-bamster]

Moremi, I am glad that things worked out for you as well. Does take a couple of months, right?

PD, maybe a new doctor with a different attitude once you have insurance?

[aquaman]

You'll think I'm crazy for saying this, but I'm trying to go the other way. I want to kill my sex drive because it really distracts me from a lot of things I want to do in life. I've spent way too much time in front of the computer...eh...watching things, than I care to admit.

I'm married. But my wife and I haven't had relations since my son was born over two years ago.

Anyway, I want to be kind of like Sheldon Cooper from the big bang theory (though I'm not a genius and I'm not socially awkward).

Doesn't make a lot of sense does it .

[hamster-bamster]

Originally Posted by aquaman

You'll think I'm crazy for saying this, but I'm trying to go the other way. I want to kill my sex drive because it really distracts me from a lot of things I want to do in life. I've spent way too much time in front of the computer...eh...watching things, than I care to admit.

I'm married. But my wife and I haven't had relations since my son was born over two years ago.

Anyway, I want to be kind of like Sheldon Cooper from the big bang theory (though I'm not a genius and I'm not socially awkward).

Doesn't make a lot of sense does it .

It does not make any sense to me at all, because I do not understand what you are getting from watching things on the computer. Not that I think that it is bad, but I do not understand it. At all. Some years ago, I was involved in the technology of porn filtering, professionally, so I had a lot of incidental exposure to porn images (not movies, but still images). I did find them amusing, but I could not get how people could get attracted or aroused by watching them. It is completely beyond me. But I also do not have a TV and have never had a TV in my adult life so I am just a weird person overall.

At any rate, it seems that your problem is not the sex drive per se, but its misapplication. You do not have relations with a human being but you do watch things on the computer. So it seems that given that the problem lies in the misapplication, the solution should be sought through re-focusing the drive from the computer to humans. Killing the drive does not address the problem of its mis-application, so you are looking in the wrong place.

[purpledaisy]

I miss sex, but I don't miss sex.

When I had access to it, it was amazing.

I Googled something the other day and accidentally ended up on a website with a big banner of porn to one side. It was kind of comical. There were 3 boxes with video going really fast. Some of the things those people were doing to themselves and to others actually looked painful.

Even looking at that or watching a movie with a hot sex scene doesn't get me interested.

Originally Posted by aquaman

You'll think I'm crazy for saying this, but I'm trying to go the other way. I want to kill my sex drive because it really distracts me from a lot of things I want to do in life. I've spent way too much time in front of the computer...eh...watching things, than I care to admit.

I'm married. But my wife and I haven't had relations since my son was born over two years ago.

Anyway, I want to be kind of like Sheldon Cooper from the big bang theory (though I'm not a genius and I'm not socially awkward).

Doesn't make a lot of sense does it .

If you are not able to be intimate with your wife due to this that or the other, I URGE you to get into some counseling. That was one of the issues in my marriage. Porn was a contributing factor to it collapsing. It will ruin a family fast. Also, not being intimate enough, caused it to fall apart as well. We both contributed to the problem.

If it is an issues, find someone who specializes in sex addiction. I don't know how serious it is ????