Dalmation: trazodone and erectile dysfunction

[Dalmatian]

Hello everyone,

 

I have a really big problems so I'm seeking help on this forum in a hope that someone might identify with this and help me out.

I'm 28 year old male who was prescribed trazodone for anxiety and related insomnia which started occuring after my friend's death due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. For the first 8 days I took 50 mg before sleep, then increased the dose to 100 mg for the following 8 days. During all this time I had very mild side effects and the drug appeared to have very good effect on my anxiety and sleep. Eventually I increased the dose to 150 mg as suggested by my doctor and that's when the sexual problems started kicking in.

 

At first I noticed that it took me a very long time to reach an orgasm (up to 30 mins sometimes) but I wasn't bothered much as I thought it would soon go away. However, in the next 2-3 days came a total crush. I couldn't get an erection, my libido was essentially non-existent. So I decided to taper off cold turkey after a total of approx. 20-25 days on trazodone. 

 

Now, 6th day since discontinuation there is no improvement in my symptoms. My main symptoms are:

- erectile dysfunction: occasionally I can get mechanical erections but they are semi-rigid and very rarely hard like before. I can't get an erection solely by thinking about sex or by visual stimulation only

- very low libido or sexual desire which seems to have been improving a little bit over the past few days

- delayed orgasm: at first it took me eternity to ejaculate, however, now after five days it did improve by at least 50%

- semen appears to be a little bit waterier than usual (especially those first few drops), although difference is not significant

- it appears that my left ******** has shrunk a little bit which might indicate low testosterone?

 

Symptoms which I do not have:

- genital numbness: although commonly reported by PSSD sufferers, I don't have this problem. My genitals are as sensitive as before which I guess is a good sign

- pleasurless orgasm: to the contrary my orgasm are indeed very pleasurable

 

What's your take on this? Has anyone else had similar symptoms while on trazodone? Please help with some advices. Im really terrified, even suicidal over this matter. 

[WiggleIt]

Dear Dalmation,

Although what is happening to you is certainly scary, please know that it is not unusual for psych meds or for psych med WD, and we do have people here (men and women) who have experienced erectile/genital/vaginal/sexual dysfunction from psych meds.  We also have people here who have recovered from these side effects!  Two good places to look on the site are the Symptoms and Self-Care section and Success Stories.

If I'm reading your info correctly, you were on meds for less than a month and then you cold-turkeyed (CT-ed), right?  These meds can cause side effects such as yours (or other side effects), even for people who didn't take them that long.

To make sure we know your accurate medication history at a glance, can you please fill out a medication signature?  That will give us a concise reference list as community members here respond to your post.  The signature is just like an email signature; it's a short blurb that automatically appears every time we post.  We use these signatures to quickly get a summary of each other's meds, so we can help out. Here's how to create your signature:

a.) Look at the top right of the page where your name appears
b.) Click on your name and you'll see a pull-down menu appear
c.) Under that menu, click on Account Settings    
d.) You'll get taken to a new page.  Look at the left side of that page
e.) Click on Signature
f.) In the box that pops up, fill out a short list of your medication history, including med names, dates, and dosages. (For example, you can just write Sertraline 60 mgs from July 2016 to Sept 2018.)  
g.) Click Save and then you can go back to the rest of the site and keep chatting!

In addition to your medication signature, I'd like to encourage you to read some of the experiences and success stories here on SA about genital side effects of the meds, so you can see that there is hope for your situation.  I'll link some below for you  

Also, it sounds like you are seeing some improvement already, and keep in mind you're in the early days of discontinuation, which means there's still healing ahead.  Here are some links that I hope will help, and you will find more as you cruise around the site:

PSSD success from LossLeader:
https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/topic/3523-success-lossleaders-recovery-from-protracted-zoloft-withdrawal-and-pssd/?tab=comments#comment-39880  

This person posted a success story and mentions PSSD recovery:
https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/topic/7871-lightatendoftunnel1-me-again/?tab=comments#comment-118724

There are many more success stories and PSSD (post-SSRI sexual dysfunction) discussions here on the site.  Even though the PSSD acronym refers to SSRIs, this can happen with all psych meds.  We really do have a lot of people here who describe improvement of this side effect, so please stay encouraged!  

 

[WiggleIt]

You may also want to visit this thread and talk to others:
 

 

[Gussy]

Sorry i don.t know how old this post is, i was just looking through for something in particular and happened to read your post. I was on effexor and got off that (don.t know how)after i realised i couldn.t trust dr.s opinions anymore and ended up seeing a prof of endocrinology (who mustn.t have been influenced by the industry) who confirmed that these drugs can lower testosterone by interupting the hpg axis. The connection between our brains and testes/ovaries depending on the sex of the person.

[Dalmatian]

Hello everyone, it's me again. It's been almost 4 months since withdrawal and I'm still having sexual issues although I have noticed many improvements. I've started getting libido often, perhaps 3-4 days a week, my semen quantity increased to normal, erotic sensation are fine and I can get aroused on 3-4 days a week. Could this be the start of recovering process? I'm still having erectile issues though. On some occasions my erectile function is good, but most of the time I can get only mechanical erection. Moreover, I'm not getting spontaneous erections yet. It's seems that this is the only persistent problem now. Is natural recovery possible after a year or so? Is there any similar story? 

Thanks

[ChessieCat]

 

[Boris]

Hey

 

After trying to reduce paroxetine, I went through this but I was more concerned with other symptoms such as extreme anxiety and akathesia that I never monitored it fully. I couldn't get a full erection like I had in the past and my libido was shot. Good news it slowly came back and at around 8 months my erections were better than they had ever been. My libido didn't fully come back to life until I fully tapered off slowly at a later date. My semen also recovered. 

 

You will be fine slowly but surely, just avoid gettin anxious over it as we know how that doesn't help!

 

On a sidenote in my opinion quitting porn helped me even more.