Delayed Orgasm

SkyEye

I was planning on making an alt, but I'm probably not the only person on this forum whose penis has, you know, issues.

Probably.

So lately I'm having issues achieving sexual gratification. This isn't just an issue during sex; it also happens during solo sessions. Basically, if I can't get release within five minutes after getting an erection I can't cum at all. After a certain point my penis becomes soft again and I'm pretty sure it's a lot less sensitive than it was a few minutes before. Sometimes I try to force the issue because I don't want my body "conditioned" to accept this state, I dunno if that's making problems worse. I'm currently on Zoloft right now for depression, but I'm pretty sure this issue has existed to some extent before I started the meds.

P.S. Lemme know if you need to know more, I've no idea what's TMI for this type of thread

Godfather

I have the same issue as you, and a great deal of it is caused from the SSRI, depending on the dosage.

As far as I know it's something that your body has to come to terms with, and simply takes time to adjust. We're talking months here, so be warned.

The rest may come from personal habits.

Raif Severance

Even if you had the problem before you started Zoloft it would only be more pronounced while taking it. Like Godfather said, SSRIs are notorious for sexual dysfunction. Some of them are actually given off label as treatments for premature ejaculation. If it's stressing you out, talk to your doctor about switching to another antidepressant.

Kuroi Ookami

If the Zoloft is working for you, I'd not recommend changing it. I'm in the boat where I've tried nearly every antidepressant under the sun and haven't found my match yet, we're looking into MAOIs next, so I wouldn't want someone changing their meds just to hop from the next to the next like I have, feeling like they have no hope of finding the right one again.

If this is an unacceptable side effect you are unwilling to live with (ask your Dr or Pharmacist if there is a chance this side effect will go away) or if it's not the only bad side effect you are having with them/you find it's not helping you out anyways, then yes, do ask to try another antidepressant. Bupropion/Zyban/Wellbutrin is known as a non-tricyclic antidepressant. It can also help people quit smoking, and it can increase libido (taken from my drug fact sheet that came with the meds). Taken from Wikipedia "Bupropion is one of few antidepressants that does not cause sexual dysfunction. According to a survey of psychiatrists, it is the drug of choice for the treatment of SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction, although this is not an indication approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)"

SkyEye

Thanks for the responses. It's about what I expected to hear, though not exactly what I wanted to hear.

Kuroi, I'll keep the option of MAOIs in mind; I haven't been on the SSRIs for more than a couple months though, so I'll keep at it. This is the only chronic side effect I've noticed so far and I suppose it might not really be as big a deal as I'm seeing it now.

SmokeStacks

I was in the exact same scenario you were in when I was younger - Zoloft was killing my ability to orgasm in anything resembling a timely manner.

My girlfriend thought it was fantastic since I was now a marathon man, but sex for me had lost a little bit of its appeal. You know that feeling when you think you have to sneeze, but you don't? All of the buildup, but with none of the payoff. That is what sex had become.

I ended up skipping my dose every Sunday, which was my scheduled "orgasm day", and she would pitch in. One of the benefits to peaking all week was that the Sunday orgasms were earth-shattering. I mean, earth-moving. The orgasms by which all future orgasms would be judged by. Messing with my dose wasn't a terribly good idea, but if I ever had any symptoms of depression on Sunday I didn't notice it because I was having sex all day.

What you should do is talk to your doctor. It's a pretty common side effect, so he might have some suggestions. One option might be to improve your diet and get more exercise (things that combat depression naturally) coupled with a lower dose of Zoloft. This is the step that I took after a while. Diet, exercise, and a more mature outlook on life eventually led me to discontinue Zoloft completely.

ceres

FYI, most doctors probably aren't going to just put you on a MAOI. They have lots and lots of medication interactions you have to be really careful of, so they'll probably want to try everything they can in the SSRI/norepinephrine camps before they go that route.

Fandyien

SSRIs are way safer the MAOIs, to my understanding

I'd echo what everyone else said here. I was on zoloft until like a month or two ago when I just took myself off it cold turkey after three years (dont do this ever) and my sexual capacity went way, way up when I got off it

Kuroi Ookami

Nonono you misunderstood what I was saying. you do not want to be on an MAOI, but an non-tricyclic antidepressant like Zyban. I was just expressing how hard it can be to find the correct medication, and that if Zoloft is working for you, you may not want to change it, where as I am having such a hard time finding anything that works I'm down to MAOIs before we consider electroshock therapy.

*Edit* After a few different experiences from some various SSRIs and me becoming very dangerous to myself, I am not allowed to try any more SSRIs. They work great for some people, but there are other types (like non-tricyclic for example) out there just in case you experience really bad side effects (or dangerous ones like I did). When they say on the packet information they may increase the risk of suicide for some users, they certainly aren't kidding.

fishy

Talk to your doctor, because as stated in one of the above posts you certainly are able to skip 1 day of meds and make that your "love making day" or whatever you'd like to call it.

WildEEP

If you chat with your doctor, he may just prescribe you viagra.
My old roommate had a problem with limp noodle with his SSRI, and when he took Viagra, he says it turned him into a biotic sex god. Imagine being able to have all the staying power that you've recently discovered and at the end, having an orgasm that practically caves in the back of your head.

If this works for you, please tell the rest of us - I'm sure tons of people have this same problem.

entimus

When I took viagra, my head almost exploded.
Even my ears where pumping.
Everything went well, but I felt sometimes that I could get over excited and pass out.
be careful, viagra works differently depending on the person who´s taking it.

Paladin

Wellbutrin and other NDRIs don't work the same way that serotonin reuptake inhibitors do, so you may not see the same results in the treatment of your depression if you switch over to those meds. It seems that all serotonin reuptake inhibitors share a side effect triad of weight gain, sexual dysfunction, and sedation, with the exception of SARIs like Trazodone and Nefazodone (the former actually causing priapism), and the NDRIs everyone's been talking about (Wellbutrin, Zyban) of course avoid these side effects.

Mechanisms of action usually means jack squat when treating depression though so if you don't feel like taking what are essentially competing medications to counter side effects like viagra or penile injection therapy (where a local injection of a vasodilator is plunged directly into the penis, guaranteed super effective and doesn't interfere with the rest of the body, cmon stabbing your dick isn't so bad), you can try experimenting with other antidepressants.

The downside to the latter option is that most antidepressants, especially the NDRIs, take more than a month of compliant dosage to actually kick in (the side effects usually come up much earlier). Wellbutrin has an overdose risk of seizure but if you watch the dose you shouldn't have a problem with that. Nefadozone can rarely cause jaundice. I wouldn't worry too much about the side effects of these newer drugs, though, since what you're on right now is tagged with a very rare suicide risk, which is probably only on there because the FDA wants to be super safe with that particular side effect and only needs 1 study to make it stick. Long story short, if you and your life can stand an alteration in the treatment of your depression without going haywire, this is probably a good option.