I've been reading around the forum and it seems like most people are saying their sexual symptoms began or worsened after discontinuation but my experience was that the symptoms started in the first week of taking the drug and then did not abate after discontinuing. I do not get this waves and windows pattern either, it's been mostly the same for six years (five of those were on the pills though). Is this unusual?
Sexual symptoms are:
- no bodily libido (no horniness) but I maintain a psychological interest in sex
- few sexual fantasies and when I do fantasise it feels distant and weird
- significantly decreased genital sensation (about 5% of normal). Numbness seems to affect entire vulva to some extent but clitoris is particularly noticeable because it *should* be very sensitive. Clitoris now feels like a pinprick in terms of sensation
- no anorgasmia but the journey there is strange and flat. If I use a high powered vibrator to stimulate the nerves it is not very pleasurable but it ends in orgasm - ie no build up of pleasure. Orgasm is weak and unsatisfying, occasionally entirely pleasureless
- vulva is drier and more irritated, some clitoral soreness
- vagina still seems to lubricate on orgasm and sometimes during sexual fantasy but no subjective sensation of arousal
Emotional
- emotional symptoms are too difficult for me to distinguish from depression as I have been anhedonic for around 20 years anyway. SSRIs did make this worse when I was taking them, but I wasn't taking them for depression, I took them for severe panic disorder and they were an absolute miracle for that disorder! Haven't had a panic attack for six years.
- emotional anhedonia does not seem to be linked to sexual anhedonia in me. As I say I'm normally anhedonic anyway, but I had no hint of sexual dysfunction before Sertraline. I typically masturbated or had sex at least once a day until age 31 (when I started sertraline) unless there was a practical reason I couldn't. If I wasn't able to masturbate for a few weeks (sharing a room eg) nature would take its course in my sleep
