Taking SSRI again for PSSD relief?

This is for hypothesis and even educated speculation.
Schwede78
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Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2022 6:20 am
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Taking SSRI again for PSSD relief?

Unread post by Schwede78 »

Hello to all of You, I am a new member here from Germany (excuse my English).
Short vita: Male, born 1978. Started taking the SSRI EscItalopram (Lexapro) 2006 until 2021, so 15 years, always 10 mg.

In the meantime I tried 3 times getting off, but started again because of fatigue and also PSSD symptoms. Now I am sober since Christmas 2021, so 9 Months now. I feel mentally stable and all in all quite OK. But I have very low libido and only soft erections. No numbness etc, but I don't feel much. I mastutbate maybe once a week, but only because I think "I have to" (could also let it be).

I have to tell that before SSRI I was never a guy with high libido. I had sex, but compared to my friends it was a low sex drive with ED pretty often, why I took viagra before sex regularly. I was very depressed in general, so I started 2006 with SSRI.

At the beginning I felt great improvement in general and as far as I remember, my sex drive was better under SSRI (still below average, but ok). I had massive problems with delayed orgasm though. With using Viagra and Cialis I could have sex and I enjoyed it.
I don't know for how long, but it worked out for a couple of years.

After quitting SSRI I expected erections and libido getting better, but I was surprised that it got worse. Even masturbating was extremely difficult because of the softness. I cannot tell exactly how long I tried, but I got back on SSRI and it got better (not really good, but as good as before under SSRI). Some years later same thing and back to SSRI.

2016 I met my girl and we had a pretty good sex life. Still everything with Viagra / Cialis, but this is fine for me. After the first year my libido went down (I felt like I got "used" to her and maybe after this excitement of something new, it was just not "enough" for me to remain on an acceptable libido level). We got married in 2018 but since that we had no sex - at all. Yes, it's true. We live together for 4 years now without sex.
I talked to her about SSRI and I got off it over a period of 5 months (every 2 weeks 1 mg lower, going from 10 mg to 0 in 20 weeks).

While lowering to around 5mg I felt a higher libido and I had harder erections while masturbating. I was happy and thought that this will become better and better during lowering to zero. But the opposite was the case. Being sober means low libido, soft erections even with Cialis.

I could write a lot more and ask tons of questions. But my very simple question here is:
Is it worth trying half the dose (so 5 mg) SSRI again and see what happens? I mean, I could have ruined my sex life anyway, so what's at stake here. Did anyone try going back on some dose of SSRI to improve PSSD symptoms, even if it may sound weird?

Please excuse my long story and also excuse if this question was already asked here somewhere. I took some looks but didn't see anything like this.
Thank You so much for reading and I am pleased for any answer.
sovietxrobot
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Joined: Tue Oct 03, 2017 12:04 pm
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Re: Taking SSRI again for PSSD relief?

Unread post by sovietxrobot »

Its interesting that you mentioned you had improvements while tapering. I have observed this phenomenon myself and tested it many times, its definitely replicable. Certain drugs I've tried have either marginal benefits and sometimes bad side effects, but tapering off of them yields significant improvements. The most notable example is Venlafaxine, which helped my sexual symptoms a little bit but gave me awful brain fog and weight gain. But when I was tapering off, my PSSD symptoms where almost totally reversed. Maybe you are experiencing the same thing with lexapro.
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