- SSRI antidepressants could cause 'life-changing' sexual problems experts say
- 1 in 8 people were prescribed antidepressants in the past year according to stats
- But they can cause serious side effects like libido drop and numb groin areas
- Many report they no longer experience sexual or romantic attraction at all
Some patients claim the effects have been more persistent and have continued, or even worsened, years after they stopped taking the drugs. Some have had problems for decades.
The symptoms they describe are strikingly similar. Genital numbness – a total lack of sensation around the groin – and for men, erectile dysfunction. Both men and women experience a condition known as anorgasmia – a difficulty in reaching orgasm, and if they do climax, it is weak or without pleasure. As one woman put it: 'It's like a sneeze.'
Many report they no longer experience sexual or romantic attraction at all, and have been left with an emotional numbness. Most have seen relationships collapse as a result, while others have missed out on the chance to have children. Some have never experienced pleasure during sex – called anhedonia – and worry they never will.
Significantly, all have found their symptoms repeatedly dismissed by medical professionals, who insist they are linked to their underlying depression and not the pills.
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Big pharma packages itself as the answer to every malady. It previously marketed just to the doctors who wrote the prescriptions. Now the ads are directed to the end user who is supposed to tell their doctor what they want. Meanwhile how many cures can be attributed to big pharma? Very few because they don't want cures. They want people coming back again and again, like addicts that need a fix every day.
We need a total paradigm shift in medicine where the money is in the cures, not the treatments. No doubt there are cures sitting on shelves because their patent is gone. Ivermectin, Fenbendazole, and others should be investigated as cures along with other off patent meds. More importantly, we need to eradicate any diseases we can and incentivize researchers to spend their time targeting cures not novel concoctions simply because they can be patented.