SSRIs and sexual disfunction

[turtlemama]

Hello. I just had some questions about meds. I realized this year that I have been depressed for a long time now, years maybe. I got started on Zoloft after the birth of my 4th child back in June. That did not seem to do any good at all. I still felt upset,moody, and a lot of the time, worthless. It also lowered my sex drive to boot, and my husband had just returned from deployment and after being gone 10 months we were only having sex maybe once or twice a week. Even when we did have sex, I just couldnt get anything from it, I wouldnt reach orgasm, just get up to the point of almost and it wouldnt go any further, and that was very frustrating. I had been able to do it fine before, but now its almost never. I switched meds in september to Lexapro, and started seeing a therapist.
The lexapro did great for my depression symptoms, but again it was horrible for my sex life. That in itself was depressing. I took that for a month until I ran out and now cannot afford to get anymore. I went online also to look up the orgasm thing and learned that antidepressants (SSRIs) will definitely do that to a person. Now my question is, what can I take that will help my depression without taking away my sex life? My husband and I are trying to recover from a 2 year "rough patch" in our relationship and we now have a more frequent sex life, at least once a day, maybe more and it is very very frustrating to have that kind of relationship and not get everything out of it. I know orgasm isnt everything, but it would be nice to have that aspect added to our relationship.  

Thanks, and sorry if this is TMI, I feel for whatever reason that it is easier to talk to someone online about this than in person.

[turtlemama]

Thanks for the input on meds :)
I talked to my therapist today and she is going to try to get me seen by a psychiatrist that she works with so I can get on the right meds. She also told me I may have ADD, so that was helpful and hopefully I can get help with that and still be able to keep my relationship good with my husband.

[spikerusty]

tri-cyc's from experence as a fella were a big 'no-no' as  experienced erection problems which was god damm embarassing. With regards being a woman i cannot comment there sorry but i'd think that this would effect woman to some regard also in respect to overall arousal /physiology etc. Paroxetine worked pretty well in regards to my sex drive, prozac not so much with effoxer being not too good on this issue.

That's pretty bad your health care team not getting back to you i have to say as your trying to trust in the professionals in order for you to get better as it may require various adjustments and combinations of treatments along the way.  Keep looking and maintain hope.

[turtlemama]

whoops didnt know that was a bad word on here, I guess I should say it stinks?

[turtlemama]

Thank you for replying :)

I really have no idea what all I should expect with taking these medicines since I've never done anything like it before. I'm currently trying to switch my doctor because they didn't seem to care that I had run out of my medicine and needed more. It's been almost a month since I ran out and they are still dodging my calls, it seems. I call to make an appointment to talk about meds or to see if I can try another, and they say I have to call another time, or they will look at my chart, but then when I call a week later they havent looked at the chart, and tell me to call next week. I really don't think that is the way to treat a patient needing meds, especially antidepressants, so I figure I better switch. I didn't really have a choice but to stop the lexapro since I ran out and couldnt get more. Plus my insurance sent me a note saying I needed to switch since it costs too much to be on that one. It ***** because I feel it did good for my depression, just the sex thing was really sucky.
Im hoping the next doctor will be better able to help me finding the right medicine. Unfortunately because I know nothing about what is going on with me or about what meds are good and bad, Im afraid I might end up going through a lot of trial and error before I find something good.
I did talk to my therapist and all she suggested was to switch to a new doctor and new med. She didn't really acknowledge what I was telling her I think. I think I will try to talk about it again though and see if I can be more clear or something.
I

[capegirlnoshoes]

Don't worry about TMI, it's your health and it's important, and lots of us females on here sympathise with you.  
One option is to try other SSRIs.  I live in New Zealand and we have different drug names, but for example I took Citalopram (aka Celexa) and it did nothing to my libido, whereas mirtazapine (aka Avanza) gave me some trouble (it went away later on though).  Then there's fluoxetine etc.  
There is another whole class of anti-depressants, called tri-cyclics.  You may react to them completely differently.  The SSRIs are all different from each other, but not by nearly as much as they differ from tri-cyclics.  All the SSRIs can cause sexual dysfunction, but that doesn't mean they will ALL cause it specifically for YOU.  
Doctors usually prescribe SSRIs first, because they have fewer and weaker side-effects than the tri-cyclics.  However, that's a generalisation, and maybe tri-cyclics would work better for you.  Try talking to a doctor or pharmacist about that.  And definitely talk to your therapist about the effect the drugs are having on your sex life, because as you well know, sex is a very important part of a married relationship.  
Another thing you should know is that stopping any SSRI causes withdrawal symptoms.  They should be weaned off carefully.  But here of course you have the (I'm guessing American) health system against you.  In New Zealand all psychiatric drugs are heavily subsidised.