antidepressiva and fertility

[nemast]

Does, effexor have an effect on male fertility? Does it create foetal disorders? And what about sipralexa and sulpiride?

[vapors]

Hi again nemast:

Just to follow up on Erin's remarks, although the study I cited above regarding fertility in rats was negative, there were teratogenic studies in rats and rabbits which were positive.  As Erin stated, if you are thinking about pregnancy, you must discuss it with ALL yours and your partner's  doctors.  The list of possible issues arising from use during pregnancy are too numerous to list here.  Of course they are not unique to venlafaxine and hold for other SSNRIs or SSRIs.  You will find some of these on pages 23 and 24 of the document issued by Wyeth.

[vapors]

Hi nemsat:

Based on the Physicians Prescribing Information issued by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, venlafaxine has no adverse effect on fertility ... of rats!  The following is a direct quote from Wyeth on this subject:

"Impairment of Fertility - Reproduction and fertility studies in rats showed no effects on male or female fertility at oral doses of up to 2 times the maximum recommended human dose on a mg/m^2 basis."

I am aware of no other studies in this regard.  I just wanted to make sure that your question is about male fertility and not male sexual dysfunction.  Venlafaxine nearly always results in male sexual dysfunction, including loss of libido, delayed ejaculation and abnormal ejaculation.  I experienced profound lack of interest in sex when on venlafaxine.

You can download the Prescribing Information from the Wyeth site.  It is about 50 pages, but you can search through it.

All the best.

[ihatemedication]

i am not sure about male fertility, but i when i was on it (one year at 150mg a day) i noticed that i seemed to be more regular. i have always had very irregular periods and very low progesterone levels (which means that basically i do ovulate and so the eggs can be fertilized, but hormones for further growth are insufficient and the fertilized egg cannot implant itself into the wall of the uterus. the fertilized egg is then discarded as if it had never even been there - probably more than you wanted to know, but anyhoo). when i was on it my hormone levels increased and my cycles became much more regular. this could have been because severe depression can interfere with reproductive hormones and fertility, and taking care of that problem allowed my body to start working on other problems - like my infertility issues.

have you had problems with fertility before? are you on effexor now? if so you can always ask you physician to refer you to a doctor who can give you tests and see where you are at now that you are on it. he might be able to tell you if you have to worry about anything weird like birth defects (i do know that pregnant women should not be on effexor, especially in the second and third trimester, because it can cause withdrawals in the infant after birth, and who knows what other kind of wacky symptoms).

~ erin