drz47p Intro & Story

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drz47p
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drz47p Intro & Story

Unread post by drz47p »

Hi everyone,

I have been lurking on this forum for several years since I developed PSSD at about 23-24 years old (as far as I remember, it has been a long few years). I am currently 27. My case is quite complex.

I completed a 5 month course of isotretinoin at 20-21 years of age. As far as I remember, I experienced lower libido during the course, but it returned to normal or maybe a little lower than baseline thereafter. Like many others here, I had a very high libido (bordering on hypersexual) before using SSRIs, to which I attribute most of my sexual dysfunction.

I started taking escitalopram at about 22 years of age, for GAD. I continued on it for 1.5 years roughly. During this time, I was able to have a sexual relationship, albeit with reduced libido relative to baseline. After that relationship ended, I was misdiagnosed as psychotic and prescribed a low dose of risperidone, which further lowered my libido. Later, I tapered off risperidone. After this, I asked to try a different SSRI, and was switched to citalopram.

After starting citalopram, by libido gradually lowered even further. I later experienced an exacerbation of GAD/depression, and my dose of citalopram was upped from 20mg to 30mg. This caused extreme fatigue, worsened depression & anxiety, and even lower libido. My dose was lowered back to 20mg, and I fought hard to get back to a good place mentally. Eventually, I felt well enough to try to discontinue the SSRI in order to improve my libido, and tapered off under a doctor's supervision. The next 2-3 months were an utter hell of derealisation, depersonalisation, brain zaps, anhedonia, severe depression, total loss of libido, morning erections, ED, and genital numbness. To clarify, during this SSRI-free period, my libido was even lower than during SSRI usage.

I became so depressed and suicidal about this, that I was started back on SSRIs. Since then, I have tried venlafaxine, mirtazapine, and vortioxetine under the guidance of different docs/psychiatrists. These drugs have improved my anxiety/depression, but my libido remains almost non-existent. I have also tried tapering off SSRIs again, with sexual dysfunction persisting over an SSRI-free period of several months. Having this condition has at times led to suicidal ideation, so I have had to start taking SSRIs again.

My current sexual symptoms include loss of libido, anorgasmia, decreased genital sensation, reduced libido (can masturbate once weekly at best), reduced ejaculate volume, watery ejaculate, cold ejaculate, loss of morning erections and ED.

I have spent the last few years feeling sorry for myself and contemplating suicide. I have joined this board to make a more active effort to fight PSSD. I have a scientific/medical background, and hope I can contribute positively. :)
arahant
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Re: drz47p Intro & Story

Unread post by arahant »

Hey drz47p,

It is crazy that nowadays only SSRis are prescribed for GAD, which may work but gives awful sexual sides.
There is buspirone which is an old med (patent expired) which was used for GAD for many decades with no sexual sides.

Just a historical note, they discovered its sexual benefits by chance on a trial of buspirone for GAD, many reported improved sexual experience.
So that a patent was published with the method.

Here you can see: https://patents.google.com/patent/WO1987004621A1/en

It was the pill that gave my sexual life back after taking sertraline at full dose for many months.
It basically restored me from anorgasmia, decreased genital sensation. with the same benefit of low anxiety.
I hope it helps.

Best,
Wellbutrin (2007 - 2018)
Wellbutrin + Sertraline (2015)
Wellbutrin + Ritalin (2016 - 2018)
Wellbutrin + Ritalin + Sertraline (3 months in 2018)
Buspirone (Feb 2019 - Today)
Ritalin + Buspirone (Nov 2019 - today)
PSSD_Throwaway28
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Re: drz47p Intro & Story

Unread post by PSSD_Throwaway28 »

Hey drz,

I second arahant's comment that you would probably greatly benefit from a dopamine booster like buspirone or bupropion. Viagra can probably also help with your erections (if you aren't already taking it), but if you can't afford it or worried about using it, l-citrulline should also give you a small improvement in that dept.

Decreased genital sensation is trickier. If its just due to lack of arousal or high serotonin/low dopamine it will probably get a lot better once you take buspirone. But if your genitals are actually partially physically numb to temperature or friction there is not a lot you can do except try and live a healthy lifestyle and hope for improvements over time.
drz47p
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Re: drz47p Intro & Story

Unread post by drz47p »

Thank you both for your replies.

I have some supplements on the way that I will try next. After that, I'll be trying buspirone as per your recommendations.
drz47p
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Re: drz47p Intro & Story

Unread post by drz47p »

Quick update.

I have been taking resveratrol 100mg once daily with food for about 5 days now. This was based on the hypothesis that 5-HT1A may be silenced.

There is some research that suggests resveratrol can down regulates DNA methyltransferases: (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22332908/) or HDAC (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/artic ... ne.0073097).

I experienced a huge improvement in nearly all symptoms for the 1st 3 days. Libido, arousal (visual & tactile), flaccid penis & testicle size were improved. I managed to masturbate once every day. Unfortunately, I drank heavily on day 4 and since then I am back to baseline or close. Will keep posting updates throughout this experiment.
cdraham
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Re: drz47p Intro & Story

Unread post by cdraham »

drz47p wrote: Sun Jun 28, 2020 4:35 pm Quick update.

I have been taking resveratrol 100mg once daily with food for about 5 days now. This was based on the hypothesis that 5-HT1A may be silenced.

There is some research that suggests resveratrol can down regulates DNA methyltransferases: (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22332908/) or HDAC (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/artic ... ne.0073097).

I experienced a huge improvement in nearly all symptoms for the 1st 3 days. Libido, arousal (visual & tactile), flaccid penis & testicle size were improved. I managed to masturbate once every day. Unfortunately, I drank heavily on day 4 and since then I am back to baseline or close. Will keep posting updates throughout this experiment.
Interesting, resveratrol is part of my stack, haven't seen such improvements though.
drz47p
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Re: drz47p Intro & Story

Unread post by drz47p »

Another update.

My initial improvement with resveratrol seems to have plateaued. I would estimate the improvement to be 10-20%. I have moved up to 200mg per day, and have added in tribulus terrestris to see if I can make further improvements.
drz47p
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Re: drz47p Intro & Story

Unread post by drz47p »

Update:

Currently on day 7 of resveratrol 200mg/d + tribulus 1000mg/d (minimum 45% saponins). Had a great window yesterday evening, but I think it was due to fatigue, which always seems to help my symptoms. Overall, I think tribulus has not produced any discernible effect, but I will give tribulus a few days more before drawing conclusions.
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kpavel
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Re: drz47p Intro & Story

Unread post by kpavel »

Interesting.
Halan
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Re: drz47p Intro & Story

Unread post by Halan »

keep us updated!
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