Took Prozac Twice, Recovered Once (So far!)

[sopgirl]

Good luck and keep us posted!

Flibanserin is not licensed here yet, but I'm always curious to know what works for female PSSD sufferers. I'm not interested in its use in women with generic sexual dysfunction as they don't have what we do!

[PittieLady]

Thanks sopgirl- same here. I'm trying it per mesolimbos concept that it's the most targeted 5 ht1a agonist hes seen and his recommendation for the orgasmic anhedonia. Hopes are still low but we shall see. I'll give a full report.

[RainebowGirl]

Thanks so much. You're right - it is nonsense, but it's difficult not to feel remorse and self-blame.
My depression has improved a lot, and I wish I had made some life changes prior to trying antidepressants, but I was in a dark place, and I was hopeful that it would change my life for the better.

Have you had any improvement at all? I do have windows of improvement, but then it passes and the numbness returns. I can't figure out what the pattern is.

If you don't mind me asking, what are your symptoms? I haven't come across many other women with PSSD.

About my hormones - I'm not experimenting with them. Unfortunately, I always have to take Progesterone 14 days of the month because of my ovarian condition. I just find that the other 14 days, I'm not as numb in comparison. My hormones are very low and always have been. I've wondered if maybe that was a contributing factor to this happening to me and whether or not, dose changes will help in the future. Hard to say though.

I've had quite a bit of improvement in the last couple of months after trying to wait it out for about four years prior. It, surprisingly, came after experimenting with Wellbutrin. I recorded a lot of my successes in the wellbutrin thread, starting on page 9 or so? I don't know if it would work for others, since wellbutrin was one of the meds I was on when I developed PSSD in the first place... I'm honestly not sure.

Woooo. Okay, for me: muted orgasms, (eventually) the inability to orgasm/numbed clitoris, dead libido, no sexual reaction to stimulus, deadened emotions/anhedonia, and a great lack of sexuality in general... And weird ones like my feet/hands get really cold easily and I stopped getting goosebumps from really good music. Some of these I'm only added because these things that I never noticed started coming back after my wellbutrin experiment. I would have never noticed the lack of goosebumps if I didn't suddenly start getting them again.

Some people on this forum think that PSSD is more common in men than women, but I believe (like with most things) it's just under-reported in women and harder to diagnose. Most women aren't going to their doctors to tell them, "Hey, my clit is numb and I don't get sexual satisfaction anymore." There isn't even a word for a numb clitoris the way there is for, say, erectile dysfunction, and not having the language to describe those feelings concisely to doctors makes it more difficult to recognize what might be wrong. But there are many females registered to this forum same as us, hoping to find how to how manage or cure this. I hope you find a way out of this soon.

[dandelion5]

Just a quick update - last week I had a 3 day window of improvement. Orgasms weren't totally back to normal, but I had more tingling and sensation in general and it was easier to climax.

Now unfortunately, I'm back to being very numb and orgasms are not satisfying. Really discouraging. I'm the type of person that always wants to find some rhyme or reason to things, and it's so difficult when you can't figure out a pattern.

[dandelion5]

Just an update on me: I'm experiencing frequent windows of improvement. One thing I've noticed is that if I don't get much sleep (which can happen fairly frequently for me), the numbness seems to be worse, and of course, so is my libido, which is to be expected, I guess.

During these windows of improvement, the quality of orgasm is better and sensitivity improves, but it's still like a 5/6 out of 10 compared to 10/10 prior to SSRIs. I mean it's enjoyable and worthwhile, but it still feels muted and requires more effort to achieve. I will have 2-3 days in a row like this followed by 2-3 that are much more muted. It's so strange because besides the sleep, I can't find any rhyme or reason to it. Seems pretty random. I can tell upon waking up in the morning whether or not I'm more or less numb. On the worst days, it feels so weird, as if there's a part of me missing. On the best days, I think to myself, "Wow, it's almost back again!" but then I'm hit with another bad few days. The numbness is most noticeable in the clitoris and surrounding area and less noticeable vaginally. I'd be interested to know if other women have experienced that. I know we're few and far between on here, and I don't think it's because it's not happening to females equally ... I think we're probably just less willing to talk about it, but that's a topic for another time.

I'll update again in a month or so.

** Note: I am now around 4 months out from stopping Prozac.
** Haven't tried any supplements yet, but I eat a pretty healthy diet and have increased my activity level. Also meditating and working on decreasing stress in general.
**Also, my anxiety, unfortunately, has suddenly become heightened in the last couple of weeks. I seem to notice a connection between increased anxiety and improved sexual function.

[IHateProzac]

Just wanted to share my story here. I'm female. As a kid, at 13, I was dealing with a lot of bullying in school, so naturally I was depressed. My parents took me to a psychiatrist who put me on Prozac. I don't recall the dose, but I know it was high for a child. It did help me at that time. I was more outgoing, had less anxiety and depression, but I felt emotionally numb. Since I was 13, I wasn't really aware of how I should feel sexually, so the genital numbness didn't really bother me until I was 16 and experimenting with sex. That's when I realized that it felt like something wasn't right, so I stopped the medication due to both that & the emotional numbness.

Shortly after stopping it (maybe about a month or so?), I experienced amazing orgasms and return of my libido and everything was normal after that until recently.

This past year, at 33 years old, I became very depressed and started to really struggle with panic attacks due to some life events. Remembering how Prozac had helped me in the past, I decided to try 2.5 mg of it to see if it could just give me a boost. Well, I didn't really think much about the sexual side effects it had given me because I assumed they only occurred because I was young and it was probably a very high dose.

Unfortunately, within about 10 days of taking it, my genitals again felt numb, so I weaned down very quickly, stopping on day 14.

It's now been 2.5 months. I've experienced slight improvement but still feel pretty numb and my orgasms aren't enjoyable.

This is giving me extreme anxiety and I'm blaming myself over and over again.

I have friends who take Prozac with no issues whatsoever. It's so interesting to me. I've been doing some research and reading this forum. How is it that some of us are affected and others are not? And how does it have a permanent effect? There has to be something that changes it. Since I did recover from it as a child (which seems unlikely given I probably wasn't even fully developed) recovery must be possible.

There is something else I want to note here that may be of interest. I have an ovarian condition, and due to this, I take hormone replacement therapy and have throughout my life. I take progesterone and estrogen. It appears to me that, when taking progesterone (14 days of the month) the numbness increases. This did not happen prior to this recent trial of Prozac. Before there was no difference. I would be interested to see what testosterone would do, but I probably can't get a script for it because my levels are normal right now.

I'm thinking of all of you and wish you the very best. I know how scary and emotionally exhausting this whole thing is.

I think in the teen years as the body is still sexually developing and hormones are evolving, your body might have recovered quickly. Or Prozac might not have been able to inhibit the sexual part of the mind and body as it was underdeveloped/developing. But that's just a theory or hypothesis. As adults, we see a completely different story when it comes to PSSD. We recover gradually, but that is if we recover at all. My advice would be that at this early stage stay away from all sorts of meds and supplements, at least for 6 months. We say xyz meds and supplements help but we don't know if these things are impeding our natural recovery. Your slight improvement in 2.5 months might actually be a good sign. My PSSD started around the age of 30 and took considerable time to bring about even the slightest improvement.

[dandelion5]

Just another update: suddenly, my anxiety has returned with a vengeance. Since my short stint with Prozac, my anxiety was magically gone. I've had anxiety my whole life to some degree, so it was great while it lasted. I just feel like there's more adrenaline in my system again. Life is still pretty good, but I'm having panic attacks again after nearly 4 months of not having any. I just feel different.

Somehow I hope that the return of my anxiety brings back my pre-Prozac sexual state too. Wondering if there's any connection between the two. Prozac did make me feel emotionally numb while on it, but fortunately my emotions came back after stopping, though my anxiety/panic was muted along with my libido and sexual feeling. Now that the anxiety has returned, I'm really focusing on making my lifestyle as healthy as possible and eliminating stress. Now that I know I can never again return to SSRI or antidepressants, I'm determined to tackle my anxiety in a natural way through therapy and positive changes. Of course, one of my anxiety triggers is PSSD. I just find myself ruminating about it, which I know is totally unhealthy. It's just discouraging. Saw my ob-gyn today also and mentioned it to her. Obviously, she said there were no physical changes she could notice, but she was super depressing because she was just like, "Wow, it's been 4 months. Yeah, not sure what to tell you."

Anyway, that's all the updates I have for now. I'll check back if anything changes. I plan to continue to post updates here. Not sure if they're of interest to anyone, but at least it serves as a log for me and maybe there are others who will relate to some of what I write.

[dandelion5]

Update 4.5 months out:

I had a day where some of my sensitivity returned and orgasm improved greatly. I even felt like my sex drive was back! The following day was numb again though.
It was pretty discouraging. Since then, each day is different from the next. One thing that remains consistent is that my clitoris & breasts are 90% numb. All of the sensitivity that I regain & loss is vaginal. Very different from how I was pre-Prozac. I feel some tingling and fluttering day to day and sometimes I think it feels like it would be easy to orgasm, but then when I try, it's very difficult and not fulfilling.

Overall though, despite the discouraging days, I do think I'm seeing some improvement and moving in the right direction. I hope, at least.

I've been working on getting more sleep and I'm taking fish oil now.

Managing my anxiety fairly well.

[tenacity]

I'm happy to hear that things are progressing with time! Much love.

[dandelion5]

5.5 months out:

I had a day 2.5 weeks ago when I thought I was cured. It was 90% normal as far as sensitivity and orgasm go. I really thought that was the end of PSSD for me, but no, the following day I was numb again. In the past 2.5 weeks since that day, I have experienced some days where the numbness lessens and I can have decent orgasms but nowhere near normal again. The past 2 have been very bad for me with almost full numbness all over.

I feel very discouraged tonight. I was hoping to post a positive update, but unfortunately, that's not the case.

One thing to note is that I did take a small dose of Ambien 2 nights ago and Benadryl last night (for allergies). Maybe one or both of these medications have increased the numbness. I don't know, but aside from these past 2 days I have not taken any medications.

I can't find a pattern as to why some days are better than others or what caused that one amazing day. That's the most frustrating part.