These medications can cause sexual dysfunction

Despite popular belief, sexual dysfunction isn’t always caused by stress, fatigue, or high body fat percentage. Medications like the pill and antidepressants are just as likely to negatively affect your sex life. Every year, around 7 million people in the UK are prescribed antidepressants and the pill is still the most used contraception method for women. Both of these medications regularly cause sexual dysfunction.

What is sexual dysfunction?

Sexyal dysfunction is an umbrella term for anything that prevents you from having or enjoying sexual activity. This can manifest itself in various ways. It usually means that your body won’t do what you want it to do or that you don’t enjoy sexual activity anymore. Research shows that 27 percent of women and nearly 20 percent of men have one or more sexual dysfunctions. Since there is a stigma surrounding it, it often goes undiagnosed or untreated, which means many people don’t know what actually causes their sexual dysfunction.

”27 percent of women has one or more sexual dysfunctions.”

Considering there are many possible causes for sexual dysfunction, we will solely focus on the influence of well-known medications in this article. These usually include anti-psychotics, antidepressants, and medicine that influences your blood pressure or hormones.

Medications that negatively affect your sex life

Despite the fact that side effects often vary from person to person, there is enough evidence to safely say that the following types of medications can negatively affect your sex life:

Antidepressants

The side effects of antidepressants have been talked about in the news a lot lately, particularly when it comes to suicide, low blood pressure, and weight gain. However, there is another unpleasant side effect that is rarely mentioned: low libido. It’s unclear why antidepressants cause low sex drive, says specialist in sexual health Dr. Lee. It most likely has to do with unbalanced dopamine and testosterone levels, as these hormones are essential for sexual arousal and orgasms.

Antipsychotics

Antipsychotics often cause sexual dysfunction because they influence certain hormone levels in the brain. Dr. Lee explains it in medical terms: ”It’s because these medications block dopamine and histamine receptors, increase prolactine levels, and increase sedation.” What it comes down to is that antipsychotics make you as emotionally flat as possible. This reduces the chance of psychotic episodes, but the price you pay is that your other feelings and emotions become flat as well, including your sex drive.

Blood pressure medications

Many medications that keep high blood pressure under control negatively influence your sex life. With men, this usually leads to erectile problems, while women mostly struggle with low libido. In contrast to the previously mentioned medications, there is a solution for this: switching to a different type of medicine. Contact your GP if you want to change your medications. Sometimes it’s even possible to stop taking it altogether over time if you’re willing to change your diet and to exercise regularly. If this sounds like a good option for you, contact your GP for advice.

Painkillers

Heavy painkillers like morphine and oxycodon relieve intense pain, but this comes with a couple of unpleasant side effects. Painkillers cause dysfunction because they slow down the production of testosterone and other important ‘sex hormones’. The side effects of heavy painkillers haven’t been researched thoroughly yet, but there are studies that suggest that they can have an effect on your sex life. One study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology, shows that nearly all men and 75% of women had lower sex drive after taking narcotic painkillers.

The contraceptive pill

The contraceptive pill puts a stop to the production of a number of important hormones in the ovaries to prevent pregnancy. These hormones are testosterone, progestagen, and oestrogen. Those last two hormones are replenished, but the production of testosterone drops by 50%! You can probably guess what this does to your sex life. It’s a very profound, but ignored side effect of the pill. Doctors often prescribe the pill without mentioning this particular side effect.

Other medications that influence your sex life

Besides the well-known medications mentioned above, there are some other medications that negatively affect your sex life as well. With most of these, blocking the production of dopamine and testosterone is the main cause. Here is a list of other medications that influence your sex life:

• Anti-epileptic drugs; medications that reduce your sensitivity to stimuli
• Anxiolytics; medications that reduce anxiety
• Antacids; also called H2 blockers. Help neutralise stomach acid.
• Anti-androgen; better known as testosterone blockers. Treatment for testosterone imbalance.
• Antiarrhythmics; medications to suppress abnormal heart rhythms.
• Medications for stress relief
• 5-alpha reductase inhibitors; treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia
• Cholesterol reducers
• Anabolic steroids; performance-enhancing drugs
• Prostate medications
• Certain medications for Parkinson’s disease

Getting your sexual needs back

The first step towards relieving symptoms is breaking the taboo. Many people don’t even realise that medications are the cause of their sexual dysfunction. After determining the cause, it’s important to talk about it with your GP. There are often alternatives, like changing your medications or changing certain aspects of your lifestyle. For example, the pill can be replaced with a different form of contraception and high blood pressure medications can sometimes be replaced with plenty of exercise, a healthy diet, and losing weight. It’s important to note here that sexual dysfunction isn’t always caused by medications. Physical and mental conditions cause sexual dysfunction just as often.

Do you have any questions about sexuality? Email sexologist Nynke Nijman at nynke@pabo.nl or post your question in the comments below.