History... I am a 27 year old male. I have been dealing with depression since as long as I can remember and have been trying to treat it medicinally since about 18 years old. I started with Celexa. It cured the random sobbing but thats it. The feelings were still there I just couldnt cry. I also had problems reaching climax at all. Because of that I switched to Lexipro which pretty much had the same exact effects. From there I switched to Zoloft. It was great. It worked and had NO side effects at all. but after about 6 months it just wasnt doing the trick anymore. My dosage was bumped up. Same result. Dosage bump again. Same result. I gave up and went unmedicated for a couple years until I was given Effexor. I have been taking 37.5 mg of effexor for a few years and have always had a little bit of a problem reaching climax. The equipment works just no "O." My solution was just skipping the dosage the day of expected sexy time. It worked well enough. During this time however I still had a host of issues that were just not being taken care of and my doc finally sent me to a psychiatrist. I was quickly diagnosed as type II bipolar and had my Effexor ramped up to 150 mg and added 20mg of Lamictal. So far so good emotionally but I have not had an orgasm since. and not for lack of trying believe me. not even close. Eventually the equipment just stops working as well, as if to say, "dude its just not going to happen." I told the pdoc and he suggested switching from effexor to Pristiq. He said its been said that its a little easier on the sexual side effects. Im hoping this is true. I really thought the hard time reaching O was bad but dang it better than nothing at all!

to DF Justyntime

By the way I love your name we used to tease my son calling him that when he was a kid. I myself have never taken Pristiq as it is not available in Canada yet. (I really think our FDA waits to see what will happen to People in the states first) I hope it will help you out. Keep us posted on how you make out on it.

Well its been about 3 weeks and the first week taking the pristiq and no effexor was hellish. I missed a couple days of work and just tried to sleep through it. After that it has been ok and for about a week after that I didnt have any sexual side effects... but now Im pretty much right back where I started. Now though I dont think its so much of a delayed orgasm as much as it is that Im just not into it. Not really in the mood and cant focus. I do seem to wake up around 3 am or so and am in the mood but thats not exactly a convenient time. We'll see if it gets any better in the weeks to come...

justyntime-

I had the same issues with both Paxil and Celexa that you describe. Not only couldn't my body "do it", my mind didn't really have any desire either. I would occasionally have the urge, but within minutes of getting started the urge passed, and then the body failed.

Pristiq has been quite different for me. I guess that for the first few weeks I had little interest in sex. But the interest and the ability did return. My senses are a bit dulled, both physically and mentally, but the big "O" is possible and gratifying. My pdoc also added trazodone to help me sleep, and I'm thinking "Oh, here we go again" since trazodone does effect serotonin. I have actually found the exact opposite, but do read up on the risk of a very rare but potentially permanent SE of trazodone where no male would want to go.

Deepster