Mild NSFW warning: this post mentions sexual side effects of medication.

SSRIs are the most common type of antidepressant (examples are Prozac/fluoxetine, Zoloft/sertraline, Paxil/paroxetine).

If you have experience with them, do you think they’re a good idea?

I came across a paper about side effects which I haven’t heard discussed before. Many people know that SSRIs have sexual effects, but apparently they also affect fertility.

This paper describes SSRIs as “gonadotoxic”, leading to effects like “decreased sperm concentration and motility, increased [DNA] fragmentation, and decreased reproductive organ weights”.

The paper does say “this effect does seem to be reversible”, so if you stop SSRIs, your sex organs should apparently go back to normal. But still, some people are on SSRIs for long periods of time, right?

I would be interested to hear others’ thoughts, if you have any.

Edit: Thanks for the replies to this post, they’re interesting.

  • @b34n5English
    1•8 hours ago

    According to the book “Anatomy of an Epidemic” SSRIs (antidepressants) improve patient symptoms slightly in the short term compared to those who are not medicated. However, in the long term:

    1. They do not solve the problem of anxiety/depression at the symptomatic level.

    2. They hinder the patient’s recovery and turn them into a chronic depressive or anxious individual.

    In my experience, since I started taking SSRIs, I have been having more panic attacks, even though initially, about 5 years ago, they seemed to improve my symptoms of social anxiety and sadness.

    Check this out: https://robertwhitakerbooks.com/anatomy-of-an-epidemic/antidepressantsdepression/