3 Common Medications that can harm your SEX LIFE!

By Alyssa Quimby, MD

Thankfully for many of us, we don’t have to take medication regularly – or try to avoid doing so. 

But for those with medical conditions (even common things like asthma, allergies, and depression and anxiety) medications can make a world of difference! 

And while these medications can have a very positive impact on parts of our health, they can also cause challenges in others. 

Spoiler alert – today we’re going to talk about how common medications can negatively impact our sex lives.

Especially if you are someone who previously had a robust sex life that has lessened over time, it’s really important to examine your medications to see if they are playing a role.  For other tips on figuring out what’s going on with your libido, check out some of our previous posts here!

Let’s start with some of the most common meds well known to impact libido…

SSRIs –  These are medications for depression and/or anxiety.  SSRI stands for serotonin reuptake inhibitor.  Serotonin is a chemical in our brain responsible for mood.  Often those who struggle with anxiety or depression are deficient in serotonin (or their body doesn’t respond to a normal level of serotonin).  An SSRI helps to raise levels of this chemical in our brain, in turn boosting our mood and lessening anxious feelings.  These medications can be absolutely GAME CHANGING for people!  But a common not so great side effect can be decreased libido.  It’s not 100% understood why this happens (and it doesn’t happen for all people on SSRIs) but the thought is that an increase in serotonin can block production of testosterone and dopamine.  Testosterone (yes, we have this as females too) is somewhat responsible for libido.  And dopamine plays a role in achieving orgasm.  And while I would certainly NOT SUGGEST you stop your antidepressant due to sexual side effects, I do suggest that you talk to your doctor if you are experiencing this.  Often changing to a different SSRI or the addition of other medications such as Wellbutrin can make a huge difference. 

Birth Control – Believe it or not, some forms of birth control can decrease your sex drive.  The most common culprit here is oral birth control pills (ocps).  Just like antidepressants, this isn’t the case for everyone and can be dependent on which of the 1000s of formulations of birth control pills you are on.  The way this works is that ocps increase a protein in our bodies called sex hormone binding globulin.  This protein binds to sex hormones such as estrogen, testosterone and dihydrotestosterone thereby lowering levels in the blood stream which can in turn decrease our sex drive.  This is also the reason birth control pills can help our skin since for many women with hormonal acne this can be directly related to testosterone levels in the body.

So my suggestion if you are someone who is struggling with low libido and are on birth control pills is – do not stop your pill cold turkey! 

Instead, schedule an appointment with your doctor so they can discuss other options – sometimes it can be as simple as changing to another pill. 

But if you stop mid pack, not only can this impact your protection against pregnancy, it can also impact your mood and your period – things you don’t want to mess with!

Allergy Medications - This includes both prescription and over the counter medications like Allegra, Zyrtec, etc.  How can this impact your sex drive you may ask??  In several ways – first, allergy medications often work by decreasing secretions in our nasal passages but they can also decrease secretions in the vagina leading to more dryness and irritation, which makes sex less pleasurable and can impact our ability to orgasm.  The second way is by blocking histamine – which is a chemical produced by our immune system that causes symptoms we associate with allergic reactions – runny nose, sneezing, flushed skin, itching etc.  Histamine is also involved in sexual response – in females, estrogen and histamine interact to promote female arousal.  In men, histamine is important for maintaining erection.  So when histamine is blocked, it can decrease female arousal and make erections more difficult. 

And I know I sound like a broken record here – but I’ll say it again.  DO NOT STOP your medications cold turkey.  I am really hopeful that this information is helpful to at least some of you out there.  But that instead of encouraging you to stop your meds, you are encouraged to talk to your doctor about some alternatives that may have less sexual side effects.  Because as I said, often this switch can be very simple but has the potential to make a dramatic difference.

Stay tuned next week when we explore 3 more medications (this time a bit less known) that can also impact sex.  See you then!