Impotence Support - Drugs that cause impotence

Author

Drugs that cause impotence

Mungy@HorribleISP.gov

2006-03-29, 10:03 am

Nah, I'm not going to provide a list. This is more of a complaint as
to why we can't find out about the impotence factor in advance of
taking any particular drug? How come with all the medical literature
on the net the sexual effects of various drugs are not easily and
reliably available?

If you look at the grand-daddy of them all, Prozac (fluoxetine),
you'll find that while the mfg admits to adverse effects in 50% or
more. The actual quoted numbers are:

"Ejaculatory disturbances (principally ejaculatory delay) are the most
common adverse urogenital effects associated with fluoxetine in men,
occurring in about 7% of men receiving the drug compared with less
than 1% of those receiving placebo..."

"Decreased or increased libido also reportedly occurs in up to 2% of
patients. "

"Other genital disorders reported in patients receiving the drug
include impotence, penile (of the glans) anesthesia, and anorgasmy (in
both males and females)."

Add those together... hmmm 9% plus some unknown for "other". Doesn't
come up to 50%.

(In my experience fluoxetine causes a total shutdown of all sexual
function.)

Have a look at imipramine (another AD) where in a long list of adverse
effects ranging from headache to breast milk production in men there
appears in the "less frequent" category: "Decreased sexual function".
No numbers are given.

(My experience agrees: less than fluoxetine but some diminution. I
felt that Cialis and Yohimbine were fighting to counter its effects. I
don't agree with the "less frequent" categorization though.)

On to Flomax (tamsulosin) a drug used to deal with BPH. Here we
actually get numbers: At the normal dose 8.4% experienced abnormal
ejaculation; at double the normal dose 18.1% did; the placebo group
had a 0.2% abnormal rate (in sympathy I suppose <g> ). Abnormal
ejaculation is described as:

"Abnormal ejaculation includes ejaculation failure, ejaculation
disorder, retrograde ejaculation and ejaculation decrease."

Note that abnormal ejaculation is exceeded by Headache (19.3%),
Infection (9.0%), Rhinitis (13.1%) and Dizzyness (14.9%). There's no
mention of any other sexual effects.

(My experience is that Flomax (three days) is worse than imipramine
and not as bad as Prozac. It has bad effects on libido, and erections
but strangely I didn't note anything particular with regard to
ejaculations. Maybe I never even got that far.)

What am I? Abnormal? Why is it that I experience all the "decreased
sexual function" whereas only a small number of the test subjects do?
Do I have to presume that any drug that has any "decreased sexual
function" will effect me adversely?

Thinking about this I finally had a brilliant flash of insight,
equivalent to that Greek guy who shouted "Eureka"! Yes I'm abnormal
and I'd guess that anyone posting on ASI is likewise. The problem is
with the nature of the test subjects and the setting of the norm!

My understanding of how they conduct these studies is to round up a
few thousand people, divide them randomly into two groups and give one
group a placebo and the other the drug under test. They then record
the adverse (and good) events occurring to all. At the end of the test
they break the code and total the good and bad, hence our 8.4%, 18.1%
and 0.2% for Flomax.

Leaving aside the lack of randomization of the original selection,
there's several immediate problems. The first is that sexual function
problems are self reported and we all know how open the general
population is when it comes to discussing sex. But the second is a
killer too: What's the norm?

The norm for headache is easy: no headache. Dizzyness also: no
dizzyness. But what's the norm for libido? Erection? Time to
ejaculation? Ejaculation quantity and distance? Orgasm? Just ask
someone: How many times do you have sex (of any kind but to orgasm)
per year? I you get a truthful reply I'd guess that the numbers would
be all over the shop. Guys would consider once a month, normal.
Others, once a week, Myself, at least five times a week. In the Flomax
crowd (probably old and suffering) I'd guess at quite a few who
haven't seen a rise in more than a year and who don't care.

To my knowledge the researchers don't even consider this factor, a
fatal flaw in any attempt to assess the sexual impact of any drug. But
it's even worse. The Prozac example above mixed males and females. You
could have 100% male total sexual dysfunction and it'd only come out
to that percentage that males bore to total study participants.

And then there's the age question. Want to reduce the poor sexual
results in a drug that's not particularly age-specific? Bring in more
young! Naturally the teenagers, twenty- and thirty-somethings will be
able to perform sexually in the face of even adverse drug conditions.
After all, unless the mfg is actually lying, some people didn't have
sexual dysfunction with Prozac. Probably the twenty-year-olds where it
actually might have been beneficial in reducing premature ejaculation.

In all, the system stinks. You can't rely on any description of sexual
dysfunction. Presume that anywhere it's even mentioned, the drug will
cause you near-total impotence.

Jim

2006-03-29, 5:01 pm

Mungy@HorribleISP.gov wrote:
> Nah, I'm not going to provide a list. This is more of a complaint as
> to why we can't find out about the impotence factor in advance of
> taking any particular drug?...

________

Like you have, we all need to become informed consumers when it comes
to medications - even over the counter ones.

Most pharmacies in the US provide a printout describing the drug's use,
contra-indications, and potential side-effects. Read through that.
It's helpful.

Further, make sure your doctor understands that erectile function is a
priority for you. He/she will likely then make that a priority, when
possible, in prescribing drugs that are less likely to interfere. If
you don't tell them, they are going to go first to the drug that they
think will best handle your problem, regardless of sexual side effects.
They are just doing their job in trying to treat your primary
complaint. It's okay to make their job a little more difficult in
saying that in the best of worlds you'd like to get undepressed AND
have erections, for example. That is not always possible with all
forms of depression, but worth a try.

Mungy@HorribleISP.gov

2006-03-30, 10:05 am

"Jim" <avocet@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:

>
>Mungy@HorribleISP.gov wrote:
[vbcol=seagreen]
>Like you have, we all need to become informed consumers when it comes
>to medications - even over the counter ones.

>Most pharmacies in the US provide a printout describing the drug's use,
>contra-indications, and potential side-effects. Read through that.
>It's helpful.

Much more is available on the net without the use of those parasites,
pharmacists, and the chicken-little safety-at-all-cost
lawsuit-preventative mfgs patient (read "talk down to and treat like a
child") information.

>Further, make sure your doctor understands that erectile function is a
>priority for you. He/she will likely then make that a priority, when
>possible, in prescribing drugs that are less likely to interfere.

He has no friggin' idea for the very reasons I listed in my post.
Neither he nor the researchers care about sexual function.

> If
>you don't tell them, they are going to go first to the drug that they
>think will best handle your problem, regardless of sexual side effects.
> They are just doing their job in trying to treat your primary
>complaint. It's okay to make their job a little more difficult in
>saying that in the best of worlds you'd like to get undepressed AND
>have erections, for example.

Their job a bit more difficult! You don't happen to be one of those
MD's, do you? If your primary complaint is depression and the drug
happens to turn you blind would that be OK to prescribe? Sex may not
be quite at the level of blindness but at least with males should be
very high on the list. Anyway as AD's there are viable alternatives:
the MAO inhibitors and bupropion (Wellbutrin).

LMac

2006-03-31, 5:02 pm

Mungy@HorribleISP.gov wrote:
> "Jim" <avocet@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Much more is available on the net without the use of those parasites,
> pharmacists, and the chicken-little safety-at-all-cost
> lawsuit-preventative mfgs patient (read "talk down to and treat like a
> child") information.
>
>
> He has no friggin' idea for the very reasons I listed in my post.
> Neither he nor the researchers care about sexual function.
>
>
> Their job a bit more difficult! You don't happen to be one of those
> MD's, do you? If your primary complaint is depression and the drug
> happens to turn you blind would that be OK to prescribe? Sex may not
> be quite at the level of blindness but at least with males should be
> very high on the list. Anyway as AD's there are viable alternatives:
> the MAO inhibitors and bupropion (Wellbutrin).
>
>
And, those are pretty marginal if you or your mate is the one affected.
My view is anecdotal on this (stats are fine unless you are the one
that's strapped into the seat of a crashing airplane).

Of the entire range of AD drugs, MAOI's SSRI's etc. (and my spouse has
been on almost two dozen, Serzone was the only one that did not put a
major dent in her libido and orgasmic response. It was great!!!
Serzone did the AD job and let us enjoy a full range of sexual
activities. One of the best four weeks in my sex life! Only problem,
it caused her hair to fall out and the FDA pulled it. She has used the
full range of Wellbutrin variants, alone and in combination with other
ADs and mood stabilizers. The industry still has a long way to go.
Wellbutrin's advertising on TV was, in our case, clearly deceptive.

--
LMac

Beach Runner

2006-04-01, 12:05 pm

Learning that all our jobs were (stupidly) going to India, I went ahead
and took some antidepressants. I don't remember the name but it was
cousin of Prosaic. It absolutely destroyed any
ability I had. Now that was depressing.

Of course, as someone mentioned, Flowmax also had an effect, taking 2 a
day. I thought my BPH surgery made me healthier, but as I've learned,
it was actually going off the Flowmax. If you need Flowmax, get that
blue light laser surgery.

We do have someone claiming to be a doctor. If this was his real
concern, he would have already weighed in here. Further proving his
real agenda.

I hear people who take steroids lose that ability, but don't really know.