‘Accepting what is’: an approach for managing the long-term sexual side effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in women

Quality of sexual life and factors affecting it in married women undergoing depression treatment

OBJECTIVE

This descriptive study was conducted to determine the factors affecting the quality of sexual life of married and sexually active women treated with medication due to depression.

METHODS

Sample included 228 depressive patients on antidepressants for at least 1 month presenting to the Psychiatry Clinic of a hospital in the west side of Turkey, between April and June 2018.

RESULTS

Women who were in the young age group, did not have any problems in sexual life before starting depression medication, had sexual intercourse 11 times or more per month, proposed to initiate a sexual intercourse together with their husbands were found to have higher Sexual Quality of Life-Female scores. There was a decrease in the women's frequency of sexual intercourse per month after the use of medication.

"I'm in control: I'm not stumbling in the dark anymore": Midlife women's experiences of successfully negotiating safer sex with new partners

The rates of STIs in women over 45 years have been steadily increasing in Australia and other Western countries. Traditionally sexual health and STI prevention and research has positioned young people as the priority population; to date, insufficient attention has been paid to the sexual health of women over 45 years. Using a strengths-based approach, the objective of this study was to explore the factors and mechanisms that enable Australian women aged 45 to 64 years to successfully negotiate safer sex practices in new relationships. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed for an in-depth exploratory study of a sample of eight women. Three broad themes emerged: being informed, being prepared, and being empowered. These findings provide a valuable insight into how we can initiate change and support safer sex practices for this target group.

Antidepressant-Induced Female Sexual Dysfunction

Because 1 in 6 women in the United States takes antidepressants and a substantial proportion of patients report some disturbance of sexual function while taking these medications, it is a near certainty that the practicing clinician will need to know how to assess and manage antidepressant-related female sexual dysfunction. Adverse sexual effects can be complex because there are several potentially overlapping etiologies, including sexual dysfunction associated with the underlying mood disorder. As such, careful assessment of sexual function at the premedication visit followed by monitoring at subsequent visits is critical. Treatment of adverse sexual effects can be pharmacological (dose reduction, drug discontinuation or switching, augmentation, or using medications with lower adverse effect profiles), behavioral (exercising before sexual activity, scheduling sexual activity, vibratory stimulation, psychotherapy), complementary and integrative (acupuncture, nutraceuticals), or some combination of these modalities.