Doctor issues warning for medication as woman, 23, now unable to have orgasms

A woman shared her experience with a certain type of medication that left her unable to orgasm, leading to a doctor to issue an urgent warning to those who may be taking it right now.

Lauren Friedman is just 23 but has been battling a side effect from a pretty common drug that has made her ‘numb’ to love and other essential sensations.

The Vanderbilt University senior has likened the impact to ‘chemical castration,’ and says she was unable to be fully informed of what she was agreeing to when she began taking prescription drugs to boost her serotonin.

Known as SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the drugs under this umbrella are usually prescribed to people battling things like anxiety, OCD, and depression.

Its aim is to increase serotonin, which is the chemical compound responsible for boosting your mood.

However, because of this, she says she can no longer orgasm, feel sexual satisfaction, or even emotional connections to other people after taking SSRI medication in 2022.

'I'm quite literally sexually defunct and emotionally lobotomized'

“I can't feel love for my own mother, which is the hardest thing on Earth,” she said in an 'Overmedicalization of Mental Health' event in Washington on May 4, which was hosted by the MAHA Institute.

“I think it's pretty clear I don't want to be here,” she went on. “I feel so deeply humiliated and dehumanized to share to groups of strangers and the press, and inevitably the internet, that I'm quite literally sexually defunct and emotionally lobotomized, which is the antithesis of who I was before this.”

Sadly, Friedman isn’t the only person to experience this 'full nervous system injury', and the side effect has its own medical term: post-SSRI sexual dysfunction, or PSSD.

Common side effects of post-SSRI sexual dysfunction

PSSD Network explains that common symptoms include, but are not limited to:

• Genital numbness
• A complete loss of libido
• Erectile dysfunction
• Vaginal dryness
• Cognitive impairment
• Anhedonia (the inability to experience pleasure or a profound loss of interest in activities that were once enjoyable)
• Emotional blunting

Also known as Anorgasmia, Ubie Health states that even other drugs can cause a person to no longer be able to reach orgasm, such as antipsychotics, blood pressure medications, opioid pain medications, hormonal treatments, or certain anti-seizure drugs.

"Most of us expect if we're on a drug and have side effects, we stop the drug, we stop the side effects, but it's the opposite of this," said Dr Kenneth Peters, chief of urology at Corewell Health in Southeast Michigan.

He warned that when it comes to PSSD, there are different symptoms for everyone who is impacted.

For example, physically, it could include things like genital numbness, trouble getting an erection or difficulty reaching orgasm, which may continue after stopping the medications.

Per Friedman, it can last forever, leading her to dub it a form of chemical castration.

Peters also said it can change bowel and bladder function, as well as cut connections to things you once loved or cared about.

"It is a striking thing when you see it as a clinician," he said to USA Today.

However, PSSD isn’t formally recognized in the US, despite the European Medical Agency doing so back in 2019.

This, said Peters, has led to those suffering to be dismissed.

"I think most patients get their medical information off of subreddit accounts, where people who have this, who tried a million different things talk about their experience," he said.

However, he noted that SSRI’s do some good in those requiring treatment for mental health conditions, and there needs to be sensitivity when warning people about PSSD.

"You don't want to scare people from taking something that could be potentially life-saving for them either," Peters said.