All clients that come through my practice first start with a comprehensive sexual assessment. Within that sexual assessment, I analyze all your current medications, as many of them unknowingly have negative sexual side effects. Even if it doesn’t say so on the literature, many medications can have a negative affect on your sexual functioning.
It is important that if you are experiencing some sexual issues, that you take a look at the medication that you are taking to see if there are sexual side effects. Often, clients will come to their first session with a list of medications, many or all of which have some reported sexual side effect, and have no idea that they are currently taking things that can inhibit their sexual functioning.
I call it “swimming upstream” (no sexual pun intended!) when you try to resolve a sexual issue when you don’t realistically look at the health and medical issues a client might have, and this includes medication. For some one with erectile issues or early ejaculation who is on medication that has erectile issues as a side effect, all the sex therapy in the world isn’t going to be able to overcome that medicine-induced side effect.
Common culprits are blood pressure medications and almost all of the psychopharmaceuticals that treat anxiety and depression (which is interesting because many folks have no idea that their anti-depressant could be the main reason behind their ability not to have an orgasm, get an erection, etc.).
What can you do? Read the information provided with your prescription and do a little web searching to see what others have to say about it. If you find that your medication has a sexual side effect, make an appointment with your doctor and see if there are alternatives to the medication with lesser or no sexual side effects. You may have other options with other medication or other treatment options that don’t have any negative affect on your sexual functioning.
Once you are done with that, schedule an appointment with SexTherapy-Online 🙂