return to Health Line main index

HEALTH LINE

Questions and Answers


Q
I am currently taking lo-ovral 28 day and have been for about 2 years now. However, I recently was put on Zoloft and now have almost no sexual arrousal whatsoever. I am wondering if I switched to the new contraceptives I have seen advertised (with different levels of Estrogen throughout the month) if this would help the problem.

Thank you.

A
... sorry to hear about your problem.

Where an unwanted effect occurs during treatment with more than one drug, it is often difficult to assign blame and make appropriate corrections. In this case I'm pretty sure the culprit is your antidepressant.

Zoloft (sertraline) is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor - you'll probably have heard of its predecessor, Prozac. All this group have a wide spectrum of significant side-effects, and, while not very common, the problem you describe is known to occur.

You should discuss this with your physician - possible solutions would be to keep on with the sertraline but reduce the dosage to a point where acceptable control of your depression is achieved with some/all relief from the unwanted effect switch to an other antidepressant - there are choices between the 'tricyclics', the 'MAO inhibitors', or others, all tried and true (but again with well-recognized side-effects).

On the other hand, since sexual arousal has such a large central component, the very action of changing your oral contraceptive might do the trick.

Best wishes.