Sexual Dysfunction after 1 dose of Zoloft?

[TheRedHare_]

My dr. prescribed me 25 mg of Zoloft. I took it that night and slept fine, but woke up and realized I could not ejaculate when trying to masturbate. Freaked out, I decided to not take anymore. Of course, I've been reading about sexual dysfunction with SSRIs and I'm freaking out, thinking what if I did permanent damage to myself.

It's now been about 2 days since I took it and I'm still having trouble getting an erection. How long should I expect this to go on?

If this continues, what should I do?

[specialmom]

I agree that it is unlikely from the medication because that is simply too quick.  But a big part of erections and ejaculation is the mental aspect.  Is there a chance that your anxiety that is yet untreated because the medication hasn't had time to work is playing a role?  I'm guessing it is.  I'd consider making sure you are also doing counseling with your medication to help especially in the period of time that it takes the medication to get to therapeutic levels.  THAT will be a better time to judge if it impacts you this way.  Otherwise, right now I think it is all probably part of the anxiety disorder.  good luck

[Paxiled]

That dose is so low for that drug it probably had no effect on you at all, though these drugs can be pretty weird.  Not sure what you mean by having to put thought behind getting an erection -- they just come when your body is physically able to get one.  The more you think about it the harder it is to get one, actually.  I don't know about erection problems with ssris, someone else might know more about that, but they definitely can make ejaculation take a really long time.  Lack of interest in sex is more associated with women as a side effect, but again, these drugs can have odd effects on a particular individual.  I'm guessing, though, that because the dose you were started on was so low and it was so soon after taking it the drug is very unlikely to have been the problem here.  It's more likely, if anxiety is the reason you started taking it, and assuming you actually need to take medication at all as opposed to therapy and other less invasive treatment -- how bad your problem is decides this, and regular docs aren't the best to see about this problem as they only know one treatment, which is to give you a drug they might not understand that well because of all the different things they have to do, usually they will refer you to a psychologist or psychiatrist for diagnosis and treatment, or at least that's what they used to do -- that you got anxious about starting the drug.  It's good you did your homework before taking it, but anxious people can obsess over things and obsessing over erections can make them harder to get.  Same with ejaculating.  It's best when we can just let nature take its course, but that's what anxious people have a hard time doing.  If you can learn not to do that in therapy or lifestyle changes, you won't need medication, again depending on how severe the problem is.  The therapeutic dose of Zoloft is usually around 100 to 150mg, so as you can see, you really probably weren't on it yet, and it takes about 4-6 weeks for it to start working, though side effects start immediately.  It's not a bad idea to think that maybe this isn't the drug for you, and you haven't said how bad your problem is and why medication was found to be necessary at this point.  But while you might be extraordinarily sensitive to this med, it is possible, and you might want to try a different one if you decide to try meds again, the vast majority of people taking this particular med and especially in that short a time period wouldn't feel anything on that small a dose.  But you know, when it comes to these drugs, who knows?

[TheRedHare_]

*update* I am able to get an erection, but it's kinda difficult and I have to put some thought behind it. My sex drive is pretty strong, I just can't quite get there yet.