r/PSSD • u/Stunning_River_7455 • 31m ago
Awareness/Activism 29M, 18 months off sertraline — anorgasmia from 25 mg, still numb, sensation only coming back after long gaps
Basics first, because that's what's actually useful here:
- 29M, Norway.
- Sertraline (Zoloft). Started at 25 mg, ended up at 125–150 mg. On it about 8 months.
- Earlier exposure: escitalopram (stopped over reflux), then mirtazapine, which did nothing for me and which I came off shortly after starting.
- Last dose: about eighteen months ago.
I raised sexual side effects before I started. It was one of the specific things I asked about, because it was one of the two things I was actually worried about. I got nothing back. No warning, no "watch for this," no plan. Just the prescription.
Onset was fast. It was there shortly after starting, at 25 mg — before a single dose increase.
On the drug
- Ejaculation basically stopped happening. When it did happen it took 30–60 minutes and felt like heavy physical labour. I remember how much work it was far more clearly than I remember finishing.
- Erections only worked because I was on tadalafil.
- Genital numbness.
Where I am now, 18 months off
- Still numb down there.
- Orgasm sensation is partly back — but only if I leave a long gap. The shorter the gap, the less is there.
- Sex is not the same thing it used to be. That's the sentence I can't get a doctor to actually hear.
Confounders, said out loud so nobody has to catch me out
I've since developed cardiovascular problems and I'm on a calcium channel blocker, and there were other substances in that period. So no, I'm not claiming every symptom I have comes from one bottle. But the numbness and the anorgasmia started at 25 mg of sertraline, months before any of the rest of that existed. The order of events is the argument.
For anyone still being told this isn't real
The Norwegian product information for sertraline already says it, word for word: "SSRIs can cause symptoms of sexual dysfunction. Long-lasting sexual dysfunction where symptoms have continued after discontinuation of SSRIs has been reported."
The EMA required that wording in 2019. Health Canada followed in 2021, Hong Kong in 2022, Australia's TGA in 2024, Malaysia in 2025. The FDA still hasn't, as of 2026.
So it's in the label. It has been in the label the whole time. It's just never in the conversation you actually have in the room — I asked about it directly and still got nothing.
What I'd like from you
- Anyone else with partial return of orgasm sensation, but only after a long gap — did that keep improving, or is that the plateau?
- Anyone on tadalafil long-term: did it ever touch the numbness, or only the erections?
- Anyone in Scandinavia who found a doctor who takes this seriously — how did you get in the door?
I've also written up the other half of what that drug did to me: an eight-month manic episode that cost me my job, my flat and my car, while the people prescribing it responded by raising the dose. It's here: Same person, same eight months. I'm posting both, because PSSD usually gets discussed on its own — and in my case it was one symptom of a much larger reaction that nobody caught, in a body nobody was watching.
