I am one of those husbands, and this is my story:-
Some time ago, my wife who was at the time suffering from tremendous mood swings, visited our then local GP. I accompanied her and explained that she was a little difficult to get along with. "No problem" he smiled, "I'll just give her some capsules, and pretty soon she'll be like putty in your hands".
He gave her the prescription, we collected the medicine, she started taking it, and...WOW!!! She really did start being a very nice person once again.
A month or two later, her libido started to wane (she'd normally been the one pestering me for sex, not the other way around). Pretty soon it had disappeared altogether.
What ensued was close to a disaster. We were constantly at loggerheads on the issue of the lack of sexuality in our marriage. It got to the stage where I was accusing her of not loving me anymore (totally stoopid), and her accusing me of having nothing else on my mind except sex. Things got so bad that we were contemplating divorce, since we always seemed to be bickering.
At this point I decided to opt for chemical castration of some sort. I broached the subject with her and she agreed wholeheartedly. So off I went along to our present GP, not knowing what to expect.
To my surprise he was very understanding, and informed me that this was quite a common request. He prescribed some capsules, and then indicated that should they not work, we could consider a stronger form of medication or surgical castration with low level hormonal treatment.
I really was taken aback, having read about how difficult it is to obtain this sort of treatment. It seems that doctors here in South Africa are much more open to this kind of request. Having said that, I must point out that I am approaching 50, and have had a vasectomy some years ago, this probably did influence his decision. He also pointed out that correcting libido problems in females is much more difficult than in males, and can also be quite costly, so my decision was the easiest and cheapest option.
I have been taking these capsules for about a week and although my libido hasn't lowered, my erectile function seems to be fading.
Two days ago, my wife who hadn't really wanted to be informed of all the details ("Just get it over with, and we can get back to normal"), watched as I took my daily capsule, picked up the box, and informed me that there was something terribly wrong.
"These are the same capsules I'm taking to control the mood swings" she exclaimed. It was then that I started to take note of what was going on. I've pretty much always left things in the hands of a trusted doctor:(
It turns out that the capsules that we have both been taking is Nuzak. This is simply the local name for Prozac with exactly the same make up (fluoxetine hydrochloride). This is one of the SSRI drugs and leads to a loss of libido in both males and females.
So here's the irony of the whole situation: I'm taking this stuff to lose my libido because my wife has lost her libido from taking the stuff I am on now
The fundamental problem here is that the doctor she visited in the beginning simply gave her this Nuzak without ever bothering to explain what the consequences would be. We then assumed that her loss of libido was due to being menopausal, aging etc. never once suspecting that Nuzak was at the root of the problem.
It was only after my visit to the doctor that we both realized that this is something that diminishes ones libido, and that's when I started investigating. My wife never suffered any noticeable discomfort when she started taking the drug. I, on the other hand, have suffered from headaches, dizziness, nausea and a general feeling of being disconnected (I am still in the initial phase of medication, and it seems that these horrible effects will disappear after 8 days to 2 weeks).
So I did quite a bit of research into Nuzak/Prozak (fluoxetine hydrochloride) and have come to realise that it is a pretty nasty drug. Besides the effects that I have mentioned above, which are short term and pretty minor, there are some very serious side effects, to the extent that this drug can be fatal if used together with other forms of medication (eg. medication to control blood pressure).
Needless to say we have now taken a much more enlightened decision to quit the medication (both of us) and see if things won't return to normal.
Here is the warning:-
DO NOT always assume the doctor is correct - do some of your own research. There are a lot of doctors out there that are from the "old school" who will very easily prescribe drugs, hysterectomies etc. simply because that is the way it has always been done.
Remember that in a lot of cases (not all, I will agree), the actual problem is NOT that you have a high libido, the fact is that your wife has lost hers!!! Try and get that sorted out before going the route that I did. It could be something as simple and could spare you a lot of heartache.
Regards,
Intelliflop