intelliflop (imported) wrote: Thu Mar 06, 2008 10:02 pm Thanks for joining MRT...you seem to be a respected member around here, and NO ... this is not a story. "M" is now into her third day of withdrawal...and is getting as "Ratty" as you can get. We have decided on the following regime:-
I'll continue to take this medication until she has been "weaned". Thereafter I will stop. Everything in a controlled manner. We do not trust doctors much anymore...and would rather follow our own judgement.
It's kind of weird, "M" never really had any side effects starting the medication, but now withdrawal symptoms???? She is complaining of bad headaches, hot flushes, general instability. All of this should clear up in the next 3 - 4 days (hopefully). Heh heh...can't wait to have "wifey" back again...
Anyhow will keep everyone up to date.
Regards to everyone,
Intelliflop
Your very kind to say that. My wife was given SSRIs to deal with her menopause issues and she had a horrible time. And yes, sexual side effects are very common from what I've read and some of the support groups we go involved with. Getting off this stuff is MURDER. Dial down the dose very gradually over a long time is the only thing that seems to make it possible.
Menopause seems to be a tough time for couples and I think for a couple of reasons. For some women the changes in androgen levels render them almost asexual. And of course for a few who never enjoyed sex they see it as an excuse to just quit. Sex being only for procreation mindset I think. And then as in your case they try to treat a symptom of menopause with SSRIs and then make sex drive problems. Fun huh?
A guy I worked with had told me that the main reason he had a younger wife (third or fouth time) is that Menopause was always when his ex wives turned mean and asexual. That these guys we all hear about with Trophy wives are just men who figured out that it doesn't work.
Frankly I think the better solution is to work with the doctor and look into things like Human Identical Hormone replacement. We have seen some of these horror stories about the problems with giving 70 year old women synthetic horse bases hormones in massive doses but... That study is so flawed even "I" can see whats wrong with it. If I was castrated at age 48 and went hormone free until age 70 and got pumped full of hormones would my chance of heart attack and stroke go up? Duh.....