Dear Sexpert,
I've been struggling with depression, and my doctor suggested I go on antidepressants. How will this affect my sex drive?
- Struggling
Dear Struggling,
It's difficult to say exactly how antidepression medication might affect a person's sex drive. But it's definitely a legitimate concern in any situation involving medication, especially those that effect hormone balances or brain function.
Consider this, though: Most people who are suffering from depression experience a decrease in their sex drive, and some even feel that their libido has become nonexistent. A variety of factors can cause this, and it's difficult to determine whether the depression itself is causing the decreased desire or whether the outside factors that are causing the depression - stress, fatigue, sickness, pessimism, work, loneliness - are also at work. I bring this up because, if the depression itself is the cause, then treating the depression will affect your sex drive - in a positive way! By neutralizing the thing that's leading to a decreased sex drive, the antidepressants will give your libido a boost. Yet if there are factors independent of the depression that have caused a decrease in your sex drive, then no amount of antidepression medication is going to have a mitigating effect on those factors' influence. Instead, you'll have to try to counteract those factors more directly. Some people find that going to the gym helps, because exercise gets blood circulating to more areas of the body, including between the brain and the genitalia. Others prefer to change their daily routines, often by adding an activity that they find relaxing and enjoyable.
Now, there is another side to this question: whether or not the medication itself will have a direct effect on your sex drive, regardless of its treatment of your depression. To be perfectly honest, I can't tell you exactly how your body will respond to your prescribed antidepressant. Antidepressants work by changing the way a person's brain functions, and the sex drive is a neurological response to a stimulus that a person finds to be a turn-on.
The safest assumption is that, yes, antidepressants will have an effect on your sex drive. But it depends on how your body responds to the drug and the dosage. If you find that, having gone on antidepressants, your level of sex drive has changed in a way that you don't feel comfortable with, then talk to your doctor. There are enough antidepression medications on the market that you should be able to find one that works for you, sex drive and all.
- The Sexpert
Dear Sexpert,
I have a slightly weird sex question that I can't seem to get an answer to. Is it safe to urinate into the anus? If it isn't, why?
- Experimenting Safely
Dear Experimenting Safely,
While I am not one to shy away from experimentation, this is something better left alone.
In general, urinating on your partner is safe as long as you stay away from orifices - and that includes the anus. This is because urine can contain high levels of urea, which is used by the human body to break down nitrogen-containing compounds in foods. The walls of the anus are capable of absorbing the urine at least partially. This is especially true if you are planning to combine this with anal penetration, which can tear the rectum and allow the urine toxins even easier access into the bloodstream.
Both acts - urinating on your partner and anal play - can be pleasurable and safe when agreed upon by both partners, but in the interest of staying healthy, it is better to keep the two separate.
- The Sexpert
‘Sexpert' is written by a team of peer sexual health educators and fact-checked by University health professionals. You can submit questions to sexpert@dailyprincetonian.com. Don't be shy!
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