Decreased sexual desire from PN meds???
 

I've been dx'd will idiopathic small fiber PN since about 2005, ran the full course of the usual meds. I'm now on cymbalta, 60mg, vimpat 300mg/day, topramax 200mg/day, and percocet 10/325 1 tab every night with ambien CR to get to sleep. Occaisional I'll take tramadol 2 tabs, or nucynta 50 mg during the day if I can't stand the foot pain.

OK, my "problem" is that I am 51 years old, married only 11 years and my sex drive is somewhere down between the basement and the sub-basement. This has been going on for about 4-5 years now. Oh yes, the wonderful change of life with that crap came along in 2009 on top of everything else soooooooooooo......how the heck am I supposed to figure out what is causing this lack of interest in sex and is there anything that we can do to get over it?

post cancelled. replied thinking you were male, then looked at nic, duh

I'm in the same boat you are, but mine is due to lack of sensation, presumably due to Neuropathy. I hope someone gets this sorted out for you.

Ecklonia Cava (many brands "Fibroboost" is one)instead of Cymbalta because in addition to helping your pain levels, it is a high powered healthy antioxidant(better than green tea), allows for good sleep(growth hormone stimulating), relaxation(alpha wave stimulation) and good libido(acetylcholine), healthy circulation(vasodilatory). I take that and Curcumin(for pain is cox-2 inhibitor) and Resveratrol(for pain/ libido) and have not problems with any of that stuff. Very asymptomatic as well. I don't burn and sting like I used to on the pharms and feel have gotten better instead of worse. If you still experience any pain, add Holy Basil(also Cox-2 inhibitor). If you still have low libido consider Bacopa or Gotu Kola(both acetycholine libido stimulators).

I think everyone who uses those pharms should give high dose antioxidants a try.

Long term use of opiates depresses the pituitary and often patients get low in testosterone. Females have some of this male hormone and it is responsible mostly for libido.

Discuss this with your OBGYN and he/she can give you an ointment to use to boost that libido back again.

I do think that Cymbalta diminishes orgasm in both females and males. (most of the SSRI drugs do this to come extent, some more so than others).

I am sorry, I can't say for Topamax or Vimpat. You can Google those with sexual side effects added to the name for more accuracy.