I've been on Accutane for about 5 weeks. 30 days of 20mg. 5 days of 40mg. In the past week or two, I think I've noticed a decrease in sex drive. I can still maintain an erection when I masturbate and can masturbate several times in a day. I called both my derm and primary care doctors about this a week ago, and they said they'd never heard of this as a side effect of Accutane. I got a cialis sample and with cialis, had almost too much an erection. Around the same time, I was googling about this and came across all of the horror stories related to libido loss. I've been obsessing about it ever since. At this point, I'm not getting any dopamine rush when I masturbate. I can masturbate to orgasm but feel flat while doing so. I've been deeply depressed in my life and even then, masturbating to porn gave some relief through pleasure. But now, none of that wash of dopamine. Just some mild surface pleasure on my penis. So porn gives me an erection but doesn't really give me pleasure. I can't tell if this is because I'm deeply frightened by the horror stories online and am scrutinizing my pleasure state to the point of being unable to feel pleasure, or if this is an actual side-effect. I've also been masturbating two - three times a day just to convince myself that I still can, but not getting any pleasure from it. It sounds like so many people who experience this are afflicted by it permanently. Which makes me feel like I should just finish the Accutane treatment anyways because it's too late and I'd be better of, at least, with no acne if I've permanently lost my sex drive. Has anyone had any experience like this? Should I stop the meds, or is there no point in stopping because it's too late?ye
I should add that generally my highs and lows have flattened out, which initially I was enjoying because I normally have a lot of lows. I thought this might be related to huge improvement in my complexion (90% of my breakouts are gone) but am now wondering if it's a side effect connected to sexual pleasure. I'm not depressed. I feel lighter than I have in a long time, am able to look people in the eye without feeling self-conscious, etc. So it seemed like a good thing until I started considering it's related to libido loss.
Hey. I'm a female and came off a 5 month course of accutane 4 weeks ago. I'm 24 and was on 20mg for one week, 40mg for 3 months. 50mg for one month then back to 40mg for the remainder.
Your story sounds exactly like me, except, of course, I don't have a penis. "I can masturbate to orgasm but feel flat while doing so." - exactly, exactly how I felt. Porn also made me wet but did not help with feeling that pleasure. I'm a female who will usually orgasm and 'come' during sex, I usually have an incredibly high sex drive too so to go from a truly incredible sex experience to forcing myself to participate was pretty sad for me to say the least.
It started almost immediately after starting accutane but I persisted with the course. Around one week ago (so, 3 weeks after finishing my course) I noticed I was back to my old self, craving sex, enjoying sex, having great orgasms, very high sex drive. So my own experience is that my loss of libido lasted for the duration of my course, but returned within a month afterwards.
Of course everybody is different, and you should do whatever you feel is best for you. All the best!
Hey sorry maybe I didn't word that very well. I did finish my course. Well, I finished 2 weeks early but that was due to excessive hair shedding. My course was a total of 22 weeks.
I tried not to let myself get worried about the low libido etc. I googled about it once and never did it again because it scared me! It was something I just accepted, I felt like I knew it would go away after I finished and it did. I know not everybody recovers as quickly though.
That makes sense. That sounds like a healthy mental approach. My derm suggesting taking a 2 week break and seeing what happens.
It's weird because low dopamine or serotonin metabolism should result in lower levels of energy, depressed mood, etc. overall. But it's exactly the opposite.