Spironolactone and lowered sex drive

sugarsick · 06-18-2009, 02:22 AM

Hi,

I've been looking through old posts to try and see to what extent this has been covered, and I can see that yes, it's possible that a side effect of taking spironolactone is lowered sex drive. So, for anyone out there who takes or has taken spiro and lost your libido, what do you do about it?

I have only been on the spiro for maybe 4 or 5 months, with some days of skipping bc I'm bad at remembering. I dealt with the dizziness and being out of it that first month, I'm dealing with the occasional really bad headache (I'm a migraine sufferer going back to my childhood so I can handle headaches), and I'm dealing all right with the lethargy I got. But not being able to get turned on by my boyfriend is cramping my style big time.

I'm thinking about just not taking it anymore, especially since I went to the endo for metformin and he suggested bariatric surgery instead, so I'm looking for a better endo that takes my student insurance. So, should I just stop the pills and try and deal with this when I have a doctor I can actually talk to, or have any of you tried any kinds of supplements, or what? Is it really worth it, just to get rid of a little facial hair?

bunky331 · 06-29-2009, 01:40 PM

Hi! I stopped taking Spiro a few months ago because for me the dizziness/off balance feeling was constant and I just didn't feel myself. It also caused my menstrual cycles to go haywire and I also lost my sex drive. It's never been very good to begin with and I (we) can't handle it getting worse! I'm not sure what your age is, but when I was in my 20's the hair growth wasn't too bad, but it increasingly got worse and I started getting electrolysis done. unfortunately, I should have started some kind of medication to slow the growth because I spent a lot of money on the elect. but the hair growth was continuing.

I did notice a decrease in the hair growth. Not sure if my scalp hair was improving. I just couldn't deal with the side effects of the Spiro. I don't recommend birth control pills. I think it contributed to my infertility, but that's just my theory.

I was just reading about drinking spearmint tea to help with the hair growth. I'm thinking about trying that until I see my endo. next time. There's also a cream maybe your doctor can suggest - I'm just not sure if insurance covers it.

Good luck!

ninashope · 07-01-2009, 01:10 AM

This is an interesting question. Yes, spiro has lowered my primary sex drive, but I feel sexier and therefore am more interested in sex because of it's effects so far on my appearance, so it's kind of balancing out, in favor of continuing the spiro. I'm only on 50mg so I don't know if going up on the dose would tip the scales in the other direction, however.

scapoodle · 07-01-2009, 09:05 PM

I had the same side effect from spiro. I mean I completely lost my drive and had a severe case of vaginal dryness. It was horrible. I took myself off of the drug. Too much!! I started drinking spearmint tea and yes it helps with the hair, but too much of it also causes your sex drive to lag also. I was drinking like 20 oz every other day or 3 times a week. I finally stop drinking that and bought some extra tweezers. I'll pluck the hair before I risk my man going somewhere else to get him some lovin'. The scalp hair has thinned some since stopping the meds, but not that bad. Since I've changed my eating habits, both the facial hair and scalp hair hasn't gotten any worse not any better either really.