Study: Paxil Linked To Sperm Damage, Significant Sexual Dysfunction

In September, I noted press coverage of a forthcoming study asserting that Paxil damages sperm. The study was presented over the weekend at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in San Francisco. It's not clear to me when the study will be published, but one assumes it'll be fairly soon.

Meanwhile, read it and weep, men (and women):

"[T]he five-fold increase in the number of men who developed abnormal sperm DNA while being treated with paroxetine is 'troubling' and 'suggests an adverse effect on fertility,' co-investigator Dr. Cigdem Tanrikut, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, told Reuters Health.

"In a clinical trial she described as 'the first study to assess the impact of an SSRI on semen parameters in healthy men,' 35 men took paroxetine for 5 weeks. The drug was administered in once-daily doses of 10 mg the first week, 20 mg in the second week, 30 mg the third and fourth week, and 20 mg in the fifth week.

"Tests were conducted on semen samples obtained prior to starting paroxetine and after 4 weeks of treatment. The average DNA fragmentation score increased from 13.8 percent before paroxetine was begun to 30.3 percent at week 4, a statistically significant amount.

"The percentage of men who had a fragmentation score of 30 percent or higher before treatment rose from 10 percent to 50 percent.

"Semen analyses conducted throughout the study, however, showed normal volume, concentration, movement and appearance.

"Paroxetine was also associated with significant sexual dysfunction, with one third of men reporting problems with erectile function and nearly half reporting ejaculatory difficulties...."

"The sperm appears to be damaged by a slowing down of their transport through the body, 'a novel mechanism of damage,' [another researcher] said. 'Most agents affect fertility by knocking down sperm production. Slowing down sperm transport can allow sperm to be damaged (by higher temperatures, or just "getting too old" -- being ejaculated after they should have been).'

"'We have seen severe cases where the sperm are slowed down so much that almost no sperm appear in the ejaculate.'"

Oh, wow, none of that sounds very good.

I took Paxil for six months to a year in the mid-1990s (I don't recall how long exactly) and other SSRIS from 1990 to 1995 and again in 2002 and 2003. Needless to say, I've got some worries now, especially since study researchers offered no thoughts on whether all this sperm damage is reversible upon discontinuation of the drug.

I sure hope it is.