Lexapro and Testosterone Levels

**cobain67** · 02-16-2011, 10:41 AM

Hi, I wanted to make a separate thread for my issue, as I know there is already one for Prozac/Testosterone . I have been taking Lexapro at 20mgs/day for a year now, along with 100mg of testosterone cypionate per week and am dealing with low sex drive and moderate fatigue. I am curious if the Lexapro potentially is responsible and if it could be related to reduced free T.

Does anyone here have experience with Lexapro on TRT and its effects on free and total T?

Again, I know this thread is very similar to the thread RE: Prozac/T, but I didn't want to hijack that thread to add in my own issues with a separate anti depressant.

Thanks

**swllce** · 02-28-2011, 08:36 PM

Is there a doctor prescribing the testC?
Lexapro is no wonder drug,go onto some blogs about peapole that are taking it.Yuo might want to taper off lexapro slowly ,very gradually, you will need it in liquid form to come off it slowly over a few months
Then see how you do on trt alone.

**BeastintheSheets** · 02-28-2011, 09:02 PM

How is digestion? Spastic? While Lexapro increases the neurotransmitters, it decreases the volume of them in the synapses, so problems eventually start. I'd get off it and switch to st johns wort at say 300mg/day and detox/rebuild your liver with things like milk thistle. It can easily cause lowered libido.

**vvnapoli** · 03-02-2011, 10:55 AM

I'm on Celexa which is similar to Lexapro. In fact my doc put me on the Celexa then I recommend he test me for low t. Def had low sex drive with the celexa, but as soon as he added Test Cyp 300mg every other Monday, I feel like 18 again! I have heard from others on Lexapro that it hits the libido harder than Celexa.

**swllce** · 03-03-2011, 09:17 PM

Libido is coming back after lowering cymbalta from 40mg to 30 mg .Its only been 2 weeks ,huge difference already.Now if i only had a doc willing to prescribe test cyp,i want to feel 18 too!

**vvnapoli** · 03-04-2011, 09:24 PM

That's great! It's funny, my doctor was more concerned with getting my libido back than any other of my symptoms! It's as if he put more importance on libido than everyday energy motivation, etc... so once i mentioned my drive was down, he upped my dose of test and increased the freq too! My poor wife!

**Bullseye Forever** · 03-05-2011, 07:14 AM

Im on Lexapro myself and have been for several years now,i take 40 mg/day and im also on lifetime TRT,i never experienced any libido problems from using lexapro,actually its the only SSRI that ive ever taken that have the least side effects,and since ive been on TRT for the last 4 years my libido has went through the roof,sometimes i still have problems with ED but thats from Anxiety disorders and depression,has nothing to do with the Lexapro,even with TRT i still have ED problems sometimes,i guess everyone is different

**subnet** · 03-05-2011, 12:01 PM

Originally Posted by cobain67

Hi, I wanted to make a separate thread for my issue, as I know there is already one for Prozac/Testosterone . I have been taking Lexapro at 20mgs/day for a year now, along with 100mg of testosterone cypionate per week and am dealing with low sex drive and moderate fatigue. I am curious if the Lexapro potentially is responsible and if it could be related to reduced free T.

Does anyone here have experience with Lexapro on TRT and its effects on free and total T?

Again, I know this thread is very similar to the thread RE: Prozac/T, but I didn't want to hijack that thread to add in my own issues with a separate anti depressant.

Thanks

welcome cobain! I've been on TRT for about 16 months now and up until a month or so ago, was on Lexapro 10mg/day. Had high (greater than 49 which was their upper limit) free T before TRT even (although very low T at 216), and my latest bloodwork had my free T >63 (which was this lab's upper limit). So from my data, I didn't have low free T to start with and still don't have low - that part doesn't feed into your theory, at least my numbers don't! Now with the total T score, perhaps there is a correlation. I think my 'depression symptoms' way back about 15 years ago, were really 'low-T' symptoms but of course we have no idea. Typical Dr. put me on Zoloft as I complained about irritability and loss of concentration and general blah feeling. Maybe my T was low then, or maybe it became low after going on the Zoloft - we'll never know.

I was/am pretty lucky, in that I really didn't experience really low libido even when I had really low T - not that it was great, but I still had it. The few times that I tried to get off SSRI's, I noticed that my libido definitely went up so for me and for most, SSRI's did affect my libido.

I've been off of Lex for about a month now and am still experiencing some discontinuation symptoms such as dizzyness and very minor brain zaps. Decided to try BuSpar for anxiety as a replacement and so far so good. Question for you; have you tried cutting back your dosage to maybe 10mg/day, and if so, how did that affect your libido? How long have you been on TRT and has that helped your fatigue?