Sertraline sexual side effects: can they last?
Sertraline (Zoloft, Lustral) commonly causes sexual side effects. The UK leaflet warns they have sometimes continued after stopping. That is called PSSD.
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Sertraline (Zoloft, Lustral) commonly causes sexual side effects, such as a lower sex drive, erection problems and trouble ejaculating. The UK leaflet warns that these problems have sometimes continued after stopping, a condition known as post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD).
The NHS page on sertraline doesn’t mention that warning. Nobody has measured how often it happens, so no one can tell you your own chances.
The story in 3 lines
1. Sexual problems, such as a low sex drive, are a common side effect of sertraline (NHS).
2. The UK leaflet warns they have sometimes continued after stopping (leaflet).
3. Nobody has measured how often. Patients call it PSSD (review).
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Connor, not his real name, started sertraline in his 30s. His sex drive had gone within 24 hours of his first tablet, he told BBC Scotland. Twelve months after he stopped, it hadn’t come back. “I still have numbness in my genitals,” he says.
Depression wasn’t the cause, as he sees it. “When I considered myself to be a depressed person, I had a very healthy sex life.”
How common are sertraline’s sexual side effects?
Very common. The UK leaflet says ejaculation failure may affect more than 1 in 10 people who take sertraline. It lists a lower sex drive and erection problems as common too.
One trial asked about sex at every visit, so nobody had to bring it up themselves. It found problems in far more people than the leaflet suggests, in men and women, some within a week.
The NHS says most side effects ease after a couple of weeks, but some can last longer.
Can sertraline sexual side effects last after stopping?
Yes, for some people. The UK leaflet says that in some cases sexual symptoms “have continued after stopping treatment”.
When that happens, it’s called PSSD. In 2022, doctors and researchers wrote criteria for diagnosing it. At their centre is one symptom: a lasting change in genital feeling, such as numbness, three months or more after the last tablet. Emotional numbness can come with it.
It isn’t new. In 2006, doctors in Canada reported a man whose genital numbness began on sertraline and was still there six years after he stopped.
Anthony took 11 tablets, at 25 mg, for mild insomnia. He describes emotional numbness within days, and genital numbness that didn’t go away when he stopped. His story has its own page.
A 2023 review of the published studies couldn’t find a reliable figure for how often this happens.
Why wasn’t I told about this?
The warning is there, but it’s one sentence in the leaflet inside the box, and it’s easy to miss.
That sentence arrived in 2019, when the EU medicines regulator asked for a warning on every SSRI and SNRI, and the UK followed. In 2025 a UK health minister told Parliament that experts were reviewing the evidence because of concerns about “the ongoing lack of awareness of the existing warnings”.
In December 2025, advisers to the UK medicines regulator recommended updating the leaflets of certain antidepressants. Patients and families had said this risk wasn’t clearly explained. As of October 2026 we haven’t found the new wording.
A 2026 paper by New Zealand’s medicines regulator says some health professionals may not know about it either. Professor Joanna Moncrieff, a psychiatrist at University College London, talks about what is known in this short film.
What can I do?
These medicines help many people. If you have side effects, that’s a decision for you and your prescriber. Don’t stop suddenly: the leaflet says your doctor will lower the dose gradually.
If you’ve stopped and something hasn’t come back, tell your GP. Many people say it took time to be taken seriously.
Bring the leaflet line, and write down your medicine and what changed: “Sertraline 50 mg from January 2023, last tablet March 2024. Touch feels numb.” You can report it without a doctor agreeing.
Report it: it helps everyone
A doctor’s note helps you. A report to the medicines regulator helps everyone else: it is how patterns get noticed.
- No proof needed. A suspicion is enough, even years after stopping.
- Where: the Yellow Card scheme in the UK, MedWatch in the US.
- Use the right words. If symptoms continued after stopping, write Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (MedDRA 10086208).
Our reporting guide walks you through it
What else do people ask?
Does sertraline affect women’s sex drive?
Yes. In the trial that asked about sex at every visit, about 4 in 10 women on sertraline developed sexual problems. It had no placebo group to compare with. The UK leaflet lists female sexual dysfunction as a side effect, and its warning about problems continuing after stopping covers women too.
Isn’t it just the depression?
Depression often lowers sex drive on its own, the New Zealand paper notes. PSSD is different. Its criteria centre on a lasting change in genital feeling after the tablets stop, in someone who didn’t have that problem before.
Is PSSD permanent?
For some people it has lasted years after stopping. Nobody knows yet who will be affected, or whether it will ease. Whether people fully recover “has never been properly investigated”, two researchers wrote in 2024.
A year after his last tablet, Connor’s numbness was still there. If something like that has happened to you, report it, even years after stopping.
Sources
- Lustral 50 mg and 100 mg film-coated tablets, patient information leaflet, last revised December 2025. Section 2, “Sexual problems”; section 4, side effects and their frequency; section 3, “If you stop taking Lustral”. Electronic Medicines Compendium.
- NHS, Sertraline, page last reviewed 8 September 2025.
- BBC News, Antidepressants: I wasn’t told about the side effects, 9 August 2023. Connor is a pseudonym.
- Segraves RT, Kavoussi R, Hughes AR and colleagues. Evaluation of sexual functioning in depressed outpatients: a double-blind comparison of sustained-release bupropion and sertraline treatment. J Clin Psychopharmacol 2000;20(2):122-8. 248 adults with normal sexual function at the start, 16 weeks, structured interview at every visit; sexual dysfunction in 63% of men and 41% of women on sertraline. No placebo group.
- Healy D, Bahrick A, Bak M and colleagues. Diagnostic criteria for enduring sexual dysfunction after treatment with antidepressants, finasteride and isotretinoin. Int J Risk Saf Med 2022;33(1):65-76.
- Bolton JM, Sareen J, Reiss JP. Genital anaesthesia persisting six years after sertraline discontinuation. J Sex Marital Ther 2006;32(4):327-30.
- Tarchi L, Merola GP, Baccaredda-Boy O and colleagues. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, post-treatment sexual dysfunction and persistent genital arousal disorder: a systematic review. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2023;32(10):1053-67.
- Healy D, Mangin D. Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction: barriers to quantifying incidence and prevalence. Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci 2024;33:e40.
- European Medicines Agency, PRAC, recommendations on signals adopted at the 13-16 May 2019 PRAC meeting, EMA/PRAC/265212/2019. Persistent sexual dysfunction after drug withdrawal, SSRIs and SNRIs, adopted 16 May 2019.
- UK Parliament, written answer 50758, Karin Smyth MP, Department of Health and Social Care, 13 May 2025. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.
- MHRA, Patient and family experiences inform antidepressant safety information review, 1 December 2025. Review of the leaflets of 28 antidepressants by an expert group of the Commission on Human Medicines.
- Medsafe, Update on sexual dysfunction following discontinuation of serotonin reuptake inhibitors, paper for the Medicines Adverse Reactions Committee, 11 June 2026. Sections 2.2.1 (sexual dysfunction in depression) and 3.3.
- Videos: BBC News, Antidepressants: should we talk about side-effects?, 11 August 2023; Moral Medicine, interview with Anthony, 20 October 2025; PSSD Network, Professor Joanna Moncrieff on PSSD, June 2026.
This information does not replace medical advice. Talk to your doctor before you make any decision about your treatment.
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