Murph asked
My fiancé is on 40 mg of citalopram for anxiety. He has been on it for 10-12 years. We would like to have children. Does being on citalopram make him infertilie? Also if we were able to conceive a child does that medicine do anything to the baby like cause abnormal problems? I'm not on anything like that just him. But I know some antidepressants can do some damage during conceiving through fathers. Thank you.
Answer
Citalopram belongs to a class of drugs known as SSRI's or Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors. Although sexual dysfunction in both men and women can be complications of any antidepressant medication therapy, these side effects are more common with the SSRI class of drugs.
SSRI's are known to cause sexual dysfunction in both men and women. In men it can cause ejaculatory delay or dysfunction in addition to decreased libido and erectile dysfunction. In women, the most common sexual side effect is decreased libido although orgasm dysfunction has also been reported. According to an multiple studies and reviews, citalopram comes in around the middle of the SSRI class in terms of incidence of these sexual side effects with paroxetine being the drug that is most associated with them.
In terms of citalopram causing infertility, this is not a known side effect. The SSRI class is not associated with infertility during or after treatment. There certainly could be problems conceiving due to the sexual side effects discussed above, but there should not be any concern with the medication causing infertility permanetely.
As an additional point, there is some concern in females taking SSRI drugs during pregnancy as they are associated with certain complications and possible issues during pregnancy. This of course isn't an issue if your husband is the only one on the medication.
