Citalopram and fertiliy

[Youngest78]

Hello,
I wondered if anybody knew much about how anxiety meds affect my chances of fertility (I'm a 36 year old male)?
I've been battling a chronic anxiety disorder (for the most part generalised) for many years now, not leading much of a life with it. My wife and I have been trying for a baby for a couple of years now without success and are right about to start IVF next month. Things have become so impossible now with the anixety, particularly with work, that I feel I've no choice but to try meds again (I tried once and it didn't really help and have since always tried to manage it myself). It seems a crazy time to start what with the IVF, but things have just come to a head. My doctor prescribed me Citalopram. In the exhaustive list of side effects it says they can affect fertility. When I raised this with my doctor she simply fobbed it off and said disregard it, stating many of her pregnant patients are on it (quite how this is relevant I don't know, since what we're trying to do is become pregnant).
I've been reading around on the web though and it appears many studies have proven quite clinicallty that these meds DO affect male fertility and the quality of sperm. I don't really understand though how a GP could be so flippant?

[jessed03]

A lot of GPs are trained to know a little about a lot, rather than a lot about a little. Discussing the rarer side-effects is usually best done with a psychiatrist. Their sample of experience to draw from is usually much greater than a GP's.

Taking citalopram does make everything sexual a lot harder (no pun intended!) Just getting over the finish line can be a heck of a challenge for the first few months.

It's a hard one to call. Citalopram shouldn't affect fertility enough to cause a dramatic effect, but then again, if you guys are already finding getting pregnant hard, it's difficult to know how the drug will affect you. You could always make use of the occasional tranquillizer, or try something like 5-HTP for a short while.

[Youngest78]

A lot of GPs are trained to know a little about a lot, rather than a lot about a little. Discussing the rarer side-effects is usually best done with a psychiatrist. Their sample of experience to draw from is usually much greater than a GP's.

Taking citalopram does make everything sexual a lot harder (no pun intended!) Just getting over the finish line can be a heck of a challenge for the first few months.

It's a hard one to call. Citalopram shouldn't affect fertility enough to cause a dramatic effect, but then again, if you guys are already finding getting pregnant hard, it's difficult to know how the drug will affect you. You could always make use of the occasional tranquillizer, or try something like 5-HTP for a short while.

That pun made me chuckle.
I do distinctly recall from my last forgettable foray into the world of anti depressants that the finish line was ludicrously out of sight at times. In fact,casting my mind back to it i think this was one of the main reasons I ditched them - that and them not really changing anything, although I probably didn't give them long enough.
You're right about GPs though. I tend to take everything with a pinch of salt and only go out of desperation but on this I thought she'd be a little more cautious or savvy, but no, at that point in time it felt like i could have asked her anything about the drug and she would have said the same thing.
Ultimately all the signs are that there is not clear enough a policy on it to take the risk. Like you say, we're struggling enough without me implementing a huge ****-off roadblock between me and the business end.

[Jmillhimes]

Have you been experiencing a lot of side effects with citalpram? I seem to get a lot of hot spells