Thursday, 27 August 2026

 Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (22:07): (2751) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health, and the action that I seek is that the minister initiate a rapid review to improve plain-language warnings for patients before an SSRI or serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor is started about the serious irreversible sexual side effects which can continue long after the drug is stopped and that the minister write to the federal health minister asking the TGA to strengthen the warning in the same terms. Some people who take these antidepressants and then stop do not get their sexual function back at all. That is post-SSRI sexual dysfunction – loss of libido, difficulty reaching orgasm and genital numbness. It can last for months or years or be permanent. The TGA itself says the harm can persist long after the drug is stopped and that it is likely under-reported. We need to accelerate research to find a cure.

I would also like to acknowledge the work of the Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction Network. I have spent a lot of my time in this Parliament defending the rights of Victorians whose sexual function is risked by government policy. PSSD Network is a Victoria-based patient charity. Its volunteers have used FOIs and pushed the TGA to count cases properly and have refused to let this condition be treated as a rumour. They have done the work that others have neglected to do. In May 2024 the TGA added a thin line to the product information. The PSSD Network said it was not good enough. By April 2026 the TGA database still showed only a handful of cases coded as PSSD, which does not match the overseer’s records. Therefore this cannot be proof that the condition is rare, only that patients are not sufficiently warned to know that they have it.