-
Where are you from (country)?
Italy -
How did you find this forum (Google search – if so, what search terms? Via link from a forum or website – if so, what page? Other?)
through a Friend -
What is your current age, height, weight?
39 / 1m80 / 69kg -
Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
Yes 3/4 times a week. Running, cycling, badminton -
What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
organic healthy -
Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
Hairloss -
For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
For 6 years. 6 months at 1mg a day, the rest at 0.5 a day -
How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
33 -
How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
39 almost 6 months ago -
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
taper off, 1 month -
What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
Propecia -
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
0.5g/day -
How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
4 years may be. I was told, if you have sides, you ll see them right away. Otherwise the drug is ok for you. So i really thought any issue had nothing to do with the drug -
What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
Put an X beside all that apply:
Sexual
[ X ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ X ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ X ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ X ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ X ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ X ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ X ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
-
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
none -
If you have pre or post-Finasteride bloodtests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug (pls post your test results in the “Blood Tests” section and link to them in your post)?
no test -
Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
I ve been taking pumpkin seed and nettle to naturally reduce my dht hoping to prevent hairloss. So maybe it reinforce the sides ? -
Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
First off i have to admit that even if clearly, teh drug had an impact on my body, i fear (wish ?) psychology may be also in cause.
I have had long term relationships most of my life. NO sexual issue. Overall great sexual health. BUT, in the beginning of my relationships, for the first sexual intercourse, i several times faced issues to get it up. Full erections on the next sessions but on 2 occurrences, had difficulties to “finish”. All this was due to stress and psychology as soon everything is ok and i had amazing sex with erections for hours and the possibility to “finish” when i wanted too… Amazing. i was lucky. I was very much into sex and all my girlfriends loved me for that.
Hairloss annoyed me though so i decided to treat it at 33, the doctors were clear : if you experience sides, it will be within 2 months otherwise you can use the drug safely. They were wrong. I did not know the drug had an effect on your body over the years. if so i would never have tried it.
So all went well in my life with drug, several realtionships, with the erection issue on first time and good job on next times…
Until i met an amazing girl. Best sex of my life, best connection ever… Amazing. But she was crazy. I asked to have a break to think and left her, i was becoming crazy too, thinking we d meet again. She took it bad never talked to me again. It made me very sad. Fell in depression. it was 2 years ago.
So all went very well for four years using propecia. Amazing sexual life with 3 hour sessions without any issue.
I tried to “replace” her. The sex was AWFULL. Almost no erection. Need to concentrate a lot to finish the job… So i took a break from women. Made a come back in summer 2014. 2 pretty women. sex was correct on my side (sufficient erection, ok libido…). thought it would be ok… I was not in love though and broke up. I decided to stop meeting girls ans wasting time tride to conantrate on the woman of my dreams.
Last winter i met an (other, i was lucky…) amazing girl living far from me. We saw each other only 3 times as we lived 2000kms away ( im ready to move in fact…). So it was a lot of pressure to “perform”. my performances were pretty confusing. Sometimes good erection, sometimes not. Very hard to come all the time. Low libido even if she was incredibly hot… I really felt like an idiot and i was thinking about it so much it prevented me from being “in the moment” (ow i had several erections during teh day juste walking together or holding hands… like… 20 times a day… and… nothing in bed on the very evening !!!). She took it as a lack of motivation from me. We broke up.
It made me realize all this were classical signs of the side effects of propecia. I decided to stop. took one month to diminish the dose. I read its better like that. To preserve my hair i began taking nettle and pumpkin seed. I lost hair this summer. But thats ok all in all.
Things got better right away. In my solo sex sessions (almost daily) i noticed : Better erection, more semen volume, more thick seman, more libido…
It made me realise how weak i had become without even realising it as i had no regular girlfriend for the 1st time in my life…
I still wanted to meet the perfect girl. So i ve been on the LONGEST (by far) period of my life without sex.
Still 6 months after quitting… Erections are not as stong as before (60%). Libido is on an all time low (but i still masturbate daily…), ejaculation is not as pleasurable as before… And above all, most PHYSICAL side effect : i have no force in ejaculation. This i cant tell since when. May be 1 or 2 years… hard to tell. And and morning erections are coming back, a bit, while they had disepeard.
Last week i had a date with an nice girl… And feared about sex…
Something strange happened : even if i was not into sex the whole week before (but still masturbated as an healthy routine…)… The night before teh date i was in big stress… woke up at 3am… No morning erection. Was worrying again… Woke up again at 6am, with a huge erection that made me remmeber what it was 3 years ago ! a real erection that almost hurt ! and it lasted pretty long… This is what its all about, when you are secure about your erection, feel pleasure is not far and you can concentrate on teh moment and the pleasure of you and your partnair… Not being woorried about loosing erection… (best way to indeed loose it by the way…)
The date went well but i was a bit disapointed and we did not have sex. we wont see again.
I ll have to fix all this before my next date.
Conclusion : Even if there are many symptoms of SE of propecia, i have to admit that there are ALSO my psychological symptomes in all this ! (still in a weird depressive mode these days as i lost my job and future in europe is pretty uncertain, and also i had always had GF’s before this time in my life…).
So, what should i try ? Ask for an hormonal test ?
WHat do you think of the lack of “force” of ejaculation ? (you know… like a volcano, not “shooting”). i guess it 's a sign of the weakness of my prostate ? how can we work on that ? kegel ecxercises ?
Thanks for reading guys ! Stay strong !