The purpose of this thread is to document information which I found, that Accutane causes the exact same side effects like finasteride, saw palmetto and dutasteride. I will continually edit this post with new information as I go along. Readers are free to add their comments below.
Here are some user stories from the acne.org site:
Here is some information from a book called Science Of Sex, written by a doctor named Kevin Pezzi. I recommend everyone here buying this book online as it contains tons of beneficial information.
The mechanism by which Accutane causes sexual dysfunction is not known, but I suspect that it has multiple modes of action.
►I think it interferes with the proper functioning of some sensory peripheral nerves, or their receptors, or the brain’s response to the nerve data, thus greatly distorting tactile fidelity (a subject I will discuss in detail later in this chapter). This disturbance of fidelity is not necessarily confined to the genitals; Accutane has been associated with a dysesthetic230 tingling on nongenital skin, the course and intensity of which seems to parallel the unpleasant sexual “hit your funny bone”
tingling. These dysesthesias may persist for a few seconds after the inciting stimulus is removed. If you lightly touch your skin, for example, the sensation usually ends when the contact ceases. In contrast, Accutane-induced dysesthesias may take seconds to fade away.
â–şI think that Accutane decreases responsiveness to testosterone, at least in those areas of the brain that control libido.
What is the treatment?
►Discontinue Accutane now. I understand that it can be a difficult decision to choose between clear skin or a satisfying sex life. I cannot make this decision for you, but I can tell you what I would do: stop the Accutane. Physicians have many other ways to treat acne besides Accutane. I would rather use a less powerful therapy and spare my sex life. Every year, I hear from many patients who wish they’d done the same thing.
â–şTry relatively high-dose supplemental vitamin B6 (but avoid excessive doses that may induce a peripheral neuropathy; see the vitamin B6 section for more information).
â–şTry other supplements, herbs, and drugs, as discussed elsewhere in this book.
â–şStringently avoid other things that may decrease the testosterone level or effect (such as phytoestrogens and antiandrogens).
â–şConsider using supplemental testosterone. It is useless to use your blood testosterone level to gauge whether or not this is necessary. Judging from tests conducted on people with Accutane-induced sexual dysfunction, Accutane does not seem to appreciably lower the blood testosterone level. What it apparently does is partially block some of the effects of testosterone. This decreased responsiveness is analogous to someone who is hard of hearing. To some extent, you can compensate for their disability by speaking louder. A partially deaf ear needs more sound, and someone who is less responsive to testosterone needs more testosterone. Of course, there are drawbacks to the use of supplemental testosterone. Because the testosterone susceptibility of most areas of the body is not affected, increasing the testosterone level enough to restore libido and sexual sensation may trigger unwanted changes elsewhere, such as alopecia and acne.
â–şIf you are a man, avoid things that increase your estrogen level.
â–şAvoid things that increase sex hormone binding globulin.
►Experiment with other ways to achieve orgasm. You probably will not want to forgo coitus even if your sensation is affected, because intercourse can be emotionally very satisfying. However, if you aren’t in a relationship and having intercourse, by trying various ways of masturbation, you will likely find that some ways provide less noxious sensations and more pleasant ones. Everyone who has masturbated knows that different techniques produce different sensations. As you will realize once you read the section on sensory fidelity, different techniques of masturbation produce different neural data streams. Accutane effectively distorts this data, which reduces sexual pleasure. However, since neural data streams differ depending on the method of masturbation, some of these will be closer to the ideal that gives optimum pleasure. Your goal is to find one that, once layered on the Accutane-induced distortion, gives a reasonably satisfying experience.
â–şBe patient. The dysesthesias tend to diminish in time, although it may take years. Your perception of sexual pleasure will likely increase, too, although it may not return to your pre-Accutane zenith. The elimination half-life (that is, the time it takes for half of an administered drug to be excreted) suggests that Accutane does not persist in the body for a long time. The drug may not stick around for long, but its effects do. It is as if Accutane flips some switches in the body. This is true for its intended effect (the long-term suppression of acne), and its sexual side effects. Once flipped, those effects are permanent, or at least very long lasting. Hence, you should think twice before using Accutane. There is no way to
know in advance if your use of Accutane will trigger dysesthesias and reduced sensation. You may take it for a while without any problems, and then wake up with enough sensory abnormalities to make you wonder if your spinal cord was mashed in a vice while you slept. Being cheated out of life’s greatest pleasure is a terrible fate. Are you willing to take that risk?
fkthesedrugs, welcome to this site and thanks for your post.
Yes, I know about Dr. Pezzi. He is probably one of the docs that we guys could consider seeing. He still has to widen his angle a little though;
sexualtips.net/accutane_affecting_sex.htm
Well, well, it looks like we still need to invest a little in marketing. I wrote him a mail (using his complicated spamsponge system), hope he got it. I’ll check back on his site in a while.
did you recieve a reply from Pezzi yet?
Also, here is a post from around 2005 from the old accutane forum. i bolded the part that was most fascinating, regarding the androgen insensitivity theory
"There is simply NO way that Accutane can raise hormonal levels of either testosterone, DHT or estrogene. That is going too far even to try to state it.
x Firstly, testosterone in recent research has shown to stimulate the 5-htp receptor which is also the main receptor for serotonine. Now tell me why people that use an SSRI get helped from raising serotonine? If they would have a higher level of testosterone after accutane, which is absurd logically, they would have no need for an antidepressive, because a higher testosterone level would have given a higher stimuli to the 5-htp receptor!
x Secondly, my side effects show typical caracteristica of a lovered level of testosterone, so called andropause. This I have documented at a research institute.
– I have a fat distribution that is now more of a female kind, with bodyfat gathered more on my legs than before.
– I have a slower facial hair growth, which is about gone. I have no family history of not having facial hair.
– I show a dryness in my skin and a worsened fat-metabolism, which leads to aching joints
– I have a lowered potence, as well as sensation from sex. thingy in “rested” position has become smaller, about half the size of what it should be. This also documented.
– Tests have shown a lowered LSH/FSH and gotten it clearly stated by an endocrinoligist specialized in andrology that my sperm quality is poor.
– If I dont exercise regurlarly I show a tendancy of changing my psychological spectra towards a more female one. Not saying that it changes my sexual orientation, but clearly has made me more feminine.
– I have a worsened ability to build muscles
To double check this I´ve tried testosterone Undecanoate, and it reverses all of the symptoms related to a lowered stimuli of the testosterone receptors. There is no question for me that testosterone influence at a RECEPTOR-LEVEL is lowered. My testosterone tests show a normal level in the body though.
This means that I have to rise my level of testosterone in the body to a higher level than normal to get the same stimuli of the receptors. No one knows how healthy that is in the long run.
I´ve tried to raise dopamine levels by a selective MAO-B inhibitor, and also the signs of andropause disappear. This also verified by an andrologist."
Reading this actually give me a bit of hope that this is something within our body that is not specific to Finasteride, though im positive Finasteride played a part.
Im thinking dysfunctional liver, minerla deficiency, leaky gut syndrome or all of the above.
What does he mean by this? Is he saying that his andropause symptoms dissapeared when he raised his dopamine levels?
Yea exactly. But in later posts he also said that the effects didn’t last and he had to stop taking the mao b inhibitor, and that it was not the long term solution.
Very interesting. We’ve had a good number of men here do this and see temporary recoveries.
I would highly suggest getting Neurotransmitters tested and see what is in range and what is not in range…
You don’t want to increase your dopamine level if you already have high levels.
They really aren’t tested that way. I think there’s urine testing but it’s not considered accurate.
hey guys i think you should all read thru this website as well
max001.proboards.com/index.cgi?b … y&thread=2
the person who made this website was the one who’s info i posted above
If interested you can purchase an MAO B inhibiter in the form of selegiline from Iron dragon research chemicals. I posted a link to this site in another thread.
pezzi treats accutane sexual side effects with finasteride !..
“If DHT did not affect libido or sexual sensation then discontinuing finasteride would not produce these effects. However, it is clear that DHT does play a beneficial role. Yet why should discontinuing finasteride produce positive effects that go beyond mere elimination of the negative effects of a DHT deficiency? In other words, why were his erections noticeably better than they were before he used finasteride? The short answer is that the body becomes more sensitive to DHT during a period in which DHT is deficient”
"Hyperbole? Not at all. I’ve personally tried finasteride cycling, and I know it works. It produced miraculous changes. Before using finasteride I had very poor sexual sensation, weak ejaculations, a shrinking penis, and no longer became fully erect. When I could achieve an erection, it was difficult to maintain. My libido was so pathetic that I sometimes became jealous when patients in their seventies described their sex lives—and I was four decades younger!
Things went further downhill while I used finasteride. After I discontinued it, however, I experienced a true sexual metamorphosis. My sexual sensation intensified from next to nothing to so acute that even things that never felt good before, such as a light touch from cotton underwear, now felt very good. The pleasure that I obtained from masturbation was more intense than it had been even in my teenage years. My ejaculations went from barely dribbling out to explosive jets of much greater volume. My erections were now rock hard, effortless to maintain, and triggered by the slightest sexual thought (and sometimes spontaneously present even when I was not thinking of sex). My sexual frequency went from three times per month to three times per day, but the libido boost was even greater than what my sexual frequency might suggest. When the frequency was thrice monthly, that activity was usually initiated not because I felt horny but because I noticed a vague scrotal pressure, or I thought that it was advisable to masturbate as a “tune-up” to prevent my sexual ability from waning even more. When my frequency was thrice daily, I was not fully satisfied by the three orgasms even though their intensity boggled my mind—it was just that I needed to get some work done!
Now for the best part, but first an embarrassing revelation. My penis had shrunk, losing over 1ÂĽ inches in length, and deflating to a flaccid size so small that one day I looked at it and realized that it looked just like it did when I was a boy! For a man, that is very alarming. After finasteride, though, it grew larger than it had ever been, and my flaccid size was now larger than my fully erect size as a teenager."
that sounds ridiculous.
He must be kidding…
unbelieveable. you know what? I have email from a guy who used fin and then treated its sides (according to his belief) by using Saw Palmetto 320 mg for 3.5 years. Now what will you make of it? I will not touch any 5 AR inhibitor in my life again, period.
Congressional Committee Finds Accutane Causes Suicide
By Steve Mitchell UPI Medical
Correspondent 12-12-2 WASHINGTON (UPI)
A congressional oversight
committee’s two-year
investigation released Wednesday has found the acne drug Accutane frequently has been associated with suicide.
The investigation also made
public an internal FDA memo from 1998 recommending the drug be taken off the market due to its potential to cause birth defects.
Staffers on the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations spent hundreds of hours culling internal memos, reports and e-mails obtained from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as from Accutane’s manufacturer, Roche U.S. Pharmaceuticals, part of Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., of Nutley, N.J.
More than 200 people have taken their lives while taking Accutane – and perhaps many more – but neither the FDA nor Roche has ever publicly admitted the suicides were due to the drug.
“This investigation leads to one conclusion: In some cases … Accutane results in severe cases of depression, suicide ideation, suicide attempts and suicide,” said Bart Stupak, R-Mich. Stupak’s son, B.J., died in 2000 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound while taking Accutane."
suicides are 20,000+ but probably more. roche are fucking bad worse than merck
ehealthme.com/ds/accutane/prostatitis
Accutane prostatitis link. Prostatitis causes sexual dysfunction. Although only a few people get it… it still exists… just like us…
This is just anecdotal, but one of my friends has been extremely lethargic since high school. He’s close to 30, never had a girlfriend, still a virgin, doesn’t care about anything, just sort of coasts through life. After I started bitching about propecia he told me he took accutane as a freshman.
Now it all makes sense! I’ve never had a friend so apathetic about sex and girls…except for me after finasteride…