Im 34 years old and I started taking Propecia In January of 08 and after a few months of taking it started experiencing sever aches and pain in the lower abdomen. The only thing close to describe the pain was like having blue balls. I couldnt even stand up it ached so bad. I stumbled across this forum and realized maybe it wasnt the best idea to take Propecia. I took it for 6 months and stopped taking it in July. The last month or so I have experienced some weird symptoms. I became a little worried when my girlfriend and i tried to have sex a few times. At first I could get an erection but could not maintain it. In a matter of minutes it would be gone and my erections were never as strong as they once were. i started to think I was getting old and maybe it was just my age and my sex drive was slowing down and i had to deal with it. Well it continued to happen and each time I let my girlfriend down. I felt like a complete piece of shit and I figured the pool boy would start to get some action instead of me. let me tell you how crappy that makes you feel not being able to take care of your girl when she wants sex. Worthless pretty much. I decided to go to the doctor and find out whats going on. I noticed every time I would get aroused or think about sex I would get this ache in my lower abdomen right above my penis. Every time it would ache and I could not get hard. I told my doctor and he said that seemed weird and ordered some blood tests and gave me a prostate exam. Not fun. He said due to the fact I was in so much pain when he gave it to me he wanted me to take an antibiotic due to Prostatitis possibly. I have never heard of that but I did some research and it seemed possible. Im now wondering if I should even take this antibiotic or not. the more I read it seems my problem might be Propecia realted but Im not sure what to do. I cant accept the fact I hace ED now and I got some Viagra. It works fine but I feel like I cant depend on drugs. I want to know what is causing all this but unfortunatley it seems Im in the same boat as every body else. For the past week I have a constant ache down there and Im almost tempted to take ibuprofen it hurts so bad. Masturbation never really crosses my mind and I hardly think about sex anymore. Porn doesnt even interest me. How lame is that. Jumping off a bridge sounds better. Could it be Prostatis and the antibiotic will help it or will I just be wasting my time? Im not sure what to do and i feel like I need to do something before it gets worse and i never get better. Sorry for rambling and I hope someone can help
You took Propecia for 6 months and you’ve been off for 3 months. From the information you’ve given it could be prostatitis or could be Propecia-related. Perhaps you should verify for sure if it’s prostatitis i.e. your doctor SHOULD know before prescribing you one would think. I would give it some more time. How much time I’m not sure. I was on Propecia for 8 weeks and I’ve been off since the end of July and while I have no physical/sexual side effects I have this slurred speech thing when I speak to people, and I’ve determined it’s Propecia or too much soymilk. It’s been 11 weeks for me and it’s still around.
So my opinion would be, taking into consideration everything I’ve read, is that firstly I would give it more time (couple months more or less) as it could be slowly (emphasis on slowly) getting back to normal.
Read FAQ at top of site, get bloodwork per list therein to see what’s going on with your hormones. You may be suffering from low T post-Fin.
It seems that you are having severe pain, even upon a digital prostate exam. Completing a short course of antibiotics might clear any possible infections. Listen to your doctor’s advice.
Thanks for your advice guys. i appreciate it. I made a follow up doctors appointment in a couple days to talk to my doc and get more blood tests. I already got some bloodwork done and everything came back normal but he didnt test for any of the stuff mentioned in the forum. I still have this ache and it seems to be getting harder and harder to stand up. its gradually becoming worse and Im worried maybe it could become a real problem. The weird part is while im having this pain I cant function…like my stuff doesnt even work and I cant even start to get an erection. Has Prostatitis been known to casue erectile dysfunction? Its almost like I have no feeling down there. I keep on hoping maybe it will go away and MAYBE I wasnt on the drug for long enough to have these problems. Wishful thinking I guess.
But my second question is when I go to the doctor should I just bring a copy of the list of bloodtests and tell him to run them? Hopefully he will listen to me or if not I have to find somebody who will?
He will probably laugh and say no way to the overall list (hopefully not though), but there is a pared down version here:
propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=92
But if he refuses and you really want them, offer to pay for them yourself.
Quest Diagnostics is a good lab to try.
How do you suggest getting all of the list run if not asking your doctor? Can you go to a lab and have all of those run on your own or is it more effective or better to have a physician do them?
You need a requisition form from your doctor listing the tests you will take. You take this form to the lab and get blood drawn.
Some docs are reluctant to test things they don’t think are necessary and thus, feel it is a waste of the healthcare system/insurance’s dollars. In those cases, offer to pay for the tests yourself and the doc shouldn’t have any objections with writing them down on the requisition form, since YOU are the one paying.
Obviously if the doc is willing to test all of it and have healthcare/insurance pay for it, that’s the best option.
I have been prescribed Ofloxacin for the Prostatitis. Does anybody have any experience with this and/or used it?
So in response to my original post I had asked my doctor to run all the blood tests that were recommended and he told me that was unneccesary but I did have my total testoserone level checked. Prior to taking Propecia in February my testosterone was 931. My results from last week show my level to be 621. Im not exactly sure what that means? Obviously one would think the drop would be Propecia related but could this be the reason for the ED that has been experienced or are the levels in a normal range that should not be causing erectile problems??
Testosterone levels are higher in the morning (and at night, depending on the pulsitile nature of your testosterone levels). What time did you take your blood tests?
I fasted and had the blood taken at 7 in the morning that day
Total Testosterone, while useful, is not the ultimate guage which things should be judged by, but part of the overall picture.
FREE/BIOAVAILABLE Testosterone is actually perhaps more important, since only 2% of Total Testosterone is ever available to the body at any one time – the rest being bound to SHBG or Albumin.
Thus, if you have low Total T, but high Free T, you may have no issues… but if you have high Total T and low Free T, you could still be having issues.
As for him saying the tests were not required, that’s your call if you want to argue with him… especially considering Fin has been shown to alter the Androgen/Estrogen ratio in men (Fin studies section corroborates this, and you don’t have Estradiol or Estrone tested)… wether you want to bring in materials to prove your point is up to you, but I’d either offer to pay out of pocket or see another endo for more tests.
Testing 1 hormone (Total Testosterone) does NOT give a “big” picture and may be missing any number of other factors causing you problems.
What are the ranges for the 2 tests? Both taken at the same time and same lab?
Well I had the blood tests all done at the same lab and at the same time (in the morning) Here are all the blood tests i have had, dating back to march 08:
3/3/2008
TESTOSTERONE, TOTAL 937
T4 FREE 1.5
10/14/2008
T4 FREE 1.7
TSH 1.0
CREATININE 0.93
GLOMERULAR FILTRATION RATE -
NONAFRICAN AMERICAN >60
TREPONEMA PALLIDUM IGG+IGM NON REAC
ALT 13
AST 15
CHOLESTEROL 180
TRIGLYCERIDE 81
HDL 46
LDL CALCULATED 118
GLUCOSE, FASTING 100
10/23/2008
TESTOSTERONE, TOTAL 621
Wow, so one would assume that you had a 300 point drop in your testosterone level after using propecia (if all else is normal).
This needs to be investigated furhter. What does your doctor have to say about this? You need to measure the other relevant hormones, such as LH, FSH, prolactin and estradiol.
My doctor denies anything abnormal. She says most likely it is psychological more than physical. I of course asked her if she has ever seen or heard of side affects after using Propecia and she shook her head and said NEVER. She almost didnt even agree to letting me have my testosterone levels checked again since I had them tested in March. She really has no explanation for whats happening (shocker I know) and she says to come back if I still experience the pain…which I do. I can see how so many men are getting frustrated with this whole deal. Use Propecia and you will be sorry. Funny part is I could go bald tomorrow and not care as long as I could have some things back to normal. THIS SUCKS
There is an unexplained 300 point drop in your testosterone. I’m not really sure if it is normal for testosterone to fluctuate that much within a couple months. I think you need to see an endocrinologist that is willing to investigate this issue, but you need to measure the other hormones so that we can see the big picture here.
Don’t worry, we will FIGURE THIS OUT.
I had testosteron checked before I started taking finasteride. I was surprised becase I was horny as hell and my testosteron range was low-normal. Now my testosteron while having no libido at all is high!
I am pretty sure it has nothing to do with testosteron level or it is too high if anything.
Yeah, it seems that everyone is different, but the general scientific reasoning is that lower testosterone means lower sex drive. He has not checked other hormones yet, so maybe it is more of a shift in the balance of his hormones rather than just lower testosterone that is affecting him. We still don’t know about his LH, FSH, prolactin, estrogen, etc.
Thanks for your support…I am going to ask my doctor for the other hormone tests to see if anything turns out to be abnormal. I am going to have to pay for them myself but at this point it doesnt matter. So I should ask for the ones you had mentioned earlier? Anything else I should say?