Finasteride could be the cause of my weak eyesight

[psychopomp1]

0. Where are you from (country)? UK

1. 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?)
   Google (propecia porblems)

2. What is your current age, height, weight?
   35, 5’ 8", 75kg

3. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
   10km rowing everyday (yes really LOL)

4. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
   Mainly vegetarian

5. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
   Hair loss

6. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
   Approx 1 year

7. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
   34 - May 2010

8. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
   35 - May 2011

9. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
   cold turkey

10. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
    Propecia

11. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    1mg daily

12. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    A few months

13. What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
    Myopia

Put an X beside all that apply:

Sexual
[ ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] 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
[ ] Depression / Melancholy

Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] 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”
[X] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)

14. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
    None

15. 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)?
    N/A

16. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
    N/A

17. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.

Hi

I started taking 1mg Finasteride (Propecia) around 1 year ago and up until recently I thought i was lucky enough not to be affected by any of its well documented side effects. However my eyesight has gradually been getting weaker (myopia) ever since i started taking Finasteride…of course this could be a coincidence and it could be down to my laser eye surgery (LASIK) i had 12 years ago. A couple of weeks ago i came across these 2 articles which link Finasteride to vision problems:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1442-9071.2004.00770.x/abstract;jsessionid=858C7112B8CD3A66132E6AF911EC92E0.d03t02
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18053919

I saw my optometrist around 5 months ago but he was more interested in selling me laser eye surgery rather than getting to the cause of my myopia. A week ago I posted my question on an optometrists forum and unsurprisingly was ridiculed…however one member posted this which could prove to be very valuable:

I would get checked for diabetes.

Finasteride has similar properties to Flomax.
These androgen altering drugs affect the adrenal glands which alters your your inflamatory status via endogenous steroid secretion (Epi and Norepinepherine).
If you are flooded with NE/E then this could easily induce diabetes - glucosemia - altered aqueous osmolarity and thus changes to the crystaline lens in your eye.
The same process as with uncontrolled diabetics - they manifest in myopic shift in Rx.

The myopic shift you describe is abnormal for your age.
Between the ages early 20’s and late 60’s your distance Rx should remain quite stable. But for small changes.

Now i have booked an appointment with my GP (doctor) and armed with all this info, will try to get to the bottom of this and really find out if its Finasteride which has caused my vision to deteriorate. I will probably go for a diabetes test soon.

I will keep you updated!

Thanks

[bostonusa2009]

psychopomp1,

welcome. Yes it is well documented on this website that many of us have experienced negative changes to our vision. I also unfortunately experienced this side.

Looking back on my experience now, It was one of the first sides I had. Unfortunately I didn’t make the connection to the drug. I thought it was related to too much computer use. Personally I experienced I sensativity to light & wind, bluriness and difficulty focusing.

I have had some improvement in terms of sensativity to light and wind. The bluriness also is reduced, but my vision is still not right and I have eye floaters that came on a few weeks after quiting and never went away.

You will probably have hard time finding a doctor that will agree finasteride is the root cause of this, unless you see one of the recommended doctors here. Best of luck anyway!

[psychopomp1]

Hi Bostonusa2009

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, i also thought that my eyesight was getting weak purely due to the amount of time i spend in front of my computer all day and didn’t think for one second that it could be related to finasteride. But its too much of a coincidence so will use all my energy and resources to find out the root cause.

Cheers

[martinM]

finasteride can affect your eyesight. I was in my mid 20son finasteride and had something called “accommodative spasm” in my focus muscles. Basically they were acting like they were 30-40 years older than they were. My eyesight was much weaker on finasteride and has improved since stopping as have the accommodative spasm problems.

Overall my visual acuity, as did my ability to see color, degraded while on finasteride and has improved since stopping. We know fin affects moisture production in the body and is a cause of dry eyes in PFS sufferers.

Many of the symptoms of diabetes overlap PFS, such as weak muscles, eyesight degeneration, frequent urination, etc. I’ve been tested for diabetes every time I saw a new doctor and described my symptoms and have always been negative. The tests were not even borderline.