My biggest scare is Propecia has given me Parkinson’s disease. I have NOT been diagnosed but do plan on seeing a neurologist. I quit 8 months ago. The twitching in my hands and forearms was really bad and yes was worse as I slept. The type of twitching I had was my hands would suddenly shake for a moment as I slept and my shoulder, lower back, or leg would jolt. Those decreased a lot over time and the shaking hands during sleep is totally gone. Now I am suddenly getting muscle twitches all over my body day and night, and once in a while I get that “pill rolling twitch” that is known as an early sign of Parkinson’s disease and it really scares me. It’s not constant and only happens for a min or two every couple of weeks. My hands and feet hurt like they have arthritis. My forehead gets greasy from time to time as well. I am terrified. My forearms, wrists, and hands always feel weak. So weak that one time my right hand started shaking just holding a beer. Another time my right hand started shaking while I had it leaning against a laptop, below the keyboard.
Other than that I can deal with the rest, my penis functions just fine. In the beginning I had reduced semen but that appears to be better now, even though my wife has had 2 miscarriages since I quit. I did get eye floaters, that really sucks but I can deal with it. Sometimes my eyes get stabbing pains.
The list of things that has happened to me over the last 8 months seems endless. In the beginning I had a very scary situation with my throat. It would start involuntarily swallowing in my sleep. In addition I would start taking a sudden involuntary deep breath during sleep. The swallowing thing went away and the sudden breaths got much less frequent and sever however once in a while as I sleep the involuntary breath will still happen on a lesser scale. At one point when I dried my left ankle after a shower the towel felt like it was ripping off my skin. At one point I had moments of sudden tingling running through my head, down my spine through my feet, itchy skin, I would get hot flashes down my right leg. Those all got better though. In the last 2 months I developed tinnitus (constant ringing in my left ear) but that now is starting to get less, it comes and goes. In the beginning I could not sleep, I would dream non stop and hear song lyrics playing over and over in my head. One time I woke up from a dream where my head felt like it was exploding. I would have light flashes in my closed eyes as I slept. Those have passed as well. However I still dream all night but I sleep well. I feel like it is much easier these days for my arms to “fall asleep” when I sleep. I’ll wake up and my hand will have partial pins and needles that go away if I reposition of shake it off. I can cause my biceps to twitch if I flex them really hard. After I flex, they will twitch for a couple of min. Another thing that comes and goes is I’ll feel like more should be coming out when I take a crap. I don’t feel constipated, but just feels like there should be more. I have high blood pressure and have gained 30-40 pounds cause I am too depressed to work out anymore. I try very hard to remain positive and every time I get a new side I stay positive that it will pass like most all of them have. I tell myself this is just another thing from PFS and I don’t have a deadly disease. Ultimately I am just terrified that I have early onset of Parkinson’s and that’s what terrifies the most. I keep telling myself in 5 years this will all be in the past.
Any response would be greatly appreciated, thank you so much.