Hello I am a 23 year old male that took propecia for almost 6 months and had little side effects. I was mainly taking 0.5 because 1 mg gave me brain fogs alot. I was on and off it for the last 2 monts and switched to this brand called finpecia 3 days before the crash happend. I took a 1mg finpecia pill on a Monday and everything was fine on Monday night but then from Tuesday to Wednesday my sleep was reduced from 8 tot 9 hours to 3 to 4. I noticed that i could feel my heart beat for some reason. I went to my doctor on Thursday because it was still there and could not sleep because of it. He ensured my that i would go away and gave my 5 sleeping pills and i was a little calmer. the following days where really bad, heart palpitations where getting worse and sleep as well. The thing is is that it only happens in resting positions like sitting and laying. when walking or doing anything active i dont feel it. After 10 days it just vanished and i was completely back to normal sleep went from a broken 3 hours to solid 8 hours again. Then after 6 days i got them again for 1 night, then it vanished again for 2 days and it came back again. It is really unbearable right now and its not a heart issue its something with my brain because i feel my heart beating so bad that i cant relax or sleep anymore. This has neer happend before in my ever and i always was a person with an standard life style and went to the gym sometimes. Now it is out of control and my libido is like 10 precent now. I know this is 100% because of finasteride. its like my brain cant relax anymore and wants me to be active 24 hours a day. any form of relaxing is completely ruined because of this. Now it is going on for more than a month already. I cant find any similar case like mine. The only theory i have is that i for some reason developed an extreme for of anxiety in less than a month from this crap.
Am very familiar with this, have it myself.
Don’t treat this as medical advice. I solved the heart palpitations by taking magnesium citrate supplements. I had problems as follows:
- Waking in night with very high heart rate, interrupting sleep continually
- Difficulty falling asleep due to high heart rate
- Heart rate increasing uncomfortably after eating a large meal
- Heart skipping beats
- Heart racing when not doing any physical activity (e.g. just sat at desk)
- Ended up in A&E one occasion due to a prolonged issue with heart racing over 3-4 hours, thought was some having some kind of heart attack
Resolved by taking magnesium citrate daily. Type I use gives 1480mg magnesium citrate per tablet, providing 440mg elemental magnesium. Taking 2x pills a day.
Thanks for responding and i will try the magnesium thing. Did you also go the doctor and going back home with him telling everything was fine and that there was nothing wrong with your heart?
I was referred to a heart consultant and had to wear a heart monitor for 24hrs. The consultant said the results confirmed that yes, I have racing heart/ palpitations. However there was nothing they could do or anything further they wanted to look into.
The heart problems developed during the crash, from taking Accutane. I previously had no palpitations or heart issues at all.
I resolved the problem a while later after reading something about magnesium helping with sleep. I was searching around because the palpitations were keeping me awake at night. Experimented with a few different kinds and found magnesium citrate was the one that worked best. Calmed the heart palpitations right down, and sleep was massively better. Also helped get rid of the random muscle twitches, which I get very frequently all over body, without any particular pattern to it. Since the heart is of course a muscle, I view the muscle twitches and heart palpitations as being part of the same problem. If I am getting heart palpitations I also get the twitches, and when I take the mg both the palpitations and twitches are reduced.
I have used magnesium citrate powder that mixes into a beverage–less harsh on the stomach than the big pills. Look up Natural Calm–it comes in different flavors too.
I would definitely recommend that you see a cardiologist and get an EKG and an echocardiogram. You need to ensure that there is nothing different about your heart, its shape, the valves, the electrical system in it, etc. You want to be having palpitations when you get these tests, otherwise your cardiologist will never know what is really the case.
The only thing that has helped me with my high heart rate and anxiety is being prescribed benzodiazepines. They are hard to get but they have greatly decreased my anxiety.
That is good to hear! Beta blocker drugs can do the same thing.