i feel compelled to share my recovery here for whomever might take comfort in it. there was a night a couple months ago, after another failed sexual experience, where i read through every story in this “recovery” section, most of which did not leave me with much hope. and now that i’ve come through this difficult period, i feel i have an obligation to share my happy ending with anyone else out there who might be struggling with these side effects. i hope it gives you hope to keep fighting and a reason to believe that everything can work in the end.
my story. i’m a 32 year old, slim, healthy, good looking guy. i started taking propecia five years ago after i noticed a deepening receding hairline and a growing bald spot at the back of my head. after i started taking the pill, the hair loss stopped and some hair even returned. there weren’t any sexual side effects that i noticed. i was happy with the results. then about eight months ago, i started getting lazy about getting my prescription refilled and had a couple months where i only took it intermittently. it was about then that i had my first inexplicable loss of an erection while in bed for the first time with a beautiful girl i’d been chasing for the previous couple weeks. i was confused and embarrassed, didn’t handle it very well, and the girl ended up blowing me off later. i didn’t worry too much about it until it happened again about a month later with another girl. then i still hadn’t connected the dots that this was becoming a pattern until it happened a few weeks later with yet another girl. (yes, i’ve been slutty.)
i realized that this was happening with greater frequency, even when i masturbated, and that these things started happening after i had stopped taking propecia. so after it happened again one night, i did some research online and, like you, found this forum. and, like you, i freaked out when i read some of the postings. my heart was racing, i felt panicked, i was petrified that my dick was ruined forever. i couldn’t sleep at all that night. i threw all my remaining propecia in the toilet. over the following weeks and months, i continued to have increasing trouble getting and maintaining an erection. but then there would be some nights where i’d be as hard as a rock and have sex for half an hour, no problem. then two days later i couldn’t get hard at all. morning erections were still frequent but not quite as hard. lots of confusing, conflicting data. so i went to see an endocrinologist to get my hormone levels checked, which all came back within a normal range. i felt depressed and totally at a loss for how to fight this thing. i’d already sworn off all alcohol and tobacco, was exercising like a maniac, and eating really healthy, all in the hope that i could shock my system back to the status quo - a reliably hard dick. nothing seemed to work. in fact it seemed to be getting worse. i was scared. really, really scared.
so i decided to try viagra, just to see what kind of effect it would have. i’d never tried it before. thirty minutes after swallowing the little blue pill, i was literally dancing around my apartment, elated to see my pink little friend back with a vengeance. i jerked off all night in celebration. and again the next morning (after the effects should have already passed). over the next week, without taking another viagra, it seemed to be much easier to get an erection. when i had a girl spend the night a few days later, i popped a viagra just in case, and we had unbelievable sex. i could feel my confidence returning, and erections without viagra were coming much more easily. now, two months later, i feel like i’m 95% back to normal.
now i’m not sure how much of the problem was physical, and how much psychological. something had definitely felt wrong with my body before, but after taking those couple viagras, the problem has virtually disappeared. more importantly, i’m not obsessing about it. i’m not panicked or depressed about it anymore. i know that even if the problem were to be permanent, that it’s manageable. that i can take this little pill and i’m 100%. nevertheless, i haven’t taken one in a month, and my erections are back with reliability.
so my advice, above all, is to do your best not to panic. assume that your condition is curable and temporary. stay positive. and stop reading hopeless postings on this website - they will only make the problem worse. and go track down some viagra. if nothing else, it will let you know that your condition is treatable, and that you can still be a fully functioning male, capable of giving and receiving pleasure.
you’re life isn’t going to be ruined because of this. it’s going to be ok. i know what it’s like to be scared about this. i am someone who has made it through. you can too. there is hope.
-vision
p.s. i won’t be logging back into this forum. i don’t think it’s a healthy thing for me to continue to think about this. so this will be my first and last posting. i hope it helps.