I am really worried for the 1st time in my life !

Member Stories
#1
  1. Where are you from (country)?
    Australia
  2. 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
  3. What is your current age, height, weight?
    45, 172cm, 78kg
  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    Weekly, Power walking
  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
    Healthy, Balabced
  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
    Hairloss
  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    3 months
  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    43, started in Oct2010 and stopped in Dec2010
  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    44, Dec2010
  10. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
    cold turkey
  11. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
    Propecia
  12. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    1.25mg/day
  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    Did not notice any side effects while I was on drug. Serious effect only occured 22months after quiting
  14. What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?

Put an X beside all that apply:

Sexual
[x ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[x] Erectile Dysfunction
[x ] Complete Impotence
[] Loss of Morning Erections
[ x] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[x ] Watery Ejaculate
[x ] 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”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)

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

  2. 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)?

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

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

I took finasteride in Oct 2010 for 3 months for hair loss. I did not notice any side effect at all while I was on the drug. A little bit of hair was gained
during the 3 months but those gain has fallen off. I continue to use Rogain and a herbal shampoo for my hair. My bald patch seems to be getting worse slowly and not improving…but now hair loss is not my concern anymore!

  1. oct-dec 2010, taking finasteride 1.25mg per day
  2. Never notice any side effect until one day in April 2011, where I could not get an erection, no feeling down there. Then it went back to normal in a couple of days (This occurred again in June 2012 and again went back to normal)
  3. I did notice watery ejaculate around mid to late 2011, occaasionally and reduced volume but hoped it will fix itself.
  4. OCT 2012: This is where my nightmare has just started…I became totally IMPOTENT overnight from the start of this month until now. Prior to this I was still having a reasonable satisfying sex life. I occasionally could not get it up and I attributed it to stress and tireness. Looking back, I definitely has had reduced sex drive, reduced stiffness sometimes and reduced libido (which I attributed to age and tireness, busy worklife) since quiting the drug but overall it was all OK nothing too noticeable.

Can anyone out there please let me know if I am now having a crash due to Finasteride ? It definitely looks like Fin but my doctor already rejected this theory.
Basic blood test has come back normal with a clean bill of health ? I am not suffering any physical pain…mentally I am feeling normal…I am just worried that my condition in untreatable as it is caused by FIn. Please give me some advice. Why am I having a total system crash some 22 months after quiting ? Is there an explanation why it took it took this long ?

Thanks in advance

Top

#2

If your issues occured 22 months after stopping, that’s almost 2 years since your last dose. As such I’d look for other areas of investigation. Most guys experience the post-drug drop in Testosterone within a few weeks of quitting (the “crash”), others may experience a gradual decline.

However, a sudden bout of impotence almost 2 years later out of nowhere likely points to a potential cause other than the drug. What does your doctor suggest?

#3

Doctor prescribed Cialis for daily use which I just started taking. This stuff takes 4-5 days to to work and I hope this will help me in the short term. If the issue does not resolve itself within a few days…doctor will refer me to Urologist which looks very likely.

Result for testosterone was 9.6 nmol/L which doctor said was normal and not the cause eventhough it is in the lower range of normal. Total Cholesterol was 6.4 nmol/L, this is considered very high but doctor assessed with my diet, lifestyle and concluded it is not the cause.

Would finasteride be able to remain in my system for that long or made permanent changes to my system and cause my impotence at the moment ?

#4

No, the drug is metabolized and excreted within 24 hours. However, 5AR2 inhibition can take a few weeks to reverse.

Speculation, there is no way to know. Again, experiencing a bout of impotence 22 months post-drug could be attributed to many other factors. Ask yourself, is there something that happened recently that may have contributed to this episode?

On another note, low Testosterone can be an issue. Do you have the ranges for your bloodtest results? Without ranges, results are meaningless.

#5

Hello Worried Man,

your case is interesting for me, I hope I understand that right, that you its been 22 Month after your last dose of finasteride?
Like Mew said, it is very unlikely that this has something to do with finasteride but I have some questions for you.

  1. When this happens to you, did you do anything in this time, thats raises your androgen levels.
    What I mean is, did you statred weight liftig mor more sports, did you had more sex in this time or change of diet to more proteins.
  2. have you taken any suppl. for /against your hairlos. Like zink or any other stuff?
  3. What kind of herbal shampoo´s have you used? Impotant are the stuff inside, like sawpalmetto, lavender, tea tree or anything else, please have a look, what you have used.
  4. have you taken taken any other drugs in this time, like cortikoids, topical or oral?
  5. Rogaine is the same as regain? Are you still taking it?This lowers the bloodpressure and cause also such problems but not the same way finasteride does. The symptomes are a bit diff. It is still not realy understood how regain works. But such sides are knowen from bloodpressure lowering drugs and is common
  6. did you had a lot of stress, over a longer period of time and this felt off again?

I see that tere have been a bloodwork done. each lab uses diff. methods a ref. would be good. You can also do the the bloodwork that is recoment here in this forum.

#6

The GP did a basic blood test only…I was told my Testosterone is 9.6 and the normal range is (8.0 to 30.0)

#7
  1. I did not start extra exercise or lifting weigh nor have I changed the diet to more proteins. I must confess we are trying to conceive so we have been doing it once for 4-5 consecutive days while my wife is ovulating then it went back to 2-3 times per week
  2. no supplement for my hair loss
  3. I have been using the same shapoo for the last 5 years …it has “quinine” and vitamin B
  4. Only drug I have been taking is Paracetamol when I have minor flu symtoms
  5. Sorry I actually have been using Regain (5% minimoxidyl)
  6. I am in a stable relationship and job is also stable…

I have just started to take the following supplemnts daily: Krill fish oil, zinc, Vit D3 1000IU, garlic. I also take B12 once every second day
I am also planning to join the local gym to start lifting weigh…This is not a good idea according to your Q1 ?

In the last 3 months, we went thru a fail IVF attempt, and then this happened to me. My problem is definitely not caused by this. The other
issue is I am sure if this drug has made me infertile already

I hope Mew and you are right about my problem being unlikely to be related t0 fin. I’ll update my status after my visit to the Urologist.

#8

That’s barely within range and could be considered low if you compare it to these charts:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1954

With those references you may want to challenge his diagnosis that your levels are “normal”. You may potentially benefit from Testosterone boosting supplements or medications.

#9

Hello Worried man,

Yout testo levels is borderline low so, what mew says seems for me also a good option for you. You will find many things here in the Forum for raising Testo naturaly. Just look a bit around in this forum and you will find a lot of things like tribulus, asparagin acvid and many more, I would start with things that are not the mega boostes, like asparagin acid (boosts abput 40%) try it slowly first.

As I see on you symptoms it sounds for me that regain is causing your problems. Google a bit about it.

#10

Hi Mew & Brainbug

Thank you very much to both of you for reading, assessing and responding to my profile. You guys helped me make sense of what’s
hapenning to me.

  • I was using a generic 5% minoxidil, applying once a day for about a year before adding fin… After stopping fin., I continued with generic minox. for
    another 6 months before switching to Regain until now, applying twice daily. I never thought minoxidil can cause sexual side effects as there is no warning on the label, it is widely advertised, readily available over the counter so I assume it is completely safe…I did as Brainbug suggested and found a similar blog to this where many men are experiencing sexual side effects after using this stuff for years. (The hairloss consultant told me Fin. has no side effects when I asked him and I simply forgot to check before taking)

I have stopped using all this crap treatment on my head and I definitely will do proper research before using any chemical or med on my body and warn as many people about the danger of fin. and minox. as possible ! I will work on improve my testo. level by natural supplements and weigh training and hopefully I will improve soon (I now feel like I am improving a little already)…for now I also wish you guys all the best with your recoveries.

#11

Hey Worried man,

no problem, bloodpressue lowering drugs can always cause such Problems. I think you will recover now much faster but, it can take also a lil time, so dont worry. Thanks a lot, the best thing you can do is help to warn the people. You realy can save many lifes by doing that. Sadly I see here more and more new members and this makes me very sad. I push my thumbs, that you will will be fine soon. Please, let us know.