Lingering headache 9 months after 1 Finasteride pill

Member Stories
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#1

Where are you from?
UK

How did you find this forum?
Google

What is your current age, height, weight?
28, 6 foot, 78kg.

What specific drug did you use?
Finisteride

What dose did you take?
1 1mg pill.

What condition was being treated with the drug?
Hairloss

For how long did you take the drug?
Took 1 pill

How old were you, and WHEN did you start the drug?
28 March 2021

How did you quit?
After the 1 pill.

How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects?
12 hours.

What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
I now have a lingering headache.

If you have pre or post-drug blood tests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug?
Yes twice but they all came back fine.

I’ll make a long story short and only really talk about the headache. I took my 1 and only 1mg Finasteride table one night and by 1pm the next day the headache along with other mental symptoms began to kick in, I was a completely different person for weeks. Thankfully all I have now is a headache although I am trying to get it resolved as it’s 9 months later now.
At first the headache felt like I’d been hit on the back of the head. After a week or 2 it turned into more of a tension headache across the top of my head and forehead. Now it is mainly centered around my forehead or the right side of the top of my head. I never had a tension headache before but it feels like it could be one. It’s hard to tell but sometimes it feels like tight muscles but other times I’m not sure. It’s a bit positional in nature so gets better with sleep and gets worse throughout the day. I suspected I have a spinal fluid leak but I had an MRI and CT scan and nothing came back on these. I’ve tried all the traditional migraine and tension headache tablets but nothing has helped. I’ve tried the likes of Acupuncture and physiotherapy as well. I also started seeing a lot of floaters in my eyes at the same time the headache started and still have them. I have some brain fog but I this is only due to the headache and would be gone if I could get the headache resolved. I was on Accutane for 6 months and finished a weeks before I took the Finasteride pill, the Accutane went really well for me which is one of the reasons I decided to try Finasteride. I removed the checkbox list as this is the headache is the only issue I’m looking for help with and would be forever grateful if someone can help.
Thanks for reading.

#2

I would personally feel Accutane might be a contributor. Even though it started after fin. The sides may of started after the discontinuation (since you started fin immediately after).

I delt with headaches my whole life. Typical medication doesn’t work for me.

Does caffeine do anything for you? Is it more intense when bending over?

#3

Cheers, I’m sorry to hear about your headaches, they are not specifically from something like Fin then no? I think so too, either way it was one or the other and it seems like others are having the same problem. Yep not so much when bending over but keeping good posture keeps it at bay a bit. I find sleeping at night or taking a short nap in the day helps it, especially if I sleep on right side on a decline. When I relax on a comfy chair it comes on worse.

I’ve been taking caffeine on and off, it seems to do something, kind of makes it harder to feel the headache but at the same time puts me on another level of brain fog and it feels like more of a cover up than a potential solution.

I was lucky enough to have good habits of a healthy diet, weightlifting, running, meditating and using a Sauna regularly when it all began which I have kept going and got me through the other symptoms. I’m struggling to get to the bottom of this headache though.

#4

True. Fin was not the causes of my headaches, but made it much much worse. A spinal tap for me relieved the headaches I was having (post-fin). But it manifested as pressure mainly, so bending down exaggerated it.

An extreme approach, but fin (and accutane) will restrict vascular flow so I can see how it made it worse. I would personally try the suite of amino acids if you haven’t already. (Specifically l-arginine)

#5

jesus christ man. did it increase pressure in your spinal casing? I notice I have more frequent headaches too, but it could just be the nightly viagra I take to try and spur on nocturnal erections since I am having none

#6

Good to hear you got that side of it sorted. If I were to lean forward to tie my shoe laces for example I’d feel the headache more. I’ve been saying to my Neurologist that I think I have a spinal fluid leak which would mean low amounts of fluid around my brain but maybe after hearing from you I’m thinking it could be the opposite, that maybe my spinal fluid has increased in pressure.

Would you mind telling me a bit more about the spinal tap, was this done intentionally to remove the Fin headache? To do something like increasing or decreasing your spinal fluid or spinal fluid pressure? I’m wondering as well if you were able to do a scan or something to identify the need for a spinal tap or if it was a hit and hope that worked out.

It’s also interesting that you mentioned l-arginine. I’ve been trying this on and off for the past 10 days or so. I read it can repair a damaged Dura which holds spinal fluid. It makes my headache worse though, I’m actually suffering a bit extra here because I took a lot yesterday. I don’t think I’ll be taking it again but I find it weird that it actually has an impact even though it seems to be a negative one at the moment.

Apologies for the big reply. I’m very grateful for your help here