My husband has been taking propecia for @ 5 months and he is so moody and depressed, no sex drive an says he is thinking of moving out. I have seen a change in him since starting this medication. Is their a placebo I can buy to see if it is me or the propecia. Please help.
Many have experienced those side effects, as listed on this site. Most likely it is the Propecia. Ask him to quit and within a month I’m sure you will see a drastic difference.
I have asked him, but he say’s that his hair has stopped falling out so he won’t stop taking it. I told him about this web site and he said he looked on it but it hasn’t changed his mind.
Well if he’s unwilling to quit then there’s not much you can do. Sorry…
Is their a placebo I can buy to replace the pills for a month? Thanks for responding!
No, not that I’m aware of, otherwise people would be selling counterfeit Propecia.
Sarah
there is no placebo. it’s awful and I am so sorry. The changes I met in my husband were so subtle I could not help thinking it was me or his work so well done for asking for that elusive placebo! I am amazed at my husband for not investigating (he did with my contraceptive!!) so why not this? because he was desperate not to lose his hair.
I would advise you go from another angle. If you investigate hair loss and natural hair growth you will know that Propecia encourages the ‘down’ growth like chicks (as of chickens) Show him your findings (out-right or accidentally-deliberately) Point it out to him that his ‘new hair’ may have covered the patch BUT the baldness shows through, you can be blunt and tell him especially when he has got out of the shower! BUT remember there are ways of telling the truth whilst being thoroughly diplomatic, gracious and ‘nieve’!
All those ‘emotions’ he is expressing are drug-related please stand by him. You will reap your rewards! I haven’t yet totally reaped my rewards…but I see a subtle change in behaviour that I acknowledge. If you reflect the change it increases his awareness of the good reasons for getting off the shit.
I wish you well
I tried to stand by my boyfriend/fiance of many years, I couldn’t be more supportive, but he left me saying he wasn’t attracted to me anymore, that he felt like my roommate. It came out of nowhere, no fighting nothing, like he just decided it one day and I had no say in the matter. He just gave up on us he wouldn’t even try anymore, and we have been through so much together and made it, we were great together, everyone thought so, no everyone is as shocked as me.
He is like a completely different person and its like he is trying to take back everything, every loving thing he ever said to me, for so many years. I know none of this would be happening if it wasn’t for propecia. This drug is evil! Do I have any chance of getting him back? he doesn’t even want to talk to me. He has expressed missing me and loving me, but he still doesn’t want to talk to me or see me, he says if he does, he will come running back and for some reason he doesn’t feel like he can fix himself while with me, I don’t understand why I would completely support him, I would do anything for him. I love him so much, but it’s like he refuses to believe that.
It feels like he actually wants to punish me for loving him so much! He has been extremely cruel and has completely disregarded my feelings in all this, like I don’t even matter at all anymore and this is the complete opposite as the real him! I am so scared that I’ve lost him forever and I know he is my soul mate, I feel like half of me is missing and there is nothing I can do about it.
There should be a section for wife’s and girlfriends of men suffering from this. Don’t you think? I know I would love to talk to all the other women going through this. It isn’t just hurting the men who take it. this is killing me.
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Yeah why not create a small sub forum for the girls, I mean, It’s not directly addressing our issues but might be good for publicity, maybe spreading the word to other sufferers, having a larger pool of members can’t be bad, girls talk you know. They differ from us, somehow.
I recon this drug has atleast affected several relationships worldwide, if not totally destroyed it. Speaking of myself I know I can’t perform in correctly in many ways within a relationship so I’ve been avoiding it since 2006.
It took me some years to discover that others shared the side effects of this drug, actually thanks to Mew posting at a hairloss forum enlightened my eyes.
Hi y’all. I’m another woman supporting a man who’s gone off of Propecia and still not feeling right.
It would be nice if there was a subgroup for wives/girlfriends. My partner doesn’t even like reading on this site because he freaks out everytime he does.
He was on Propecia for about 2 years and went off in March '09. The sexual side effects improved, but now he deals with headaches, irritability, moodiness, and general malaise, and his libido is still low.
We’ve been together for 2.5 years, but things are getting tougher because it’s hard for me to deal with the constant moodiness and depression. But, I know it’s worse for him that it is for me, so I’m trying to figure out how to best cope.
Sarah, hopefullly if he goes off of it, he’ll be one of the men who recover quickly. That drug is just bad news, I think.
Hi Sarah,
I had these mental side effects too. I only got better after i changed my diet. I found out that after propecia, pasta and anything containing gluten gave me headaches. Caffeine and sugar worsened my depression. That happens because Propecia affected our Adrenals somehow. So i switched to an all natural diet, only fruits, rice, beans, meat/fish/poultry, vegetables, corn, potatoes, milk, low fat cheese. No processed foods at all, no sugar, no gluten, no caffeine, and everything lowfat. I can honestly say i feel like my old self 80% of the time. But libido is still low. Anyways, it is an improvement. Ask him to observe if his mental side effects get worse after he eats.
Thanks for your reply, correiovip.
We generally eat really well (lots of organic/local food) but we’re big coffee and craft beer drinkers. The coffee has caffeine and sugar in it and the beer has gluten.
Perhaps that’s worth giving a try…at this point, anything is worth giving a try.
Sarah I notice a huge depression, lack of energy, moodiness, etc when I have alcohol especially beer. Alcohol lowers testosterone levels and increases estrogen in males.
This drug caused me to go into sexual hiding for years and has made a very difficult relationship for me and my fiance still. When you’re on it and still off it many days you just don’t feel anything. You can blame the person, the relationship, etc, but in reality the one taking it has changed. My fiance has been very supportive and I’m amazed she still loves me given how I am negative 80% of the time. Thanks to all of you who love us and stand by us.
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soworried and sarah76. I completely understand what you girls are going through. My boyfriend recently ask for a break. I don’t nag him, or bother him at all. I am so not the type that will do that. I want to help him.
Hi ladies,
I’m with you; trying my best to hang in there. I’ve only been with my husband ONCE in the last two years. That was at my insistance and it was a miserable experience that I thought afterwards would’ve proved my point that things below his belt aren’t right! No such luck, although he did go on anti-depressants after that, to of course, only further decline his libido. I feel like I’m living with a tree stump!
He kisses me goodnight (the ONLY physical contact I have with him ALL day or night) like he’s kissing his sister! How long can I survive in a loveless marriage?
Why must he be so stubborn and not even read the information on this website? The hair plugs he had put in just gross me out from the git-go anyway and now to add this loss of my husband as I once knew him on top of it is just too much!
Thanks for giving me a place to vent…
Hi everyone,
My heart breaks for all you partners of former/current Propecia users. I am one of you, and I am so often lost for what to do. We have been together three years now, two of which were spent with Propecia side effects. I want to be helpful and supportive to my boyfriend, but I just get so frustrated sometimes. It mostly has to do with his depression and moodiness. It takes so much energy to pull him out of his depressive states. I also feel pretty unattractive myself, because anything sexual has been completely stripped from our lives. We have not had sex in a long time (I can’t even remember the last time). I fear that I will lose my attraction for him all together.
What has helped him and thereby helped our relationship is:
- my ensuring that he gets good nutrition (I personally cook all meals and ensure that they are healthy, balanced, organic, etc.)
- ensuring that he has a clear schedule to follow every day (it helps him focus),
- ensuring that he gets a good amount of exercise every day (I actually have to force him to do this but then he feels so much better and is glad when it is done),
- ensuring that he gets some sexual stimulation (it helps him sleep better; nothing for me though).
As you can probably tell, this is quite tiring to do every day. Little things can just throw him off balance and he will fall into a depressive state. He is very grateful and loving to me, but I wonder if he will one day turn around and say that he just can’t do “relationship with a woman” anymore. That’s a pretty scary thing to think of after all these years and all the sacrifices we’ve both made.
At the end of every day that is a relatively happy and stable one, I sit down and really thank God for giving us a manageable day. We have had some really, really rough days.
Well let me tell you this, a relationship is hard on the guy because he knows that no matter how supportive or loving you are you are still sexually frustrated, so there is a solution to this, let him get rid of his ego and buy some sex toys and let him use his other tools to please you, because when he knows that you are sexually satisfied it will improve his mental conditions, i don’t have any mental or physical problems but I have sexual ones and i started using all these methods and it worked and so now i left my member alone for a while to recover!
So it is better to support in another way which is to compromise, being understanding adds to the injury, just try to live your lives differently until he recovers, and he will recover if the expectations and pressures get reduced, he needs to focus on himself because your presence can cause mental stress hehehehe i am telling you how I am feeling.
If only it were that easy. But taking pressure off of the situation is a good idea regardless.
Easy??? Reducing stress is almost impossible these days, with work, relationships, expectations, goals, financial problems, etc, successfully reducing stress almost never happens unless you change your lifestyle which also almost never happens.
And add to that the knowledge that your partner is sexually frustrated, it is like an atomic bombs to every mental feeling that you have.
I think you misunderstood, he’s not saying this is easy, he’s saying only if it were easy. You’re frustration is understood but it’s on you to change your lifestyle to reduce stress, no one else can do it for you, which is why you see many people here downgrading their lives in one form or another.