I began using propecia in August of 08 and started noticing greatly decreased libido and erectile dysfunction shortly after starting. I stopped the medication in mid September of 08, and now almost a year later the side effects have not gone away. I had my testosterone levels checked and they were normal. my family doctor believes the problem is mental and not due to the medication but I have to disagree with him. I have taken some herbs(cordyceps, horny goat weed) but they didnt really help all that much.
I have been on thyroid medication for a long time and this may have made the situation with propecia worse but I’m not sure.
I have been on thyroid medication for a long time and was wondering if this might have made the side effects of propecia worse?
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Yeah almost ceratinly, seems to be a recurring pattern that guys who were on a medication that alterted hormones prior to finasteride will get hurt badly.
Ya it was kind of wierd, on the printout from the lab work reference ranges were not given. I got the test done along with thyroid levels and all it said on the printout was “testosterone and thyroid tests are normal.” I have been on thyroid medication for a long time and was able to determine by looking at the numbers that they were in fact normal. For luteinizing hormone I had no clue though. My testosterone was 538 ng/dL, which is seems pretty good from what I have read. I never tested testosterone prior to taking propecia though, so it could have been much higher before taking the drug.
Did you get your Free Testosterone tested? If not, you this tested as well. You can’t simply guage total T as a barometer of healthy tesototerone levels. Free T plus a number of important roles in the male body. Also, you need the ranges provided from the lab that took your blood test. You can’t just compare it to arbitrary ranges listed on the internet. Otherwise, you can’t accurately determine what is high or low.
A lot of us post propecia sufferers have a good total T and low free T. I wouldn’t consider a normal Total T number to be an indication that your testosterone is normal.
Total T is bound protein in your body, such as albumin and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) and therefor can not be used to boost your libido.
According to Henry Ritter, MD, a urologist from Atherton, Calif., the most useful number to know is the “free testosterone” (or bioavailable testosterone). The “total testosterone” reflects free and bound testosterone. Bound testosterone is not available to boost libido because it is linked to proteins, such as albumin and sex hormone binding globulin, according to John E. Gould, MD, PhD, associate clinical professor of urology at the University of California at Davis. Gould also recommends getting the free testosterone number.
Thanks Boston, I am going to see a urologist next month and I will ask to get Free Testosterone tested. When I get the results I will make sure to post
I recently went to a well known urologist in my city. She spent a lot of time with me and was real interested in my situation. She prescribed cialis and ran some blood tests. She wanted to see the results of the blood tests but thought it may be something psychological. I mentioned to her that I had talked with Dr. Goldstein via phone and spoke with her about my conversation with him. She said that she knew Dr. Goldstein and thought of him as a very reputable physician. She was actually going to see him at a conference in San Francisco the following week and was going to mention my situation to him. I see her at the end of the month and will be interested to hear what she has to say.
I got my bloodwork back but the only problem is that it didnt come with reference ranges. I will post it anyway, the Hospital I got it done at is the Virginia Mason Medical Center and they do have ranges posted on their site for each blood test, but I am going to confirm with my doctor the ranges before listing the ones found on their website.
Ya I’m going to talk to her about getting those blood tests done. I’m surprised she didn’t test DHT levels becuase she knew how the drug works. I am going to bring the paper linked below with me later this month when I go for another visit. I think my estradiol levels might be high any thoughts? andrologyjournal.org/cgi/con … ct/13/1/23
I just got back from my follow up appointment with the urologist. With regards to the bloodwork the only thing that was a little high was the estradiol (reference range 10-50 pg/mL Virginia Mason). I told her that mayo clinics reference ranges were 10-40 pg/mL should we try to bring this down? mayomedicallaboratories.com/ … tive/81816. She said no and it is typical for someone with the high testosterone like myself to have high estradiol. What happened next amazed me, she was talking about how my dht was fine and that my bloodwork looked great. I then asked her if there was a way to measure 5alpha reductase activity, she said that is not needed because my dht looks great. I had the printout and there were no results for dht on it, and I asked her about this. I said could you provide me with the dht results? She went into her office and it turns out that they didn’t even measure dht levels, like I could obviously see on the printout. So after my appointment she sent me over to the lab to get dht tested. So it was kind of bizarre, she was telling me that my dht levels were great and they never even tested for them.
I am also not totally confident that she knows that 5alpha reductase activity can be tested for, and I am not totally confident that she is the best person to work with moving forward on this problem. She prescribed me levitra now to see if that works and reccomended I see a sex thearapist. I said to her something along the lines of will the sex therapist be able to help me get morning erections ever again, haha. I am not against seeing a sex therapist but in my opinion it is baiscally like seeing a psychologist to heal a broken arm. I am saving up to try to work with Dr. Jacobs, he seems like he is researching our problem and has a genuine concern about our condition, I am not sure I can say the same about the person I am currently working with.
So I got a call today from the office of the urologist I have been going to, she said that my dht was in range. They are sending a printout of the results and I will post when I receive them. Not sure where I’m going to go from here becase according to her everything looks great, she did say that we have no way of knowing how propecia affected me at the cellular level.
I do kind of have a theory why propecia messed me up more than others, it may be somewhat half baked. Below some info I found online.
“Athletes who use low dosages of Cytomel report that by the simultaneous intake of steroids, the steroids become more effective, most likely as the result of the faster conversion of protein.”
Becuase I was on exogenous t3/t4, that somehow made the propecia more effective. I could remember within a day of taking it feeling different, like I could feel it reducing libido and effects dht has on the body. How that would still carry over after taking the medication I dont know, but it may be similar to someone taking steroids who uses the wrong stack, they can definitely have long term effects after discontinuation.
Just got the printout from DHT test, result was 56 ng/dL range 25-75 ng/dL. Only thing was a little off was my estradiol, it was barely in the 10-50 pg/ml range. I have a call into Dr. Jacobs and will hopefully hear back from his office, want to work with him moving forward.
Received lab results from Labwork ordered by Dr. Jacobs after my initial meeting with him, results are below and ranges are in parentheses. I am also going to ask Dr. Jacobs to have an MRI done to make sure there are no pituitary gland abnormalities.
Your IGF-1 is low. Your SHBG is very high. Where is your Free Testosterone? My guess is it will be low with your high SHBG.
Also your TSH is on the top end of the range, get your Free T3, Total T3, Free T4, Total T4 added to your next test as well, to rule out any possible thyroid issues.
My Free Testosterone was tested and it was 171.1 pg/mL, there were no ranges on the printout I was given it just said Hi next to the number. I had it tested before my initial meeting with Dr. Jacobs when I was seeing a urologist. From what I have read if your SHBG is high, your Free Test tends to be low because it is bound, for some reason this isn’t the case in my situation.
I am having some of the symptoms associated with hypothyroidism, and my TSH is almost out of range. When I was diagnosed it was above 8, and since then I have had my thyroid medication dosage increased several times. Even when my TSH was way out of range I had a way higher libido than I do now, along with much better erection quality. I would get morning erections and now post fin they are virtually non existent. Dr. Jacobs thought I was on too low a dosage when I spoke with him, and I am assuming he will increase my synthroid amount. He also questioned why I was on Cytomel, I really couldnt give him an answer. I had all my medical records sent over to him and hopefully my previous endo has in there why he put me on t3.
Adam, ok so you already you have a thyroid issue. I suspect dr jacobs questioned why you are on Cytomel, because it’s a synthetic thyroid. Do some research on the responses most people have when they use a synthetic product verses a natural one. Armour Thyroid and Nature Thyroid are both good products that are natural diseccated Pig Thyroid. Cytomel is a manufactured product.
Check out these two websites, for a further explanation of the two products vs using a synthetic product.
It wasn’t because I was on synthetic, it was because he was wondering why I was on t3 when I am on such a low dosage of synthroid. The average dose for an adult is in the 125 mcg range and my dosage is at 88 mcg. If I was on a higher dosage of t4 and for some reason the conversion was being hindered then cytomel may be warranted is my understanding. I’ll ask Dr. Jacobs when I talk to him again.
