Welcome to our community. Please fill in the following template as a way of introducing yourself, and helping others to understand your background and situation.
Where are you from (country)? United States.
How did you find this forum (Google search – if so, what search terms? Propecia Help
What is your current age, height, weight? 25, 5’11.5, 170
What specific drug did you use? Finasteride
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? 1mg everyday for eight days
What condition was being treated with the drug? Male Pattern Baldness
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)? 8 days
Date when you started the drug? May 24th, 2025
Date when you quit the drug? June 1st, 2025
Age when you quit? 25
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? Cold turkey.
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects? Three days.
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation? Brutal sexual side effects and slight loss of working memory
Check the boxes that apply. You can save your post first, then interactively check/uncheck the boxes by clicking on them. If your symptoms change, please update your list.
Sexual
[ 
] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] Suicidal Thoughts
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
[ ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
I previously suffered with chronic constipation before finasteride. I’m able to get partial erections from physical touch. I have genital numbing and the brain to groin disconnect, which both of those are by far the most brutal and psychologically distressing sexual side effects so far for me.
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug? I’ve used hydroxyzine 10 MG for sleep, but it doesn’t seem to really help with only getting 2 to 4 hours of sleep I’m getting. I briefly used Wellbutrin 100 SR for two days, but that gave me insomnia and I think made my situation slightly worse.
If you have pre or post-drug blood tests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug (please post your test results in the “Blood Tests” section and link to them in your post)? I had a hormonal board done at the beginning of this month and everything came back good unfortunately which was sort of expected.
Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience?
Tell us your story, in your own words, about your usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
From May 24th, 2025 to June 1st, 2025 I took 1 MG generic oral finasteride for male pattern baldness. I noticed lowered morning erections and an inability to get erections naturally at night with imagination three days into use. My libido also felt the decreased as well. After I quit from eight days of use a side effects persisted. Around the week of July 4, I experienced a horrifying crash. This is when the genital numbing, mind to groin disconnect, additional loss of libido, decreased erections from physical touch from the opposite sex occurred. My morning erections and morning emissions are also weaker which may be contributed to the lack of sleep and increase anxiety this situation will never subside. On top of all this, I’ve been suffering from severe obsessive compulsive disorder, which this has not made any better. The crash also introduced the slightly worse working memory although this could be a byproduct of the brutal stress this brings upon. I’ve also been averaging 2 to 4 hours of sleep and waking up with brutal anxiety but I think this could also be attributed to the OCD regarding the situation and the psychological stress of losing my powerful sex drive at 25. Pre-finasteride I was getting six hours of sleep with intense anxiety due to hair loss but nothing like this. This disorder brings upon horrible thoughts of suicide that I can’t bring myself to act upon to escape this nightmare.
Any ideas on what I can do? My friends and family are aware of this situation and I’ve basically lost my girlfriend. I can’t even feel love anymore, whether that be sexual or not. One of the most painful things is I was aware of PFS but still decide to take this poison anyways. Not a day is gone by I wish I could reverse that, all for hair loss, which is painful.
Thanks for reading my story.