Hello everyone. I have been following your posts for a couple of months now but thought by sharing my story it may help me learn to cope with what is happening.
I am 26. I took finasteride 1mg daily for about 12 months, during which my hairloss stopped and I mostly experienced no side effects. Towards the end of the 12 months I noticed there were a couple of times I couldn’t have sex with my girlfriend - I just couldn’t get it up. This made me decide to stop finasteride.
That was about 8 months ago, and since then things have become much worse. And I didn’t know why I was feeling the way I was until I read your posts and realised that I could identify with many of you.
Basically, I have only 25% of my usual erection power. My penis is constantly inflamed at the tip and foreskin. Parts which used to be pleasurable are now sore to touch. Physically I feel tired a lot of the time. Mentally I am just as bad. I do experience this ‘brain fog’, where my head feels heavy and I can’t concentrate or think properly. But the worst is the anxiety. I feel nauseously sick with anxiety quite often.
So I went to the Dr for help. The first one told me it was all in my head. He gave me cialis to try (which works but it still hurts to have sex) and said I would get over it. He dismissed my propecia theories. I am an educated person and he really offended me.
Second Dr diagnosed me with zoons balanitis, an inflammatory condition of the penis. He said to try a steroid cream for 2 weeks and this would fix my penis discomfort and later should allow my erections to return, but so far no good.
So I went to a third doctor who is investigating further. He is a specialist physician, who I was referred to by one of the other Drs who decided I might have chronic fatigue syndrome. He doesn’t know much about propecia, but agrees its a nasty sounding drug. He said I was stupid for taking it (in a nice way). I have had many blood tests:
My Testosterone is in the normal range but at the low end of the scale. ie 16, normal range (11-40)
Free T is about the same, at the bottom end but with the normal scale.
My Estradiol is actually slightly lower than the bottom of the normal range.
But the Dr and I don’t know what to do next. Sometimes I feel like I’m in hell, other times I feel mentally strong enough to learn to cope with it. Occasionally I have felt suicidal from my symptoms and the apparent lack of help available from the medical community.
The one thing I do have going for me is that my girlfriend is very loving and understanding. Without her I would have given up by now. I just want to get better so I can be the man she wants me to be.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to go next? There are so many theories and treatments listed on this website, but is there a concensus on the best course of action and the reason why propecia has done this to me?