Question for long-time members and mods: How valuable is this scientific finding for prediction of duration?

General Discussion
#1

I just found this study from 2017 detailing the duration of persistent erectile dysfunction in young men (16-42 years) after quitting exposure to 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors.

Link: https://peerj.com/articles/3020/

I’m fairly certain most of you have found or read through this particular study at one point.
I was particularly interested in this excerpt:

" Among men 16–42 years old and exposed to finasteride ≤1.25 mg/day, 34 of 4,284 (0.8%) developed PED (persistence median 1,534 days, IQR 651–2,351 days); the multivariable model predicting PED had one variable: duration of 5α-RI exposure. Of 103 young men with new ED, 34 (33%) had new PED. Young men with >205 days of finasteride exposure had 4.9-fold higher risk of PED (NNH 108.2, p < 0.004) than men with shorter exposure."

My question for long-time members and moderators of this forum is:

How often have you seen people get cured from erectile dysfunction after two/three/four years after quitting Fin or any of the other meds? Especially people who have taken Fin for only short periods of time or only a few pills.

As a person who was exposed to Fin for 1 mg for 30 days I wonder if the median of 1534 days (4.2 years) would be a solid guideline for a time it may take for me to recover from my erectile dysfunction naturally?

Right now I find the prospect of being impotent for 4 years rather daunting but at least it’s more comforting to have the idea that it will pass after 4 years than having to live with the idea that this is permanent.

What are your thoughts?

#2

Here’s how I read that excerpt from the PeerJ paper:

The median time of persistence was 1,534 days for this set of men at the time they were assessed. We don’t know anything about if their symptoms stopped later. Any of those men could have seen symptoms continue to this day, or resolve — we don’t know.

The number 1,534 days in the paper is not a median length of persistence until resolution, so we can’t take the number as a guideline for when to expect symptoms to resolve (if at all).

I’ve compiled a bibliography of research [1], and it seems there’s been very little controlled research about what happens after discontinuing finasteride.

The PeerJ paper does say that the primary predictor of developing persistent erectile dysfunction (PED) is how long participants had taken the drug. As the excerpt says, after taking it for 205 days (about 6.5 months), the risk of PED goes up nearly five-fold.

[1] https://finasteride.network

#3

Thanks for the concise answer. I sometimes have trouble deciphering these medical reports.

#4

It’s probably worth noting that unfortunately we have relatively few long term posters who keep us updated on their condition.

As a result, it’s difficult to guess at how many long term members have stopped posting and seen their symptoms improve, how many stay the same, etc.

We have seen some people post for the first time with new accounts to say that they have recovered after a number of years. How much faith you wish to invest in these sorts of stories may vary from account to account.

I am unsure of how likely it is that the period of exposure will be relevant, given what we’ve seen with regard to variability of symptoms and duration of exposure - sometimes very low exposure time brings severe symptoms, sometimes people crash after a long exposure that had no problems before.

My guess is that most can expect to see improvement in symptoms with time. What that time frame may be isn’t something we have data on, but I would agree knowing how long things are supposed to take would make things easier.

Sorry I can’t give you anything more helpful.