Hello Everyone,
I am 26 year old and I took Proscar (generic Finastride) when I was 23. Initially, I took fin. because I experienced major hair loss at a young age. When I took fin. my hair returned to full volume, and actually, I grew more hair. I thought things were going extremely great and nothing could go wrong. Well, turns out, things can always take a sudden turn. As mentioned, I took fin. for 3 years. My dermatologist said there were no side effects of taking this drug and it generally works out for most people. Well, fast forward to today of 3 years later, I’m experiencing ED.
When I was on fin. for the past 3 years, I was fully satisfied and adequate in sexually performing, able to achieve and maintain full erections, have high sexual interest for females, full and satisfied orgasms, and would routinely masturbate for at least every other day. However, things took a sudden turn lately. This goes back to last week when I was over at a girls house and was about to have sex but I couldn’t maintain my erection. At first, I thought it was the alcohol I was consuming which caused me problems in maintaining an erection. I would get erect, but would lose it quickly. Ok, so I thought it was not a big deal because I was just really drunk. Fast forward a week later, I can’t get an erection. This is truly frightening because everything happened in a matter of one week. The week before this post, I would randomly get erections and I clearly remember getting erect in public. Now, I can’t even do it if I tried. I tried watching porn last night but my penis would not do anything. The weird part is that I had a sex drive going; that is, I want to masturbate, have sex, and think about sex. This is frustrating because just think of this - you want to masturbate or have sex but you can’t get erect. So throughout the night, I had the feeling which was equivalent to ejaculating and reaching and orgasm…BUT I COULDN’T PHYSICALLY DO IT. This is the worst feeling ever because your brain is thinking it is ready to cum, but your penis is not in the mood. As a result, throughout the night, and still as I am typing right now, I have a headache, perhaps its from the sexual hormones not releasing from my head. Although I still receive morning erections since this event, I am unable to spontaneously get an erection or voluntarily get an erection. I also believe my penis has shrunk a bit.
A part of me believes that my ED problem may be psychological because I’ve been reading some posts by people on this forum and just got afraid of the side effects. But then again, only time will tell because there are certain side effects in taking this drug. Also, I was a big time gym rat. I used to go to the gym at least 3 days a week, but most recently, I have not gone to the gym for the past 2 weeks. Perhaps this could be one of the causes? Not sure, but it seems weird that it would be. I will start going to the gym again and do heavy lifts once again, and start eating healthy again to see if this results in any improvements in my body. I used to be a smoker, and I’ve recently been smoke free for a month and a half. I drink, but usually only on the weekends.
I need some advice from you guys. This could be from the drug, in fact, it probably is from the drug. I have not been to the doctor yet, but will eventually do that next week. I plan to go back to my issuing dermatologist to express my concern and ask for a referral to a urologist. In the meantime, as I am making this post, I stopped taking fin for one day. Although it may be too soon to panic, I am quite afraid that this side effect will be for a prolonged period of time. The last time I voluntarily ejaculated through masturbation was on Sunday of this week, so it has been 4 days, and I was still on the drug when during that time. I will wait until next week and see how my body reacts to NOT taking this drug for a whole week. I am planning to go cold turkey with this, that is, completely stop taking it, instead of spacing out doses before quitting like some people have. (I’ve read that there is not much difference, but please correct me if I am wrong). I would greatly appreciate any advice from you guys as to what I should do to mitigate this problem and be on my way to recovery. What should I ask my doctors? Should I ask for viagra? Are there other medications I can use to boost my erection? What is the normal time frame in which everything returns to normal after one stops using fin.? I will also post my experience as I go on so that other people can get an insight as to my experience. Thanks guys!