Recently Quit Propecia less than 5 days ago

Member Stories
#1

Hello:

I am From the United States, I found this forum online. Search Terms were something similar to “how long propecia side effects last.” I am 27, 5" 7.5’, 158 lbs. I have not exercised regularly in about 2 months due to some minor surgeries (completely unrelated) following participation in a 11 mile athletic event. Normally I would work out about 3-5 days a week, calisthenics and then alternating weightlifting. I am a non strict paleo diet eater, basically natural meats and vegetables, almost nothing else.

I started taking 1mg Propecia, daily, about 3 weeks ago. I stopped immediately after feeling:

Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
Erectile Dysfunction
Loss of Morning Erections
Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
Loss of Spontaneous Erections
Loss of Nocturnal Erections
Flaccid & Erect Penis Size Reduction

I quit cold turkey on sunday, and there is no way I can take continue Propecia. It is still possible for me to orgasm, but it takes longer to concentrate, and sometimes I can’t or don’t feel sexually stimulated to even initiate the process.

I am taking no other supplements at all. The side effects, which somehow I didn’t notice them affecting me, became completely clear at week 3.

I have not taken the medication for 4 days, and all of the above symptoms are still prevalent except my flaccid penis size normalized.
I have taken some libido pills for the past 24 hours, but haven’t noticed any difference yet (generic ones from the vitamin shop).

I wasn’t aware of how serious the side effects were, if any one would have asked me to take blood tests previous to using Propecia I would have never initiated supplementing it.

[b]What I’m getting down to here, is some general questions:

Has anyone experience side effects so early after taking this medication?
If so, how long before you felt “back to normal?” or at least “functional?”
Should I just expect this to continue to be a problem from now on? (since I haven’t noticed reading any real “successful” recoveries)
Any general advice???[/b]

I really can barely function sexually. When I am with this girl now, it’s questionable if I can even get an erection, which is nuts, bec I am still completely into her, and turned on by everything. Somehow I was even able to ejaculate during sex the day before I quit the medecine (also strange).

I don’t operate in this “fog” people have described on this board before, the sexual side effects which were directly related to depression and anxiety is what I’ve experienced. Let me know if anybody can relate to being on Propecia such a short time, and experience such extreme side effects and or if they ever resolved after discontinuing use.

#2

EDIT: i’m definitely saying the following while keeping in mind of my/our own experience’s with finasteride and with the possibility that you could bounce back into health. So i’m not keeping anything secret from you and the health advise are good/correct regardless of the outcome.

Yeah, definitely dude. I got hit by all the worst side-effect after 31 days of use and some got bad symptons just from couple of days. Some get SE’s after years. So it’s a special kind of russian roulette really! I got my bad end a little over a year ago.
So you might or might not recover from now on (like couple of months from here on) buuut since you were already affected that much then think of your life as a recovery phase anyways. Your diet is good and regular excersizing habits are great for this condition, as is sunlight. Keep doing all of those. Take it easy, don’t overstress yourself (especially over the recovery, try not to think about it), avoid alcohol and uh i guess spices and sugar (but you are already avoiding the latter). Don’t eat like shit. Don’t masturbate several times a day, take it easier on that too.

Before you fall into hopelessness yourself, a word of a warning: there’s lot of depressed regulars here who will only paint dark future for you. Don’t go into that. You are actually lucky so far with no brainfog or cognitive issues, because as you can imagine those things will cripple people from working to get money for treatments etc. Just give a big fuck you to the depression from the start and get in terms with your new life and goal (RECOVERY). It can take however long as possible but aim to the goal only. Women come and go but your health is a priority.

On a positive note, lot of people here have found various ways to recover from this so there is a chance in recovery. You’re going to need a lot of time for studying internet sites, money for treatments (so have a stable plan for that) and a good attitude.

I sound idk positive or light in my tone but like this IS dead serious thing but there are two ways to deal with this. Either you fall into constant mourning and depression and lost energy or you focus all your remaining energy, focus and power into good things and progress and possible treatments.

Anyways, you can get into reading stuff here/ask people here stuff OR you can do as the site advices and wait for couple of months to see if you bounce back into health somehow. Remember, your diet is good and regular excersizing habits are great for this condition, as is sunlight. Keep doing all of those.

#3

It is very early days yet for you, since you just quit 5 days ago. Hopefully you will see improvements in coming weeks/months. You may notice a feeling of androgen/DHT surging back in your body (ie, blood boiling, aggressiveness, increase in sex drive etc) around 10-14 days after stopping, as 5AR2 is no longer being inhibited by Finasteride.

I personally had side effects start within 3 days of taking the medication, but rationalized it as “adjusting to the drug” at the time.

If you are concerned, I would get blood tests within next few days as listed here: viewtopic.php?p=3534#p3534

This will enable you to have a snapshot of where your hormones are at after being on the drug, to compare against should your issues continue in the future.

In meantime get plenty of rest, eat healthy and do not overly stress yourself or your body. Hopefully you will be in the camp of guys who recover naturally after stopping, per the drug manufacturer’s claims. I would not obsess about things yet or be too concerned, and reading this site at this stage will probably only fuel anxiety which may not be necessary in the end.

#4

:unamused: What i MEANT to say effectively but i ain’t effective… my health advise still applies for the following months. Remember those and come back if things don’t improve.

#5

Thanks, this is very helpful to know I am still going to be improving.

I think I’ll be fine, I can tell already that I am slowly coming back… and after looking at some other posts on the half life of the drug, I think it’ll be another 10-15 days (Exactly Mew) before I can expect to even know what the real difference will be. I’ll be back up here again and repost the progress, or if I feel a significant changes.

also forgot to mention a serious decrease in appetite, however, that could be linked to me not being so involved in athletics in the past 2 months…

bottom line, I just can’t believe I was prescribed to that junk & there is obviously something very evil Merk did or did not know about this stuff. It bothers me to know that there are people who are getting successful treatment from Propecia, and it very may well be doing some unperceived damage to them.

#6

Rudyard,
I am pretty sure you will recover. Don’t panic (I know it is difficult). Most people recover. Unfortunately, there are some (including me) who don’t.
Take it as a present of god once you have recovered and go on with your life.

#7

An update:

Last night I begin to feel the “crash” associated with Propecia, and is often described on the blog. I wanted to give a more detailed account on my experiences.

I counted the pills I took to be sure, and indeed I have 12 left, so I took 18 total days of the prescription. So slightly less than the 3 weeks, which is what I initially posted.

Eating a whole meal has been difficult since day 3. I get hungry as normal, try to eat, and then become nauseous. So i force my self to eat by draggin out breakfast almost into lunch. This actually is working really well so far.

Last night (Day 5):
Out of nowhere I suffered an anxiety attack. I’ve had 3 in my entire life, two have been since I discontinued the drug. The other wasn’t as severe (on day 4) I had to leave from hanging out with this girl at a bar and drive home because I was almost shaking.

When I got home I did whatever I could to calm down, and it was very intense. So about two hours later I finally try to go to sleep and I have this huge burst of energy, must be the androgen surge, so I never completely went to sleep last night.

Today (Day 6):
I immediately woke up with a slight erection. Not full or anything but hasen’t happened since I started the medication, which in my opinion is a significant mental step in the recovery. However, I noticed tension in my testicles. Both of them. This has also been described on this blog before. They weren’t intense enough to be considered painful but absolutely discomforting at their worse.

The worst side effect, by far, was the extreme anxiety all day, I felt terrible. Drug out breakfast into lunch again. At two points I was so damn hot I had to walk into another room, in the office, and take off a few layers of clothing. I even laid on my office floor because the temperature of the carpet significantly reduced my body temperature. << Note: this is an possible sign of low testosterone, according to wikipedia.

At some point around 4ish. I felt a lot more normal as far as the anxiety, and the heat flash. That part is over I believe. I still feel the tension in my testicles, and I’m still experiencing eating problems. It’s impossible for me to focus on the original side effects now, because when you have that much anxiety or can’t eat, your brain automatically will shut off any thought process aimed at sex. In my brain, I feel pretty normal now. I checked to see if I could get an erection earlier and it was def stronger, and sustained easier than in the last 5 days, However, I it’s difficult to go there right now, just a test really.

That’s where I’m at. I have a feeling the “crash’s” side effects are over and it’ll be weird coming back, but I feel better as time goes on. Still no “brain fog” and this includes receiving about half as much sleep as normal. I’m going to keep up the “all natural” cure and not take anything, if the side effects are still bad by Sunday, I’ll give my doctor a call and go from there. But I went ahead and took the Monday holiday, and took an additional day off afterwards, so I can get some rest and just take it easy. Updated.

#8

Since February, I’ve had some progress.

About a month ago I could finally get an erection, a completely full one at that. I think I’ve elevated into the category of those who are having some good days and then some bad ones. A few weeks ago I thought I was completely cured, however, this week I dropped back into the department of being able to “perform” with no libido, but also with no help from drugs.

I’ve probably masturbated twice total since Feb. It blows my mind how people on this site can still do that regularly. It was only recently that I could even look at porn and, with stimulation, actually go though the motions. On the other hand, I have an arsenal of sex medications I took in order to have sex with my gf. I have been getting nocturnal and morning erections occasionally, they just aren’t full ones. No idea what that means…

I do have a lack of sensation, I’m not even sure if I would call it that, but it’s definitely almost impossible to orgasm without actually having sex. I have barely noticed any difference in that department. As far as libido, it’s waned back and fourth in the past month or so, but nothing back to the ordinary there.

I did try a few supplements here and there, like vitamin D, zinc, macca, iodine and a handful of others, but after reading hundreds of posts and searching on this site, I haven’t seen anything consistant to arise. So I stopped all of them in May.

I did get a short round of blood tests, and had a semen analysis.

The first was thyroid and Testosterone.
My Thyroid was fine ( I will call and ge the exact results) and my Test was 802 (300 -1,000 ng/dL).
The seamen analysis came back with very poor results. I was producing about 1mil sperm, and it was barely moving, which confused the hell out of the doctor, and he said the only way that is possible is from some sort of chemical interference…(my testicles were as close as you can get to not producing sperm, without actually stopping…normally that would show up as a 0)

It’s a good point to note here: I’m in Atlanta, GA. and both the family practice doctor (blood tests) and the Urologist were aware of the effects of Propecia to a degree, however, neither could offer help except for telling me what I already knew (stay away from it, and it could possible effect your Testosterone levels). I did get the run-around from the family practice doctor about going to see a physiatrist. I didn’t bite on that, but did get help from pharmaceuticals to help in the sex department.

About a month ago I had the experience of getting my GF pregnant, but unfortunately the embryo stopped growing around 5 weeks. Of course in my head, and after the analysis results, I blame Propecia. However we’ll never actually know what really happened.

So for now that’s where I am at the moment.
I’d like to say that my body is slowly recovering…if I keep this track up. I think I’d be in the minority of people who recover within an 18 month time period. Unfortunately, I have done very little to aid my recovery. I just exercise and eat healthy, much like I did before ingesting this poison.

I’m hoping for the best for everyone, including a huge lawsuit, and a remedy. I don’t feel like this is incurable. If I can feel better after having months of slight progress, it seems to point towards a tilt in the system, not so much permanent damage.

#9

How does your semen look like? Did you notice a change? It’s strange you got such a low sperm count. I had it quite low also, but now it’s totally normal. And I also managed to get my girlfriend pregnant which gave me a lot hope. But still, my semen doesn’t look like it did before and that drives me mad.

#10

It looks similar, just a little more watered down. Isn’t really thick. I noticed it about 3 or 4 months off. Went to get it checked out and it was so bad the doc couldn’t believe it. He just kept saying it was very odd why it would be so low, and not zero.

I haven’t gotten a full panel of bloods drawn, and I won’t really be able to for awhile. But he suggested absolutely checking estrogen, LH and FSH levels. I haven’t really noticed any improvements in that department, then again, I’m really not inclined at all to check it out bec I have no desire for sex.

I would absolutely say I am sub fertile with those figures, the count wasn’t the only abnormal reading, I believe their was another one as well. I’ll eventually call and get the test faxed again bec my family practice doc won’t let me draw blood for Testing without a good reason.

#11

So you’re saying that your semen changed not on the drug, but 3-4 months after quitting? It gets even more confusing…

#12

That’s just when I noticed it