I started noticing some very slight thinning around the age of 19. My dermatologist recommended Propecia. She didn’t warn me about the potential costs. I suppose it was my burden to research them, but the past is the past. It’s not her fault.
Anyway, the Propecia worked great for the first 2 months. Full head of thick hair and no signs of thinning. However, I started to notice that my erection would only hit 80-90%. It was still functional, just a little odd: I didn’t connect the dots and just figured it was a random occurrence that would go away soon.
One day, about 3 months after I began taking it, my dick died. It felt like the connection between my dick and brain had been severed. I started looking around, panicking, and stumbled across the thousands of warnings from libidoless former users. Too late for me, it seemed.
About a month off the stuff I noticed a nice recovery. My libido was still somewhat low but I could constantly get a 70% hard-on. Within a week, that was gone completely and I was back to the start.
Three months later and my dick is no longer quite dead, but it is a shell of its former self. Sometimes I can get hard enough to get off, other times I can’t. The worst part is I’ll jerk off to test if I’m capable of doing it; it’s never driven by sexual desire anymore. Masturbation reduced to no more than a pseudo-scientific gauging tool, how fucked up is that? I can’t find a relationship because I have no sexual desire. My libido is basically gone, and even when I do get the occasional hard on, it’s kind of numb feeling. I felt like I was improving about a week ago, but the last three days have been more or less flaccid.
I’m lucky, I suppose. I haven’t suffered any mental effects or other obvious physical effects that others complain of. I don’t think I’ve suffered shrinkage, but it’s hard to tell, seeing as I haven’t had a full erection since about 4 months ago. I posted my blood test below but the doctor was more-or-less clueless about Finasteride and didn’t check for all the proper things.
Is there hope with my levels and 3 months of usage, with only slight recovery 3 months after quiting? This shit is going to ruin my life. I’ve kept myself together pretty well emotionally but in the back of my mind I am terrified that I will never return to my former self. I used to be able to have sex three times a day. That’s how it should be: I’m in the prime of my youth. I feel like my life has been stolen from me. It’s not that sex is everything but being a defacto asexual does rob me of many of life’s passions.
Anyone have any experience with Viagra or the like? I could use a crutch, though I’d really hate to suffer a priapism and have my dick fall off after all this mess, though I guess it wouldn’t really matter without a libido eh?
- How did you find this forum?
Scoured the Internet for help.
- What is your current age, height, weight?
20; 5’10; 160 pounds
- Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
Yes, weight lifting 3x week.
- What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
Heavy protein diet with lots of fruit; mostly avoid heavily processed food and never eat fast food
- Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
Early hair thinning
- For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
3 Months
- How old were you when you started Finasteride?
20
- How old were you when you quit?
20
- How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
Cold turkey
- What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
Propecia
- What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
1mg/day
- How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
About 2 months
- What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
Put an X beside all that apply:
Sexual
[ X] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ X] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ X] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ X] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ X] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Depression / Melancholy
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ X] 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
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
- What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
Took some horny goat weed as a crutch. Not sure if it did anything…
- If you have pre or post-Finasteride bloodtests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug (pls post your test results in the “Blood Tests” section and link to them in your post)?
Only post-fin tests were run. I would have gotten pre-fin tests, but well, I wasn’t aware of this whole libido-destroying problem.
TESTOSTERONE - W30227
TESTOSTERONE,TOTAL 510 ng/dL 312 - 1240
FOLL. STIM. HORMONE CMT 4.6 mIU/mL - W30227
LUTEINIZING HORMONE CMT 3.9 mIU/mL - W30227
PROLACTIN 7 ng/mL 4.0 - 15.2 W30227
THYROTROPIN 1.5 mcU/mL 0.3 - 3.8 W30227
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Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
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Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.