I started taking propecia about a week ago, but stopped taking it yesterday. I think i was on it for about 4 or 5 days. I noticed that the last time i took it my testicles ached all day, so i decided immediately to stop taking it. I was aware of possible side effects so i was being careful. I feel like maybe my testicles or scrotum shrank after only a 4 or 5 days. When I ejaculated, almost nothing came out, the day before it was thicker but still watery. I am wondering if I can recover from these possible side effects.
Yes this is common because the drug shrinks/atrophies your prostate, and the prostate contributes a lot fluid to ejaculate. Thus, watery/less ejaculate is common side effect of the drug – it’s even listed by Merck as a potential side effect.
The prostate also has a role in maintaining penile health/erection strength via nerve connections to the penis. Note the sticky posts at the top of this sub-forum about how prostate removal/destruction affects penile tissues, length and erections.
Since you’ve only taken it a short amount of time, I would expect things to revert over the next few weeks/months, although it may be a slow process. I know for me, it took awhile for ejaculate to start thickening up (many months) after I took it for 11 months, but now almost 3 years later, it is substantially thicker than it was when I was on Finasteride… but still, less volume compared to before the drug, and the consistency still seems “off”.
One difference since Finasteride, is that I can’t “shoot” with much force compared to before the drug – when I took it, ejaculate weakly oozed out, if at all, and was extremely watery. Now 3 years later, it’s not as bad… sometimes there’s a few weak “pumps” here and there, but generally VERY weak force (before I took it, I used to be able to blast away).
So I’d say you did the right thing in quitting immediately if you were beginning to experience these problems… since the longer one takes it, the more chances there are for problems.
Thanks for the info Mew. I’m just really surprised that all of these side effects came up so quickly, I hadn’t even been on it for a week. I also forgot to mention that I had a painful burning sensation when i ejaculated and right now flaccid, I can still feel burning. I don’t know if that’s just one of the side effects included. I was also wondering since I think my testicles/ scrotum seemed to shrink a bit, if that will return to normal size at all.
Yea, like you, within 3 days of taking Proscar 1.25mg my dick went limp, penis & scrotum started tingling/going numb, found it very hard to maintain erection, and difficult to get turned on by porn.
Stupidly, guys like me and others out there continued on, thinking this was “normal” response to the drug, and that either 1. side effects would resolve if we stayed on longer, as Merck often reports, or 2. most certainly resolve after quitting, as Merck claims.
Unfortunately that has not been the case for the majority here.
A few others have mentioned this. Probably due to tissues being deprived of DHT… but as things come back online this should go away.
propeciahelp.com/forum/viewt … ht=painful
Some guys had this happen (self included)… after quitting the drug, everything – penis/scrotum – shrunk up and “retreated”, all tight. For me, this has not resolved. For others, it has. Most guys don’t have this issue post-Fin, but some here do (like Onni).
Best thing I can suggest is to get bloodwork as outlined at top of Hormones section – propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=92
Read the FAQ at top of site for more info on what may be going on Post-Fin, and don’t worry too much because it’s early days yet.
alright thanks. I’ve got one more question though, lol. Do you think quitting cold turkey, which I did, might cause worse side effects as opposed to weaning off. I felt like I wasn’t taking long enough to have to ween off of it. [/i]
Probably doesn’t matter in the end since it’s nearly impossible to “ween” anyway, due to near-flat dose reponse of the drug.
Others have asked the same question:
propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1377
I should probably update the FAQ as such.
Suggest you read through the site as much as possible to understand things further… the Questions section may be useful to get your bearings.