Greetings!
I beleive that Propecia ( I used for androg. type of alopecia) affected my sexual function in severe manner, and that such condition persists in years and years after I quit using of this drug. I was taking this drug from 2000 till 2005, at 1mg dosage in beginning, and afterwards I was taking Proscar 5mg divided in 4 parts (that means 1.25mg/daily).
Immediatley I start using this drug, I notices effects on my ability of achieving and maintaining an erection, but I thought that those simptoms will regress as soon as I quit Proscar (my desire to prevent hair-loss was very strong). Also I notice penile shinkage and (after 3-yrs of using) my testiculars became smaller and eventually paintfull. Also I wasnt able to ejaculate like before, It was much harder for me and I lost ejaculate-quantity I had before taking drug. I lost my spontaneous and morning erections. I quit drug in 2001 for 7-8 months but nothing improved, so I continue to use it ( I thought my problems were in something else).
I didnt pay enough attention on side –effects because in those times I wasnt in long-term relationship and I beleived that I am suffering temporary problems and that they will not last, asspeccialy if I decide to quit on drug. After all, it was farmaceutical drug, approved by American FDA and approved and reccomended by official medical science and medical community (so, I thought that I can quit with it any time without consenquenses). But it did not happened that way. My condition came very bad, I went to urologhyst in 2004. And he prescribed me PDE5 inhibitors, (which worked better at beggining). I had couple of short term relations and had sex only with help of PDE5 inhibitors.
Finnaly, since I couldnt get any excitement or any erection when I went out with one girl in 2005. which I liked very much,I decided to quit on Finasteride. I evaluated problem and concluded that my condition is very searious, since I have no reactions in my penis at all, like it is disconnected from my brain. Also, I had penis shrinkage and testicular disconfort my testiculars also shrunked. I realised the fact that is better to be bald than to lose main attribute which makes me a man.
I think Finasteride did severe and probably ermanent damage to my body because after quitting it, I wasnt able to recover. My problems with ED, penile shinkage, decreased libido, lost morning/spontaneous erections and lost sensitivity in penis persisted.
Also, I would like to ad that from time I took propecia, I noticed that I am lack of energy and I became often very tired (with no reason) and also very hard to concentrate on learning. I noticed that I am forgetting lots of things and having problem to remember things, asppecialy during learning for my exams on college, I studied law. Only with lots of effort, determination and strong will, I was able to finish my college which is very heavy and complicated by itself.
Nowadays (6-yrs after quitting off the drug) I fell worst than ever before. I can hardly achieve some er. (only with long-term stimulation) and I am not able to maintain it at all. I feel no longer much pleasure while having intercor. or during mast. My ejacul. volume is very weak and I fell exausted after only one ejaculation, also I am experiencing testical pain/discomfort after ejaculation. My mind is disconnected from sex.organ. Furthermore, I am experiencing genital numbness and lack of penile sensitivity.
I am taking Cialis or Viagra or Levitra for ED (I tried all PDE5 inhibitors in every possible combinations) but they can help only instantly with major side-effects (such as headache, dizziness ect.) I could achieve some erect. with PDE inhibitors, with various levels of success and sometimes they doesnt help at all. Most of time I lose sex-drive due to headache they causes me. I even took prostagladin injections, but it causes very paintfull (and sensitive-less) erections, and doesnt help me at all in long-way. PDE5 inhibitors also doesnt seem to have results to treat the cause of my condition, in any part or in any way. Those drugs could be of help only instantly (for short period) and after usage of them I feel dizzy, exhausted and with severe pain in my head which can last even whole next day.
When I compare benefits of PDE5 inhibitors with they side-effects, I concluded that I have no justified reason to take them, except as a neccesary help.
I did complete neurological test in order to discover wheather I have nerve-compression in spine and sacral area (nervus tibbialis and nervus pudendalis), but MR showed that I have no such compression. Howewer, when I did specialistic neuro-test called SSEP (evoked potentials), it showed I have neurus tibbialis and nervus pudendus lesion (since signal on relation brain-penis glans was weak), but MR test could not confirm that I have neural compression wich caused neural lesion .
My „T“ levels were high in 2004, and in february 2011 my „T“ levels and free „T“ were very low (like 3 times under lower-line). Urologhyst told me I have hypogonadism and has injected me “Nebido” (Testosterone) and results are: I have normal T levels now, but I have no improvement in my simptoms. Howewer, day after I got Nebido and took Cialis 5mg I could achieve an erection and I felt better due to my ED next couple of days (with Cialis taken in small doses- 5 mg every day and half), but that improvement I felt right after Nebido injection went away in next couple of days since I stop Cialis (which cause me headache, dizzines and neck-pain).
Last month (july 2011) I took some herbal suplemments: DHEA supllement for 7 days and then Tribestan (Bulgarian Tribullus Terrestis, which known as natural hormone-booster) for 10-15 days but with no significant help.
I discovered your forum last month and immediately call my urologhyst to make an appointment. I told him my oppinion about post-finasteride effects in my case and also took him some of materials- articles and researches that published on on forum, but he was reserved about it. These days I made appointment by endochrinologhyst.
Reading your forum helped me to understand that reason for my condition is sex-hormons disbalance and/or problems regarding HPT-axe /androgen-receptors binding problem / neurobiochemical disbalance.
I hope that experiences of people who visiting this forum will help me (and everyone who suffers of post-finasteride effect/condition) to get better and finnaly recover to normal status.
Greetings from Europe, Desperado.