unresolved propecia side effects

COPY AND PASTE THE FOLLOWING INTO YOUR OWN POST, then answer the questions.

  1. Where are you from (country)? Pennsylvania USA

  2. How did you find this forum (Google search – if so, what search terms? Via link from a forum or website – if so, what page? Other?)
    Google search

  3. What is your current age, height, weight?
    31 ,5’9", 170

  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    before propecia, hiking, mountain biking

  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
    healthy

  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)? hair loss

  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    35 days

  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    30, January 17, 2010

  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    30, February 22, 2010

  10. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
    cold turkey

  11. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
    Propecia

  12. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    1mg/day

  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    one month

  14. 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
[x ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ x] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[x ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[ x] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ x] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[x ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ x] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[x ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ x] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ x] Depression / Melancholy

Physical
[ x] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ x] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[x ] Testicular Pain
[x ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ x] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[x ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[x ] Muscle Wastage
[x ] Muscle Weakness
[ x] Joint Pain
[x ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[x ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[x ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)

  1. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
    don’t know what to do

  2. 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)?no rpre tests, but post tests show that my testosterone fell off a cliff and has since come back to the low end of the normal range

  3. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?

I cannot stress enough how much Propecia has completely destroyed my quality of life.

  1. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.

I’ll keep it short but oh so not sweet. I took Propecia for all of 35 days and stopped cold turkey because of extreme sleep disturbance and swelling of my face and chest(gyno). About three weeks after stopping Propecia my living nightmare began. I experience extreme muscle wasting, brain fog, complete loss of libido, ED, bend in penis, shrunked testicles, chronic insomnia(i could not sleep at all), extreme depression and anxiety(i ended up in a psychiatric hospital-not fun), loss of body and facial hair(the hair that remains seems to be coming in lighter and lighter) and after 8 months i am losing hope that i am ever going to get my life back. Please help!

I would recommend getting your blood tested as soon as possible. Your very close to one of the PFS doctors, which is a good thing. These doctors acknowledge the damage that propecia can do to a man’s endocrine system.

Not to be misunderstood, they certainly don’t have a complete understanding of the damage this med can do to a man. They have treated men and been able to offer a degree of improvement. If you go searching on your own for doctor, you may realize it’s a battle just finding a doctor that believes this medicine could have caused your problems.

One thing that grabs my attention about your story is what I have seen over and over again.

This is exactly what happened to me and I have read dozens of posts from guys stating the same. I do want to state that I had a host of different problems prior to quiting, but the many of them started once I quit.

I really feel this is an area that should be looked into more closely and might offer some insight to what caused our problems. We should probably even have a thread dedicated to understanding how many men on this site experienced the same.

In the meantime while your waiting for doctor visits, get some Vit D3. It seems to offer some small help to us.