Will the Finasteride cause sterility?

[zuohaoyi]

I am a Chinese person, and my English is bad, I will try my best to make himself understood.
I have take the Finasteride for 8 years by the end of 2009. In 2008, my wife plan to be pregnant, but after 1 year, it is still insuccess. Then I took a semen examination, it is found that the sperm counts is ok (50 million per ml), but the energy of the semen is slightly lower (A Level semen is only 16%, the standard is 25%), that is the slight astenozoospermia. The doctor said that this will not cause sterility.
But I am was still afraid the side effect of the Finasteride, therefore, from Nov, 2009, I stop taking the Finasteride. In Sep 2010, I took a semen examination again, the couts rise to 150 million per ml, and the A Level semen rise to 38%, abnormal rate is sligtly higher than the stadard. The doctor said that such semen is quite good. But after that, my wife is still not pregnant, and my hair is sharply reduced.
I really do not know whether the infertile is cuased (or partly caused) by the Finasteride. Could I restart the treatment of the Finasteride? Is there anyone who make his wife conceived after take the Finasteride serveal years?

[martinM]

In simple English: DO NOT TAKE FINASTERIDE AGAIN! We do not know all of the effects. You could end up with a non-functioning penis, so even if you are not sterile you will be unable to impregnate your wife. If you want to have children and enjoy them stop taking this drug and do not start again.

No one here cares about their hair any more.

[bostonusa2009]

zuohaoyi,

Yes, becoming sterile is a common side effect of this medication. It’s interesting that your sperm count wasn’t low inspite of the fact that you took the med for 8 years. I took it less than that and my sperm count was very low.

I went to a uroligist for the same problem your going through. I agree stay the hell away from the poison firstly.

You may have another option if you really want to have kids. In Vitro Fertilization may be an option for you. If you have some healthy sperm, it could work. I know it’s not the natural impregnation process that we all would choose. It’s also very expensive and there is the risk of mulitiple births rather than just a single child. It’s something to consider though. We just don’t know enough about what this drug did to our sperm and our bodies.

[visionquest99]

@martinM

In simple English: DO NOT TAKE FINASTERIDE AGAIN!

The best advice you’ll get on the internet.

[nyer]

I took finasteride and still had a normal sperm count, motility, etc. My sperm was actually in pretty great condition. So I’m not sure if fertility is affected, however there seems to be a chance of this and Dr. Irwig has just launched a new study examining this. As a result (and for an infinite list of other reasons)- DO NOT TAKE FINASTERIDE EVER AGAIN!!!

[zuohaoyi]

Is there anyone who make his wife conceived after take the Finasteride serveal years?

[gefinauser]

I’m interested of this question too.

[kazman]

I have read, somewhere here I think, an anecdotal report about nurses at a top San Francisco fertility clinic, speaking about numerous men who took finasteride in their 20s, and then showed up at their fertility clinic in their 30’s wondering why they could not get their wives pregnant.

[boston332]

TBH this really bothers me. I want to have kids someday. Is there a way to test for this? Do we know the target date for Irwig’s fertility study to be published?

[Oscar]

^Have a sperm test?. I used fin for about 18-24 months. My fertility test said i was borderline ( i am 27).

I should also point out that INFERTILITY IS AN OFFICIALLY RECOGNISED SIDE EFFECT at least in the UK anyway.

[mariobros]

I guess it depends when that was added to the official information. I know that during the meeting to get it approved they claimed there was no effect on fertility. Merck’s official website for Propecia doesn’t say anything about effects on sperm, infact still hasn’t got anything about depression or breast cancer.

propecia.com/finasteride/propecia/consumer/about-propecia-finasteride/possible_side_effects.jsp?WT.svl=2

[zuohaoyi]

Oscar:
Have you ever get your wife pregnant? And can you show that the borderline of your sperm is caused by this drug?

[visionquest99]

Just curious how many guys here had kids while taking or after stopping FIN?

April 13, 2012 – The baldness drug Propecia and the BPH drug Proscar may cause infertility and more sexual problems than previously thought, the FDA warns.

The main ingredient of both drugs is finasteride. Finasteride reduces male hormone activity. A dose of Proscar, used to reduce symptoms of enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia or BPH), has five times more finasteride than a dose of Propecia, used to reduce male pattern hair loss.

Both drugs are known to cause erectile dysfunction in some men. The drugs’ labels already carry this warning.

Now labels on both drugs will include new warnings:

1. Propecia may cause loss of sexual desire, inability to ejaculate, and inability to reach orgasm. These sexual dysfunctions may continue for some time after men stop using the baldness drug.

2. Proscar may cause loss of sexual desire. This may continue for some time after men stop using the drug.

3. [b]Both Propecia and Proscar may cause male infertility and/or poor semen quality. This side effect lessens or goes away after men stop taking the drugs.[/b]

Some subfertile men may experience hormonal changes that result in lower sperm counts.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—A handful of cases suggest that finasteride (Propecia), a treatment for male pattern hair loss, may be harming male fertility.

Finasteride, a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor used to treat BPH, is also available as a 1-mg tablet taken daily by men wishing to prevent hair loss. It now appears that this dosage can decrease total sperm counts in some men with suboptimal fertility. The treatment does not significantly affect overall semen parameters in young, healthy men.

“Propecia is widely used in young men who are preventing hair loss, and the reproductive consequences have never been discussed,” said Kirk Lo, MD, assistant professor in the department of surgery at the University of Toronto in Canada. “It may not be an issue in normal, healthy men, but in the subfertile population perhaps there is a change in the hormonal balance. Propecia may change testosterone and other hormone levels.”

Stopping drug improves sperm

At the American Society for Reproductive Medicine annual meeting here, Dr. Lo and his colleagues reported that they observed sperm concentrations improve significantly in two men six months after they stopped taking finasteride. In one of the men—a 34-year-old with azoospermia—the improvements were strong enough to correct the condition and eliminate the need for testicular biopsy. The patient, who had a preliminary diagnosis of obstructive azoospermia and was scheduled for testicular biopsy, had been taking finasteride 1 mg per day for hair loss for four years.

Several semen analyses over a 12-month period had revealed azoospermia with sperm rarely seen. The man’s follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) level was 3 IU/L, his luteinizing hormone (LH) level was 3.3 IU/L, and his total testosterone level was 23 nmol/L. An examination confirmed normal testicular volume and the presence of bilateral vas deferens.

The man was advised to stop taking finasteride, and 12 weeks after doing so, his sperm concentration was 0.9 2 106/mL. It climbed to 5.5 2 106/mL after six months without the drug. The patient was then told to proceed with other fertility treatments.

In the second case, a 32-year-old male with severe oligospermia had a semen volume of 1.4 mL, sperm concentration of 4 2 106/mL, 14% mo-tility, 5% normal forms, and normal testicular size. He had been taking finasteride 1 mg/day for three years. Three months after he stopped taking the drug, his sperm concentration improved to 6.6 2 106/mL, which rose to 18.7 2 106/mL after

six months.

Dr. Lo said these cases suggest that discontinuing the use of finasteride 1 mg in the infertility population may help improve semen parameters and allow for less invasive fertility treatments. “We now have five cases in total, and at this meeting we are talking to our colleagues who are reporting two or three cases,” Dr. Lo told Renal & Urology News. “So now we are trying to get everyone together so we can report on a bigger series. It may be an issue all over the world because Propecia use is getting more popular, so physicians need to know about this.”

Paul Turek, MD, professor of urology at the University of California, San Francisco, called this is a very important issue. “The FDA does not require fertility studies of these drugs, and it has been the suspicion of most of us in the field that if you take this drug for more than five years then you might consider stopping it because it does look like a player in decreasing spermatogenesis,” he explained. “But this needs to be confirmed, and it may be a good multicenter-institution study to consider undertaking.”

Dr. Turek said he has seen six similar cases and he has encouraged his patients to stop using finasteride for treating hair loss.

From the January 2008 Issue of Renal And Urology News

[Taca]

I believe BostonUSA did

[Ben]

I have been taking proscar 1.25 mg per day per 14 years, I want to have a child now but it is so hard for me to do it, my wife and I are really concern that this could be permanent, it would just ruin our brand new marriage, what should I do?do you know of any men who can conceive taking this drug for so long ? Should I stop taking it forever?is it possible we can conceive taking the pill?

[binaryboy]

I am Mexican, and really suffered a lot because of the problem of azoospermia; prayed to God that compose the problem I mentioned, since I did not know it was so dangerous medicine regardless of the size of the dose, I took a quarter of tablet every 24 hours, at 2 pm, trying to be on time and not take overdose. Thank God, he made a very big miracle, I have a healthy daughter, as several Mexican Doctors by ignorance of the grave harm that may result finasteride, thought my problem had nothing to do with it and did not give me hope . Thank God, I say, my daughter is healthy, because a doctor who I have as a parent, I explained that there were risks that had made immobile sperm she was born with malformations, but God is present among us again, I want to share to the world still can hope, God has helped me a lot with my problems, and I coprobado that no matter if it is health, money, or love, there is always hope in him, and I cried every day at church, and to leave the medicine, I went at 2 months to make a sperm analysis, and to my surprise there were already thousands, and after that, at 3 to 4 months or so my wife gets pregnant. It is clear that finasteride is too serious a problem, even that I never caused the effect of lowering the sex drive, as I have always been a very hot man. I look forward to sharing my experience, and worldwide know that God exists, that finasteride is bad, and know that as men or women, are at risk. I speak little English, but I’m here.

Mexican Language: Soy Mexicano, y la verdad sufrí mucho por el problema de la azoospermia; rogué mucho a Dios que me compusiera del problema mencionado, ya que yo no sabía que la medicina era tan peligrosa sin importar el tamaño de la dosis; yo tomaba un cuarto de tableta cada 24 horas, a las 2 pm, tratando de ser puntual y no tomar sobredosis. Gracias a Dios, hizo un milagro muy grande, tengo una hija sana, ya que varios Doctores mexicanos por el desconocimiento del daño tan grave que puede ocasionar la finasterida, pensaban que mi problema no tenía nada que ver con el mismo y no me dieron esperanzas. Gracias a Dios, repito, está sana mi hija, porque un Médico que tengo como padre, me explicó que había riesgos de que los espermas inmóviles hubieran hecho que ella naciera con malformaciones, pero Dios está presente nuevamente entre nosotros; quiero compartir al mundo entero que aún pueden tener esperanzas, Dios me ha ayudado mucho con mi problemas, y he coprobado que no importa si es de salud, dinero, o amor, siempre hay esperanzas en él; yo lloraba todos los días en la iglesia, y al dejar la medicina, me fui a los 2 meses a hacer un análisis de espermas, y para mi sorpresa ya existian miles, y después de eso, a los 3 o 4 meses aproximadamente mi esposa sale embarazada. Esta claro que la finasterida es un problema demasiado grave, aun que a mi nunca me causo el efecto de bajar el libido sexual, ya que siempre he sido un hombre muy caliente. Espero poder poder compartir mi experiencia, y que en todo el mundo sepan que Dios existe, que la finasterida es mala, y que sepan que como hombres o mujeres, corren peligro. Hablo poco inglés, pero estoy aquí.

[Ctrlv]

I would never have children, spread the gen baldness sucks. My opinion.

[danny_francis]

Is not that baldness sucks? It’s our and certainly my failure to accept that its part of evolution for some has cost us dear. I look at bald guys with envy now, they didn’t care too much about hair and are laughing can have sex as much as they want. Confidence is greater than hair it just took me way too long to realise it