Are the side effects of Propecia worse than claimed?

[kenny1999]

Some of the people in other hair loss forums of my local area comment that after use of Propecia for a year or two their sexual abilities are GREATLY affected and some even emphasizes that they are ejaculating watery semen. I have a good friend, he is an honest man and he said that after using Propecia for three months he loses all his interest in sex but he was once very 'hungry' for sex . Many of them say that even they have stopped using Propecia they couldn't get rid of the adverse effect. I am very worried. The side effects explained by real people on forums seem much worse than those claimed by the medical label.

Does anyone give me honest comment on whether I should continue using Propecia? I only start to use it today.

 

[IrishFella]

Well I'm on it 4 months now and I have no change except I'm much happier. Something tells me either way you are going to get side effects, because you have your mindset on them.

 

[oldmpber]

Some of the people in other hair loss forums of my local area comment that after use of Propecia for a year or two their sexual abilities are GREATLY affected and some even emphasizes that they are ejaculating watery semen. I have a good friend, he is an honest man and he said that after using Propecia for three months he loses all his interest in sex but he was once very 'hungry' for sex . Many of them say that even they have stopped using Propecia they couldn't get rid of the adverse effect. I am very worried. The side effects explained by real people on forums seem much worse than those claimed by the medical label.

Does anyone give me honest comment on whether I should continue using Propecia? I only start to use it today.

I had bad sides after 3 years but looking back finasteride probably was probably a contributor rather than the sole cause. Will never know for sure.

I was on another site and the Dr was saying that some of his patients only use finasteride anywhere from 3 to 1 times a week if they are sensitive to finasteride This is mostly older guys from what he said.

I just started back yesterday on a low dose and will only use it 2 times a week to start off with to make sure there are no problems. You may want to do something similar as well if you are concerned.

 

[kenny1999]

Some of the people in other hair loss forums of my local area comment that after use of Propecia for a year or two their sexual abilities are GREATLY affected and some even emphasizes that they are ejaculating watery semen. I have a good friend, he is an honest man and he said that after using Propecia for three months he loses all his interest in sex but he was once very 'hungry' for sex . Many of them say that even they have stopped using Propecia they couldn't get rid of the adverse effect. I am very worried. The side effects explained by real people on forums seem much worse than those claimed by the medical label.

Does anyone give me honest comment on whether I should continue using Propecia? I only start to use it today.

I had bad sides after 3 years but looking back finasteride probably was probably a contributor rather than the sole cause. Will never know for sure.

I was on another site and the Dr was saying that some of his patients only use finasteride anywhere from 3 to 1 times a week if they are sensitive to finasteride This is mostly older guys from what he said.

I just started back yesterday on a low dose and will only use it 2 times a week to start off with to make sure there are no problems. You may want to do something similar as well if you are concerned.

I think I will not take it for a life-time, I think when I get to 40 or older when I am not concerned about my outlook anymore I will try to use less Propecia. May be 2-3 tablets a week instead of 1 tablet a day. I am not sure if it is the best "plan" for my hair treatment.

 

[wstef]

The Internet makes everything worse than claimed.

You'd probably be able to find articles somewhere which suggest water gives you cancer, or asprin causes a penis to turn into a vagina. With a few exceptions, you only generally hear the negative sides of things like this. Why would someone come on and say "hey, I am fine"?

I always say that if the effects were more dramatic than reported, then why is the drug not banned?

In the UK most Doctors work for the NHS, so they have no "tie ins" with any drug companies, so if they were getting lots of reports of the negative effects of Propecia then something would be done about it.

However, I think before prescribing drugs like finasteride, a person should have a proper test for hormone levels and if there's any abnormalities then these should be addressed first (e.g. if there's already a higher than normal amount of oestrogen).


I have been on Propecia for just over a month and at the beginning - for less than a week - my orgasm wasn't as great as it used to be. A week later there was no change, no watery semen, no erection problems... in fact I feel more randy now then I ever did. I'm not sure if this is psychological or not...

 

[Wuffer]

Side effects from finasteride in the general public are generally going to be much more common than is reflected in medical studies, primarily due to psychosomatic reasons. There was a study that showed men who were simply told by their doctor that X hair loss treatment (finasteride) could rarely cause sexual side effects actually caused them in as much as 5 times as many men, versus a group who were not told this, but taking the same drug. When you throw the online hysteria into the mix, I believe this effect is amplified quite significantly. Sexual function has been shown to be extremely sensitive to this psychosomatic effect.

When you remove this quite significant vector as is achieved in placebo controlled studies, side effect rates for decreased libido and ED are consistently shown to occur in approximately 2% of men. Also, after a year of treatment, there is little to no difference in terms of side effects between placebo and control groups. The only exception is decreased ejaculate volume, which can persist indefinitely while continuing treatment.

As another very clear example of this, do some research on aspartame. This is the most frequently studied food additive in history, and has been repeatedly shown to be completely safe hundreds of times over. There is absolutely no question how safe this is; yet you can find hundreds of thousands of people online saying that it absolutely ruined their lives and caused every side effect under the sun.

I believe this is an explanation for most of the complains you hear about, but of course the drug can and does cause side effects.