Finasteride killed my sex life

[dimdim]

Hello all. First, sorry for my English, I'm Russian.

I'm 28. One month ago, I took about 1 mg of finasteride (about one fifth of the 5-mg pill). A few hours later my penis has become numb. I could not achieve a full erection. Spontaneous erections are gone. I went to bed and fell asleep, but awoke in the night and felt a terrible panic attack. I did not sleep till morning. In the morning I discovered that my face (especially the upper lip) swollen. Fortunately, swelling had gone by the end of the day. The next day, I found that I almost did not have stubble on my upper lip (where there was swelling). I immediately started looking for information on the Internet. I took tamoxifen (10 to 30 mg daily) for 3 weeks to block estrogen and increase testosterone production. Besides, I was taking 50 mg of L-thyroxin every day to speed metabolism, because my TSH is a little high (but within the range). I also eat lots of broccoli. During this time I began to feel better mentally, my stubble on his upper lip began to grow a little better. I am sure that now I have high testosterone (I'm going to do a blood test at the end of next month, now I have no money), but I still do not have morning and spontaneous erections. My penis seems to have become smaller. I still can not achieve a full erection during masturbation, although my libido is high. Fortunately, I have not had any pain in the testicles or watery ejaculate. Before taking this pill my testosterone and dihydrotestosterone were high (T: 700-800 mg / dl, DHT was twice the upper limit of the range).

I am shocked. I do not believe that 1 mg of this stuff can lead to irreversible consequences. I want to kick in the balls who allowed the use of finasteride as a drug.

Please, somebody help me. I know that the half-life finasteride complexes with 5-alpha-reductase about 30 days. So, probably not enough time has passed. But I am very depressed.

 

[abcdefg]

Side effects for propecia include ED so yeah its a known side effect. Stop taking the drug and it should go back to normal but your hair probably will too.

 

[Bryan]

Please, somebody help me. I know that the half-life finasteride complexes with 5-alpha-reductase about 30 days. So, probably not enough time has passed. But I am very depressed.

Blood levels of DHT after taking the last dose of finasteride are almost back to "normal" after 7 days, and certainly so after 2 weeks; I'm not sure what you meant in the paragraph above.

How many different doses of finasteride have you taken?

 

[dimdim]

Stop taking the drug and it should go back to normal but your hair probably will too.

I stopped taking the drug a month ago.

Blood levels of DHT after taking the last dose of finasteride are almost back to "normal" after 7 days, and certainly so after 2 weeks; I'm not sure what you meant in the paragraph above.

The turnover for the enzyme complex is slow (t1/2 approximately 30 days for the Type II enzyme complex and 14 days for the Type I complex).
http://www.rxmed.com/b.main/b2.phar...hs/CPS- (General Monographs- P)/PROPECIA.html

How many different doses of finasteride have you taken?

I took 1 mg. Only once.

 

[wstef]

So, let me clear things up... you took 1mg of finasteride, once in your entire life, and now you have devastating issues?

I am always sceptical with the internet, but if 1mg done that to you then something is wrong. Possibly an adverse reaction to it.

I am not sure 1mg, only once, is enough to do much at all because what finasteride does is block DHT from being formed. It doesn't remove any DHT in your body currently (so I am to believe?)

I think this would be the equivalent of "I took 1 paracetamol and now I can't feel any pain at all, ever"

See a doctor.

 

[Chris87]

Yeah I mean to say you took 1mg 1 time and just hours later you were completely fucked up is a bit hard to believe...i think some of your problem may be in your head man..placebo effect of some sort.

There is no way finasteride is going to do damage within hours of taking 1 pill. Your DHT levels would be the same at that point

 

[dimdim]

Chris87

My facial hair is still not growing as well as before finasteride (although there is improvement). It's in my head? LOL.

 

[Wuffer]

This sounds like a fairly classic description of someone who is experiencing psychosomatic symptoms due to anxiety. Namely, the fact that you experienced a panic attack and recognize the symptoms enough to identify the attack indicates that you suffer or have suffered from an anxiety condition, which makes you much more prone to these types of symptoms than the average person.

I can't fathom any explanation for how finasteride could induce a physiological reaction to the degree that you are describing within 2 hours. Genital numbness is not a known side effect of finasteride. In very rare cases, finasteride can potentially cause depression in individuals susceptible to it, which is linked to anxiety. However, this would progress over time and would not happen overnight, especially to the degree that you would experience a panic attack.

You appear to display some telltale signs of hypochondria, depression and anxiety; do you currently see a psychiatrist or have you been diagnosed with any these disorders? I would recommend you speak with your doctor to obtain a referral.

As for an explanation of your symptoms, I believe it is all linked to anxiety, which likely existed before you started on finasteride. I assume you were hesitant about taking the medication from the start, and excessively worried if you would react negatively to it?

Extreme anxiety can cause numbness in the extremities, such as hands, feet, genitals, face, lips, and so on. Of course anxiety is a very well known cause of erectile dysfunction. It also explains your panic attack. It does not explain the fact that your lip was swollen. Possibly it was unrelated, but it could have potentially been an allergic reaction to the medication as well. However, this doesn't make sense either, as an allergic reaction would likely happen shortly after taking the medicine.

Are you certain your lip was swollen? I can guarantee you that finasteride did not cause you to lose the hair on your lip overnight, yet nowhere else on your body. Are you certain you did not shave at night or something and not remember?

 

[kehcorpz]

It really comes down to genetics. There are many factors involved including psychosamatic factors mentioned above. It seems that the majority of people in the population do not have their sex drives affected. It's like some people are left handed and most are right handed. There are millions, yes, millions of people on propecia and are doing fine. You just ended up left handed unfortunately.

Propecia actually increased my sex drive. Granted I've been on anti-depressants and propecia so any of those could have done it.

In the biology of hormones testosterone gets converted to DHT but it can also get converted to estrogen. It can also get bound to SGBH. Now if you decrease 5-ar which converts testosterone to DHT you may have been in a position where the only thing stopping that testosterone from being aromatized by aromatase enzyme is 5-ar. Now 5-ar isn't a big factor so aromatase is free to bind to the testosterone and increase estrogen. I think this is what causes the sex drive issues for people who actually have real physical and non psychosamatic problems.

You may ask your doctor what he thinks about an anti-aromatase as well, to experiment. But decreasing estrogen also has its consequences on health. So monitor all your hormones.

 

[Chris87]

This sounds like a fairly classic description of someone who is experiencing psychosomatic symptoms due to anxiety. Namely, the fact that you experienced a panic attack and recognize the symptoms enough to identify the attack indicates that you suffer or have suffered from an anxiety condition, which makes you much more prone to these types of symptoms than the average person.

I can't fathom any explanation for how finasteride could induce a physiological reaction to the degree that you are describing within 2 hours. Genital numbness is not a known side effect of finasteride. In very rare cases, finasteride can potentially cause depression in individuals susceptible to it, which is linked to anxiety. However, this would progress over time and would not happen overnight, especially to the degree that you would experience a panic attack.

You appear to display some telltale signs of hypochondria, depression and anxiety; do you currently see a psychiatrist or have you been diagnosed with any these disorders? I would recommend you speak with your doctor to obtain a referral.

As for an explanation of your symptoms, I believe it is all linked to anxiety, which likely existed before you started on finasteride. I assume you were hesitant about taking the medication from the start, and excessively worried if you would react negatively to it?

Extreme anxiety can cause numbness in the extremities, such as hands, feet, genitals, face, lips, and so on. Of course anxiety is a very well known cause of erectile dysfunction. It also explains your panic attack. It does not explain the fact that your lip was swollen. Possibly it was unrelated, but it could have potentially been an allergic reaction to the medication as well. However, this doesn't make sense either, as an allergic reaction would likely happen shortly after taking the medicine.

Are you certain your lip was swollen? I can guarantee you that finasteride did not cause you to lose the hair on your lip overnight, yet nowhere else on your body. Are you certain you did not shave at night or something and not remember?

I have no doubt that finasteride can cause genital numbness (not complete numbness, but a noticeable loss in sensation..like a very light anesthetic has been applied) I experienced this when first starting finasteride (my body has adjusted and this has gone away)..but i don't believe it can occur in 2 hours...i mean i just don't think its physiologically possible for finasteride to take such serious effect in that time span...but..ya know..weirder things have happened....i don't like to doubt people who say they have side effects from finasteride because i nkow its real...the first go-around i had with finasteride i definitely had several side effects (i'm on my second try with finasteride and am doing much better than the first)

 

[pidda]

finasteride might have done some strange *** things to my sex drive but it definitively didn't reduce it. but its only been 2 months.