I need help, had to quit finasteride, Heart Palpitations, horrible!!

[OhioGuy]

Finfighter, you have also stated your body can't tolerate minoxidil. What happened with you and minoxidil?

Well I took minoxidil for a total of 4 months, that was before I started Finasteride. I basically had all of the symptoms of Oral Minoxidil use, I had water retention in my face, horrible dark under eye circles, and eventually I started having heart issues, I only had those around three times, but they were so scary and unlike anytyhing that I have ever experienced in my life. They would primarily happen when I would lay down, it was a strange feeling of slow and very heavy heart beats in my chest, it was almost like my heart was slowing down and having trouble pumping, it was to much!

The poster ''Timallan'' (who posted on this thread) had a similar problem, he had to quit both minoxidil and finasteride also...

So it's fair to say minx and finasteride caused heart problems for you?

 

[OhioGuy]

Also isn't minoxidil a topical treatment that runs down the shaft of the hair too? I feel the sides of RU could be similar to minoxidil.
(from a heart standpoint)

 

[LooseItAll]

minoxidil is really dangerous. I was using it once a day over 1 ml on the entire balding area and after that I was getting heart pains. At first I thought it was breast pain from topical spironolactone but it started to spread to entire chest area. Once I downgraded my daily dosage to 0.5 ml covering only the thinning area everything went back to normal.

 

[LooseItAll]

minoxidil is really dangerous. I was using it once a day over 1 ml on the entire balding area and after that I was getting heart pains. At first I thought it was breast pain from topical spironolactone but it started to spread to entire chest area. Once I downgraded my daily dosage to 0.5 ml covering only the thinning area everything went back to normal.

It's good to hear that you were able to resolve your symtoms with this dose. Did you have any other side effects?

Minoxidil can be dangerous for some people, during the clinical trials for Topical Minoxidil, two of the test subjects actually died, they were found to have undiagnosed conditions that the minoxidil triggered, but still...

No i didn't. Just a strange feeling in the scalp after applying and it got a little harder to breathe.

2 people died, seriously? Now you got me scared

 

[OhioGuy]

I'm hoping I find out minoxidil is the cause of my heart issues and not finasteride. Would like to stay on finasteride as ive had no sexual sides and it has been working so good. Although, guys like enden have me scared shitless.

 

[LooseItAll]

Well maybe you could also try a lower dose if you are getting problems with a normal dose but in the end minoxidil is just a growth stimulator so I guess if it is causing serious sides it is better to not bother with it as it does not address male pattern baldness anyway.

 

[OhioGuy]

Thanks for the input. The last few days Ive used a lower dose of finasteride and no minoxidil. So far so good. No heart irregularities.

 

[OhioGuy]

Thanks for the input. The last few days Ive used a lower dose of finasteride and no minoxidil. So far so good. No heart irregularities.

Well that's good give it at least a month, and you should have a good idea if it was from the minoxidil, it may have been, sense cardio side effects are more common from minoxidil than finasteride...

Keep us updated.

Also, were your side effects worsened by stimulants (Caffeine/Nicotine) or after a night of binge drinking? Mine were...[

Yes. Definitely after a night of heavy drinking. I used to get heart palpitations in college after a night of heavy binge drinking. That was before min and finasteride

 

[Ende]

Check your thyroid hormones. Propecia may cause hyperthyroidism. This causes palpitations. Minoxidil is likely to cause systemic side effects within an hour after application. Wet scalp increases absorption significantly. Rain is something people with AA tend to avoid, but you should definitely be careful if you're using minoxidil. I've experienced it once. Never again.

 

[Ende]

I'm hoping I find out minoxidil is the cause of my heart issues and not finasteride. Would like to stay on finasteride as ive had no sexual sides and it has been working so good. Although, guys like enden have me scared shitless.

Just quit if you notice any changes to your sexual function, and you should be fine.

 

[OhioGuy]

Check your thyroid hormones. Propecia may cause hyperthyroidism. This causes palpitations. Minoxidil is likely to cause systemic side effects within an hour after application. Wet scalp increases absorption significantly. Rain is something people with AA tend to avoid, but you should definitely be careful if you're using minoxidil. I've experienced it once. Never again.

Thanks for the response. Obviosly it's important to be extra careful when dealing with your heart. Do you guys feel heart attack or death is a possiblity with these symptoms? Anyone done any research on this? I've read the study that was posted earlier. Didn't sound like there was any real danger with these drugs. Thoughts? Go easy on me....

 

[OhioGuy]

Check your thyroid hormones. Propecia may cause hyperthyroidism. This causes palpitations. Minoxidil is likely to cause systemic side effects within an hour after application. Wet scalp increases absorption significantly. Rain is something people with AA tend to avoid, but you should definitely be careful if you're using minoxidil. I've experienced it once. Never again.

Thanks for the response. Obviosly it's important to be extra careful when dealing with your heart. Do you guys feel heart attack or death is a possiblity with these symptoms? Anyone done any research on this? I've read the study that was posted earlier. Didn't sound like there was any real danger with these drugs. Thoughts? Go easy on me....

It was adversly effecting my quality of life, so I didn't feel like I had another choice but to quit.

When you experience cardiovascular side effects you should take it seriously, pericardial effusion is a very serious side effect that occured with oral minoxidil, I was experiencing side effects associated with oral minoxidil if you experience these you should quit because it is very dangerous...

Thanks for your responses as I continue to research and learn about these issues.
Going bald really is a kick in the dick!

 

[Ende]

Kick in the dick. Sounds french Le kick in the dick. But yeah, losing hair is horrible. However, secondary hypogonadism is worse.

 

[OhioGuy]

Just ordered L-arginine from GNC.com. Gonna give it a try. Ill let ya know how it goes. Wont be here for a few days.

 

[Ende]

I've already ordered some l-arginine too. It's going to be interesting to see if it makes any difference. My recent use of Proviron has given me palpitations again, which proves that there is a link between DHT and thyroid hormones.

 

[OhioGuy]

Yes did some reading on L- citrulline. Sounds like it may help as well. Never the less I'm giving L-argInine a shot.

 

[OhioGuy]

Thought this was interesting. There was actually a study on a number of people experiencing heart palpitations when taking propecia. What I found interesting was the data on the time frame for when palpitations where occurring with these people. For most of these people the symptoms only occurred during the 1-6 month mark. Does that mean the symptoms went away after six months, or does it mean the majority of these people got off the drug before six months because of the palpitations. What do you guys think?

http://www.ehealthme.com/ds/propecia/palpitations

 

[Ende]

This is interesting. When I think about it, I got symptoms around 7 months in (maybe earlier, but that's when I noticed them) with 1 mg finasteride every day. They didn't subside before I quit some months later, but the symptoms got really bad for two or three weeks after my last pill, before they disappeared. I had heart palpitations, and noticed changes to my vision.

 

[Ende]

Yes. It's caused by elevated FT4.

 

[TheGrayMan2001]

At about 4 months in on my first run I had some blurry vision for about 3 weeks, but it went away. It wasn't so much blurry as words and images seemed to have "ghosting" images float above or below what i was looking at.

It disappeared though, might be unrelated.