I'm just posting here to share my experience with this drug, as objectively as I can, mainly because I felt the sexual side effects were quite scary and the last thing I would want is for them to be underreported. I am a 20 year old while male. I took propecia 1mg during a period of 7 months. I noticed decreased sexual drive and erection quality under a week after starting, and morning wood was nearly gone, but I read on quite a few places that those issues would probably disappear on their own. They didn't, but my impression after the first 2 or 3 months was that they did not worsen either. I was wrong, both my sex drive and my erectile dysfunction were getting worse, but very slowly, difficult to notice the changes since I was not having sex at the moment due to my girlfriend being away from my city, and masturbation does not require much of an erection quality. However one thing that I noticed was that I could not for the life of me get an erection without physical stimulation; thoughts or visual imagery were nearly useless without using my hands. At around the 6th month my girlfriend came back and sex was possible, but I realized that my ability to mantain a good erection had greatly diminished, way more than I thought, I was awful in bed by this point. By the 7th month I basically couldn't get it up in bed, very weak erections, insufficient for sex. I thought it might be anxiety and freaking out over the effects of the drug, but then I realized I couldn't even masturbate properly without HEAVY stimulation and a lot of focus, and once I ejaculated one time, it was COMPLETELY impossible to get an erection again after at least 2 or 3 days of recovery. That's absolutely crazy, I'm a healthy 20 year old.
I realized that the drug had slowly and steadily destroyed my sex drive and I now had a VERY serious case of physical erectile dysfunction. I was really scared at this point, and quit the drug. I took comfort after I did because I had read that the sides would dissappear in under a month. Wrong, they didn't go away in the first two months and a half, I was still basically ruined. By the third month I started seeing improvements, I could have mediocre sex, but nowhere near what I was before taking the drug. I have been recovering very slowly, and now at 6 months since quitting the drug, around a week ago a noticed a huge jump in my sex drive and erection quality, I can confidently say I'm at least at 90% of what I was before, and improving. I recovered from this drug, but it took MUCH longer than I expected (still impotent two months after quitting? That's crazy scary, at that point I thought I would never recover). Even scarier is the fact that some people seemingly have endured this, and other side effects for years after quitting (I'm referring to the depressing stories in Propeciahelp). In my opinion this is one scary drug, and its side effects are DEFINITELY not just in people's heads.
On the hair loss: I think I saw significant improvements, much less hair on the pillow, it was probably working at least partially. But I really don't care about that anymore, needless to say, losing your hair can NEVER compare to losing your dick.
I know many people get little to no sides, and if that had been my case I would've been very happy with the results, but my own experience is proof that the physical side effects are real. Taking this drug is a very serious decision that should not be taken lightly: it will most likely help your hair loss or do nothing at all at worst; but there is a very real possibility, arguably small, that it will instead ruin you, like it did to me for half a year and like it has to other people for much longer than that and in much worse ways. So whether you take it or not, make sure you know the risks, and that the side effects could last for an extremely long time AFTER quitting if you ever get them.
I realized that the drug had slowly and steadily destroyed my sex drive and I now had a VERY serious case of physical erectile dysfunction. I was really scared at this point, and quit the drug. I took comfort after I did because I had read that the sides would dissappear in under a month. Wrong, they didn't go away in the first two months and a half, I was still basically ruined. By the third month I started seeing improvements, I could have mediocre sex, but nowhere near what I was before taking the drug. I have been recovering very slowly, and now at 6 months since quitting the drug, around a week ago a noticed a huge jump in my sex drive and erection quality, I can confidently say I'm at least at 90% of what I was before, and improving. I recovered from this drug, but it took MUCH longer than I expected (still impotent two months after quitting? That's crazy scary, at that point I thought I would never recover). Even scarier is the fact that some people seemingly have endured this, and other side effects for years after quitting (I'm referring to the depressing stories in Propeciahelp). In my opinion this is one scary drug, and its side effects are DEFINITELY not just in people's heads.
On the hair loss: I think I saw significant improvements, much less hair on the pillow, it was probably working at least partially. But I really don't care about that anymore, needless to say, losing your hair can NEVER compare to losing your dick.
I know many people get little to no sides, and if that had been my case I would've been very happy with the results, but my own experience is proof that the physical side effects are real. Taking this drug is a very serious decision that should not be taken lightly: it will most likely help your hair loss or do nothing at all at worst; but there is a very real possibility, arguably small, that it will instead ruin you, like it did to me for half a year and like it has to other people for much longer than that and in much worse ways. So whether you take it or not, make sure you know the risks, and that the side effects could last for an extremely long time AFTER quitting if you ever get them.