I've been taking finasteride for 2 days, roughly 0.75 daily. Reading horror stories about how sudden erectyle disfunction happens and that it lasts for weeks maybe permanently after taking it, I know the chances are low but seeing so many people living a nightmare is making me wonder why I started this. Does anyone know of any studies that actually show the chances of these sides or can offer their opinion on it as it just seems too risky...
Scared of finasteride
- Thread starter Jack A
- Start date
I have some advice. DO NOT read any of those stories. Just see what it does for yourself. You are not anybody else, but yourself. Therefore there is no telling if you'll experience side effects or not. Just keep at it. A lot of it could be mental too. If you think drug A will surely have side effects B and C, then you're more likely to experience them.
I've been on finasteride for a year, with zero side effects. Amount of sperm has not changed, no watery sperm, no aches anywhere, my morning erections are more prevalent than ever (I'm 26, btw). My sex life has not changed. If anything, it's gotten better. There's lots of people that experience side effects that come here to 'warn' others, and more importantly as I see it, 'to try and scare them off'. Don't buy it. Let yourself experience the positive side effects, and don't think about the negative side effects. If you experience any side effects, keep taking it, because a lot of them subside. No one really comes on the forums to discuss all their 'no side effects' but many people come on here to talk about what they can do about side effect A or if anyone else has side effect B.
I've been on finasteride for a year, with zero side effects. Amount of sperm has not changed, no watery sperm, no aches anywhere, my morning erections are more prevalent than ever (I'm 26, btw). My sex life has not changed. If anything, it's gotten better. There's lots of people that experience side effects that come here to 'warn' others, and more importantly as I see it, 'to try and scare them off'. Don't buy it. Let yourself experience the positive side effects, and don't think about the negative side effects. If you experience any side effects, keep taking it, because a lot of them subside. No one really comes on the forums to discuss all their 'no side effects' but many people come on here to talk about what they can do about side effect A or if anyone else has side effect B.
Trust me Jack, stop reading these horror stories. They only cloud your mind, increase your anxiety and chances are your mind will start causing these symptoms. The exact same thing happened to me when I started, and I consider myself lucky to have made this realization and gotten through it before I quit and started convincing myself I had persistent symptoms.
Only a few small studies exist that indicate symptoms persist, and none of them are able to prove that finasteride even caused them. They were simply surveys of people who already are convinced their symptoms were caused by finasteride. Certainly, that may be the case, but there are still a very small number of case reports. Millions of people worldwide take or have taken the drug, and there is a comparatively minuscule number of people claiming they ended up with these symptoms.
The fact that there is such a lack of evidence that we can't really even establish incidence rates screams how uncommon it must really be. The FDA recently conducted a thorough investigation into their adverse event records database and uncovered 59 reported cases of persistent symptoms that lasted more than 3 months. Even if we jumped to the conclusion that ALL of these were caused by finasteride, and none of them resolved after those 3 months, you can do the math yourself. 59 reported cases out of millions of users over the last 10 or so years. This is really the only statistical data we currently have on the condition.
Only a few small studies exist that indicate symptoms persist, and none of them are able to prove that finasteride even caused them. They were simply surveys of people who already are convinced their symptoms were caused by finasteride. Certainly, that may be the case, but there are still a very small number of case reports. Millions of people worldwide take or have taken the drug, and there is a comparatively minuscule number of people claiming they ended up with these symptoms.
The fact that there is such a lack of evidence that we can't really even establish incidence rates screams how uncommon it must really be. The FDA recently conducted a thorough investigation into their adverse event records database and uncovered 59 reported cases of persistent symptoms that lasted more than 3 months. Even if we jumped to the conclusion that ALL of these were caused by finasteride, and none of them resolved after those 3 months, you can do the math yourself. 59 reported cases out of millions of users over the last 10 or so years. This is really the only statistical data we currently have on the condition.
Thanks for the replies guys, I understand that it is a miniscule chance but the persisting ED side effects are very real, there are thousands on forums complaining about it and I don't believe that the majority of them would simply think themselves into it while they are watching p**rn and trying to beat one off. The worrying thing is that it seems like it can creep up on you at any moment without you realising. You're posts have made me feel better about it though but it still seems like I am playing russian roulette with my health.
Sparky4444
Senior Member
- Reaction score
- 44
I would be concerned if I were you...my doctor pulled the drug listing from his massive book of drugs Bible and was reading the low-down on it...his words were "this is some scary ****"...
..go on it, but pay attention to your body....After 5 years on it, I couldn't get a hard-on to save my life...when I quit a couple of years ago, I went back to morning-wood and big-time erecto's..and I'm 42 now! Better than when I was on finasteride and 34!!
..go on it, but pay attention to your body....After 5 years on it, I couldn't get a hard-on to save my life...when I quit a couple of years ago, I went back to morning-wood and big-time erecto's..and I'm 42 now! Better than when I was on finasteride and 34!!
Keep in mind, there are thousands of registered users on propeciahelp, but from what I can see there are less than 100 active members. Many members have only one or two posts. Also, many people register when they decide to quit the drug to ask questions. Also, as has been seen on this forum and others, people register under multiple user names and multiple email addresses. Many of these people may have anxiety based symptoms that went away after a couple weeks of quitting. Many people just have minor symptoms like slightly decreased libido or watery ejaculate. 2000+ registered members certainly doesn't mean 2000+ people with full blown ED, no libido, and a dozen other horrible side effects. Anecdotal evidence like that can not be taken at face value.
Jack man, if you can't commit to your decision and if you keep giving strength to your worries, I would stop taking the medication right now. I can almost guarantee things won't work out for you. Until you can be completely comfortable with your decision and stop reading horror stories, you should stay far away from the stuff. If you have to stop visiting anything hair loss related on the internet, it might be a good idea.
Jack man, if you can't commit to your decision and if you keep giving strength to your worries, I would stop taking the medication right now. I can almost guarantee things won't work out for you. Until you can be completely comfortable with your decision and stop reading horror stories, you should stay far away from the stuff. If you have to stop visiting anything hair loss related on the internet, it might be a good idea.
The conflicting opinions on here represent my constant mood swings on it. Wuffer, they are some good points but it is still the possibility of having the sides and even if I am lucky in that department, there is still the chance of brain fog and infertility, among others, and Habeas Corpse, I read most of that study I didn't see anywhere that stated the chances of finasteride doing that to your corpus thingymabob. At 19 years of age either baldness or impotence would be devastating it's too difficult a descision...
My doctor told me to take 5mg daily, I trust the opinions of the majority of people on here more. And I would 100% rather be bald than impotent, but it's not like I have a small chance of becoming bald it will definately happen unless I take a drug that can make me life a dream or a living nightmare.
My plan was to try it but if I noticed sides I'd stop, but it seems that you can go several months without any sides and then your dick just fails, so not only will there be an impact on your hair after stopping the medication you have ED aswell, in some cases people can use it for years without sides before getting ED.
It's just constant mood swings, I can't find a study that shows the likelihood of having these sides, sounds like more than 2%
If you want the chance of keeping your hair, you need to forget about the possibility of sides and just give it a shot. Live your life, take the pill, and forget about it. Dwelling on this will not help the matter.
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Also wanted to add:
Q5. Do all men experience sexual adverse events when using Propecia or Proscar?
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Also wanted to add:
Q5. Do all men experience sexual adverse events when using Propecia or Proscar?
A5. N
nly a small percentage of men using these drugs have experienced a sexual adverse event. [It says 3.8% of 945 men in their study].
From here: http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/InformationbyDrugClass/ucm299754.htm
nly a small percentage of men using these drugs have experienced a sexual adverse event. [It says 3.8% of 945 men in their study].From here: http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/InformationbyDrugClass/ucm299754.htm
I agree finasteride is your only chance really. I dont like the idea of an internal medication as much as the next guy but its the best we have. Hopefully we get a CB in the next 4 years so we can take it as preventative measure to keep the hair we have. I think just a way to keep our hair would be a big accomplishment because no one wants the sides that come with finasteride but right now you have no choice.
In those reports the average ages are 40 and 72 years, alot of guys get ED at those ages naturally. Rtc84, I think it is definate that the chances of having sexual problems are more than 3.8% though, from what i've seen it appears to be more in the 20-30% region.
Habeas, you REALLY need to chill out, buddy. Have some chamomile tea and listen to some Enya or something.
You seem quite convinced that the FDA has far, far more reports of persistent symptoms, but why would the FDA choose not to include them in their evaluation as well? Why would they only evaluate 400-something reports if there were in fact thousands?
AdverseEvents allows people to individually submit their own side effect reports. There is no knowing how legitimate these reports are, and this anonymous medium leaves it open for people to submit multiple false reports. These types of reports are still anecdotal, and there is no way for us to know what other conditions this person has, who they are, if they even took the drug, and so on.
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I agree with you and would say in reality side effects are closer to 20-30%. However, this is a result of psychosomatic side effects rather than a direct effect of the drug. There have been many placebo controlled studies conducted on finasteride, and almost all indicate side effects are within the 2-5% range.
To illustrate my point, check out this study:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17655657
Here is a table indicating the results.
Notice how much higher side effects are in the informed group! The 'informed' group would be the entire population, since they are informed of these side effects. I think this percentage may even be higher when people go online and read all these horror stories.
You seem quite convinced that the FDA has far, far more reports of persistent symptoms, but why would the FDA choose not to include them in their evaluation as well? Why would they only evaluate 400-something reports if there were in fact thousands?
AdverseEvents allows people to individually submit their own side effect reports. There is no knowing how legitimate these reports are, and this anonymous medium leaves it open for people to submit multiple false reports. These types of reports are still anecdotal, and there is no way for us to know what other conditions this person has, who they are, if they even took the drug, and so on.
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I agree with you and would say in reality side effects are closer to 20-30%. However, this is a result of psychosomatic side effects rather than a direct effect of the drug. There have been many placebo controlled studies conducted on finasteride, and almost all indicate side effects are within the 2-5% range.
To illustrate my point, check out this study:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17655657
Here is a table indicating the results.
Notice how much higher side effects are in the informed group! The 'informed' group would be the entire population, since they are informed of these side effects. I think this percentage may even be higher when people go online and read all these horror stories.
Interesting study, 43% who were warned about sexual sides reported them compared to only 15% who weren't imformed, so in theory the chances of you getting (or thinking you have) ED are within that bracket. Still it is a very real threat and I wonder if at my age it would be too much for my hormones, I'm on my 4th day of taking roughly 0.75mg nightly, so far I have had testicular pain, erections are problably 90% as hard as usual and semen is watery...common symptoms?
- Reaction score
- 86
I can tell already your anxiety will get the better of you and as soon as you start finasteride you'll become paranoid. Only take it when your mind is clear. I've been on it for six months at half the dose, see signature, and I've only benefited, no sides except slight nut ache when I started although I can say for definite that was from the finasteride as I've had nut ache before I started.
Funnily enough for the first week and bit my libido was true the roof, never experienced something like it before, constantly thinking about sex, haha, it calmed down and everything went back to normal.
The turning point, well for me, was the mental strain hairloss was putting on me, I knew then and there if I left it too late it would start to become noticeable to others and my anxiety, and hairloss, was destroying my self-esteem.
So I only have positive things to say about the drug as I went from a depressed balding recluse, back to my old confident self, with great hair to boot!.
Good luck, whatever your decision.
Funnily enough for the first week and bit my libido was true the roof, never experienced something like it before, constantly thinking about sex, haha, it calmed down and everything went back to normal.
The turning point, well for me, was the mental strain hairloss was putting on me, I knew then and there if I left it too late it would start to become noticeable to others and my anxiety, and hairloss, was destroying my self-esteem.
So I only have positive things to say about the drug as I went from a depressed balding recluse, back to my old confident self, with great hair to boot!.
Good luck, whatever your decision.
This will never be resolved; we'll all have to agree to disagree. Wuffer is correct. And I'm not sure why Habeas is trying to pass off false reports and saying that the number is higher than evidence suggests, does he not want people to take propecia/proscar for some reason? I have no clue.
I really doubt it's more than 3.8%. Have you forgotten about all the people that take it from advice from their doctor and never come on these forums to investigate side effects and never experience side effects themselves and have great hair? Not everyone taking the drug will knock on your door to inform you if they have sides or not. Therefore, the 20-30% you claim is pure speculation, while the 3.8% is from an actual study.
All I can say is that myself, and MANY other men have taken propecia/proscar and never had any side effects, minimal side effects, or side effects that taper off. It works, and that's the bottom line.
Jack A, since you are so worried about potential sides, the chances of having sides are MUCH greater. And as you have seen, you had side effects (as you claim). You mentioned your semen is watery, so try refraining from sex or masturbation for 3-4 days, then check it out. For me, if I have too much sex or masturbate too often, my semen is watery. After a couple days, it's all back to normal. I've been on finasteride for a year with no watery semen as a result from the drug.
I really doubt it's more than 3.8%. Have you forgotten about all the people that take it from advice from their doctor and never come on these forums to investigate side effects and never experience side effects themselves and have great hair? Not everyone taking the drug will knock on your door to inform you if they have sides or not. Therefore, the 20-30% you claim is pure speculation, while the 3.8% is from an actual study.
All I can say is that myself, and MANY other men have taken propecia/proscar and never had any side effects, minimal side effects, or side effects that taper off. It works, and that's the bottom line.
Jack A, since you are so worried about potential sides, the chances of having sides are MUCH greater. And as you have seen, you had side effects (as you claim). You mentioned your semen is watery, so try refraining from sex or masturbation for 3-4 days, then check it out. For me, if I have too much sex or masturbate too often, my semen is watery. After a couple days, it's all back to normal. I've been on finasteride for a year with no watery semen as a result from the drug.
Bingo. Take a look at his posting history, and you will see that literally everything he has said about finasteride is negative. I'm not even exaggerating, take a look at his posts! He says he has never taken the drug, but says he is well aware of how dangerous it is, and is dead set in convincing everyone not to take it. If people are already taking it, he does the best he can to convince them to stop, or at least scare as many people as he can.
He is clearly not able to even consider that the drug may be positive in any way, which shines light on the fact that his only interest is pushing his agenda.
plasticletters2
New Member
- Reaction score
- 0
Nothing else has worked for me... I say go for it! I've been on 1.25 mg. Finasteride for a week and I'm just as scared and lost as you are. I've been reading about it for a long time too and decided to take a risk and hope for the best. You can find my post under side effects, titled "unexpected side effects" (with pics) I didn't notice thinning until close to my mid 20's and it was a slow process. I always had a high hairline ever since I can remember but I still had really thick hair as a child and teen. In high school I do remember a 16 year old boy who was completely bald on top. I felt so bad for him cos he was so young. I've seen men bald at the early age of 16 and most recently at age 22. Anyways... I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated
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Nothing else has worked for me... I say go for it! I've been on 1.25 mg. Finasteride for a week and I'm just as scared and lost as you are. I've been reading about it for a long time too and decided to take a risk and hope for the best. You can find my post under side effects, titled "unexpected side effects" (with pics) I didn't notice thinning until close to my mid 20's and it was a slow process. I always had a high hairline ever since I can remember but I still had really thick hair as a child and teen. In high school I do remember a 16 year old boy who was completely bald on top. I felt so bad for him cos he was so young. I've seen men bald at the early age of 16 and most recently at age 22. Anyways... I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated
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Nothing else has worked for me... I say go for it! I've been on 1.25 mg. Finasteride for a week and I'm just as scared and lost as you are. I've been reading about it for a long time too and decided to take a risk and hope for the best. You can find my post under side effects, titled "unexpected side effects" (with pics) I didn't notice thinning until close to my mid 20's and it was a slow process. I always had a high hairline ever since I can remember but I still had really thick hair as a child and teen. In high school I do remember a 16 year old boy who was completely bald on top. I felt so bad for him cos he was so young. I've seen men bald at the early age of 16 and most recently at age 22. Anyways... I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated
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Nothing else has worked for me... I say go for it! I've been on 1.25 mg. Finasteride for a week and I'm just as scared and lost as you are. I've been reading about it for a long time too and decided to take a risk and hope for the best. You can find my post under side effects, titled "unexpected side effects" (with pics) I didn't notice thinning until close to my mid 20's and it was a slow process. I always had a high hairline ever since I can remember but I still had really thick hair as a child and teen. In high school I do remember a 16 year old boy who was completely bald on top. I felt so bad for him cos he was so young. I've seen men bald at the early age of 16 and most recently at age 22. Anyways... I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated
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Nothing else has worked for me... I say go for it! I've been on 1.25 mg. Finasteride for a week and I'm just as scared and lost as you are. I've been reading about it for a long time too and decided to take a risk and hope for the best. You can find my post under side effects, titled "unexpected side effects" (with pics) I didn't notice thinning until close to my mid 20's and it was a slow process. I always had a high hairline ever since I can remember but I still had really thick hair as a child and teen. In high school I do remember a 16 year old boy who was completely bald on top. I felt so bad for him cos he was so young. I've seen men bald at the early age of 16 and most recently at age 22. Anyways... I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated
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Nothing else has worked for me... I say go for it! I've been on 1.25 mg. Finasteride for a week and I'm just as scared and lost as you are. I've been reading about it for a long time too and decided to take a risk and hope for the best. You can find my post under side effects, titled "unexpected side effects" (with pics) I didn't notice thinning until close to my mid 20's and it was a slow process. I always had a high hairline ever since I can remember but I still had really thick hair as a child and teen. In high school I do remember a 16 year old boy who was completely bald on top. I felt so bad for him cos he was so young. I've seen men bald at the early age of 16 and most recently at age 22. Anyways... I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated
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Nothing else has worked for me... I say go for it! I've been on 1.25 mg. Finasteride for a week and I'm just as scared and lost as you are. I've been reading about it for a long time too and decided to take a risk and hope for the best. You can find my post under side effects, titled "unexpected side effects" (with pics) I didn't notice thinning until close to my mid 20's and it was a slow process. I always had a high hairline ever since I can remember but I still had really thick hair as a child and teen. In high school I do remember a 16 year old boy who was completely bald on top. I felt so bad for him cos he was so young. I've seen men bald at the early age of 16 and most recently at age 22. Anyways... I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated
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Nothing else has worked for me... I say go for it! I've been on 1.25 mg. Finasteride for a week and I'm just as scared and lost as you are. I've been reading about it for a long time too and decided to take a risk and hope for the best. You can find my post under side effects, titled "unexpected side effects" (with pics) I didn't notice thinning until close to my mid 20's and it was a slow process. I always had a high hairline ever since I can remember but I still had really thick hair as a child and teen. In high school I do remember a 16 year old boy who was completely bald on top. I felt so bad for him cos he was so young. I've seen men bald at the early age of 16 and most recently at age 22. Anyways... I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated
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Nothing else has worked for me... I say go for it! I've been on 1.25 mg. Finasteride for a week and I'm just as scared and lost as you are. I've been reading about it for a long time too and decided to take a risk and hope for the best. You can find my post under side effects, titled "unexpected side effects" (with pics) I didn't notice thinning until close to my mid 20's and it was a slow process. I always had a high hairline ever since I can remember but I still had really thick hair as a child and teen. In high school I do remember a 16 year old boy who was completely bald on top. I felt so bad for him cos he was so young. I've seen men bald at the early age of 16 and most recently at age 22. Anyways... I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated
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Not really sure why this was posted 5 times... lol so I apologize for that!Nothing else has worked for me... I say go for it! I've been on 1.25 mg. Finasteride for a week and I'm just as scared and lost as you are. I've been reading about it for a long time too and decided to take a risk and hope for the best. You can find my post under side effects, titled "unexpected side effects" (with pics) I didn't notice thinning until close to my mid 20's and it was a slow process. I always had a high hairline ever since I can remember but I still had really thick hair as a child and teen. In high school I do remember a 16 year old boy who was completely bald on top. I felt so bad for him cos he was so young. I've seen men bald at the early age of 16 and most recently at age 22. Anyways... I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated
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Nothing else has worked for me... I say go for it! I've been on 1.25 mg. Finasteride for a week and I'm just as scared and lost as you are. I've been reading about it for a long time too and decided to take a risk and hope for the best. You can find my post under side effects, titled "unexpected side effects" (with pics) I didn't notice thinning until close to my mid 20's and it was a slow process. I always had a high hairline ever since I can remember but I still had really thick hair as a child and teen. In high school I do remember a 16 year old boy who was completely bald on top. I felt so bad for him cos he was so young. I've seen men bald at the early age of 16 and most recently at age 22. Anyways... I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated
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Nothing else has worked for me... I say go for it! I've been on 1.25 mg. Finasteride for a week and I'm just as scared and lost as you are. I've been reading about it for a long time too and decided to take a risk and hope for the best. You can find my post under side effects, titled "unexpected side effects" (with pics) I didn't notice thinning until close to my mid 20's and it was a slow process. I always had a high hairline ever since I can remember but I still had really thick hair as a child and teen. In high school I do remember a 16 year old boy who was completely bald on top. I felt so bad for him cos he was so young. I've seen men bald at the early age of 16 and most recently at age 22. Anyways... I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated
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Nothing else has worked for me... I say go for it! I've been on 1.25 mg. Finasteride for a week and I'm just as scared and lost as you are. I've been reading about it for a long time too and decided to take a risk and hope for the best. You can find my post under side effects, titled "unexpected side effects" (with pics) I didn't notice thinning until close to my mid 20's and it was a slow process. I always had a high hairline ever since I can remember but I still had really thick hair as a child and teen. In high school I do remember a 16 year old boy who was completely bald on top. I felt so bad for him cos he was so young. I've seen men bald at the early age of 16 and most recently at age 22. Anyways... I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated
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Nothing else has worked for me... I say go for it! I've been on 1.25 mg. Finasteride for a week and I'm just as scared and lost as you are. I've been reading about it for a long time too and decided to take a risk and hope for the best. You can find my post under side effects, titled "unexpected side effects" (with pics) I didn't notice thinning until close to my mid 20's and it was a slow process. I always had a high hairline ever since I can remember but I still had really thick hair as a child and teen. In high school I do remember a 16 year old boy who was completely bald on top. I felt so bad for him cos he was so young. I've seen men bald at the early age of 16 and most recently at age 22. Anyways... I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated
You should be able to go back and edit your post.