Topic
Propecia nightmare
Hi all,
I’m a 28 year old male from CA and I wanted to write about my really bad experience with propecia so that if anyone is taking it or thinking about taking it you can think twice before doing so.
I started taking propecia in 2009 at an age of 26 when i was worried about my hair loss. So I went to a dermatologist and she suggested that i should take propecia and i was a great candidate for it, whatever that means as she only spent 10 minutes examining me and didn’t ask for any blood test before prescribing such a strong drug that affects your hormones. Shortly i started taking it for a year before i quit completely due to bad side effects. Also during this time I’m not even sure if propecia helped at all with hair loss, it may have slowed down the process but this wasn’t worth all the side effects.
Soon after i start taking the pills i started feeling some slight pain in my testicles around week 2 or 3. This was accompanied by a significant loss of libido. Before taking propecia I had a very healthy active sex life. I had storng erections that lasted long and many times this caused some embarrassing moments since sometimes I was getting erections at work or in public sometimes for no reason which i had to cover up with whatever I can find available. Anyways, the reduction in libido or the slight pain did not concern me that much as these are listed as possible side effects in the leaflet that comes with propecia which says all are temporary and would go away when you stop taking the pills. So I continued taking it and the testicle pain went away after a week. However, in time, I started seeing other side effects. Getting erections has become more difficult, i had further loss of libido, the ejaculate became very watery so I’m guessing my sperm production has significantly reduced. Also I started peeing more frequenty and i started waking up in the middle of the night just to pee which i never did before. At the end of almost a year I decided to quit using propecia when one time I just couldn’t achieve an erection after trying for almost an hour which scared me.
After quitting I saw some improvements in my condition. I stopped waking up in the middle of the night and was getting better sleep. My erection problem was temporarily ok for a week or two but now, after being off the drug for one year i still suffer from serious erectile dysfunction, have a very low libido, with some visual changes in my penile tissue. it doesn’t look as healthy with more wrinkles. I thought i would recover from all these side effects with time as it said in the medicine leaflet. But now to my surprise I see that the leaflet is updated to include persistent ED as a side effect since last year. I wonder what else will be included in the common side effects of propecia in the coming years.
I still don’t get any morning or spontaneous erections which are symptoms for a physiological ED problem rather than psycological. This had resulted in many failed attempts in having an intercourse and I stopped trying after a while. recently i found this website propeciahelp.com which made me realize that I’m not alone and there are over a thousand of people with similar side effects and much worse than mine in many cases including mental side effects as well. And usually the doctors are not experienced enough to diagnose or treat these symptoms caused by propecia so many stay uncured after several years. According to common belief propecia disturbs the hormonal balance of the body causing low testoste (and fluctuations in other sexual related hormones) and some people never recover from this.
Long story short I started seeing a urologist and getting hormone tests. Will be giving an update on this shortly and trying to decide on the recovery plan I should go for, such as a healthier life style with herbal testosterone boosting supplements versus use of prescription drugs to balance hormone levels which may or may not work. For now I’m just hoping that the damage is not irreversible and I can recover from this even if it is going to be a long ride.
I trimmed my hair very short and don’t care about hair loss anymore. Some people even say it looks better this way. I really regret taking propecia. This also thought me not to take a prescription drug ever for vain reasons such as hair loss unless you are seriously sick or dying.