Help: Erectile Dysfunction 1 Month Into Finasteride

[bagrationi]

I am 28 years old and I first noticed changes to the sensation on my penis within the first few days of starting 1mg Finasteride (I posted about it on this forum).

Now, almost 1 month into therapy, I have been experiencing pretty drastic erectile dysfunction since that time (~3 weeks) that has not gone away. I would describe it as major difficulty getting hard, and when I do it's only about 75% of regular hardness and quickly goes away. Sensation all over penis is decreased, and libido is lower. I used to be up like a light, easily aroused by small sensations and no problem maintaining erections. I noticed my nocturnal erections are also flaccid now, which has scared me. I have never experience erectile dysfunction before in my life. I had one sexual encounter in this month, and I could not get hard enough for sex. I have also noticed changes to the appearance of my package- skin seems more wrinkly, like there is "too much skin", and used to be more firm and defined even when it was flaccid- now, it's very limp and has much less sensation.

Will these effects go away? I am concerned this is permanent or long-lasting, as I am clearly in the subset of people who get these sexual side effects. I am considering switching to 0.5mg/daily or stopping finasteride altogether. Anyone have any experience with this, or know if these are early signs of PED or PFS?

 

[Finasterguy]

Sides normally go away after sometime they did for me around month 3. Take some zinc and saw plametto too.

 

[bagrationi]

Sides normally go away after sometime they did for me around month 3. Take some zinc and saw plametto too.

What sides did you have? Understandably, mine are very concerning and affecting quality of life. What love to hear other people's experiences; I don't want to be one of those people who is genetically disposed to PED because I tried taking finasteride.

 

[Finasterguy]

Saw palmetto is also an AA so no he should stop oral AA's.

Saw palmetto increases your testosterone. Why it’s in a lot of lifting supplements.

 

[Finasterguy]

Lmao, dumbest advise i have ever seen...He actually says that he is experiencing ED from finasteride and this one encourages him to add more "natural finasteride" to his regime lmao

I have more hair then you hahaha!!!! Woohoo

 

[Ollie]

And it also increases estrogen. Just like fina.

Also understand most men experience side effects after some time, can take 1+ year.

This is because the rise in E will eventually suppress T as you become more estrogen dominant. Bad news for your dick if this happens.

 

[bagrationi]

I have the same side effects as you + lethargy. I quit fina and after 2 years I still have them.

Srs, get off oral AA's. Look into zix and maybe needling/minoxidil.

Wow, this is scary. How long did you take fina for? I read that most people who experience ED and other sexual sides will overcome them with continued treatment or discontinuation. Your D still can't hard enough? I don't know what to do; please help.

 

[bagrationi]

It's better but not like it was. Biggest problem for me is libido.

But don't panic, most of the time sides will go away. I took fina for 2 years. I advise you to live healthy and hit the gym.

Thank you, I can only hope. I am a bit panicked though, because my package looks different- skin seems to be more wrinkly, shaft just seems tonically limp (maybe shrinking?) with much less sensation. It does not look or feel the same as it did my whole life. Did you experience this too?

Also, why did you stop fina if sides went away? Did it become less effective for you after 2 years?

 

[bagrationi]

My sides got (a bit) better but never went away completely. After a while you learn to live with it I guess. And sometimes it better sometimes worse...

No my sensation is still ok, skin also the same I did not experience those things. But I've read from other pfs victims that also had shrinkage and less sensation, it's definitely from fina if that was the only thing you took.

Wow. Yes it's the only thing I took, for just 3.5 weeks now. And I've had these problems pretty much the whole time. I think that means I might be disposed to getting pfs. I probably should stop it immediately then, if it's not already too late?

So frustrating how I ended up in this subset of people, I had so much hope...now I might be screwed over for a very long time. Please, if anyone has any information or insight: help.

 

[LosingHairLosingPatience]

How many more of these until people see the affiliation here? Lol. I was dumb too.

 

[bagrationi]

How many more of these until people see the affiliation here? Lol. I was dumb too.

Did you suffer from the same symptoms as me? How long did you take fina, and how long has sexual dysfunction persisted? I am so scared, I fear I've done irreversible damage to myself in just 3 weeks on it.

 

[bagrationi]

Get off, some say tapering off slowly is better, I don't know. After you quit, hit the gym hard.

I am so scared right now. How do I taper off slowly? I just counted, I've only taken 22 pills. Why hit the gym hard?

 

[bagrationi]

Mate calm down first, your not doing yourself and your body any good by stressing out... It's not the death pill even if in my opinion everybody experiences sides from a hormonal treatment, even if they subside with time or even if people get used to them and even if some get it worse and some less but what you have to understand that it's a small possibility to have this sides forever from a 3 week treatment with it, you must be really really unlucky and i'm sure that it's not the case... Maybe with time your body will adjust with the pills and your symptoms will subside but if you are scared and the sides are unbearable and just want your body to be the way it was, just quit the pill tapering it off and with time your body will revert to normal...

I understand, and I thank you for calming me and some reassurance. But what scares me the most are the changes to my penis appearance at baseline--it is now wrinkly, like there is "too much skin", it used to be more firm even when it was flaccid, now it just seems very limp and flabby. The shaft seems slightly smaller, thinner. Penis and scrotum look and feel different (much less sensation). It is more than just erectile dysfunction; I fear that these are the morphological changes to the penis that are described commonly in PED or PFS cases.

DID ANYONE READING THIS experience these symptoms above, and end up with PFS or PED?

Propecia has been amazing in just 3 weeks in that it has mostly eradicated my scalp inflammation/itch that came with balding, but I am getting very frightening side effects that I am reading in cases of PED and Post-finasteride syndrome. I know there is an association between duration of use and PED, but some reported cases had just taken a few finasteride pills. I am now also scared of getting the latter when I come off...how do I taper?

 

[Manochoice]

I am 28 years old and I first noticed changes to the sensation on my penis within the first few days of starting 1mg Finasteride (I posted about it on this forum).

Now, almost 1 month into therapy, I have been experiencing pretty drastic erectile dysfunction since that time (~3 weeks) that has not gone away. I would describe it as major difficulty getting hard, and when I do it's only about 75% of regular hardness and quickly goes away. Sensation all over penis is decreased, and libido is lower. I used to be up like a light, easily aroused by small sensations and no problem maintaining erections. I noticed my nocturnal erections are also flaccid now, which has scared me. I have never experience erectile dysfunction before in my life. I had one sexual encounter in this month, and I could not get hard enough for sex. I have also noticed changes to the appearance of my package- skin seems more wrinkly, like there is "too much skin", and used to be more firm and defined even when it was flaccid- now, it's very limp and has much less sensation.

Will these effects go away? I am concerned this is permanent or long-lasting, as I am clearly in the subset of people who get these sexual side effects. I am considering switching to 0.5mg/daily or stopping finasteride altogether. Anyone have any experience with this, or know if these are early signs of PED or PFS?

As you can imagine you're the only one that could and should decide what to do next. Symptoms that you are describing are pretty scary for most men. I guess it really comes down to how much you're willing to risk and whether you trust or not that these symptoms will go away after a while. You will probably be told by some of the users here that it's all in your head. If you want to cast away any doubt where this is in your head or not I would highly recommend doing the stamp test which rule indicate weather your erection problem is psychologically or there's something deeper going on

 

[bagrationi]

As you can imagine you're the only one that could and should decide what to do next. Symptoms that you are describing are pretty scary for most men. I guess it really comes down to how much you're willing to risk and whether you trust or not that these symptoms will go away after a while. You will probably be told by some of the users here that it's all in your head. If you want to cast away any doubt where this is in your head or not I would highly recommend doing the stamp test which rule indicate weather your erection problem is psychologically or there's something deeper going on

Thank you for your message. I have decided to taper off of finasteride starting tomorrow, I am just very terrified by all this. I'm not going to lie, I was crying a bit earlier. These are all the changes/symptoms that are cited in the literature about Post-finasteride syndrome and Persistent erectile dysfunction; I waited these few weeks because I thought they would go away. I haven't seen anyone else in this thread talk about having the same symptoms, and it makes me feel like I'm part of the extremely unlucky few. I am praying that over a short time everything will return back to normal, even though it means saying goodbye to my hair.

 

[Ollie]

Thank you for your message. I have decided to taper off of finasteride starting tomorrow, I am just very terrified by all this. I'm not going to lie, I was crying a bit earlier. These are all the changes/symptoms that are cited in the literature about Post-finasteride syndrome and Persistent erectile dysfunction; I waited these few weeks because I thought they would go away. I haven't seen anyone else in this thread talk about having the same symptoms, and it makes me feel like I'm part of the extremely unlucky few. I am praying that over a short time everything will return back to normal, even though it means saying goodbye to my hair.

Have you had your blood work done ?

 

[Manochoice]

Thank you for your message. I have decided to taper off of finasteride starting tomorrow, I am just very terrified by all this. I'm not going to lie, I was crying a bit earlier. These are all the changes/symptoms that are cited in the literature about Post-finasteride syndrome and Persistent erectile dysfunction; I waited these few weeks because I thought they would go away. I haven't seen anyone else in this thread talk about having the same symptoms, and it makes me feel like I'm part of the extremely unlucky few. I am praying that over a short time everything will return back to normal, even though it means saying goodbye to my hair.

I don't think you have to really panic man! Most likely it will take a few weeks or good weeks to totally recover after treatment but most likely you will recover fine. In the sense that statistics are in your favor. Not to mention that technically you couldn't have developer PFS just yet because you are still on it, not post it.

 

[Intrigued77777777]

I can relate to the OP here. I started Finn aged 19, took it for 10 years until 2015. No problems whatsoever. I then restarted in 2017 until 2018. However, looking back i think my Libido reduced around the same time I first stopped taking Finn.

Could stopping Finn have caused a libido problem?

 

[Manochoice]

I can relate to the OP here. I started Finn aged 19, took it for 10 years until 2015. No problems whatsoever. I then restarted in 2017 until 2018. However, looking back i think my Libido reduced around the same time I first stopped taking Finn.

Could stopping Finn have caused a libido problem?

Why did you stop? Libido problems but no erection problems?