Effect of Androgen Deprivation on Penile Ultrastructure

[hair mchair]

Someone recently posted this study on another hairloss site: http://www.asiaandro.com/1008-682X/5/33.htm

I forwarded it to Dr. Lee. Here is my email and his response.

My email:

"Dr. Lee,

I recently came across this study:
http://www.asiaandro.com/1008-682X/5/33.htm

I was wondering if this is the reason why men on
finasteride sometimes have erection problems,
sometimes even for months or years after discontinuing
finasteride. Do you think this is likely?

Also, do you think that this is reversible?"


Dr. Lee's response:

"That is a fascinating study. The methodology is very scientific and
the work is entirely credible. How did you ever happen to access such an obscure article?

Just earlier today (and I apologize for the delayed reply to your
question), a patient had complaints about difficulty in achieving and maintaining an erection, although his libido was fine after discontinuing finasteride for two years. The findings from this study may be the explanation.

So, the direct answer to your question is "Yes". It may very well be
that the long term use of finasteride can cause microscopic harmful
structural changes in the erectile tissues of the penis.

We have to be very careful not to unthinkingly apply these results in
rats to humans, but the findings are potentially very alarming.

Thank you very much for calling my attention to this article.

If, in fact, the elastic tissue was replaced with collagenous tissue
and there was fibrosis in the tunica albuginea and in the corpus
cavernosum, the difficulty with erections may not be reversible.

Richard Lee, M.D."


By the way, I am not posting this to scare people. I have been having erection problems ever since taking Propecia. I took Propecia from August of 2001 to November of 2002. I discontinued Propecia 8 months ago. The erection problems are as bad as ever, and as I explained in the past, I do not believe that they are in my head. My reason for posting this is that I am concerned that this is exactly what has happened to me. Several people have advised me that my side effects are likely the result of a hormonal imbalance, but this study seems to suggest that perhaps this is not the case. It also seems to suggest that my erection problems might not be reversible.

I will be visiting my urologist on Friday. I will show him this study, and if it's at all possible, I will see if there is a way to determine if this is what has happened to me.

 

[Grantspots]

Without dwelling on the negative, the good news is that this does offer a possible explanation and thus hopefully, a potential course of action. Good bit of research - keep us posted.

jerry grant

 

[drinkrum]

Wow -- quite alarming indeed. The dosage of finasteride given to the rats (4.5 mg/kg) is still very high. That's like giving a 170-lb man close to 350 tabs of Propecia (350 mg of finasteride) v. the usual 1 mg. An interesting conjecture might arise by looking at the penile tissue of long-term Proscar users, since they take 5 times the dosage we take for male pattern baldness.

D.

 

[bombscience]

Wow -- quite alarming indeed. The dosage of finasteride given to the rats (4.5 mg/kg) is still very high. That's like giving a 170-lb man close to 350 tabs of Propecia (350 mg of finasteride) v. the usual 1 mg. An interesting conjecture might arise by looking at the penile tissue of long-term Proscar users, since they take 5 times the dosage we take for male pattern baldness.

D.

Wow that's a finasteride OD man. This makes me feel much better. It also makes me feel better that after 30 pills my johnson is still rockin.

 

[hair mchair]

The rats were on a very high dose of finasteride relative to their body mass, but I'm not sure if that really makes much of a difference. It is the lowered level of DHT that matters, not the actual dose. At least, that's what I would think. Taking a very high dose of finasteride will not lower your DHT levels much more than a relatively low dose. That's why Propecia is usually taken at 1 mg instead of 5 mg like Proscar.

 

[bombscience]

The rats were on a very high dose of finasteride relative to their body mass, but I'm not sure if that really makes much of a difference. It is the lowered level of DHT that matters, not the actual dose. At least, that's what I would think. Taking a very high dose of finasteride will not lower your DHT levels much more than a relatively low dose. That's why Propecia is usually taken at 1 mg instead of 5 mg like Proscar.

However it seems that you see the side effects of Finasteride become more common in higher doeses. Does this report assume that the penile tissue damage is due to a lower amount of DHT alone?

 

[lovely711]

hair mc

what happened with ur visit to ur urologist.. pls let us know - Thnx a lot dude

 

[Stabber]

whoa whoa whoa. You mean to tell me, in this study they were giving these rats propecia then trying to look at their erections? :laugh:

 

[lovely711]

whoa whoa whoa. You mean to tell me, in this study they were giving these rats propecia then trying to look at their erections? :laugh:

No. They found that the the elastic fibers in the tunica albuginea and corpus cavernosum of the penis were replaced by irregular collagenous fibers.

corpus cavernosum is the main part of penis responsible for erections. corpus cavernosum is a spongy erectile tissue, it gets filled with blood when one goes horny thereby erecting your penis. corpus cavernosum is covered by another layer of tissue called tunica albuginea. What they found was, for rats feeded with finaesteride they got their tunica albuginea and corpus cavernosum screwed up

Have'nt u heard of people whose corpus cavernosum got broken when they were having sex and then taken to emergency room? :freaked2: :freaked2: :freaked2: Thats a terible situation man.. http://www.gettingit.com/article/481

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[hair mchair]

whoa whoa whoa. You mean to tell me, in this study they were giving these rats propecia then trying to look at their erections? :laugh:

After four weeks, the rats were killed. Biopsies of their penile tissue were taken and observed under a microscope. The study does not mention whether or not the replacement of elastic tissue with collagenous fibers in the corpus cavernosum and tunica albuginea would cause erection problems. However, it is possible. My interest in this study stems from the fact that it is the only possible explanation I have found so far for why some men have long-term erection problems even after discontinuing Propecia, aside from the possibility of hormonal imbalance.

 

[hair mchair]

The rats were on a very high dose of finasteride relative to their body mass, but I'm not sure if that really makes much of a difference. It is the lowered level of DHT that matters, not the actual dose. At least, that's what I would think. Taking a very high dose of finasteride will not lower your DHT levels much more than a relatively low dose. That's why Propecia is usually taken at 1 mg instead of 5 mg like Proscar.

However it seems that you see the side effects of Finasteride become more common in higher doeses. Does this report assume that the penile tissue damage is due to a lower amount of DHT alone?

Very good point. I do not know why there is a higher rate of side effects when the dosage of finasteride is raised. Logically, this shouldn't happen because even at a higher dose, there isn't a significant decrease in DHT levels.

I believe this study does assume that the tissue damage is due to the lower amount of DHT. Castration produces similar damage to the penile tissue, although the damage is worse. This is probably due to the fact that with castration, there are also lower levels of testosterone.

What's particularly interesting is that the rats that were castrated have similar DHT levels to the rats on finasteride. The castrated group had a mean DHT level of 48.4 pg/mL with a standard deviation of 8.6 pg/mL. The finasteride group had a mean DHT level of 47.1 pg/mL with a standard deviation of 16.5 pg/mL.