New to finasteride, Getting Sides -- Seeking Advice

[TheGreatGosper]

Hello All,

Here is my story, I have been taking finasteride (1.25mg/day) for 4 and a half months now. About 2 months in, I started to notice some side effects: occasional testicular pain and weaker and harder to maintain erections.

As of now I still have weak, hard to maintain erections (it is just as bad or worse as at two months) and I've started to get watery ejaculate. I am wondering, based on the experiences of people on this forum, what is my best course of action going forward? If I am likely to be stuck with these sides if I continue use, I would rather discontinue use.

In your experienced opinion, should I ride it out longer, quit now in stages, or quit now cold turkey? One thing I definitely want to avoid if at all possible is PFS.

Needless to say after visiting propeciahelp, I am pretty freaked out. But this site seems to be a little more pro finasteride and dare I say reasonable and objective about the general case. So I am trying to get as many opinions as possible before I make this important decision.

Thanks a lot in advance for any input/insight you guys can provide, I am very grateful to have a community to turn to.

 

[Decline]

Well, in my opinion, if you're at the point where you're asking strangers on the internet whether or not you should quit, then you should quit. Some may advise you to keep taking it, but they won't be the ones paying the price if you end up suffering bad sides.

I can tell you what happened to me. I was on finasteride for 4 months, had some minor sides, low libido, very occasional and brief testicular ache, but kept going for the same reason anybody does--really didn't want to lose my hair. Just about the end of the 4th month, I went three days in a row with a noticeably zeroed out libido, but I just shrugged it off because I felt like my hair was looking a little better. Then the next day, I woke up with my testicles feeling constricted and my penis shriveled up and painful. Fearfully, I tried to get an erection, and succeeded, but it was nowhere near its accustomed size. At this point, I said damn, what have I done, and threw the rest of my finasteride out.

Now, a month later, I'm still having problems, still feeling pain down there. It improved dramatically after two weeks, to the point where I thought I was ok, then it crashed again and I've basically repeated the same process of shrinkage and pain over the last couple of weeks, and now starting to feel better again. Hopefully I'll be back in acceptable shape soon. I certainly appreciate much better now than I did before the simple reality that good health is way more important than good hair.

As far as whether it's better to quit immediately or wean yourself off slowly, I couldn't say. I quit immediately, and maybe that made it worse, but with the way I was feeling, there was no way I was ever letting that stuff cross my lips again. Of course, this is only my story, and there are many happier than mine. It's your choice ultimately, so good luck with whatever you choose to do.

 

[Joe-1991]

My advice would be to ween off the drug and never touch it again. It has completely ruined my life.

 

[Rawtashk]

My advice is to not stress out too much and not to overthink what's going on with your body.

"Weaker and harder to maintain erections" is a bit of a vague description. First off, what do you have to compare them to? Did you really pay attention to your hard-ons before you started on finasteride? Not all boners are created equal (tee hee).

Personally, I had the ball ache issue and the watery semen (but not a talleywhacker problem) when I started, but they were all gone within 2-4 months. I was on .5mg of finasteride for almost 3 years before I went to a 1.25mg dose...and the same watery semen and ball ache happened again...and then went away in 2-4 months. The first time it happened (3 years ago) it worried the crap out of me. The second time I just ignored it...then one day I was sitting at work and I realized "hey, I haven't had any ball ache in a long time. Sweet!"

Now, I readily admit that I don't know you, or what exactly you're going through, and maybe you have trouble even getting it up. All I'm doing is offering my advice and point of view taken from my personal experience.

 

[multispeed27]

I would be quit, but that's me.

Overall I'd recommend to consult a doctor you trust and talk with him about your concerns.