OK To keep my long story short. I am 33 years old with male pattern hair loss, it started 7 years ago, I first took 1mg Finasteride (Propecia) 5 years ago. It was 2012. I did NOT continue it after the first two months because at that time, immediately after the first dose I felt slight erection problems, I could still reach orgasm and ejaculate but I did not feel very relieved after my orgasms. Sex drive was obviously decreased. An example was I almost always had full erection in the morning after a night of well sleep or during watching favorite p**rn, but after taking the medicine, it was like I did not get full erection while watching favorite p**rn and I did NOT even get ANY erection in the morning or in the middle of the night.
After two months of continual use of the drugs, I stopped it and ignored my hair loss issue for another five years till now.
Now in 2017, a few weeks ago I took a selfie of myself from the top of my head it looked SO HORRIBLE, I almost got no hair at the center of my head. I really starting to feel so depressed because of the serious hair loss that I did not notice. However, luckily I still have a lot of hair at the back and sides so it's still OK to hide the hair loss with some hair style. Then I decided to take 1mg Finasteride again.
Now I've been taking the 1mg Finasteride (Propecia) again for a week. However, I feel erection problems again, decreased sex drive, not very good orgasm (maybe a little bit like ruined orgasms), I don't feel so relieved after ejaculation, full erection is difficult to achieve
I then start to search on Google with different keywords like Finasteride, side effects, prostate etc. A lot of unexpected results come up that even include raise risks or breasts or prostate cancer that I never heard of.
One article suggested that it could lead to male breasts cancer 200 times more likely which is a shocking result to me. It's said in general breasts cancer only happens to male for 1 in 100,000 but for the group of 3,000 patients who took Finasteride , 4 of them got the rare male breast cancer which is definitely not by chance. (I forget where I saw this)
It's far more than what my family doctor told me about the side effects of 1mg Finasteride and my understanding about this drug, which is used to be curing enlarged prostate which should be a good thing.
OK.
I think I don't need to ask 100 questions, if you have read my story above. My simple question is , should I stop taking 1mg Finasteride? Does the benefit of it (reduce worries and depression in my case) outweigh the cost? When something that is FDA approved, is it mostly safe? It's not a drug with a long history, it was first approved only in 1992 (Proscar) and in 1997 (Propecia). Have scientists or researchers done enough tests on its safety?
If I connect this drug with increased risks of any cancer like breasts or prostate cancer, am I too intelligent? or am I too overreacting?? or am I more likely to over worry something that is very unlikely?
After two months of continual use of the drugs, I stopped it and ignored my hair loss issue for another five years till now.
Now in 2017, a few weeks ago I took a selfie of myself from the top of my head it looked SO HORRIBLE, I almost got no hair at the center of my head. I really starting to feel so depressed because of the serious hair loss that I did not notice. However, luckily I still have a lot of hair at the back and sides so it's still OK to hide the hair loss with some hair style. Then I decided to take 1mg Finasteride again.
Now I've been taking the 1mg Finasteride (Propecia) again for a week. However, I feel erection problems again, decreased sex drive, not very good orgasm (maybe a little bit like ruined orgasms), I don't feel so relieved after ejaculation, full erection is difficult to achieve
I then start to search on Google with different keywords like Finasteride, side effects, prostate etc. A lot of unexpected results come up that even include raise risks or breasts or prostate cancer that I never heard of.
One article suggested that it could lead to male breasts cancer 200 times more likely which is a shocking result to me. It's said in general breasts cancer only happens to male for 1 in 100,000 but for the group of 3,000 patients who took Finasteride , 4 of them got the rare male breast cancer which is definitely not by chance. (I forget where I saw this)
It's far more than what my family doctor told me about the side effects of 1mg Finasteride and my understanding about this drug, which is used to be curing enlarged prostate which should be a good thing.
OK.
I think I don't need to ask 100 questions, if you have read my story above. My simple question is , should I stop taking 1mg Finasteride? Does the benefit of it (reduce worries and depression in my case) outweigh the cost? When something that is FDA approved, is it mostly safe? It's not a drug with a long history, it was first approved only in 1992 (Proscar) and in 1997 (Propecia). Have scientists or researchers done enough tests on its safety?
If I connect this drug with increased risks of any cancer like breasts or prostate cancer, am I too intelligent? or am I too overreacting?? or am I more likely to over worry something that is very unlikely?