Started experiencing side effects on Finasteride. Stop or continue?

[Acozza]

Hi everyone,

I have been using Finasteride 1mg (Propecia) for a little over 2 months without any problems. I briefly ran out of tablets over the Christmas period for 5 days and experienced high libido.

I've been back on the tablets for 10 days since running out and suddenly for the last 3 days or so I've had real erectile dysfunction issues and been unable to have sexual intercourse.

My question is: what are peoples experiences of sexual side effects? When did they start? Did they go away and how long did it take? Did they go away because you stopped or continued taking finasteride?

I'm a little freaked out because I read in another thread about ? Crashing after running out of finasteride and then restarting?

Cheers for your help

 

[Helel]

I have not taken the pills so I wouldn't know but from what I read from other forums, it reduces your sex function. The pill reduces it but doesn't stop it. What you're saying is that you CAN'T have sexual intercourse. That's not good. You might want to quit.

 

[Ginkosama]

If that helps :

Took finasteride for a month, building up my dosage, 0.25mg EOD etc...
High libido, low brain fog then suddenly libido crashed completely, weaaaak erections, watery semen and even premature ejaculation (never ever happened before).
I stopped taking finasteride, sides sticked around for 2 weeks and slowly went away.
After one month my libido was back on tracks.

 

[Ryukil]

If you'd like to go bald, sure, come off of it.

 

[Valiant]

Acozza, what is your current status?

 

[Acozza]

Hi Valiant and thanks for all your replies. I think I was crashing in some way when I posted above, I remember how horrendous I felt those few days. The anxiety and depression was something I have never experienced before; although at the time it didn't occur to me that I was feeling abnormally anxious.

I was unable to see my doctor that week so continued taking the finasteride 1mg daily. My ability to get and maintain an erection returned so I'm back to having sex (it's still more difficult than it used to be to get erect). My libido is still much reduced and I'd like it to be a bit higher than it is, so I've come back to this forum today to look for information about how to reduce side-effects.

Ryukil, I'm 100% serious when I say I would happily go bald rather than feel how I did when I started this thread. It was so horrendous! Thankfully I got back a better state!

 

[Ryukil]

Sorry Acozza, that was rude of me. I didn't even read what you wrote. I'm actually having libido issues as well and the past couple of days haven't been able to get an erection. It's interesting that your erections returned...hopefully this is just a temporary side for me as well.