**Very Important Question About Propecia And Fertility**

[ANDREW_J_I]

Hiya guys, basically i been on propecia for 3 months. i did extensive research before getting on it, and i found that it was never mentioned that propecia could affect male fertility.

Anyway, i was very curious to carry out one of those BABY START fertility tests from home, as my sisters boyfriend had recently done one. I did one this morning and it basiclaly sed my sperm count was below what they call fertile, so its saying im infertile. I have to carry out another test in 3-7 days time, and then see what that result says also.

Has anyone else ever used one of them? If my second test comes back negative i am going to have to see the doctor/specialist as this will be a TERRIBLE situation. im 20 years old.


I think the thing that made me want to do this test is because propecia has made mey semen so runny that it made me feel abit dodgy as i keep thinking this must affect the fertility of the sperm! Has anyone got any thoughts on this?

I am trying to find any info on the net now about propecia lowering sperm count.

 

[tchehov]

sh*t, Andrew. Very brave of you to take that test, and very brave of you to post your result here. I've had a root around on the internet and there is some talk of decreased volume of ejaculation - the texture of an ejaculation is weak, as reported by some users. The logic of that is decreased sperm count. You can't monkey about with this sh*t - you might be in that small percentage who cannot tolerate the drug (the figure I saw for decreased sperm count was 0.8% of users).

Perhaps one of the big hitters (Bryan, Iamnaked) might know a little more - you might want to PM them.

 

[htownballa]

Damn...ive heard some ppl. have more watery semen that could possibly decrease sperm count but i havent had any problems yet...andrew u might be in that unlucky 2% that has problems, but make sure u know that it is the finasteride that is causing the problems

 

[ANDREW_J_I]

thanks for the replys guys, yeh hope Bryan can say sumthing on it.

iv never been so low in my life. I wanna find out what the situation is now, but im seeing a doctor monday.

my semen has become so shitty and watery since propecia, also theres alot less of it now, maybe even 1/4 1/3 as much! its mad.

at the beginning it didnt effect my semen, i used to have thick semen and lots of it. i dnt really see how propecia doing this to ur semen cant have an impact of sperm concentration?? thats what this test is, shows how much sperm concentration u have per ml.

 

[Bert]

One thing I would say though is if you've had sex or jacked it a day or two before it would skew your results quite a bit. Another possibility is dare I say it you could of always been infertile? I guess the best thing is if the 2nd test comes back negative talk to the Doctor, get a proper test. Try stopping finasteride and then seeing if this affects your result. I hope it all works out for you.

 

[ANDREW_J_I]

^thanks. yeh im doing what u jus sed actually. stopped finasteride just to see if my semen returns to thick and bigger volume, and il then see if this has an effect with a proper test from the Doctor. i just hope they can take a sample straight away.

yeh it is always a possibility what u sed.

 

[Bert]

ah right, well good luck mate and I really hope it does all work out.

 

[ANDREW_J_I]

i dont want to say i beleive this yet as i havent finished reading the document but the following link shows some interesting things.... i definately would not have start finasteride if i had read some of the stuff iv learnt today....

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script= ... 4000400009


ur views are welcomed.

 

[ANDREW_J_I]

ne1 dudes??

 

[tchehov]

I had a look at that - a very small study, only three men and all of them with existing fertility problems regardless of Propecia. So it's hard to judge....but, there's obviously a link for a minority. Besides the sperm count I found the information on 'normal shape' disturbing, probably because I'm not entirely sure what it means. Are they talking about deformed sperm?

'The 3 patients reported on this paper showed abnormal sperm concentration and motility while using finasteride 1 mg/day. Those alterations were completely reversed (patient 1 and 2) or improved (patient 3) 3 or 4 months after the interruption of finasteride treatment. The first patient had a history of having a normal seminal analysis 10 years before when he had been seen by a urologist to evaluate the need for a varicocele repair, which was not done at that time. In case 3 there was a dramatic improvement from less than 1 million sperm/mL to 10 million sperm/mL 3 months after cessation of finasteride treatment. Although the improved sperm concentration was still abnormal, it permitted the couple to be treated with intrauterine insemination instead of with intracytoplasmic sperm injection.'

That's disturbing.

I gave templemonk this link - it gives a slightly different version of events and is a lot more optimistic in that it doesn't address the issue re fertility but talks about pregnancy. How did they miss it?

http://www.otispregnancy.org/pdf/propecia.pdf

If you're really worried go off finasteride and see if you can get your count back to normal. In the meantime you might cook up an aggressive regime of topicals for the hair loss.

 

[ANDREW_J_I]

Thanks for ur reply mate, and yeh i am feeling that topical cook up, atleast til i see whats going on. Itl be interesting to see what my Doctor on monday has to say on the matter!

yeh iv been doing some extensive research and those 3 patients i came across outstanded me, as there sperm count went up 10 fold in case 3. shits crazy.

anyway that link u gave, i had also come across and it says in animal studies, 1mg finasteride temporarily reduced sperm count. but in humans i dnt know whether they just havent done many studies or are not sure? i dont know.

I have had a hydrocele operation before which is VERY similar to a variocle as ther in the same category. Also, hernia repair i have had which has been linked to making u more infertile probably.

 

[ANDREW_J_I]

Thanks for ur reply mate, and yeh i am feeling that topical cook up, atleast til i see whats going on. Itl be interesting to see what my Doctor on monday has to say on the matter!

yeh iv been doing some extensive research and those 3 patients i came across outstanded me, as there sperm count went up 10 fold in case 3. shits crazy.

anyway that link u gave, i had also come across and it says in animal studies, 1mg finasteride temporarily reduced sperm count. but in humans i dnt know whether they just havent done many studies or are not sure? i dont know.

I have had a hydrocele operation before which is VERY similar to a variocle as ther in the same category. Also, hernia repair i have had which has been linked to making u more infertile probably.

 

[ANDREW_J_I]

hmmmmm found something else....

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... t=Abstract

 

[powersam]

at the bottom of that study you just posted:

"Finasteride decreased semen volume but did not adversely effect semen quality or serum testosterone concentration. No adverse effects were reported by owners of dogs in the study. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Results suggest that finasteride can be used to reduce prostatic size in dogs with BPH without adversely affecting semen quality or serum testosterone concentration."


it has been shown time and time again that finasteride has absolutely no effect on male fertility or semen quality. it is beyond question. so i must assume that you had a low sperm count before you started finasteride, had you ever had it tested previously? low sperm counts can be caused by many things such as obesity, smoking, alcoholism... the list goes on. what we do know for sure is that your infertility was not caused by finasteride.

 

[ANDREW_J_I]

u just said that it is beyond question that finasteride affects sperm.

then u said what we dont know if its whether finasteride has effected ur sperm.


sorry, just pointing it out. anyways, no we dont know yet. i gotta feeling my doctor will say he doesnt think its finasteride. it may well not be, before i started reading up, i didnt think it was possible.

But it does change alot of sh*t down there and around the testes, etc... and my semen has become so runny it is stupid, like like water sumtimes if i leave it over a day without ejaculating.

i thought runny semen was a common side effect but i havent actually read that anywhere so much. iv just read about reduced ejaculate not runny.

 

[pop]

It is not beyond question that propecia affects sperm. It is almost crazy to think that it doesn't.

 

[powersam]

andrew i think you misread my post, as i never said that we dont know whether finasteride does or does not affect sperm counts, nor did i say that it is beyond question that finasteride affects fertility.i actually said exactly the opposite. read it again.

pop - the studies do not lie. finasteride does not affect fertility.

 

[ANDREW_J_I]

'it has been shown time and time again that finasteride has absolutely no effect on male fertility or semen quality'

'what we do know for sure is that your infertility was not caused by finasteride.'

thats what u sed at two different points.



pop, why do u think, u seen any info?? im seeing my doctor in 3 days.

 

[powersam]

once again you are not reading it right.

'it has been shown time and time again that finasteride has absolutely no effect on male fertility or semen quality' ---- this means that finasteride does not affect sperm counts

'what we do know for sure is that your infertility was not caused by finasteride.' ----- this means that finasteride does not affect sperm counts. read that line.


is english your native tongue?

 

[ANDREW_J_I]

o. lol. yeh it is. i just wasnt reading it right atall!

what about those studies where peoples sperm count rose 10 fold, after coming off propecia?