Question: Hi Im an Australian male 33yo looking for advice/answers from an endocrinologist in relation to male hormones and DHT levels, Prostrate and testosterone etc./sexual health.
So basically - here is my story. I have always been a very happy sexually active male, with never any sexual issues at all. High libido, high sex drive, hard erections, nocturnal erections, large volumes and semen and my penis always felt good and sensitive(in a good way). Orgasms were fantastic. Overall sexually I would have scored myself a 10 out of 10.
This year in July 2015, I travelled from Australia to XXXXXXX to undergo a ‘hair transplant’ for my receding hairline at a highly reputable doctor and hair transplant clinic. Procedure was a success and all went well. Upon completion, the doctor who performaced the procedure gave me some medication and just told me to start taking the tablets after day 5 of the surgery, and to take 1mg a day. No worries – all good. Travelled back to Australia with my medication, and waited for 5 days to pass, and then then started taking the medication (1mg a day) – which I didn’t even worry about reading what it was. I didn’t even know the name of the medication. I trusted the doctor and left it at that. I just thought it was an anti-biotic or something similar to minimise any chance of infection.
On day 6 I started take the tablet (1mg per day). After 2 or 3 days, I noticed my entire penis size had shrunk, and was numb, had no feeling whatsoever, and I had no libido. I didn’t worry about it, though I was just jet-lagged etc., so just ignored it. After about 7 or 8 days – it was still the same, very small shrunk penis, penis very numb with no feeling, and no libido at all. When I did force myself to masturbate, it was not the same, and the amount of ejaculation fluid was very small compared to what it used to be, and my orgasim was not very enjoyable. This is when I started to wander what was going on with my body. By this stage it was about 8 days, so I thought, I should be over my tiredness now and well rested after my trip, what’s going on? Still in continued to take the 1mg per day. On day 10 – I had a thought that maybe it might be a side effect of anti-biotics that the doctor had given me. By this stage I was starting to get a bit worried as to what was going on – as I had never had any of these problems before. I went to the foil pack of the medication that the doctor had given me that I had been taking 1mg a day of to look what it was called. It was a product called finasteride. (Brand name Finpecia 1mg). I then went onto the internet and researched the medication, and I was horrified to read many horror stories on the internet of exactly the same symptoms I was getting, from people who have been using propecia and finasteride. Whilst continuing to take the medication I did a lot of research over the next few days and gained an understanding as to what this drug does. It was horrifying. I read how it changes your DHT levels etc, and reduces the size of your prostrate etc. But then the manufacturer and creators of Propecia (MERCK) claim that it takes 2 weeks after stopping taking the medication for your DHT levels to return to normal. I decided on day 18 – to stop taking the medication – and I did so – cold turkey. For about the 1st 2 weeks after the stopping the medication, nothing changed, but after the 14 days, then I started to slowly see improvements.
I know not to read things on the internet and focus on negativity etc. – but there are many people on the internet in the forums who have used these products and claim it has ruined their lives – they never ever got better, back to normal after stopping the medication. Admittedly, many of them were on the medication for a long time. Apparently many people have recovered, but I guess you only read about the small percentage of a few on the internet that haven’t recovered
It’s now been 2 months since I stopped taking the medication and things have improved considerably, although things are still not 100%. If I was 10 out of 10 before, I am now say 6.5/7 out of 10. The changes I have seen are, harder erections (still not 100% lie it used to be), increase in amount of ejaculate semen (still not 100% lie it used to be), few morning and spontaneous erections have started coming back, penis size both flaccid and erect, are getting bigger again (still not 100% like it used to be), orgasms are getting more enjoyable (still not 100% lie it used to be), the numbness of my penis has started going away (still not 100% lie it used to be), however I still have very low libido.
I have tried speaking to my family doctor about it, and he just said don’t worry about it, the drug doesn’t do that – stop taking it and things will return to normal. I have also contacted the doctor who did my hair transplant and gave me that horrible medication – and he Is telling me it’s all psychological, and that I created this story in my head because of what I read on the internet,. He then advised to stop taking the medication and all things will return to normal. I told the doctor, that I didn’t even know the name of medication he had given me to have researched it on-line and created it in my head. I genuinely know that I only went and looked at the name of the medication started researching the medication after I noticed all these horrible things happening to me and saw all these unexplainable symptoms/problems that had never had in my life before.
It very stressing and depressing, what I want to ask is, has this medication damaged me permanently? Had it decreased the size of my prostrate and DHT levels permanently? I know there have been improvements, but I just want it to all go back to normal like it was pre-finasteride days. Will this happen? I want to be 10/10 again. Is it just a matter of time to wait until full recovery until things get back to 100% for me?
I was only on finasteride for 18 days, (1mg a day), and I have been off it for 2 months now. Please give me whatever advise and knowledge you can on this drug and what it does permanently, or if it’s all just temporary, or how long I will have to wait, and what I can do to get this all rectified please