Propecia Killed my Erection

Hi Optic_Eye:

I came across your original post in this thread and found it to be extremely informative and useful.

I have been on Propecia for the past 8 years. I must say that the drug completely stopped my hair-loss. However, over time I began feeling a very slight decrease in libido over time. I didn’t have a steady girlfriend during that time so the occasional sex was good, but slowly but surely libido was falling. I attributed it to age (I am turning 38). I always had a very strong libido during my 20s and even at times when I was on propecia, but I didn’t feel concerned about it.

I started seeing my girlfriend last year and we got married 4 months ago. The sex has been good but infrequent. I could completely relate to your story (penis being numb, sex seeming like a chore sometimes). The urge for sex would come on and off, but became highly inconsistent. Just two weeks back, the drive was back big time, but then it disappeared once again.

I refuse to believe that at 38 my drive has gone down so much due to age alone. I am very active and fit guy, and I have decided to get off Propecia. I have been off it for less than a week now, and the libido is still super quiet right now.

I do not think that having no hair-loss is more preferable to the loss of libido with the love of my life. I will probably get a hair transplant when the hair start falling out. My only concern right now is to get the healthy sex life back.

I wanted to let you know that your post was the single biggest factor in me deciding that Propecia is history for me.

Would love to hear your update since you have been off Propecia for almost three years now.

Hello Zee_1973,
I am happy to hear that you have found the love of your life but sad to hear that Propecia may be interfering with that love.
As a physician and more specifically a hair restoration specialist I prescribe a fair amount of Propecia and I am always at odds when I here report like yours and Optic Eye's.
As doctors we really do want the best for our patients and so when we have a situation arise where we need ti choose the lesser of two evils it can make for a hard(no pun intended) choice. As I have said before though in these posts, This is hair not life or death.
For the vast majority of patients Propecia works well and most have no side effects at all. Of course I would tell you that if you have not seen a change in the sex drive with a month I would strongly urge you to do some hormone levels with your physician and make sure that they dont just check the free and total testosterone, but the estadiol and shbg (sex hormone binding globulin) levels as well.
Propecia may well be the culprit but not all libido issues are.
I wish you the best and would be happy to help out in any way I can.

Sincerely,

Dr Dan McGrath

Hi my question, and this is for anybody, is if you have a hair transplant aren't the hairs you transplanted from the back/sides supposed to not be affected by DHT and hairloss even when you don't/stop taking propecia? Ive heard doctors recommend taking propecia to keep the HT hair thicker but is prop. supposed to not make the new HT hair fall out permanently?

Dear Aznstan,
Great question. The truth is that all the hair on your head is going to be affected to one degree or another by the presence of DHT.
The donor hair we use for transplant should not be affected to any great degree such that it would not grow. Having said that though when you look at the donor hair region of a patient who uses propecia you can't argue with the fact that the hair in its caliper size(shaft size) gets bigger.
So the use of propecia in a hair transplant is twofold really, protecting the existing hair and helping to thicken up the donor hair which of course will translate into a better cosmetic result with the transplant.

Hope this helps,

Dr Dan

Whoa. I had not heard that about the donor hair. Interesting. Thanks for the info Dr. McGrath. Just one quick question: Do you consider the timelines for Aderans and Histogen to be realistic?

Did you get better optic eye?

Dr Dan,

I've been on Propecia for 11 yrs and within the last year or two started experiencing lower libido, weaker erections, etc. Be only 35 yrs. old I thought this was too early to be an age related problem and figured it had something to do with the long term usage of propecia. I spoke to my doctor about the issues I was having and he suggested we do some blood work to see if my testosterone was normal. It ended up coming back a little low so he prescribed a low dosage of Axiron(test gel) to help get me back to where I need to be. It's been a week now and I feel incredible! My libido is coming back, my mood is improved, and I have energy again.

At this point in my life I wasn't ready to give up the propecia since it has worked well for me and I've been able to keep a majority of my hair. My question for you is will taking the test gel effect the propecia in a negative way? Since the gel is being applied to the skin will it produce DHT and in turn get to my head? I know propecia is a DHT blocker but will it block whatever is bring applied to my skin. I don't think my doctor would have prescribed it to me if it wasn't safe but in your opinion does this program okay?

Thanks for any info you might have on this subject.

This is my biggest fear. I just started with it. :( Will consult more with doc.

Thanks for sharing experience.

I have been using finasteride for 1.5 years , I used propecia for 6months and then Finpecia. Except the lack of results regarding my hair, no problem with sex.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15913872

Use the link above and see for yourself. Claritan (Loratadine) has been clinically determined to solve erectile dysfunction in men. I suffered from sexual dysfunction for many years after discontinuing propecia and stumbled upon this by accident. I tried Claritan for an allergy and the next day I noticed that I had regained full erectile function. Try it please and never give up hope.