Side effects of Finasteride

Lots of confusion in the medical profession regarding side effects of Finasteride. I have been on Tamsulosin for quite a while. It definitely provides relief. At night I take 400 mg of ibuprofen which is anti inflammatory and that enables me to sleep usually at least 5 hours and sometimes even throughout the night without getting up to urinate.

Dana,

How long taking Finasteride. I have BPH and take Tamsulocin. I understand Finsasteride is taken to reduce size. Is that working for you?? Are you monitoring size and what is happening there? i have resisted taking it but I am interested because I read articles that claim it can exacerbate aggressive prostate cancer. Very confusing.

Hi @pablo81 I've been taking it since June of 2018, I actually did not have symptoms that told me I had an enlarged prostate. (I do know my grandfather had issues with prostate, so I believe it is hereditary) I had some minor blood I noticed when peeing. So upon that info mayo doctors suggested to see urology. I spent most of the 10 years prior to that on water pills so peeing many times a day was normal mostly in the morning. So it was when they did the scope examination, that the enlarged prostate was found. Since then, I have been on both Finasteride and Tamsulosin since then.
My typical day now I will admit i have times of urgency and typically get up 1 or 2 times per night. But like I said its become my normal even before the transplant. So Im not sure if that helps but hopefully you are successful getting your situation better for yourself. I hope that helps and have a Blessed day

Despite copious amounts of medical literature and studies published over the last 5 years describing the extreme risk with this drug, Doctors remain blithely unaware of the severity and range of side effects of Finasteride. I would never advise anyone to take this medication under any circumstance especially young men. 5-alpha reductase inhibitors can cause homeostatic failure as a result of the disruption in steroidogenesis, neurotransmitter dysregulation and imbalances, and metabolic disruption leading to a vast array of downstream effects including gut dysbiosis, bone demineralization, changes to the integrity and composition of reproductive tissues and function, and can induce a multitude of oxidative stress responses and induced apoptosis in kidney and liver cells. Inhibiting the formation of the most potent androgen in the body (DHT) has shown in multiple studies of patients who have taken this drug to cause dramatic dysregulation of Androgen Receptor expression in penile tissue cells, and associated modifications to thousands of genes leading to over and underexpression in histology samples. It is very likely that Finasteride can induce epigenetic changes within the body due to the effect that chronic inhibition of DHT has shown to disrupt processes related to DHT-Androgen Receptor binding activity and behavior in 5-alpha reductase type 2 rich tissues. As the androgen receptor is a site critically involved in gene coding, transcription and regulation/expression in humans, unintended consequences such as gene silencing or alterations in specific gene modulation are suspected to contribute to persisting symptoms in genetically predisposed individuals. The number of these patients continues to rise in relation to the mass availability of access to finasteride online and through "men's health" companies.

I was 28 when I started taking 1mg per day at the advise of a doctor through the online company keeps as I was losing hair around my crown and in the front. I was totally healthy and thriving in life before doing this, did not take any other drugs, and had never experienced mental or physical health issues. I was even a pharmacy student and did avid research on this drug before deciding to take it because I had heard of typical sexual side effects, limited to what is given in the drug insert. In May 2020 when researching, google results never yielded anything involving PFS or permanent symptoms, and per the Dr, I was assured that even mild, transient ED or any sexual symptom was rare and occurred in 1-3% of men and goes away if drug is stopped. I had no sides at first until about 12 months in I stopped having morning erections, and at 14 months after starting, one day my penis and testicles became numb out nowhere. I had no idea this could even be a side effect, had never heard of PFS or the range of other sides unlisted in the insert.

I spent 12 months getting imaging, diagnostic testing, blood work etc because I thought I had a spinal nerve lesion due to how severe the saddle numbness, pelvic floor dysfunction had become. This quickly turned into complete sexual dysfunction, total genital numbness, atrophy, ED, severely impaired blood flow, pleasureless orgasms, abnormal ejaculation ability, and i developed extreme mental and physical anhedonia, brain fog, inability to concentrate or finish any task, depression, social isolation, horrible insomnia. My personality was stolen. I had zero motivation in life anymore. After failure of 10+ doctors to diagnose my condition, through my own further research again in Feb 2023 I was trying to find a link between finasteride and pudendal nerve damage and came across an article about PFS and rapidly realized that every disparate symptom i was experiencing was described in complete accuracy. And then to find out the condition is likely permanent, my absolute worst nightmare manifested before my very eyes. I stopped the drug immediately and nothing changed.

I have been off the drug for 17 months and the cognitive side effects subsided for the most part over time, but the genital numbness has actually continued to slowly worsen and I still have recurrent episodes of complete sexual dysfunction, crashes and have had continued hormone irregularities such as elevated Estrogen and lowered SHBG (depsite having normal Testosterone levels) among other physical changes that I have never previously experienced before this drug. I am not the same person I always was. This drug took everything from me. The warnings on this are so inadequate and the amount of adverse events reported to the FDA especially regarding the shockingly large amount of deaths have well surpassed critical safety signals, yet they do nothing about it. This drug is not an immediate danger to your health in a way that would cause death, most if not all of those are suicides. It is no wonder why. Notice they mention depression as a side effect. They conveniently fail to explain that the reason for this is likely due to the disruption of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis as Finasteride inhibits the formation of over 10 neurosteroids such as allopregnanolone by removing DHT from the neuroendocrine biosynthetic process.
Source: I am a PFS patient and a Pharmacist

I took this drug for a long time as I had a very enlarged prostate and so was having trouble urinating. I also had very high PSA tests, like 10-15, so prostate cancer was suspected. But I had lots of tests like prostate MRI's, etc, and no cancer has ever been found, thank god. The finasteride worked well to shrink my prostate and helped with urination. However, in combination with other 'old man' drugs I was taking definitely caused some sexual disfunction. So after 10 years or so, I asked my urologist about getting off it. He warned that my prostate would start growing again, but put me on Tamulosin to help with urinating. What he did not warn me about was the growth of my prostate could cause me to retain urine such that it would back up into my kidneys and cause kidney damage. That is what happened. The result was I went into acute renal failure and now have chronic kidney disease. I had to have a HoLEP procedure to allow me to urinate at all. ALL THIS PROBABLY COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED HAD MY UROLOGIST SIMPLY DONE BLADDER SCANS PERIODICALLY TO CATCH SEVERE URINE RETENTION. He did not do that. So, okay to go off Finasteride, but make sure they do bladder scans so you do not end up with my problem.