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Sexual Dysfunction Side Effect from Finasteride Diminishes Over Years

Greetings Dr. Rassman,

I’m one of your patients (procedure in 3/07). Things are going well. You gave me a bottle of Propecia to try and I just started taking it about 3 days ago. I had been holding off taking it until I did some more reading (OK – I’m a slow reader)

I found this article; I thought it might be a good addition to your Blog:

MedicalNewsToday.com – Finasteride For Prostate Cancer Only Short-Term Risk For Sexual Dysfunction

Best regards

Thank you for the information. Of note, the article reports:

The 2003 results of that trial, conducted by the Southwest Oncology Group in more than 18,000 men, showed that finasteride could reduce a man’s chances of getting prostate cancer by almost 25 percent.

and…

The authors, who surveyed more than 17,000 men 55 and older for seven years, reported their results in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. … The study suggests that finasteride will cause little or no sexual dysfunction for most men who decide to take it, conclude the authors.

The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute. Citation: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djm023


2007-08-21 13:35:33Sexual Dysfunction Side Effect from Finasteride Diminishes Over Years

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Sex Drive Went Sky High on Finasteride

I am 20 years old and i am taking 1mg of finasteride for hairloss for a week,i think that i feel more honry than before taking it,dont know why.Nothing else unusual so far.

One of my relatives that I gave Finasteride prescription called me with the same complaint, and it lasted years. He had an agreeable girlfriend and a great sex life. He said he would take finasteride even if he wasn’t losing hair.


2020-06-25 10:58:02Sex Drive Went Sky High on Finasteride

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Sex Drive and Erections

I am a 36 year-old male. I have been taking 1/5 of a finasteride (Proscar) pill daily for about 6-7 years. I have heard that Proscar can have harmful effects on male sex drive and erections — my question is, when this does happen, can it happen gradually or does it happen in the immediate days/weeks/months after starting the drug?

I ask because there has been a noticeable decline in my sex drive as well as the frequency and quality of erections over the years, and I don’t know if it’s normal for my age, or possibly due to the drug. I’m still quite functional sexually if I pick my spots, but those spots seem to be less and less frequent, and when I do get involved I’m prone to lose it unless I take Viagra beforehand (1/4 of a pill seems to work very well for me).

Please help! Would greatly appreciate any insight you can offer on my situation. I’m not sure but I think 36 is too young for this stuff.

Every man over 25 knows that their penis does not behave like it did when we were 15. There is an interconnection between our erections and our sex drive. If our erection is not strong enough, if we do not last long enough, or recover fast enough, then what we may call erection problems (Erectile Dysfunction / ED) may become a matter of our focus. From the impromptu polls I have done in my mostly male practice, many men in their 30s find that Viagra improves their erections. Question: Does it improve from a 15 year old vantage point or a 36 year old vantage point?

Your “sexual problem” (I only used quotes because I am not sure to what extent there is a problem) may be ED or it may be caused by Propecia (but that usually comes within the first month of taking the medication, not after years necessarily). If you stop the Propecia for a few weeks, and the ED and sex drive goes away, then you can assume it was Propecia induced. You can check your testosterone levels; hopefully they will be normal. If you have some aging effect and you are satisfied with Viagra, then use it. There are doctors that specialize in ED, so if all alse fails, you can see one of them so if you go this route, you are best starting off with your family doctor. If you decide to stop the Propecia for 2-3 weeks, the drug will be out of your system in a couple of days and within a week you should see some benefit if it is Propecia related.

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Sex and Hair Loss?

Will having sex cause an increased rate of hair loss on men? And if so, is it better to have sex without ejaculating?

It is probably true that there is a relationship between testosterone and sexual appetite. There is also a relationship with testosterone and hair loss and if, for example, a man (who has the genes for androgenic alopecia) applied testosterone creams, he would increase his testosterone blood levels and probably have more hair loss due to the increased DHT. That is where this conversation ends.

Ejaculation (present or not) should not increase testosterone levels. There is no connection between ejaculation and hair loss. If you want to have sex without ejaculating… good luck!

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Severe Vitamin D Deficiency and Hair Loss

I had SEVERE Vitamin D Deficiency (MY LEVELS WHERE 5) I’m a male and my doctor thought this could be contributing to my diffuse thinning. I started therapy in three months ago and got my levels up to 20. If the loss was caused by VitD than how long does it usually take to cycle the hair back to normal growth.

Thanks
Love the site.

Vitamin DI do not have experience with treating a Vitamin D deficiency and the recovery from it. Assuming that you do not have male patterned baldness on top of it, I would imagine that the hair should recover (I used “should” because it is logical that it would) in the normal cycling phase, which may take 3 years as the existing hairs undergo their anagen (about 3 years), catagen (days to weeks) and telogen phases (3 months). To learn more about the hair growth cycles, see here.

I am curious how you became deficient in Vitamin D, but pleased to hear you’re undergoing appropriate treatment.

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Severe Pain at the Donor Area Months After My Hair Transplant

Hello doctor. My question is an honest one and one that hasn’t been asked before.

I had a hair transplant 2 and a half months ago but I still have a lot of pain above the linear scar (when I press it) and also the sensitivity on the top of my head in terrible and is constant. It’s like my hair is being pulled. My surgeon said in 17 years he has no idea what is causing it and never had this problem before. There is also a gap of about 10mm where the scar is and said he said to me he can do a scar reduction in a year. I am so sorry I had this procedure done as the pain is not letting up.

It sounds like you may have a scar entrapment (nerves squeezed by scar) or damage to the occipital nerves in the scarred area. I have had patients report symptoms like what you’re describing when they had a nerve entrapment. Sometimes, a scar will form around the occipital nerves just from the strip surgery, or the nerves could be mechanically damaged, or even partially or completely cut.

Doctors who will examine you will look for something we call a Tenels’s sign, which simply produces some of the symptoms as the doctor taps the area above the nerve. Surgery is a last resort to fix the problem if it is just induced by the scar. If the nerve is cut completely, a surgery most likely wouldn’t help.


2013-12-05 10:06:54Severe Pain at the Donor Area Months After My Hair Transplant

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What to Do: Severe Ed but Great Results from Finasteride

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Severe eczema drug grew hair

The article reported “total lack of scalp hair – along with eczema, experienced significant hair regrowth while being treated with dupilumab, a drug marketed under the brand name Dupixent”.

Here is the article: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/mgh-edr100718.php


2020-06-18 14:59:42Severe eczema drug grew hair