Side Effects of Finasteride a sign of something serious?

[Pleasenocrazypeople]

Wow. So I saw a dermatologist and they gave me a prescription for for finasteride. I'm balding at 26... seemed like something I should check out.

The prescription was for 7 pills (5mg) and I split them into 4. I have about 5 left so I've been taking it for 23 days.

First of all... as crazy as it seems... my hair already looks slightly healthier. A couple things... #1 i'm not shedding hair as much as normal. #2 Oddly enough it almost seems like my hair is growing a lot slower. I'm not sure if that's just because I just started it... but I got a hair cut right after I started taking it... usually after a couple weeks my hair looks ridiculous due to uneven growth... but my hair still looks nearly identical to what it did when I got it cut. I know it's only been 23 days, but... trust me... its a change.

I'm encouraged by the positive signs of the hair (really would love to see what it'd look like in 5 months)... but I think I'm going to have to flush this stuff down the toilet.

If any doctors who really understand this drug are reading... maybe they can give me some insight. Unrelated (perhaps) to the whole balding thing... I've had issues with sleeping for years. I wake up several times a night. I believe it's because I breathe through my mouth... it's possible that I have some form of sleep apnea where I temporarily stop breathing and have to wake up. I actually have a scheduled sleep study next week to determine if this is apnea. But here is the thing... every time I wake in the middle of the night, I go to the bathroom to urinate. The urge to urinate prevents me from falling back to sleep. For years I've gone over this in my head... I realize I breathe through my mouth when I sleep, wake up to drink water due to a dry mouth... then wake up to urinate = a cycle of waking up. I wondered if the urge to urinate was just habitual... or if the urge to urinate was what was waking me up. When I woke up it wasn't like I had a full bladder... I'd just feel uncomfortable going back to sleep if I had any urge to urinate at all... even if it was just a few trickles.

Ok here's where the finasteride comes in... since taking the drug, I've unquestionably noticed less of an urge to urinate. I still wake up in the middle of the night, but instead of having to go to the bathroom I'm able to just roll over and go back to sleep. There has been a definite decrease in my urge to urinate. I read a bit about finasteride before I took it and the drug's main use of treating enlarged prostates. I read that it could cause a decreased urge to urinate... so this isn't totally a surprise to me, but I still don't totally understand the whole DHT and prostate thing. Last night, for example, I slept 5 hours straight (rare for me) and when I woke up... the "urination" urge wasn't uncomfortable to the point that I had to go to the bathroom. This is very very very rare for me and would have never happened had I not been taking this drug. I'm use to waking up 4-5 times a night and going to the bathroom each time. Is it possible that I may have a much larger issue with my prostate?

Main reasons I'm unfortunately going to stop taking it after 23 days:

#1 - Slight sexual side effects. It's legit. I was worried about this. I haven't had sex during this time frame (otherwise I could point to it being anxiety-based... expecting sexual side effects), but I definitely have had a lot of time to do my own "independent study". I haven't changed my "routine" at all. I still masturbate a couple times a day, but I'm definitely noticing that I'm not as erect as possible. I'm able to finish, but the semen is definitely more watery and less of it. I'd probably be able to cope with this...

#2 - Water retention/possible early signs of manboobs - The biggest reason I'm going to quit. I work out several times a week and I'm very conscious of my body. Since taking the drug only 23 days ago, my cheeks are more puffy, my stomach appears to have more "fat"... i'm jiggling all over... legs and chest area definitely have the appearance of "fat". I'm pretty confident this is water retention. I worked with a personal trainer for a while and had these same effects when I was taking a creatine supplement years ago. Needless to say... whether it is water retention or an early sign of gynecomastia ... I'm significantly freaked out and I'm going to stop taking the drug immediately. I'd rather be bald and fit than have slightly more hair/slight sexual side effects/a fat appearance and possible manboobs.

So then this makes me wonder.... going back to my whole issue with the urge to urinate... is the decreased urge simply due to this water retention?... or has the finasteride been doing something to my prostate? I'm just confused on the whole thing.

[Mark]

Wow. So I saw a dermatologist and they gave me a prescription for for finasteride. I'm balding at 26... seemed like something I should check out.

The prescription was for 7 pills (5mg) and I split them into 4. I have about 5 left so I've been taking it for 23 days.

First of all... as crazy as it seems... my hair already looks slightly healthier. A couple things... #1 i'm not shedding hair as much as normal. #2 Oddly enough it almost seems like my hair is growing a lot slower. I'm not sure if that's just because I just started it... but I got a hair cut right after I started taking it... usually after a couple weeks my hair looks ridiculous due to uneven growth... but my hair still looks nearly identical to what it did when I got it cut. I know it's only been 23 days, but... trust me... its a change.

I'm encouraged by the positive signs of the hair (really would love to see what it'd look like in 5 months)... but I think I'm going to have to flush this stuff down the toilet.

If any doctors who really understand this drug are reading... maybe they can give me some insight. Unrelated (perhaps) to the whole balding thing... I've had issues with sleeping for years. I wake up several times a night. I believe it's because I breathe through my mouth... it's possible that I have some form of sleep apnea where I temporarily stop breathing and have to wake up. I actually have a scheduled sleep study next week to determine if this is apnea. But here is the thing... every time I wake in the middle of the night, I go to the bathroom to urinate. The urge to urinate prevents me from falling back to sleep. For years I've gone over this in my head... I realize I breathe through my mouth when I sleep, wake up to drink water due to a dry mouth... then wake up to urinate = a cycle of waking up. I wondered if the urge to urinate was just habitual... or if the urge to urinate was what was waking me up. When I woke up it wasn't like I had a full bladder... I'd just feel uncomfortable going back to sleep if I had any urge to urinate at all... even if it was just a few trickles.

Ok here's where the finasteride comes in... since taking the drug, I've unquestionably noticed less of an urge to urinate. I still wake up in the middle of the night, but instead of having to go to the bathroom I'm able to just roll over and go back to sleep. There has been a definite decrease in my urge to urinate. I read a bit about finasteride before I took it and the drug's main use of treating enlarged prostates. I read that it could cause a decreased urge to urinate... so this isn't totally a surprise to me, but I still don't totally understand the whole DHT and prostate thing. Last night, for example, I slept 5 hours straight (rare for me) and when I woke up... the "urination" urge wasn't uncomfortable to the point that I had to go to the bathroom. This is very very very rare for me and would have never happened had I not been taking this drug. I'm use to waking up 4-5 times a night and going to the bathroom each time. Is it possible that I may have a much larger issue with my prostate?

Main reasons I'm unfortunately going to stop taking it after 23 days:

#1 - Slight sexual side effects. It's legit. I was worried about this. I haven't had sex during this time frame (otherwise I could point to it being anxiety-based... expecting sexual side effects), but I definitely have had a lot of time to do my own "independent study". I haven't changed my "routine" at all. I still masturbate a couple times a day, but I'm definitely noticing that I'm not as erect as possible. I'm able to finish, but the semen is definitely more watery and less of it. I'd probably be able to cope with this...

#2 - Water retention/possible early signs of manboobs - The biggest reason I'm going to quit. I work out several times a week and I'm very conscious of my body. Since taking the drug only 23 days ago, my cheeks are more puffy, my stomach appears to have more "fat"... i'm jiggling all over... legs and chest area definitely have the appearance of "fat". I'm pretty confident this is water retention. I worked with a personal trainer for a while and had these same effects when I was taking a creatine supplement years ago. Needless to say... whether it is water retention or an early sign of gynecomastia ... I'm significantly freaked out and I'm going to stop taking the drug immediately. I'd rather be bald and fit than have slightly more hair/slight sexual side effects/a fat appearance and possible manboobs.

So then this makes me wonder.... going back to my whole issue with the urge to urinate... is the decreased urge simply due to this water retention?... or has the finasteride been doing something to my prostate? I'm just confused on the whole thing.

Wow, lots of stuff to cover here.

Here something I'm not sure I understand. Is there a certain reason your doctor only prescribed you 7 pills? When we prescribe it here we typically prescribe more than that.

The sleep issue will be much more understood once you do that sleep test. They're going to hook you up to what seems like a million wires, and have a camera there to watch you sleep, along with a microphone taped to your chest to hear you. They are quite thorough. Hopefully after that you should get a better idea of what is causing your sleep issues.

I've never heard of anyone retaining water due to finasteride. We've seen instances of that reported by people taking Minoxidil, and it goes away with the patient stopping the use of the drug. Are you sure you haven't made any diet changes recently that may affect your water retention? Eating saltier foods, etc? That's something you're probably going to want to speak with your prescribing doctor about as that's quite unusual. Water retention will indeed cause you to decrease your urination, as your body keeps most of the water rather than releasing it through urination.

Certainly something to speak about with your doctor however. A close relative of mine has frequent urination issues and I know she was prescribed some drug that totally took care of the issue for her. I can't for the life of me remember what it was, but your doctor should have an idea.

Hope some of this helps.

-Mark

[Pleasenocrazypeople]

the 7 pills thing probably didnt' make a lot of sense. She actually prescribed me a months worth of generic finasteride and 5 refills. A months worth split 4 ways would obviously last me 4 months. But the pharmacist apparently contacted my health insurance company and they only agreed to give me 7 pills at a time (split 4 ways it's 28... roughly a month's worth).... basically I'm paying a $5 dollar copay for 7 pills at a time (28 days worth). I think the doctor made a mistake by writing "take 1/4 pill a day" on the actual prescription slip and the pharmacist and/or the health insurance company was wise to the fact I was using it for balding and not prostate issues... hence the insurance company only agreeing to give me 7 at a time.

The important thing is that I'm 23 days in and noticing what I believe to be water retention. The main thing I'm worried about is the people who have mentioned breast development... it's definitely something I don't want. I did some googling on finasteride and actually noticed several people mentioning water retention.... so I assumed it was a common thing.

[Mark]

the 7 pills thing probably didnt' make a lot of sense. She actually prescribed me a months worth of generic finasteride and 5 refills. A months worth split 4 ways would obviously last me 4 months. But the pharmacist apparently contacted my health insurance company and they only agreed to give me 7 pills at a time (split 4 ways it's 28... roughly a month's worth).... basically I'm paying a $5 dollar copay for 7 pills at a time (28 days worth). I think the doctor made a mistake by writing "take 1/4 pill a day" on the actual prescription slip and the pharmacist and/or the health insurance company was wise to the fact I was using it for balding and not prostate issues... hence the insurance company only agreeing to give me 7 at a time.

The important thing is that I'm 23 days in and noticing what I believe to be water retention. The main thing I'm worried about is the people who have mentioned breast development... it's definitely something I don't want. I did some googling on finasteride and actually noticed several people mentioning water retention.... so I assumed it was a common thing.

It's really not. In clinical studies of Finasteride, almost the same percentage of people taking real Finasteride experienced side effects as those who took a placebo. In all his years prescribing Finasteride in one form of another, I think Dr. Rassman can count on one hand the number of patients who genuinely experienced side effects (as opposed to those who just had them in their head).

And water retention, well, your post is the first that either of us had heard of that as a side effect.

I'd really recommend seeing your prescribing physician and having him/her evaluate you. If you are really experiencing water retention, that's unusual and should be checked out.

-Mark