These comments have been compiled from social media. Links to original posts and comments are provided after each quote.
Finasteride destroyed my life and the life of other guys who committed suicide. what the hell are you saying?
when i started i did not notice anything… then, very slowly, i started having anxiety, than depression, then panick attacks, then low tolerance to stress, then suicidal ideation. when i realised it was because of finasteride, after years of use and sufference, i stopped it and when i stopped it, despite suicidal ideation and depression went away, new symptoms came out like facial lipoatrophy, dry skin, chronic fatigue. anxiety and low stress tolerance are still here and are very high. i stopped it in 2018.
Comment to YouTube video, ‘Propecia’
I quit this poison a year ago and nothing has got better.
I have got destroyed by this drug and i am just 23. This shit has given me serious muscle problems where they have got severely atrophied and have become weak. Was a very bulky and strong guy before all this. I quit this poison a year ago and nothing has got better.
Comment to YouTube video ‘Finasteride: Is Hair Loss Worth the Risk?’, 2 Jul 2021
Finasteride 1mg side effect even after discontinuing
Finasteride side effect
M 29. I have been using finasteride 1mg and minoxidil topical solution for about 7 months. Both worked really well on my hair loss and growth. I got recently married and I realized I completely lost interest in sex, ejaculation and extreme decrease in libido been a major issue. It’s been 58 days since I stopped taking fin and no change in sexual behavior yet. Also, I see my hair is Shedding again. I am going through the hell. I fear this might be permanent. Please help. What would be the best course?!!
Post to r/Hairloss, 3 Feb 2021
I realized immediately that this drug is extremely dangerous for some people… In just 2 months 0.25mg destroyed my body. I’ve never felt worse in my life.
My experience with finasteride. I went to the doctor, a very good doctor in Croatia, I’m from Croatia. I was diagnosed with male baldness, early stage. I still have all my hair, but for the last couple of years it’s been getting thinner, everyone in my family is bald. He gave me finasteride 1mg, but he said I had to cut the pill into 4 parts, to see how it would work, so after 6 months we would increase the dose to 0.5mg. He said he never prescribed a dose higher than 0.5mg to his patients because 1mg is too much and unnecessary. In 20 years of his career he has had only 2 cases of depression. I took 0.25mg finasteride every day for 2 months. My hair got a lot darker but there was no new hair regrowth, it was still too early for that, but this is the first sign that finasteride is working. I was very happy about it because I no longer cared about my hair. But after 2 months I experienced strong side effects. Side effects came on suddenly in the morning. Brain Fog, Dizziness, Headache, Severe Fatigue. Decreased libido by 70%, Eye pain, Chest pain. The side effects hit me hard. Immediately after that I stopped taking finasteride. I realized immediately that this drug is extremely dangerous for some people. Not for everyone, but for some people it is very very dangerous. Just be very careful because the side effects of this drug are real. In just 2 months 0.25mg destroyed my body. I’ve never felt worse in my life. The worst thing of all is brain fog. You’re literally like a zombie. The worst experience of my life. Now I see and know how people who have never been able to recover from this drug feel. The sad thing is that in 2020 we have no better hair treatment other than finasteride and minoxidil, hair transplat for some people is just too expencive. Now I plan to try minoxidil, I think it’s a much better option. Now I’m 28 and I want to start treatment until it’s too late.
Comment to YouTube video, ‘Post Finasteride Syndrome! Horror Stories vs Statistics & Finasteride Safety in 2020’, June 2020 (exact date unavailable)
Hey YouTube, what’s going on. Just making a quick video on…post-finasteride syndrome… About, probably six years ago, maybe seven years ago—a long time ago—I took finasteride for a couple months. Everything went well; as you can see I still have hair. …I started noticing like slight receding and I was like oh I need to take a pill I you know I can’t age—like, “I can’t have that.” So I went to the doctor, I got the drug.
Three months later I start to lose my libido and I just told myself, Well I guess that’s the cost of taking this drug, I’ll just have to deal with that. But it started to get worse to the point where I was like okay I’m not gonna take it anymore. Then I got off of it and then it was terrible. I started going through what people call the crash and…physical stuff: had all the ailments that you guys can think of, and the suicidal thoughts. The mental stuff was the hard part. I mean the physical, that was fine, I’ve been sick before—it was like being really sick—but the mental stuff was like, wow.
So I basically told myself if things don’t get better I’m gonna kill myself honestly. I’m kind of light-hearted about it now but that’s what I told myself in my head. But I said okay I’m gonna go back to normal life, I’ll start going to class again. I was in college at the time. I started working out again, just dieting, just trying to be healthy. I just want to go back to normal and as time went on it did help. I just started feel better as you can see now, I would say I made a full recovery. You kind of just have to do everything that you’re supposed to do in regards to being healthy. I did stop drinking for a period. I noticed that when I did drink I would go back in this mental fog area, so I stopped doing that for a while. I drink again on occasion so I don’t have any issues with it to this day, but if you go on propeciahelp.com you’ll see most guys, they do diets and stuff and they start exercising. They do what they should be doing—just working out and caring for themselves and I think that’s kind of where you got to start.
But anyway, just wanted to make this. Maybe someone will watch this and be hopeful that things can get better. It’s not easy, I know, mentally, what you go through and that’s the hard part: the mental stuff of wanting to kill yourself, going through all that.
YouTube video: ‘Post Finasteride Experience’, 29 Oct 2020
Thanks for highlighting this man, this year I took a single pill back in February and all I can say is those that pretend that PFS isn’t real are out of their minds. I was hospitalized twice after and paying for a dozen doctors and specialists all I’m saying is that my life has been destroyed by this. I ran my first marathon last year and to show you how fit I was I did it with only 3 weeks training, I was an athlete all my life played for a football team won [various] trophies. Today I can barely walk to the grocery store, severely crippled by it as it affected my CNS because your body needs 5alpha reductase to operate. I was healthy before this with ZERO health complications absolutely none, today I have blurry vision, floaters, major depression, cognitive issues, severe nerve damage, complete sexual dysfunction, zero libido[.] before this the thought of a women got me hard, I have muscle wastage, weight loss, chronic diarrhea, severe dry skin, insomnia and ringing in both ears. Please tell me again those that sat on the hairloss forums saying it wasn’t real that those men were all hypochondriacs and convinced me it was safe when in actual fact it only took one pill to mess me up[.] […] I’m horrified and my whole family has been ripped apart, I’m only 28 years old with his whole life ahead of him 🙁
Comment to YouTube video, ‘Is Post-Finasteride Syndrome Real?’ Approx. July 2020 (exact date unavailable).