Hi there, I am 25 years old and have been using proscar tablets for roughly a year. A few months ago i switched to a a generic brand called finasteride which is the same strength (5mg). I had not had any side effects at all until the past few weeks where i have noticed my libido is severely lacking compared to what it normally is and my partner has noticed a decline for the past month and a half.

I am a little worried as i have read a few stories where people have not regained there sex drive or proper erectile function years after stopping the drug. Is it possible that i stop and i do not regain my normal sexual appetites and functions? Also can i counteract this with something like horny goat weed or another libido building drug?

I dont have much of a bald spot yet as i caught it in time. Mostly just the sides of my forehead are receding. How long does it normally take to lose the hair once stopping. I would really appreciate your advice as i am worried i have done some irreversible damage. Thank you.

The generic 5mg finasteride pills should be the same as the name brand Proscar. You didn’t say what dosage you’re using, but only 1mg is proper treatment for hair loss. If you’re taking the full 5mg pill, that is a prostate treatment.

I am not an expert on horny goat weed extract or other herbals that have inconsistent dosages. If you are having libido problems with the finasteride, speak with the doctor who prescribed it. You might try halving the dose or even quartering the dose by taking it every other day, or even every 4th day. This is something you and your doctor can discuss.

If you have erectile dysfunction (ED), you can consider Cialis or Viagra, which are prescription medications. I don’t know your medical history, but you must also consider that your ED may be unrelated to any drugs.

Dear Dr. Rassman,

I wondered if you could answer a couple of questions I had about Dutasteride (Adovart)?

In the past 6 months, I’ve experienced a rather significant amount of shedding and what seems to be follicle miniaturization from the crown to the hairline (though there are still hairs in this area and need to do something about it if possible.

For the past 2-3 months I’ve been using DS Laboratories Spectral F7, RS/ & DNC-N, and despite their grandiose claims of these products being the most advanced hair loss treatments available, if anything I have a lot less hair/thinner hair shafts than I did before I started with them. However, I’m not sure if this is because I haven’t used them long enough or that simply that they aren’t efficacious.

The other possibility could be hormonal changes as I’ve got symptoms of BPH (last checkup showed some enlargement but benign) and after reading something you wrote about the effect of hair dye, I started to wonder if the combination of these two factors might be the cause? I noticed in the past year or so when using Herbatint (The supposedly “safe” hair color), my scalp would feel burning/itching that would last a couple of days and I began to think it might be involved in the fallout/thinner shafts.

I’ve taken Finesteride some years ago and finding it ineffective for hair loss, I was thinking that the next step might be to try Dutasteride. So I wanted to ask, do you think it is worth a try and would the generic version be as safe/effective as the original manufacturer’s version? I’m kind of at the last defense and hope this might work.

Thanks in advance for any input you could give me on this…

Respectfully Yours

There’s a few issues that immediately stand out to me. First, I don’t know anything about your medical history or even your age. What did you find ineffective about the finasteride when you took it years ago? How long did you take it?

Second, you’re asking me about whether you should take a prescription medication (dutasteride) that isn’t approved for treating hair loss. That’s going to be something you’ll need to discuss with your doctor. The name brand and the generic should be the same medication, but I can’t say whether you should even be taking it.

Third, if you used a hair dye on your scalp that produced a burning or itching, it might be related. I don’t have experience with Herbatint, but I suppose it’s possible you had a chemical or allergic reaction.

Most importantly, if you suspect you may have BPH, I hope you’re under the care of a urologist. Your doctor may prescribe dutasteride (Avodart) for treating your BPH, which could be beneficial for your hair loss, as well.

Without wanting to go into too much detail, I believe that finasteride doesn’t actually cause watery semen because it seems to appear much more watery anyway just when the whole ejaculation process happens quicker. Could noticing this not just be a result of people hurrying up the whole process to test whether their semen is normal or not after taking the drug?

There are reports that both the ejaculate and the quality of the semen changes with finasteride. Watery semen is one of the reports. Generally, the ejaculate is consistent in each person at any one time, but the volume could vary with frequency. Sperm counts are still another issue and some reports indicate that sperm counts decrease on the drug finasteride.