Propecia and the Morning Wood

This blog is an excellent resource; I studied it extensively and used it to decide on Propecia as a course of action 3 years ago. I have a question with respect to Propecia and nocturnal erections. You mentioned in a previous post that, “the lack of morning erections is a known problem with Propecia.” Why is Propecia associated with lower quality/quantity of nocturnal erections? I am trying to assess the safety of prolonged propecia use, as the results are excellent. Could this side effect be a fast track to ED?

Getting an erection is important if it occurs when you want it. Nocturnal or morning erections are often just part of the overhead of being a man. Now that I am in my 60s, I can look at this problem differently than when I was 15 years old when my morning erections went from the time I woke until 3pm when school let out. A morning woody is OK, annoying at times, but it is important (morning or night-time) when it is called into action by the appropriate circumstance. I don’t believe that a reduced morning or night-time spontaneous erection frequency is a problem for men of any age, providing that the plumbing works when needed.

If Propecia (finasteride) reduced the frequency of morning or nocturnal erections and at the same time reduced your penis’ erection capability, then Viagra or other such drugs may be the best way to manage that problem. I suspect that the nocturnal or morning erections will be less frequent with people on this drug, but I never did a study of this for statistical analysis nor have I seen such a study elsewhere. Many men use Viagra even when they are not taking finasteride, and I believe that erectile dysfunction (ED) is a problem for 30% of men between the ages of 30-40, and 40% for men between age 40-50, and better than 50% for men over 50 years old. So the use of Propecia does not set up a man for this eventual problem, just his aging process does.