Finasteride is a white crystalline powder with a melting point near 250°C. Finasteride has been found to cross the blood-brain barrier.

Since finasteride shrinks the prostate, it can make the ejaculate less viscous (more watery).

Although not all of these side effects may occur, if they do occur they may need medical attention. The most common symptom is pelvic pain.

Design, Setting, Subjects, and Intervention: We … Most patients trying to conceive will have no issues while taking Propecia. In 60% (21 of 35) of the samples, finasteride levels were undetectable (<0.2 ng/mL). Endometriosis is more common in women who are having fertility issues, but it does not necessarily cause infertility.
If this is a consideration, the doctor could order a pretreatment sperm count and motility. Semen levels have been measured in 35 men taking finasteride 1 mg/day for 6 weeks. All rights reserved.

Also, it only seems to harm sperm counts in men with marginal quality to begin with. This rare side effect is included in Merck’s patient product information in the United States, and in Public Assessment Reports of the Medicines and Health Regulatory Agency of the United Kingdom and the Medical Products Agency of Sweden.”Dr. A number of new reports that are based on patient questionnaires suggest that the sexual side effects of finasteride may actually be permanent, and that the drug may also cause depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts in patients who suffer from persistent sexual side effects.One of the most significant factors that has raised questions about the prevalence of long-term sexual side effects is that a clear-cut pattern for this link has not been extensively demonstrated in the literature.“The one study that was recently published was not performed in a manner that could be repeated, did not follow men from the outset of taking the drug and only went by patient report,” explains Amy McMichael, MD, of the Center for Dermatology Research and the Department of Dermatology at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC, in reference to the most recent articles that raised these questions.Stephen E. Wolverton, MD, a professor of clinical dermatology in the Department of Dermatology at Indiana University School of Medicine, conducted a review of finasteride studies in order to determine the accuracy of the new studies reporting permanent sexual side effects and was not able to come to as definitive a conclusion. McMichael agrees this new evidence for long-term sexual side effects with finasteride has raised some intriguing — and complicated — questions.“It is very interesting that patients are coming out now with this complaint, since the large pivotal trials that were required by the FDA did not reveal these findings,” she explains.The reexamination of the sexual side effects of finasteride and the potential for a long-term impact that has occurred in light of these new studies seems to be yielding the same results as the studies that were first conducted to achieve FDA approval: The drug is a safe, well-tolerated, effective option for male pattern baldness.“If you go back before the hype and look at the data, as with the McLellan study — basically, in 1999, when they did all the trials before this subject was tainted by the media or medical-legal incentives — the problem of persistent sexual side effects didn’t exist,” explains Dr. Wolverton. On a related note, because of its hormonal effects, lower-dose finasteride is also marketed as Propecia, a drug given for hair loss.


“So, the punch line on this is — if enough people hear that there might be a problem – analogous to Group 2 in the Mondaini study — then there’s a pretty good chance that they’ll experience that bigger side effect.”In conjunction with the sensitive nature of the side effects, the recent $18 million Accutane settlement may be a parallel for the finasteride controversy, where patients hear that a drug causes a side effect and that there is a possible financial gain. While continued difficulty having erections after discontinuing finasteride has been reported in post-marketing surveillance the incidence of this problem remains unknown.