Hello guys.
I’m here today because I wanted some enlightement that I did not found at my doctor’s office or during my research
I’ve been now taking finasteride to prevent baldness since 2-3 years.
I’m a 25 yo male and I started at 1 mg and am now at the max dosage (5)
At the beginning I noticed a drop of strenght (not much) and less sex appetite.
But now, I’m at 5 and I can really feel a difference, I have way less sex drive, still okay but not as much as before at all
My cock is also less… erected ? It’s not as hard and big as it was once, I really had difficulties admitting that
I thought it was “my mind”
I am also dropping alot of strenght at the gym. I used to lift 105 kilos at bench, 120 squat and 170-180 before
Now I’m struggling with 10-20 kilos less than that
I got two main questions : If I decide to go down to 2.5 will the effects lessen ?
and my second question and the most important about my lifting life… Does my current lack of strenght prevent some muscular gainz ?
And by that I mean … Do I have to work harder to reach my previous state or does it simply prevent me to reach the same strenght and muscles I once had ?
My test has tripled since then but I can feel the lack of DHT
More strength means you’ll push more weight. As you push more weight your muscles are tasked with doing more. The response is to create new muscle in order to accommodate the new work load. (This is the 3rd grade explanation; it’s obviously much more complicated) If you’re losing strength then that will certainly impact your ability to gain muscle.
As far as dropping the dose, your libido, and what to do in the future I can’t give you anything useful. Finasteride is an awful, awful drug and the mere fact that so many people risk their sexual and hormonal wellbeing in order to keep their hair is staggering to me. Maybe decreasing the dosage helps with strength, but for those who have had sexual side effects from the drug it’s not like they go away once you decrease or stop using it. They’re usually there for a long time (and in rare case they never go away).
I knew about the side effects but my dermatologist told me “meh usually they get off the med after 20 years, they are 40 and are complaining about not being as much in shape sexually or physically than in their twenties
It’s more psychological than anything really I know they say the opposite on the web but it’s vastly exagerated”
W e l l
I now have 9.02 ng/mL of test
I had 3-4 before finasteride
But despite that I can feel the effects of my low DHT levels