PFS Patient (male)

a neurologist…diagnosed me with a slow progression of…Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

I started taking finasteride in December 2011 because the facility that did my hair restoration said they wouldn’t guarantee my procedure if I didn’t take it. Although I’ve never had any sexual side effects I struggled with other side effects. Emotional side effects included large amounts of anxiety and small bouts of depression. Physical side effects included headaches, brain fog, numbness in my arms, major shaking in my hands, muscle twitching (aka fasciculation) and muscle atrophy. As my side effects worsened I decided to quit taking Finasteride in December 2018 and went to see a neurologist that diagnosed me with a slow progression of ALS aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Because my neurologist wasn’t concerned about Finasteride playing a role in my diagnosis I made the decision last week to go back on it and within three days the aforementioned physical symptoms which had ceased this past year immediately started back up again. Can you please reach out to the PFS community to see if anyone is willing to share a similar story to mine, that being less of sexual dysfunction and more of neurological dysfunctions that may have even led to misdiagnoses of a disease like ALS?

JV, 50, Littleton, Colorado: Dec. 3, 2019

Condition update: August 2020

Considerably improved

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