When your hair begins to thin, and that once full head of hair slowly transforms into a receding hairline, it can be troubling. Many men opt to rage against this hair change instead of going quietly into that balding good night by investing in hair loss medication. One of the most popular hair loss medications on the market is finasteride, more commonly known by its brand names Propecia and Proscar, with over 400,000 men filling prescriptions for the drug just last year. But while finasteride has been found to be effective at combating hair loss, it’s got the unexpected side effect of affecting your ability to perform between the sheets.
Yes, if you’ve been taking a finasteride-based drug and you’ve recently struggled to achieve an erection, there’s a connection. This is because Propecia and Proscar work by reducing the amount of dihydrotestosterone circulating in your blood stream, which has the benefit of encouraging hair growth. The downside, however, is that dihydrotestosterone is a male sex hormone, and is vital to communicating to the brain that it’s time for the erection to get to work. With reduced sex hormone levels, sexual feelings have a tendency to get scrambled, which results in the body being unable to achieve an erection.
Thankfully, the solution for this issue is simple: stop taking finasteride. If you’re experiencing side effects such as erectile dysfunction, halt taking finasteride and tell your doctor. There are other hair loss drugs on the market, so you can work together to find one that works better for you. And you won’t have to worry about the side effects sticking around, because finasteride has not been found to linger in the body.