Can Propecia Cause Impotence?
Some people say that Propecia does cause impotency.
Medline Plus, a part of the National Library of Medicine, simply defines impotency as the state wherein a male is not able to engage in sexual intercourse, the reason behind it being his inability to have or maintain an erection. The official website, propecia.com acknowledges that there are some side effects associated with the intake of drug, some of them being less desire for sex, issues with sperm ejaculation, and decrease in the volume of semen and difficulty in achieving an erection.
On the other hand, we have also heard that the side effects are very rare.
The same website, www.propecia.com also claims that very small number of men has experienced these sexual side-effects, and the average rate of these occurring is nearly 2%. Also, these were known to diminish when the men stopped the use of the medication. The website does say that the side-effects are temporary, but do not give any time period in which these symptoms are known to disappear.
Furthermore, those who continued to take the medicine found that the symptoms started disappearing by themselves in the fifth year of treatment.
Conclusion
Although these side-effects are very rare, Merck has itself stated that there are some negative effects associated with the use of Propecia, and this also includes impotence. The manufacturing company, Medline Plus, also lists Finateride (the original name of the drug) as one of the meds casing impotence.
