My marriage became sex-starved then ended because of a common hair loss drug – I was so lonely I became suicidal
Thammika Songkaeo shared her heartbreaking story on the Moral Medicine podcast.
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Now a bestselling author, she revealed the dangers of the prescription drug that men rarely know about.
Thammika said she noticed that her love life was nonexistent while they were still dating.
Her then- boyfriend told her that it was because he had taken Propecia — the brand name of finasteride.
Finasteride is a prescription drug that is commonly used to treat male pattern hair loss.
It works by blocking the production of a male hormone that contributes to hair loss.
However, it comes with a host of side effects, including: erectile dysfunction, decreased sex drive and ejaculation problems, including reduced ejaculate volume.
At first, she figured it would only be a temporary problem, but that soon changed.
'I did not at all realise that it was permanent, serious [and] devastating,' she said.
The pair still decided to stay together and ended up married for seven years.
She even convinced her ex to take an erectile dysfunction drug to improve intimacy.
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Taking lovers has improved our relationship but threesome on TV left me in tear
The couple even welcomed a daughter, but the sex life never really improved and Thamika was feeling lonelier than ever.
Eventually, she decided to call it quits on her sex-starved marriage.
She said: "I couldn't really detach myself from this person because I saw what happened, and I said, "This is definitely not this man's fault."
"And what I needed to do personally was move away from the relationship as a romantic partner because I couldn't do it, I couldn't live in a sexless marriage."
Help for mental health
If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support.
The following are free to contact and confidential:
Samaritans, www.samaritans.org, 116 123
CALM (the leading movement against suicide in men) www.thecalmzone.net, 0800 585 858
Papyrus (prevention of young suicide) www.papyrus-uk.org, 0800 068 41 41
Shout (for support of all mental health) www.giveusashout.org/get-help/, text 85258 to start a conversation
Mind, www.mind.org, provide information about types of mental health problems and where to get help for them. Call the infoline on 0300 123 3393 (UK landline calls are charged at local rates, and charges from mobile phones will vary).
YoungMinds run a free, confidential parents helpline on 0808 802 5544 for parents or carers worried about how a child or young person is feeling or behaving. The website has a chat option too.
Rethink Mental Illness, www.rethink.org, gives advice and information service offers practical advice on a wide range of topics such as The Mental Health Act, social care, welfare benefits, and carers rights. Use its website or call 0300 5000 927 (calls are charged at your local rate).
Heads Together, www.headstogether.org.uk, is the a mental health initiative spearheaded by The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales.
Now, she is trying to raise awareness on post-finasteride syndrome (PFS) - condition in which someone experiences severe side effects after they stop using finasteride.
'The depth of the loneliness I felt was to the point where I, myself, was becoming suicidal or having suicidal thoughts,' Songkaeo said.
'I had to call the suicide hotline because it became that bad for me — and, usually, I'm a pretty happy person.'
She questions the ethics of distributing a drug that can have such potentially devastating consequences.
'Finasteride has the capacity to dissolve one person so much that it becomes this domino effect…there's just so much destruction around it — and it feels like unnecessary destruction,' she said.
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