Finasteride weird side effects

So I started finasteride 1mg daily about 3 months ago. First weeks were good, but after that I started feeling a slight discomfort in my lower abdominal area and bladder/prostate. Didn’t give it much thought but the discomfort turned into pain, and I went to the ER to get tested for a bladder infection. Tests came back negative so I stopped taking finasteride to check if the sides went away, and they did. I gave it a couple of weeks and started back again with 0.25mg this time, and same result, started feeling pain in my bladder/prostate and discomfort while going to the bathroom. The pain comes and goes, but I always have a slight discomfort.

I was just wondering if this also happened to anyone else, because I’ve looked online and nobody seems to have these side effects. I talked to my doctor and he suggested trying dutasteride 0.5mg 3x a week to see if I had the same issues. What do you guys think? Is this normal? Can I do anything to mitigate this?

Ultimately you need to listen to your body, hormone changes can cause inflammation in different ways for people. It usually subsides when you stay on a given treatment for a while, but that’s a decision you should make yourself, with the advice of your doctor. Involvement with the prostate makes a lot of sense though people might not know to be that specific about explaining it.