Welcome to our community. Please fill in the following template as a way of introducing yourself, and helping others to understand your background and situation.
Where are you from (country)?
USA
How did you find this forum (Google search – if so, what search terms? Via link from a forum or website – if so, what page? Other?)
google - I have no idea. I searched for my symptoms during
What is your current age, height, weight?
46 years old
5’ 8" (172cm)
180 lbs (82 kg)
What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)?
finasteride
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
1.25 mg/day (5 mg split into 1/4 tablet)
What condition was being treated with the drug?
male pattern hair loss (mainly receding hairline)
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
14 1/2 months
Date when you started the drug?
January 1, 2012
Date when you quit the drug?
March 12 or 13, 2013
Age when you quit?
34 years old
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
cold turkey
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects?
maybe 9 - 10 months
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
the only side effects I remember prior to discontinuation were impotence and watery ejaculate, both of these were off and on. I still have both occasionally but the impotence is not a total loss of erection quality/complete impotence like it was a few times while I was on the poison and the watery ejaculate is not “as” watery.
Check the boxes that apply. You can save your post first, then interactively check/uncheck the boxes by clicking on them. If your symptoms change, please update your list.
Sexual
[x ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[x ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[x ] Loss of Morning Erections
[x ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[x ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[x ] Watery Ejaculate
[x ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[x ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating - I have AD/HD-PI so, it’s hard to say, but it does feel like it has gotten worse since developing pfs
[x ] Confusion - I have ad/hd-pi so, it’s hard to say, but it does feel like it has gotten worse since developing pfs
[x ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness - I have ad/hd-pi so, it’s hard to say, but it does feel like it has gotten worse since developing pfs
[x ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought - I have ad/hd-pi so, it’s hard to say, but it does feel like it has gotten worse since developing pfs
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[x ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency - I have ad/hd-pi so, it’s hard to say, but it does feel like it has gotten worse since developing pfs
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[x ] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[x ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[x ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[x ] Weight Gain
[x ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[x ] Muscle Wastage
[x ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes - dark but not dry, but I’ve always had dark baggy under-eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[x ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[x ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems - bloated more often than I remember being before
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears) - I developed this a few years before taking the poison, I don’t think it’s gotten worse since pfs
[ ] Hearing loss - yes, but hard to say if it’s related to pfs or not
[x ] Increased hair loss - I used to have to shave my face every 3-4 days now every 6-7 days; beard is thinner, leg hair almost completely gone
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
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premature ejaculation - prior to finasteride I was able to last very long time, in part likely due to the side effect of most ssri’s, with paxil in particular I would last literally 2-3 hours of vigorous and intense sex/masturbation. However, since pfs, I’ve even ejaculated before being completely erect. I’ve even taken high dose paxil since developing pfs in hopes to help the PE (I now know that’s a no no) and it had no effect on ejaculation timing whatsoever, still premature. So, obviously something has been completely been SHUT OFF!
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urge incontinence - when I have to pee it just hits me suddenly sometimes and occasionally I dribble before making it to the bathroom because I can’t hold it - when I’m home alone this is when I immediately cuss Merck Pharmaceuticals
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incomplete ejaculation - it just feels like it doesn’t completely empty
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no to very low smell to semen
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reduced stamina
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increased refractory period, by a lot, maybe more than 12 hours I don’t know exactly
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less desire to drink alcohol
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occasional pain/knot right side, top of penis - possible pudendal neuralgia. it just aches sometimes and pain is reproduced by touching the area, for example when the shower water hits it
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right testicle is turned inward towards body about 1/4 turn; though sometimes goes back to normal positioning
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white hairs on testicles (this started a few years after pfs)
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teeth reduced in size - I could suddenly fit floss between all of my teeth much, much easier
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I even felt like my whole body just got a little smaller (feet, height, etc.)
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decreased sense of smell overall
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increased total and LDL cholesterol - as if my cholesterol is not being converted into testosterone/other steroid hormones; again something has been switched off!
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
- cialis daily - mainly for urge incontinence - stopped working after a while
- zma (zinc, magnesium, and some b vitamins) - don’t think i can tell a difference but i still take them
- vitamin D3 with K2 - don’t think i could tell a difference
- pycnogenol - erection quality better while taking alongside L-arginine L-citruline combo
- sunflower lecithin - couldn’t tell a difference
- ashwagandha - don’t think i could tell a difference
- millet - nothing
- sorghum - nothing
- creatine - don’t remember anything special good or bad
- low dose valium - for GABA activity - it actually did help with nocturnal/morning erections - don’t know why i stopped it, maybe didn’t want to take another controlled substance or become addicted i don’t know
- various amphetamine based meds for adhd - other than makiing your penis shrink even more while on them i suppose that could give you some energy and help with clarity and mood
- wellbutrin - i don’t think it helped but it clogged me up mentally probably because of taking along with amphetamine based stimulants
- choline supplement - same as wellbutrin but i took it at the same time so who knows
- various ssri’s - to help with premature ejaculation - didn’t help one single bit, i know these are a no no and it was early on in my pfs career :-/
- atorvastatin - doc made me for high cholesterol and high LDL - i don’t recall if it hindered anything - the only thing it helped was getting my cholesterol numbers down (i don’t take anymore even though i should but don’t want to mess my hormone synthesis anymore so i just eat healthier and exercise more now)
- niacin - for cholesterol - helped cholesterol some but never enough to keep it low enough
- numbing sprays for premature ejaculation - promescent, dynamo (works better than promescent for me), alpha herb - works great. get it on amazon. it lasts for about 6 hours but doesn’t start to work until about an hour after putting it on so you can put it on early an then be more spontaneous later but once you open it you have to store it in your refrigerator and then it only lasts for about 2 months
- alcohol - seems to mess me up mentally for a few days
- fasting - helps with weight loss and that feels better
- weight lifting - was great when i could do it but haven’t been able to for a couple years because of a bum shoulder
- aerobic exercise - feels good for a few hours after, especially mentally
If you have pre or post-drug blood tests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug (please post your test results in the “Blood Tests” section and link to them in your post)?
no pre drug blood tests
I’ll post all of my post drug blood test results later but mainly:
Total T low but not so low as to be considered “low”
Total and LDL cholesterol high regardless of diet for the most part
Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience?
not that I can think of right now
Tell us your story, in your own words, about your usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
I took that poison for about 14 months. I stopped when my prescription ran out - I wasn’t seeing any new hair growth anyway, so I didn’t bother refilling it. Around two and a half months after my last dose (March 12th or 13th, 2013) things started to unravel. I remember it clearly because the symptoms really ramped up around Memorial Day weekend, May 25th, 2013. A Memorial Day etched in my memory forever.
At the time, my girlfriend of over a year told me she was going to drive across the country to visit her ex for “closure.” I begged her not to go, but I couldn’t stop her. The stress of it all hit me hard , it was intense and overwhelming, and then came the crash. Sometimes I wonder… if she hadn’t gone, if she hadn’t added that kind of emotional weight during such a vulnerable time for me, when my hormones were already out of whack from stopping finasteride, would I have crashed at all? I’ll never know. But I do believe, like a lot of others do, that stress can trigger or accelerate a crash, and it definitely felt like that’s what happened in my case, not that it wouldn’t have happened anyway, but we’ll never know. Now, 12 years later, here I am.
Now about the crash itself, and especially the suicidal ideation. That part, thankfully, only lasted about a week, but it was brutal. I wasn’t just having dark thoughts, it was more like these vivid, intrusive images and urges I couldn’t control. They weren’t tied to how I was feeling about my girlfriend. I hadn’t even heard of pfs at the time. I was just drowning in anxiety and fear, and it was the suicidal thoughts that pushed me to start searching online for answers. Finasteride was the last thing I thought of searching for because I stopped it 2 1/2 months prior so I didn’t think it would be relevant at all. And there it was, all my symptoms finally made sense.
I remember sobbing for days over what was happening. And again, it wasn’t just about my girlfriend, I wouldn’t have been freaking out that bad, that wasn’t like me, I mean don’t get me wrong it was upsetting but the panic, the intense emotions and uncontrollable, nonstop crying - something deeper had shifted. I didn’t tell anyone what I was experiencing, not even her. I’ve never used suicide as a cry for attention, ever. What I was going through felt like my brain was being hijacked. I’d suddenly see myself doing these horrible things (I won’t go into detail) and I’d yell “STOP” out loud, try to walk it off, but it would just keep coming. It felt like I was under some kind of trance. It wasn’t me thinking about suicide, it was more like suicide was thinking through me. That’s how out-of-control it was.
Looking back, I finally understand what suicidal ideation really means. Before, I understood suicide, but not like this. But now I do. And honestly, if I hadn’t already lived through the pain of losing my brother to suicide when I was 13 (he was 14), I don’t know if I would’ve made it. That experience gave me just enough insight to hold on. I couldn’t put my family through that again.
I share this in case it helps someone else understand what this crash can really do. For anyone who’s lost a loved one to suicide after taking finasteride, please know, it might not have been because of their physical or sexual symptoms. For me, it wasn’t. It was the condition itself, twisting my thoughts in a way that made me feel like I had no control. If I didn’t have a personal history with suicide, I don’t know if I would’ve made it through.
Self-reporting template - ONLY USE FOR FUTURE POSTS TO REPORT ANY TRIALS OF TREATMENTS, NOT YOUR INITIAL MEMBER STORY
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Name of the therapy/substance:
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Status
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- Duration of use: Days [ ] Months [ ] Years [ ]
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Response when you started:
- Greatly improved [ ]
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Current response (if you’re still using the therapy/substance) OR Response in the time before you stopped the treatment
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Lasting changes to initial symptoms after cessation (if you have stopped for more than 3 weeks)
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