1750's blood results + cortisol

Member Stories
#1

Male: 29
Weight: 90 kilos
Height: 6 foot 1 inch

9 days after stopping finasteride these were my results…
My Testosterone is through the roof
DHT is low
estrogen is high
prolactin is low (although I have been taking vit B6 alot)…

Sex drive is lower than normal… headaches, feel like crap… and have done so for months!

Any help on the below to gain some form of normality would be appreciated. (more background to my story further below)

Testosterone: 52* nmol/L (normal range (8.3 - 29)
DHEAS: 8.1 UMOL/l (normal range 2.2 - 15)
Urine Free Cortisol - 461 nmol/24hr (normal range 100 - 300)
Urine Creatinine - 27.2 mmol / 24hr (normal range 7.0 - 16.0)
DHT: 2.42 (range 2-20)
Prolactin - <20* (range 40-450)
Serum cortisol - 8am 399, 4pm 393 - (range of 120-620 and 100-400)
FSH - 5 (range 7-14)
LH - 6.8 (range 7-11)
Oest - 225 (range anything under 150)
Progesterone - 3 (range .9-3.9)

Sodium - 149* (range 135-145)
Potasium - 4.7 (range 3.6 - 5.4)
Chloride - 108 (range 97-110)
Bicarbonate - 28 (range 21-30)
Anion Gap - 18 (10-20)
Urea - 8.1* (2.5-7.5)
Creatinine - 105 (40-120)
eGFR - 77 ( note from DR - eGRFR values between 60 and 89 should be interpretted with caution -these results are only consistent with CKD in the presence of other evidence such as microalbuminuria, proteinuria or haematuria… have no idea what this means)
Bilirubin - 15 (range below 20)
AST - 46* (range below 35)
ALT - 34 (range below 40)
GGT - 15 (range below 40)
Alkaline Phosphatase - 83 (35-110)
Protein - 76 (65-85)
Albumin - 48 (38-50)
Globulin - 28 (22-38)

Took finasteride for 4 months with great success.
Stopped due to sides
Then tried dut for 2 weeks… sides went into overdrive
This was in Oct 06.
Had a long break and tried to treat hairloss with topicals and had no success and never fully regained my sex drive + had issues with gyno.
8 weeks ago tried finasetride again on a much lower dose but also tried to take aromatase inhibitors etc to counteract the sides… didn’t work.
Stopped taking everything for 9 days and got blood tests done on Oct 4th.
Feel better today however still have breast pain, feel tired and have constant headaches.
Sex drive is slowly coming back but just want some normality again. i.e. no headaches, or gyno issues
Won’t be touching Fin again.

#2

Testosterone: 52* nmol/L (normal range (8.3 - 29)
– This is very high… likely a result of Fin usage. Would expect this to come down over the next month or two since quitting.

Urine Free Cortisol - 461 nmol/24hr (normal range 100 - 300)
– How was your fluid intake before doing these tests? Apparently high fluid intake can influence this.

Also might want to investigate further per nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency … 003703.htm :

Sodium - 149* (range 135-145)
– Do you eat a lot of salt? How is your diet? Were you dehydrated before you took the test?

labtestsonline.org/understan … /test.html
“…almost always due to excessive loss of water (dehydration) without enough water intake… in rare cases, may be due to Cushing syndrome, or too little anti-diuretic hormone (called diabetes insipidus)”

Urine Creatinine - 27.2 mmol / 24hr (normal range 7.0 - 16.0)
Creatinine - 105 (40-120)

  • You should investigate kidney function further. How is your protein intake, do you eat a lot of meat? Were you dehydrated day of test?

Oest - 225 (range anything under 150)

  • You should try and get this down, but it will also likely go down on its own now that you’re off Finasteride. Consider DIM supplements to help if you don’t want to pop anymore drugs like Arimidex.

Urea - 8.1* (2.5-7.5)

  • Urea is also known as BUN (blood urea nitrogen), this is used to evaluate kidney function. Borderline high values may occur after recent ingestion of high protein meal.

Regardless, I’d look into kidney function further, perhaps ask for a referral to a nephrologist if you get retested and things are same or worse.

AST - 46* (range below 35)

-This particular liver enzyme is elevated, but the others (ALT, GGT, Bilirubin, Alkaline Phosphatase) are within normal ranges. Likely due to your liver metabolising the Finasteride… now that you’ve quit, should go down.

Overall I’d give yourself a month or two and get retested if you don’t feel better. If values get worse, investigate further… especially kidney function.

Sorry I can’t offer more insight… most of this you can Google on your own, too.

#3

Thanks for your response Mew… your insight and the time it took for you to respond is very much appreciated.
I’ve got an appointment with my endocrinologist to check things out again.
I did have T and oestrogen measured prior to going on fin…
They were t - 37 and oestrogen 177…
Both were already high but Finasetride only exaggerated their numbers even more…
Note that this test was taken exactly 9 days after stopping finasteride - I was only on it for 2 weeks at around .5mg which was cut back to .33mg per day 5 days in… well under the recommended doseage. Just goes to show that it has a longer half life in your system than the makers would suggest!!! The stuff is evil IMO!
It wouldn’t surpise me if I was dehydrated for the test as I have been doing a fair bit of training.
Also when younger I ruptured one of my kidneys in footy so this may play some part… although I am pretty healthy and I have had tests done in the past that said my kidneys were fine.

Once again thanks for your response Mew… I have been taking DIM and grape seed extract of late… although I find that natural supplements never seem to be able to reverse any damage from man made drugs and that it always seems to become a chemical warfare…

#4

An SHBG test would also be very helpful.

#5

Hi all -

has been a long time since I posted on this website…
I still pop in every now and again on other hairloss forum websites simply to see if there’s been some advancements there as vanity still keeps me wanting a cure for baldness…

after some light encouragement I am here to update you on my current situation (years down the track).

just wanted to let everyone know that after 6-8 months off of finasteride… my hormones returned more to a state of normality.
it was very gradual… but I eventually rebounded…

I had help from an endocrinologist who took the lighter is better and time heals all wounds approach… hormones are supposed to normalise themselves over time of course, however, after synthetic man made chemicals are introduced this is sometimes is not the case. I had monthly consultations with my endo for about 6 months to go over my results to recovery.

Admittedly it is not like I had LONG time exposure to finasteride (really it was 6-8 months max)… but the side effects and the duration they lasted after quitting almost mirrored the duration of my exposure to the drug.

So to get back on track we had to give the old hormones a bit of a kick…
Utilizing at first armidex (which I had rebound effects with as well as hot flushes etc) we got my estro levels down…
Due to my high testosterone as well this was not ideal… and they fluctuated on the high sides for some period throughout testing (and are still high anyway… but that’s just me).

Thereafter we used a transdermal for AI - the product used was AIFM… which I applied to wrists, nipple or soles of the feet morning and night.
I never found I had a rebound effect or felt as though my joints were sore from too much AI with this product… it is a bit milder and being a transdermal has less affect on the kidneys and liver.
Other internals I was on zinc, tribulus and DIM… plus a good healthy diet (being low in sugars, gluten and wheat) and then a fair bit of exercise and water…

Again - my hormones normalised to more acceptable levels over time - as did my sex drive / sex life.

everyone reacts differently to drugs and supplements…
Fin is evil and the permanent reminder I have not to take the drug is that I have a small amount of tissue under each nipple… I had slight puebertal gyno due to hormones when younger that I was very self conscious about… I exaggerated this issue later in life by using fin and get to hang onto that self consciousness a bit more (thankfully I have low body fat therefore it is not noticeable)

However… I do have my health back, sex life back, 2 kids, a loving wife and family, a job, a roof over my head, food on my plate.

I have recovered and do not feel I have are any ongoing finasteride sides.

I wish all of you the best… and hope you too can recover from any of the ailments caused by finasteride.

#6

:smiley:

Awesome.

Thanks for the hope. There’s been a lot of doom and gloom around here lately, it’s good that there’s recoveries out there.

I’m sure you feel like you dodged a bullet :slight_smile:

Everyone can i just make an addendum to 1750’s story:

He has confirmed to me that the sides he had were:

[b]- Gyno

  • Low sex drive/ ED
  • “Most of the common fin sides like watery semen”
  • Low volume (very low at one stage).
  • Penis did seem to look as though it was getting smaller as well
  • Minor testicular shrinkage on the left side which came back over time as per my endos teste scale (like a chain of beads only a testicle size measuring device).[/b]

As for his treatment:
[b]
He was on arimidex for almost 2 months before moving to AIFM which he used for three weeks.

thereafter was more just normal supplements including vit b6.
[/b]

#7

Thanks MR-

as you mentioned… few additional bits and pieces to my story that I forgot to add.
My time-lines are not exact either… I didn’t diarise when I went on or off finasteride to the date.
I may have been on it for a little longer… and my recovery may too also have taken longer than initially thought…

One of my major issues was ongoing estro dominance and noticeably lower ejaculate volume / sex drive.

as mentioned… took a while… and had to give everything a kick along… but eventually I have bounced back!! and I hope everyone else does the same

#8

Very happy you recovered! Arimidex is a tricky drug to dose.

I was wondering how often you took it, (twice a week?) and what prescription strength? Do you remember your dose of arimidex? as it did not cause side effects. Do you have any joint pain now? I would love to learn more about your arimidex dose as it is can bring joint pain and osteoporosis when dosed wrong and you were able to recover fully without side effects. This information could help us recover.

Thanks!

#9

hey wufdog
apologies but I cannot recall the dosage numbers for armidex.
this all occurred 5+ years ago for me now… full recovery from symptoms and I don’t really worry about hairloss anymore (just said f#ckit and shaved my head).

all the best

#10

Pleased for you.

But what is AIFM? Is it a trasdermal AI? I’ve never heard of it.

Your blood results look very similar to mine post-finasteride.

#11

Nice to see you . would you like to give more detail.
how are you feeling
how is your general health?
how are errections
do you still take any meds/vitaimins/aromatase inhibitor?
any suggestions?

thanks.

#12

He’s normal and he stopped taking that stuff after 6-8 months. Read the thread.

#13

I understand answers really help everyone on this forum… all I can say is that I made a full recovery and I hope you all do as well.
cannot put my finger exactly on what the magic cure for me was. probably time.

my health is solid.
I’ve always been very active with sports. so this may have helped my recovery.
I do a lot of sprinting and metabolic conditioning when I train (weights, running etc)
Metabolic conditioning is normally some high intensity interval training whereby you operate at close to 100% of your max effort -like running for 20 seconds or more (so essentially 8 sets of 200 metre sprints).
This type of conditioning is supposedly excellent for helping increase the production of human growth hormones and keeping you younger. Whilst also having fat burning effects for hours post workout (so gets you leaner).

I’m 35. erections are strong.
I have sex with wife every second night and I’ll be honest… with my hand on the night in-between her rest days (she thinks I’m abnormal!)
I eat a healthy diet. green smoothies and stuff quite regularly in the mornings.
and I take some vitamins but not always daily… when I do take them (say 3 times a week) they include Zinc, magnesium, vit c and L-Carnatine and lipoic acid. I try to encourage healthy testosterone as I do a lot of physical activity and it helps me beat all the younger guys I train with!

I remember how propecia mentally and physically f@#!%ked with me… and recall thinking my old fella was shrinking, the ejaculate volume being considerably less and my sex drive being horrendous!!
in my anxiety i spent many a night trying to remain consistent with my old masturbation habbits…only to be p!ssed at not performing the same and holding a limp wang.
but slowly things came around.

@ dannyfc - AIFM - Aromatose inhibitor for men. theafstore.com/product.php?productid=8

cheers

#14

does any one else without 1750 try AİFM will it help my e level my e is 47 normal range is 10- 42