I can’t check DHT in my country. The only test available for whatever reason is the confirmation, if your body has DHT at all or not.
Taking cipro and alfa-blockers to cure my abacterial prostatitis which I have had like 2 and a half years already (thank god they discovered it finally!). Looks like finasteride or rather quitting finasteride made a favorable environment for some kind of unknown bacteria in the prostate. I think those drugs are not enough. I need more to kick it out. But hopefully it will work. No side effects yet, but nothing good either. Perhaps peeing is a little easier now.
I also took pretty rough antibiotics a year ago and managed to cure out Ureaplasma parvum or atleast make their count decrease, because they’re not detectable anymore. Didn’t get any sides then either. Looks like I love playing with fire – taking different drug and risking with the adverse effects gives me an adrenaline shot!
I think quitting cold-turkey is not a good idea. We call this thing the POST-propecia syndrome for a reason. The problems come after quitting the drug, because the prostate has become dependent on it. Probably because it gets used to the extra space finasteride gives it by reducing the cells or something. And when you take it away, it won’t adapt anymore. So when you quit the drug gradually, it may make the adaption more likely.
Anyway, that’s my theory as a year 2 medicine student… I’m not exactly familiar with the effect it has on the prostate. I remember I saw a histological picture of a hamster’s prostate under the pressure of finasteride and there were significant changes compared to the control.
Took Unasyn and still taking alfa-blockers. Soon adding some vitamins or minerals. Sperm still looks bad, but the properties have improved.
Fanjeera
What test/s did you have to identify the prostate bacteria?
Did the tests identify what type of bacteria? e.g. Chlamydia
I can finally post here and am so happy. It took exactly 3 years. It was 9th of June in 2009, when I took the first pill and quit on the 18th. I was 18 then, now I’m 21. I’m taking my last pill of alpha-blocker today and am totally independent of any treatment after that. I took my last pill of Zn and Se yesterday. I also went through many courses of antibiotics (ciprofloxacin, ampicillin-sulbactam, TMP-SMX and clindamycin, which only was directed at a bacteria found in my semen (coagulase-negative staphylococci)), which I think are meaningless in my recovery, but who knows.
I have no prostate associated pain in my urethra anymore and if it doesn’t come back in autumn, I consider myself totally healthy. I may have to urinate a little bit more frequently, but as I drink a little more than normal people, it’s okay. And even if my prostatitis persists, it would be difficult to link it with Propecia, as like 6% of men have this inflammation and there’s nothing exactly to do about it, so it won’t bring me talking about it in this forum. I do have a little bit more leukocytes in my semen (which is prevalent in 19% of men), but as the other inflammatory parameters are low I’m not considered to have prostatitis based on that.
My semen has become looking totally normal and shoots out good eventually. It’s totally bright white with only a little transparent part at the end which I probably had before, but just didn’t notice. And there’s a lot of it. The better the orgasm, the better the semen looks and as I was so depressed for 3 years, I couldn’t masturbate and enjoy myself without thinking about this issue. What surprises me the most, is that my fertility parameters suddenly became like 4 times better. That actually happened before any treatment – so it’s just time (2,5 years for that). I used to have 20 million sperm in ml (I was actually able to get a women pregnant with it too) and now I have 80 which is very good.
My scrotum is saggy when it’s hot, but it was probably like that before.
My flaccid penis is numb when I’m depressed and convincing it to be, but when I’m happy and not stressed, it feels normal.
I have normal sex drive, when I’m not depressed and convincing myself that I don’t have. Also the erections are firm and can sometimes be achieved with no stimulation at all (spontaneous erections). I have morning erections – it just depends of the time, when I wake up (it has to be REM-sleep).
All the mental side effects which I thought I had all are gone, if I’m not constantly thinking that something is totally wrong with me because of taking a drug in the long past.
I thought I had testicular shrinkage, but I don’t right now where I got that. I also claimed to have muscle wastage and weakness, but as I’m stronger that many my age without any physical activity at all, I don’t see where I got that in the past. This can all probably be related to stress and convincing myself that the drug is causing stuff.
Persistent fatigue and dark circles under eyes – I still have these, but I’ve always had them.
The only thing I have suspicious, is that a white secretion leaves from my penis while I defecate sometimes. The doctors say it’s healthy cleaning of the prostate and you can find a lot of confirmation about it in the Internet also. But you can also find that it reflects prostatitis.
Oh, and my prostate is 18 ml in volume, but I guess it’s not that rare for someone as young as me to have it a little smaller than the average, which is 20–30 ml, stated in some questionable sources. It will probably get bigger with age anyway. Propecia certainly destroyed a small percent of the epithelial cells of my prostate, but as far as I know the epithelium renews itself all the time, so as I became off the drug, I probably regained all I had before.
Wow. You are a lucky guy. It is funny, you make so much of this disease sound as if it was just in your head.
In my personal case, I never had a single issue until I took finasteride, I developed many symptoms while taking finasteride which merck did not warn finasteride was capable of causing and the side effects they did say were possible were claimed by merck to be completely reversible within a month, when in fact they are not and have not gone away for me even well over a year after quitting this poison. Maybe in your case your own mind caused you to have side effects which you seem to suggest, but this is certainly not the case with me.
Anyways, congratulations! I am glad you feel so good and I hope it lasts. I have worked hard to get well and have not come close, so hopefully I can join you one day in feeling good again, like I did before using finasteride.
Congrats.
80 days is more than 9 days, but probably not such a big difference. Wait a few years and you will be back to normal gradually.
That is a bold prediction on your part and you have no proof or anything even close to proof to suggest that I will be back to normal after a few years. In fact, some things are getting gradually worse.
Thanks for the encouraging words all the same.
Take care.
And what I would like to remind everybody is that you can’t diagnose yourself with reduced ejaculate, when you’re unhealthily thinking about how your ejaculation is going to be while wanking. You can’t have a normal orgasm when you’re stressed! Get rid of your depression first and then start looking at your semen. You will probably notice a difference. When I’m in a shitty mood and just wanting to test, if my semen is okay, I will have such a shitty orgasm and the semen just flows out. But if I’m thinking I don’t have any side effects from the drug and have a good orgasm, it will fly everywhere.
I know it’s a pretty difficult matter, because many of us are having depression also thanks to fin. I think you should start by getting rid of that, because that’s easier. It’s worth the try: maybe you will soon see benefits in your orgasms and ejaculate and in other parts of life also.
I have a very hard time believing that any of these symptoms, especially the physical ones, are brought on by my own mind. Obviously, based on your posts for a while, you disagree.
I am sorry, but personally, I will never get behind those kind of statements because in my personal situation, there is just no way and the symptoms are far too severe to be brought on by my mind. No chance, whatsoever.
Anyways, hope you keep feeling good. You are very lucky. Take care.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22375859
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12647000
endo.endojournals.org/content/140/4/1861.long
Looks like I got too much time in my hands again. These 3 studies won’t give me peace. I know that trabecular smooth muscle can replicate, when they get the androgens back, but does the fibrosis reverse?
I’m thinking of doing my own study in the university on finasteride. Haven’t yet got the courage to present it to the professor.
I don’t care any more. yes we are losers.
I would say that I am feeling very much the same, but as soon as I ejaculate, my symptoms get bad again. I have definitely conquered the mental problems - brain fog, depression and anxiety,
I would not underestimate the power of the mind to play extremely cruel tricks on you. I’m not saying PFS is simply depression, but a large element of it could be related to a deep dark depression inflicted on us by finasteride. This comes from someone with very visible signs of body degeneration nowadays.
Post finasteride stress as pfs would fit better. Stress is actually a syndrome also.
Sorry, but I just do not think that my mind tricked my entire body into changing physically etc. etc. … You guys are entitled toy our opinions and theories, but not for one second did “depression” cause these physical symptoms and changes
I’m again not satisfied with my semen appearance. It’s not that I’m ashamed of the low viscosity and transparency (ok, maybe that too a little), but the CHANGE just drives me crazy. Why did the texture CHANGE over night? If I had transparent semen all my life like many men I wouldn’t be worried at all.
Has anybody ever got their semen back? It’s just not possible that the seminal vesicles and prostate won’t start to regrow after quitting…
And about the prostatitis I was struggling with half a year back: I got a few pains in septembers, but nothing after that. My doctor said it wasn’t inflammation, but nerve pain.