20 years Student Need Help

Member Stories
#1

  1. Where are you from (country)?
    Malaysia

  2. 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

  3. What is your current age, height, weight?
    20, 5’7, 70kg

  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    I used to be a bodybuilder but stop recently as I have back injuries

  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
    Healthy, avoid meat and gluten since brain fog

  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
    Hair loss

  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    1 month

  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    20

  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    20

  10. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
    Cold turkey

  11. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
    Finpecia 1mg

  12. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    1mg

  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    4 weeks

  14. What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?

Put an X beside all that apply:

Sexual
[ ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[X ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[X ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ X] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[X ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[X ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[X ] Suicidal Thoughts

Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)
Muscle twitching
Wake up from sleep for 3 times

  1. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?

-I’m from Malaysia and I think I the only one that suffered from this bad pfs. But I took couple of supplements

1.Omega 3
2.B complex
3.Vitamin c
4.Magnesium oxide
5.Calcium and vit D

  1. If you have pre or post-Finasteride bloodtests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug (pls post your test results in the “Blood Tests” section and link to them in your post)?

-I’m broke student with mountain of debt and I cant afford these things

  1. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
  • I took generic propecia for happy 2 weeks with 0.25mg and the 1 week with 0.5mg and then suddenly when I took 1mg the symptoms started to kick in. There is one night when I got pain in my chest. After that, when i woke up the other day I got serious panic attack that made me stayed at the hospital. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me. I’m shaking and cant feel my body, and heart beating like I’m going to die and I’m totally fucked up. Since the panic attack, I thought that everything will be normal again. So I took the finasteride again with 0.25mg for 3 days and then stopped.
  1. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
  • When I experienced the panic attack I was in the exam week. So basically I failed my test and made me even depressed. Ever since the panic day I got heavy brain fog that made me feel detached from the world. It’s the worst symptoms I guess as you cant focus and think properly. This brain fog made me high like smoke a big fat marijuana. The first two days I feel good with it as it made stop over thinking. But stayed high from brain fog everyday for a month that is a bad experience.

I still can mastrubate tho and my libido is pretty good. I’m afraid the pfs worsen. So, I want to ask I’m going to get those sexual effect and slumbering speech(since everyone with brain come with this side effect) after this?

I’m off from the drugs for 3 weeks and 2 days now and suffered from heavy brain fog. I need my brain back for my assignment and for my student life. This made me even depressed as I’m from malaysia and I think I’m the only suffered from this brain foggy mind condition. I need your help brothers. I’m begging. (Sorry for my bad english)

2 Likes
#2

Hang in there man, I would say that for you the worst is over.

Most people here go through what you described as panic attack, and than linger on with various ups and downs.

However, everyone has some kind of theory as to what happened to us and mine is that pfs is an autoimmune condition so i have made some improvements by eliminating sugar and gluten from my diet while trying to improve gut health.
I’ve come to the state where i no longer wait for 100% cure but try to be grateful when i am more or less functional in sexual and cognitive sense.

Things will get better.

#3

Yeah man hang in there. Worst might be over. Your symptoms are significant but just be glad you have your libido, etc. for now.

#4

Thanks guys,

May I know what are the things that need to avoid from crashing? Am I going to get others sides?
This extreme anxiety made me nervous and afraid of the same time.

This pills can test a man through his limit. I will pray for alethia, johnny5ar and everyone here for things to get better.

#5

It’s has been a month and 10 days now.
I’m still dealing with this brain fog condition, anxiety, sleep problems and depression. It’s hard to be an optimistic when you’re studying aboard, no family, no friends, no money, cant focus and study and have 2 herniated disc injuries that give you pain in your lower back and neck all the time preventing you from lifting a single weight.Sometimes I just cant think why God has give such a terrible test for someone to past through. Why do God need to be so cruel?
I’m 20 years old and this test is too much for me.

After reading some horror stories from this site mainly from @robertino totti and @tim1911 this even put me down into the deepest pit of my life. I’m scared and this pills have give me depression. It’s hard man, with this hormonal changes and you need to counter the bad thoughts from taking over.

I’m just writing this down with pure depression and brain fog. Life is hard right now.
Do you believe that I can recover from this mental side effects?

#6

Hey buddy, you need to look after yourself and surround yourself with family and friends.

Also get yourself on the spinach diet.

It may not be an easy diet, but worth giving it a go.

Eat up to 170g of raw uncooked spinach a day, every day.
If possible, get organic spinach.
Continue eating spinach each day for at least a month and hopefully you will see an improvement.

Here is the original thread showing the explanation on dolichol (an ingredient in spinach):
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=4892&hilit=Dolichol+deprivation

Full recovery from eating spinach:
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=4892&start=200#p75454

#7

Nearly 5 months out. Still got panick attacks but it is tolerable. But for the last two days my sleep problems seem to come again. Now I can sleep for three hours and wake up. If I continue sleeping then I’ll wake after 1 hours. I’m in school and this is some depressing things. Anyone has any idea on this? I’m soo depressed right now.

#8

Has your brainfog cleared up yet? I had similar experiences and was in the emergency for 5 days. Studying became unfun because of the brainfog so i simply quit school. After 5 months Ive gotten better and I hope Ill make a full recovery at the 1 year mark.

#9

Hey guys, its been awhile since my last post. 1 year has passed and I do get better. Visiting this website give make me emotional, I still remember the peoples who help me to survive those early days. Marco, Ben, Randal and more! Thanks God for their present.

I rarely think about the sides no more, except that I tend to be nervous these days. But it is okay, it is not life threatening or what.

Hold on guys, I have been hit so hard last year and I can say that I’m lucky to be alive today. We will get better someday…

I do own a lots to some peoples in this forum who keep my head high and be positive and I really want to do what they had done to me. If you guys are having a hard time or any question you can email me amar412002@gmail.com

Thanks

9 Likes
#10

Hey Amar, I’m so glad to hear of your improvement as I’m sure so many people who will read your post will be.

It’s great of you to return and offer support to others, I think everyone would agree that support and success stories makes a huge difference to everyone here. I’m sure everyone would like to hear more from recovered posters.

Could I ask that you expand on your story, share any coping strategies that you used or routines you felt were helpful.

Also, if anyone asks a question that you think might be quite universal, perhaps you could share the advice in the thread?

#12

Hi guys, it has been 2 years now. I dont get panic easily these days, my anxiety can be controlled at times, my brain fog has lifted and my English has improved.

After my last post, I do crashed again. I learn the hard to avoid vitamin b, caffiene amd sugar.

So what helped me so far are healthy diet (observe how you body reacts to foods), strength training (heavy squat, bench and deadlift) and good attitudes. I try my best not take any types of drugs and supplements except when I get heavily illed.

So I still have insomnia and my sleep is like riding a roller coaster. Many weeks are plain terrible and some weeks are good. In that good week it usually ended after eating some crappy foods.

2 years has passed, more to come.

@Greek, sorry for the late reply.

1 Like
#13

hows your studies going?

push through, keep going strong.

#14

I have just graduated this month from school. Congrats Amar.

Woah, my study was a grinding to be honest. It was hard living aboard with pfs. It took huge amount of patiences during my bad week and day. Thanks for asking @lakehouse

How are you doing brother @lakehouse?

2 Likes
#15

Hi @Amar,

Thanks for your pm. For the benefit of everyone and to hopefully get you more responses, I’ll put what I was going to say here.

In your pm you asked what I recommend for those who struggle with insomnia.

This goes against what a lot of people think but I think there isn’t much you can do to positively influence this with diet. This is my personal opinion and it’s based on my own experience of trying to be as healthy as possible at times and at others eating badly and drinking excessively.

Neither thing made a noticeable difference to my condition in my opinion. I think being cautious around 5ar inhibiting foods is sensible but as time passes I have gradually reintroduced lots of things, but I would express caution - many have worsened after eating 5ari substances. Sometimes dramatically.

I started exercising a while back and think that may be of benefit to some.

In your position, I would definitely keep a log of sleep and all the things that are thought to influence it, including diet, stress, sexual activity. You might be able to spot your own pattern.

Sorry I don’t have a prescription for better sleep, I’m hoping to see more improvements in that area myself. If I knew what to do, I would do it.

#16

im doing just as you are- pushing hard everyday. i found it hard to work with but now ive learned to adapt with the symptoms. thanks for asking

its tough but we will get through it, just need to stay safe and contribute as we can in the projects here so that we can get funding to find a cure.

you should take the survey on this site, as well as participate in the dna project.

1 Like