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)?
United States, WA state (the sun doesn’t shine here very much until 1 month from now)
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 search
What is your current age, height, weight?
22 yrs, 138 pounds (recently lost 17 pounds though bc of the symptoms), 5’,11”
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.)?
I took 1 mg once, and 0.5 mg 3 days later…. 1.5 mg total. That was 1 month ago.
What condition was being treated with the drug?
Hairloss, AGA
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
I took it twice, 3 days apart.
How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start the drug?
I was/am 22 years old, and I started it at the begging of Feb 2024
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
Cold turkey
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
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 (Has not shown much improvement, sex drive feels 95% gone)
[ x] Erectile Dysfunction (I can get full erections now, jerk off, and orgasm, and enjoy it a bit, but I have to stimulate it with porn and touching my penis, and I feel basically no urge to have sex or jerk off)
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ x] Loss of Morning Erections
[ x] Loss of Spontaneous Erections (Gotten one very occasionally from things girls have said to me)
[ x] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[x ] Watery Ejaculate
[ x] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ x] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[x ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ x] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[ x] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[x ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[x] brain fog (this seems to have mostly gone away now)
[ x] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks (has improved but still happens)
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ x] Suicidal Thoughts (have improved, but started to go up past few days, starting to get discouraged about recovery)
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[x ] Testicular Pain
[ x] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ x] Weight Loss
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ x] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ x] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
[x] loss of sweat and body odor (just came back yesterday)
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[x ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion (for a long time I couldn’t feel tired, now I feel very fatigued constantly)
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[x ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets” (I think I have this one, not quite sure)
[ x] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness (this isn’t super bad, but I notice my vision has changed)
[ x] Tinnitus (this is rare for me it’s not a problem)
[ ] Hearing loss
[x] Increased hair loss
[ x ] Frequent urination (lasted a week has stopped as much now)
[ x] Lowered body temperature (has reversed)
[x ] Other (please explain)
- chronic insomnia, can fall asleep just fine, waking up middle of night (has not improved at all)
- heart palpitations and irregularities (has just started to improve but my heart was racing for 2 weeks, I can still feel each individual heart beat I have though…. A slow boom boom boom)
- shortness of breath from time to time
I took this drug twice a month ago…. It messed me TF up!!!
I want to know if I have any chances of recovery. I know people have said 3-6 months to a year.
The things I care about the most right now: I want my sex drive back and I want to be able to sleep.
The things I care about after that: heart problems going away, emotional flatness going away, not feeling anxious.
I’m eating not a super strict diet, but it’s mostly pretty healthy:
- a lot of steak and fish
- a lot of veggies, greens, and some fruit
- mostly organic food
- eating a lot of mashed potatoes for carbs
- avoiding sugar, soy, processed food, gluten, dairy (but have cheated about once a day)
- no alcohol at all since symptoms started
I’m not taking any supplements or medications excerpt for 10 mg time release melatonin at night with L-Theanine in it. It hasn’t helped much. I’m also wearing orange blue light blocking glasses, this seems to have helped somewhat.
I’m probably going to take Vitamin D bc my blood work showed I’m deficient, but I probably won’t take anything else.
I’ve considered drugs like Xanax or Eszopiclone to help with sleep temporarily. Have held off. Would be nice just to take 1 and see how I feel.
My blood work also showed I may have MTHFR gene mutation and that I may be undermethylated, as I had high homocysteine levels. Just throwing this in there.
I’m working out 2-3 times a week with weights, going to bump the weights up to 4x a week and try to get some cardio in once or twice a week.
I’m going to start taking saunas and cold showers as well and see if that helps. I’m also going to do 5-10 mins of grounding every day.
Unfortunately my gf dumped me during this time period which isn’t helping with the stress of the situation. Trying my best to limit stress over her.
I’m enrolled in an intensive outpatient anxiety program for the next 60 days, 7 days a week, 6-7 hours a day. There’s therapists and psychiatrists there, no medical doctors, but they have a nurse.
Here are my questions for the forum:
Main Questions:
-Do you think my libido could come back to 90-100%? How common is 90-100% recovery of full libido for someone with my story type? Tell me the truth. Im reckoning I have a 30% chance to recover within a year. I’ve heard 3 months is more common though, so that’s what I’m hoping is true. But I want the truth so that way I know what to expect. Unecertainty is making me so much more anxious.
- Since I took such a low dose for such a short period of time, and it’s been a month, does that make my recovery less likely?
Questions for Coping and Secondary Questions:
- What should I do for sleep? Tips for drugs, supplements….
- Should I jerk off? How often?
- What diet should I choose to do?
- What supplements should I hop on?
- Would it kill me to smoke a little bit of pot? (Haven’t done it yet)
- For those that have had heart problems, did those resolve?
- What other things should I know?
(Feel free to skip over this question, because this is NOT what I care about, I’d rather get advice about my symptoms!)
- I know this isn’t a hair loss forum, but also, is there anything I could do for my hair loss during this time that would be effective and safe? Have any of you had success with minoxidil, without worsening PFS (not saying I’m going to do it, I’m just wondering)? Have any of you had succes with micro needling or scalp massages? I’m hoping a miracle drug like GT20029 comes out and fixes that situation for us all and is safe.
I’m going to post my timeline of symptoms eventually on this forum. I’ve been documenting it on Reddit for a few weeks. Will do that later.
i know everyone is like “PLEASE HELP ME IM DESPERATE.” I fall into that category lmao…
Trying to laugh about this at this point… I’m in a horrible, extremely dark time right now, might as well show Satan/the World that I’m not afraid. I’ve pretty much lost everything I care about. I lost my health, athletic career, ability to function, my girlfriend of 1 year, and my ability to enjoy life as much…. Safe to say I’ve pretty much lost everything, for now at least…
Is there hope? Tell me the honest truth about my chances of beating this situation, and tell me the truth about what I need to do in order to maximize the probability of that happening.