5 years Finasteride - recently stopped

Member Stories
#1

Hi there fellas…

I have recently quit Finasteride and am experiencing side effects.
I generally scour for information in forums, and don’t feel the urge to sign up or post…however this was an exception.

I have been taking Finasteride for 5 years. I began with Propecia, and after almost 2 years, I moved on to 1/5th of Proscar. My hair loss was minor, but knowing that I had a predisposition, I felt that if a preventative measure was taken, with minimal side effects, then why not?
After all…I could always quit and everything would return to normal right?..not so…

2006: Began 1mg Finasteride (Propecia):

  • Minor loss of sexual desire
  • Could not hold an erection as easily as pre-Finasteride
  • After continuing on the drug, the side effects minimised (as expected from the drug information…)

2008: Changed to 1/5th Proscar:

  • No major changes
  • Noticing smaller ejaculate…but this was ok…
  • occasional testicular pain…thought nothing of it
  • darkening patch of skin around the testicles

2010-2011: Transition from 1mg every day, to every 2nd day, then every 3rd:

  • no side negative effects
  • slightly improved sexual drive

October 2011: Discontinued Finasteride:

  • after 1 week, found improved sexual drive/desire
  • after 2 weeks, noticed some discolouration on tip of penis, some testicular pain
  • after 3 weeks, some pain on the tip, as well as small purple-ish patches
  • immediately suspected STD - full blood/urine results returned negative
  • after 4 weeks, increased testicular pain, and pain right behind the testicles
  • also noticing my genitals are slightly darker in colour

After 5 weeks it’s hard to sit in a chair for longer than 10min due to testicular/prostate? pain. The tip of the penis is still sore. I am having no trouble urinating, and erections still seem ok even with the pain.

It didn’t immediately cross my mind that this was due to the Finasteride, but now it is looking more certain. It goes to show that even though you may have minimal side effects while on the drug, it can potentially mess you up after discontinuation…
After all…young people like myself will quit the meds to have children one day…

It’s still early stages, so if anyone is interested, I will keep you posted…

  1. Where are you from (country)?
    Australia
  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?
    25, 180cm, 85kg
  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    Yes, weight training and cardio
  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
    Meat eater
  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
    hair loss
  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    5 years
  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    20, January 2006
  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    25, October 2011
  10. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
    taper
  11. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
    Propecia, follwed by 1/5 Proscar
  12. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    1mg a day, then 1mg every other day
  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    Minor side effects on the drug.
  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
[x] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

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

Physical
[x] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[x] 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
[x] 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)

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

  2. 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)?

  3. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?

  4. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.

#2

Hey,

I had also used fin for a long time, 8 years.

I had similar stuff happen to me, but over the years I never thought it was fin related. Along with the sexual sides, I had bad mental sides, that really started to effect the way I socialized with people. This was the thing that made me really scared and caused me to zero in on fin as a potential cause. I went to 3 doctors, they did all the usually blood tests, but everything was fine, I even told them about fin and they said it does not cause the sides. This was earlier this year, about 2 months ago I quit fin as well and for the first 2 weeks, I felt slightly better, but not great. Weeks 3 to 7 were pretty good, sexually I felt better, mental I was much improved, so I was pretty happy, thinking I was out of the woods.

Then at about weeks 7-8, something changed and all my symptoms were back, brain fog came back heavy, balls shrunk and totally lost my libido, also fatigue set in. I went back to my doctor on Friday and he agreed to test my bioavaliable testosterone, cortisol and TSH. I am hoping that the testosterone comes back low, as my current symptoms do sound related. This is fairly common among fin users once the drug leaves the body and things start to slowly normalize.

I would suggest to get some blood work done and see what is low and what is normal. This may help you identify the root cause of your symptoms.

Good Luck,

Gino

#3

Thanks for the advice Gino - let me know how your test results come back mate…
Gotta love that temporary testosterone high…

Being worried about the potential hormonal ‘crash’, and the subsequent long re-adjusment period, I’ve decided to re-continue with the Fin.

Any comments on this move?

My plan of attack is to ease off the drug, as this site suggests. I will take 0.25mg (maybe less?) once every four days. If my pain symptoms go away, I will extend this to 5 days, with an even smaller dose.

I am inconveniently away from home at the moment, so my blood tests will have to wait until this weekend…

#4

Hey,

I would probably not recommend starting the stuff again if you already stopped, as it will just worsen things and throw your hormones off even more.

The symptoms really do suck, but its the bodies way of re-adjusting, so we have to get through them in order to feel better.

It sounds like most guys that have cognitive symptoms do get rid of them eventually, it could take anywhere between 3-12 months or longer to get your head back, but with the sexual sides, this stuff is harder to correct and therefore can take years to fix.

I would give it a little more time and get some hormone tests done, check your thyroid (TSH/T4/T3), cortisol, and testosterone, these could be some areas to start with.

Take care and hang in there,

Gino

#5

Hi Guys,

Thanks for posting this… really interesting. My story is very similar… 7 years user, now experienced some brain effects and quit, like 6 weeks ago. So far memory and train of thought seem to have improved a lot, also, on the sexual side, all is well except for a increasingly decreasing volume of ejaculate. I am very scared with these posts of something happening to me not because i was taking proscar but because i now quitted it! Thinking of just get on the drug again to avoid a endocrine syst collapse and worse side effects then before!!

Any develpments with your case? I just did some blood tests and started Gym. Will keep everyone posted!

Thanks for sharing!

Juan

#6

Juanito - 6 weeks and no major side effects is a good result mate…
Physical excercise seemed to be a key thing for some people who have recovered relatively quickly too, so keep that up.
It’s amazing how common the concentration/memory problems are from reading these forums, and the sad thing is that most people aren’t even aware that this could well be due to the Fin.

I don’t know if getting back on the drug is the right thing to do. I thought I would try and ease off the dosage as I was pretty freaked out by the testicular pain that came on after 3 or so weeks. I literally couldn’t sleep because of it.

I did start taking the drug again. First I took 1mg over a couple of days. After 6 days I took around 0.1mg. I will continue on a less than 0.1mg dosage once a week for a few weeks.

As for my testicular pain, it’s eased off significantly since 2 weeks ago. I can’t contribute this to taking Finasteride again however, as it may have also eased if I didn’t take it.

#7

I thought I’d give an update.
Since the last time I posted here 5 weeks ago, I have taken a smaller and smaller dosage of Fin, spacing out the days in between. I have not taken Finsteride for almost 3 weeks now.

My update:

  • Testicular pain: It has eased off significantly. I found that sexual activity can aggrevate the pain, but it is nowhere near as severe as when I first came off the drug.
  • Pain on the tip of the penis: It has also decreased with time.
  • Sexual Drive: Staying solid, and definitely improved overall since discontinuing Fin. I would rarely have solid Morning Glory on the drug…it is now almost always there. It is taking some getting used to again…
  • Mind fog: Some days I feel sharper than others. Overall, I feel an improvement. There could be some placebo type effects in this regard…
  • Overall health: My weight workouts have slightly improved. I don’t have the same soreness I have felt before after playing sports. Overall I feel healthier. Again, there could be some placebo type effects here…
  • Hair: I’ve been shedding a bit of hair. This is the least of my concerns now. I will battle hair loss with hair transplants if it begins to bother me again.

In summary, I don’t know if this ease off the Fin dosage has helped me or not, but it does seem to make sense - we are dealing with delicate hormones here which can easily be pulled out of balance…
However…if you were to stop the drug cold turkey, it could potentially lead to more problems if you were to start on it again.
A thing to note is that everybody is different, and everyone will react differently.
In my opinion, you can’t go wrong with a positive attitude and a good diet, coupled with routine physical excercise.
Reading this forum has prepared me for the worst, and scared the hell out of me. Expecting the worst is probably not the best thing, and can really haunt you if you’re experiencing side effects.

I feel that I’m out of the woods…if anyone has any queries please feel free to ask…