.50mg finasteride side effects in pssd patient

Member Stories
#1

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)?India

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?)

What is your current age, height, weight?21, 171cm, 60kg

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.)?.50mg finasteride

What condition was being treated with the drug? Accidental intake

For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
1 day
Date when you started the drug?13 july 2022

Date when you quit the drug?13 july 2022

Age when you quit?21

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

How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects? After 8-10 hours

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
[ *] 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 or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[* ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ *] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ *] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] 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
[* ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)

What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?1 pill of 50 mg clomid

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

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

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

Hi, i accidently took .50mg of my brother’s finasteride which he uses for hairloss, i also have male pattern baldness but am choose not to take finasteride as i am already suffering from pssd for close to 3 years now from taking prozac for a month. My pssd symptoms already included genital numbness and no libido, but erections were mostly intact with irregular morning wood. Mentally i had loss of motivation but no severe emotional blunting, i could feel love easily.
The day i took finasteride, after about 8 hours i felt exhausted and completely out of it, i could not understand what was happening as i was not aware that i had taken finasteride instead of the otc pills i used for stomach pain(both pills looked same and i took the finasteride by mistake). I experienced fatigue along with brain fog and felt really disassosiated the day i took finasteride, thinking it was a viral fever or something i popped a paracetamol and went to sleep unaware i had taken finasteride, the next day i woke up to complete erectile dysfunction and emotional blunting. I then came to know from my brother that i had taken his finasteride pill. I immediately booked a test for testosterone and estradiol which both came elevated from my baseline levels. The testosterone had went from 558 to 700. And e2 had went from 33 to 55.
I figured i had taken only 1 dose and i would be back to normal in a week or so. But in the following week the mental sides got from bad to worse the emotional blunting became so bad that i did not even want to talk to my girlfriend, it was like she didn’t even matter to me anymore and i would be fine if she broke up with me and mind you this was the same girl that i talked with the whole night the day before i actually ingested this pill. Needless to say i was angry and panicking and took 50mg clomid after a week just to do something, whether from the clomid or my dht finally coming online the previous 2 days i have had morning wood and the erectile dysfunction has mostly gone but the libido(whatever i had left after pssd) and emotions Haven’t come back. I won’t be taking clomid anymore also.

Guys please help me out, will my emotions come back and will this disassosiation go away? today(12 days after my last dose) they haven’t come back, this girl matters to me very much, she has been so supportive of my pssd and i don’t think she will put up with pfs too, if this is what has happened and if i cant even love her back. This whole experience is so jarring, i went from absolutely head over heels in love with her, to not even wanting to talk with her in under a week. Mental. Will this effect pass? Dht levels must have been normalised by now, probably, then why aren’t my mental symptoms going away. Is it because of neurosteroids or directly the effect of dht levels?? Has anyone else experienced this? Please help.

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  1. Name of the therapy/substance:
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  2. Status
    • Still using [ ]
    • Stopped with no lasting change to initial symptoms [ ]
    • Stopped with persistent change to symptoms [ ]
  3. Duration of use: Days [ ] Months [ ] Years [ ]
  4. Response when you started:
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2 Likes
#2

Sorry to hear what happened. IMO, it’s still early to start panicking. There are many members here who have had multiple crashes and it more often than not improves in time over the course of months.

2 Likes
#3

I really hope you get better.

In the meantime, you need to work on convincing your brother to quit finasteride. It is complete madness he takes that crap knowing you have PSSD.

2 Likes
#4

It will take 4-6 weeks for your 5 alpha reductase to come 100% online. Many people get better within the first 8 weeks.

So work hard not to ruin your relationship until then and hope for the best. I’ll hold my thumbs for you.

2 Likes
#5

Yea i have been over it with him and now he has seen what the physical sides look like with me not being able to get out of my bed for 5 days and all, he is thinking of quitting it.

1 Like
#6

Yea but i still haven’t gotten a crash, the brain fog and emotional blunting came and isn’t going away and its been 2 weeks already. I mean it is so bizzare when she tries to talk to me and i don’t feel anything, while i was gushing over her a week ago. I really hope that it is simply that my dht levels are not back up yet and this is simply due to low androgenic load and not some neurosteroid mess. I will go for a dht test tommorow and compare that to my baseline values and update here.

How long Dubya_B does it generally take for dht levels to normalise again?

#7

But he must know about PFS right? How can he put that shit in his body knowing what it could do to him?

#8

He started when i was in college without me knowing. I had convinced him to drop his dose down to . 25mg, and now looks like he is going to stop taking it.

#9

Yea today was her birthday and i wished her and sent her a gift, even i wasn’t feeling like it. Feel horrible doing so, but gotta do it. And if i don’t get better in the coming weeks then i will tell her about this new mess ive gotten myself into

#10

When I first crashed I felt nothing for my girlfriend. I still don’t feel a whole lot but our relationship is strong and when I hold her and we cuddle and kiss I can feel something. All hope is not lost for you so please hang in there.

#11

Supposedly within a couple weeks. You can see from the chart below that it is somewhat dependent on dosage.

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There used to be quite a few guys who would join this site when their sides lasted longer than a couple weeks after quitting finasteride, but less than 3 months. That’s why we ask that prospective members wait 3 months after their last dose of whatever drug got them into this mess before joining and claiming to have a post-drug syndrome. You are eligible for membership since you already had “PSSD”.

Have read that it’s not uncommon for finasteride users to experience sides for up to 2 months after stopping. This doesn’t corroborate directly with DHT levels observed in studies.

1 Like
#12

Because finasteride is a “suicide inhibitor”, which means that when finasteride has “docked” into the 5 AR enzyme complex it won’t dissociate (like T would for example). This creates a “jam”, which renders the enzyme unable to process hormones. Leading to the reduction of DHT.

Not until the cell is “recycled” will it be able to process hormones like normal again.

Different cells have different half life and will therefore recycle more or less often. For example your bones are completely recycled only every 10 years. Which is one of the reasons why lead is so bad for you, as the body will handle it like calcium and put it into bones and then it stays there for 10 years.

The serum DHT is mainly from the liver, and the liver recycle it’s cells very often. Which is why 2 weeks is enough to see normalization of serum DHT levels. But that doesn’t say much about other sites in the body.

1 Like
#13

How could I have taken such a horrific, destructive and evil drug

1 Like
#14

A new thing that i observed is that my acne has disappeared completely now, it was slowly going away after the first dose and now all the bumps and cysts from my face and back have completely vanished. Does this mean the dht levels are yet to rise up??

#15

I don’t know what it means. Generally speaking the skin is more dense in 5AR1 than 5AR2 unless it’s genital skin.

For me, finsteride did jack and shit for my (back) acne.

But everyone differs.

2 Likes
#16

This is the best advice anyone could give. Its too early to start panicking.

Give it some time - there’s every chance you’ll bounce back to where you were previously.

1 Like
#17

I need some advice here man. The brain fog has been slowly getting worse or the disconnect from my girlfriend is. I genuinely do not see why i cared for her at all, its hell. Basically the erections are fine now with libido still in the gutter and the brain fog not subsiding. We’re both on College Summer break now and this rate I’ll forget her till College reopens. Also the agression hasn’t come back and all i do is sleep the whole day. When will it get better, I’m at my wits end its been 3 weeks already after a single pill

#18

Also i seem to be getting numbness in my hands and feet way more easily after propecia