A bleak update of where I am now ):

[Hopeforbetterdays]

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)?

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?

What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)?

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

What condition was being treated with the drug?

For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?

Date when you started the drug?

Date when you quit the drug?

Age when you quit?

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

How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects?

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
[x ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ x] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[x ] Watery Ejaculate
[ x] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[x ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

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

Physical
[ x] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[x ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[x ] 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
[ x] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[x ] 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?

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.

Self-reporting template - ONLY USE FOR FUTURE POSTS TO REPORT ANY TRIALS OF TREATMENTS, NOT YOUR INITIAL MEMBER STORY

1. Name of the therapy/substance:
   • Dosage:
   • How often you took it:
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:
   • Greatly improved [ ]
   • Slightly improved [ ]
   • Stayed the same [ ]
   • Slightly worsened [ ]
   • Greatly worsened [ ]
5. Current response (if you’re still using the therapy/substance) OR Response in the time before you stopped the treatment
   • Greatly improved [ ]
   • Slightly improved [ ]
   • Stayed the same [ ]
   • Slightly worsened [ ]
   • Greatly worsened [ ]
6. Lasting changes to initial symptoms after cessation (if you have stopped for more than 3 weeks)
   • Greatly improved [ ]
   • Slightly improved [ ]
   • Stayed the same [ ]
   • Slightly worsened [ ]
   • Greatly worsened [ ]

An update of where I am now 1 week away from 3 months so here we are. I just seemed to have gotten worse over these 3 months.

It’s sad how 3-4 pills may define my life. I’m lost for words. My dreams. My aspirations. My health all down the drain.

I’m not going to kill myself, but I do just want to die. I wanted to be a dad, I wanted to explore the world, I wanted to have a happy healthy life like all of you.

I know it may still seem “ early “ but man does it feel like the end. The digestion issues and insomnia has really picked up lately.

Trying to be healthier and pray to god everyday.

[Hopeforbetterdays]

I still feel the symptoms above ^

I’m sorry for the negativity to those that see this. I get moods that are very sad and regretful from all of this.

I’m striving to become healthier, trying to monitor what I eat more, and exercise.

I’m very scared to be honest. All I can I do is take it day by day.

[Dysfunkion]

Don’t be too hard on yourself, all kinds of things could happen to the body with illness and being sick is part of life. No one knows everything about the human body and when you’re living your life sometimes you get reckless with your health but it wasn’t being unhealthy that got you here. You had an adverse reaction to a drug that on the surface looked so innocent but wasn’t. I could have before this ate 3 double cheese burgers daily, smoked a pack a day, and drank multiple cans of soda daily and nothing this horrifying would have happened to me. Enjoy life where you can for what you can feel at the time. Even when I was worse I was still living it up in between unavoidable stretches of weeks where I couldn’t do much but lay down, take my supplements, and eat as plain as humanly possible. Didn’t feel good all the time but I wasn’t letting this get in the way of being my old unhealthy self where I could afford it symptom wise at the time. Don’t worry about the bumps in between and ride it out. There’s lots you can try in between supplement, diet, and lifestyle wise to maximize your well being as your body normalizes itself again. You’ll get there as scary as I know it is where you are right now. It has to happen at some point, your body can’t stay like that forever.

That being said 3-4 months for that many symptoms is still pretty early indeed, I was still having intense waves of symptoms that far out. In fact that’s around when some new one’s started and I had some more puzzles to work out like my immune system just crapping out on me and losing a crucial supplement I needed to live and becoming more intolerant to food in general but in the end it turned out alright. Just keep plowing through it and exposing yourself to a lot of different situations. I think one of the most crucial elements in the stories of people that largely recovered are that they didn’t eliminate too much and kept their body in a state of constantly adapting to the environment forcing it to change again.

People really underestimate the power of adaptation, the entire time I was also doing a lot of reconditioning. I would feel nothing but go out with some family anyways like nothing was happening, I even went to a concert in the first few months (boy was I feeling ill after that one but I don’t regret it!). I would go outside in nature in all kinds of weather conditions weekly to get my exercise in. When interacting with people I’d become a professional actor until I could actually feel my emotions and personality again. I’d look at things I knew I was attracted to and try my best to get it going again day after day. I’d of course eat non-triggering food all the time but sometimes I’d just go with someone and eat literally everything at the buffet that looked good. I feel like throwing in all of these elements helped my body calm down and restart some biological processes that were stuck in a PTSD like danger response. It was a real roller coaster. I’d after some of those nights especially being reckless be like “oh no I screwed myself up good this time, it’s only gonna get more numb and I’m never gonna feel anything ever again!” but the next morning I’d wake up and it wasn’t much different than the last, maybe even a little better because I learned I was still free to do whatever I wanted within my current hard limits health wise.

[Hopeforbetterdays]

Have dark circles under my eyes now….

Constipated as fuck, I’ve been eating like shit lately just to cope but will have to eat healthier and suck it up.

I ejaculated nothing but water today and now my dick is a piece of rubber

I have bowel sounds around my lower adomenen.

My body won’t forgive me for taking finasteride for 3 or 4 days.

God please show me mercy

[Hopeforbetterdays]

Little over 3 months in… I will take the survey.