What if PFS is literal DNA damage that takes years to progress, which would explain why some of us continue to get worse over time? I came across the story of the 1999 nuclear facility accident in Japan, where three men were exposed to extremely high amounts of radiation. Two of them died, months later. The guy who received the most radiation, appeared fine for the first few days. But over the next days and weeks, he experienced all sorts of serious conditions, and died three months later. What if his first few days are our first few months, and his next days and weeks are our next months and years? What if our bodies eventually shut down from muscle atrophy, 10 YEARS after stopping finasteride? I continue to decline each year, and I can’t help but think that finasteride is poison and has irreparably damaged my DNA (albeit slowly perhaps, or in waves maybe) and this will continue until some affect kills me.
A good use of our time and energy might not be to focus on ever more alarming ways to link PFS to another condition.
If you are looking for a way to feel less helpless, do something to help promote this website, report your symptoms, write an account of your story, tell a friend, write to one of the people that Phil Roberts talks about in an email and offer to talk them through reporting their symptoms and listen to their story.
All these options are a better use of your time than trying to draw parallels to other conditions. The future is what we make it.
What’s going on in here lately?
Is there a contest for the most scaring scenario I’m not aware of?
Who is this Phil Roberts you speak of?
Look, I don’t disagree with you. The best thing we can do is raise awareness. I’ve joined the PFS Foundation on my public Facebook profile, and have liked a few of their posts (I don’t log on much, though). I’ve told the few people I know in my life: my parents, close family, people online. And I definitely think a cure is POSSIBLE because we’re not bathing in radiation or anything like that. However, I do fear that for some of us, like me, it’s too late, because it’s been too many years with no treatment administered to ever recover (combined with how long I took at, and my sensitivity to it).
If there is, that is not a contest I would ever want to win.
To me the thought of dna damage makes the most sense, there’s also a study on finasteride causing dna damage in women as well so I don’t see why it would be any different in a man using an anti androgen to begin with, we might be a different gender but are bodies tissues and other functions are identical otherwise aside from hormones.
There’s times I felt like i improved but always slip back to full blown PFS it’s as if our bodies have been blocked from homeostasis due to dna strands being damaged maybe? Also the fact that my body is completely different I can no longer put on lean muscle and have developed fat throughout my upper body and my skin no longer produces any oil. Also complete changes in metabolism as well.
But why can’t DNA repair itself? I understand having problems for some time, but at some point shouldn’t our bodies be able to fix it? This is what I don’t understand; things just progressively get worse, which is why I think now that for us who have suffered for years, it’s hopeless.
Why do you ask?
You’re making unsubstantiated statements which is just scaremongering as far as I’m concerned with no perceivable purpose other than instilling fear to make yourself feel like you’re not the only one fading an ‘existential crisis’. Many people have recovered. Progressively worsening DNA damage and the comparison to radiation exposure is unfounded. It’s rare that people get progressively worse - in general the trend is staying the same or improving.
I don’t know of anyone who has fully recovered. People seem to improve enough to move on with their lives, while still having some lingering symptoms. If you’re such an expert on biology then please, enlighten me to assuage me of my understandable fear so that I can find some peace and try to move on from this shit.
I won’t be able to assuage you of your fear - nobody will, as our understanding of the condition is still in its infancy. But to worry incessantly about every possible permutation is a fruitless exercise.
There are many full recovery stories.
I don’t think any kind of science or evidence can convince people who fear for the worst. A perfect example of that is public perception of vaccinations. No matter how much science you throw at them, there’s always a group of people who disagree with it solely on irrational doubt. Personally, I don’t think DNA is either an accurate or inaccurate idea, we simply don’t have enough work done to be positive on what the condition is.
DNA is like your source code. But it can still be repaired if the damage is not big enough. Shorting of DNA is a normal process in aging.
But I really doubt PFS is DNA damage for most guys. A lot of people get very bad symptoms from very few pills. It’s very unlikely the DNA get damaged so badly you develop PFS in such a short time span.
My honest opinion is it’s some sort of negative feedback loop ……where the body thinks the new normal or “baseline “ is poor erections , poor sleep , poor anxiety/depression , poor Anhedonia , and it doesn’t try to rectify these things as it thinks this is the new baseline .
That to me seems more feasible, as scary as the dna damage does sound .
There are after all many people on here who get ‘better ‘ over time ( I’m not saying ‘cured’ just better !) who then leave and can go on to lead fairly normal lives . Paul Innes is one I can think of , he was really bad and went on national UK tv at one stage . I hear he has done better over the years , now runs marathons etc
Paul Inness recovered via TRT, he displayed low T symptoms which is no doubt a form of PFS. He was one of the lucky ones who responded to hormone therapy.
@Wings lowered levels of certain neurosteroids and the hormonal imbalance are causing chaos in your thinking. I have this most if not all of the time. It makes for catastrophic thoughts. I try to take a step back from these behaviours especially when articulating myself as I’ve discovered over the years it has gotten me nowhere and has only served to upset me even further. I try to reposition myself/ the thoughts to who I was prior to this and think how I would see things and respond… I then push that forward using the old me no matter how hard. It’s one of the many coping strategies I’ve developed. Being into your fourth year doesn’t put you past the point of improvements. There are guys who took longer. Never give up hope you have to find strength to believe. .
Man, have faith in you body.
Our bodies are the results of millions of years of evolution. A smart machine who made its way throught war, pandemics, and difficulties of any kind.
We are the dumbasses who watch Netflix and take Finasteride.