- Where are you from (country)?
Thailand - 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. The words are “Finasteride” and “Side Effect” - What is your current age, height, weight?
26 yo, 164 cm/5 ft 5 in, 58 kg/127 lbs. - Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
Yes, trying to keep up with 3-4 days of weight training and cardio or HIIT once a week - What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
Carbs – brown rice (white rice sometimes), pastries once or twice a week
Meat – Chicken breasts, lean pork, fish (beef sometimes)
Fruits and Veggies – Broccolis, carrots, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, pumpkins, apples, bananas and other local products.
Drink – No alcohol and coffee, tea only (mostly Japanese green tea) - Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
Hair loss - For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
11 Months - How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
25 yo. Somewhere in May 2013 - How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
26 yo. March 4,2014 - How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
Cold turkey - What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
Proscar - What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
One-fourth of Proscar daily - How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
About 9-10 months - 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
[X] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[X] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[X] Loss of Morning Erections
[X] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[X] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[X] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[*] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
*I haven’t checked.
Mental
[X] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[X] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[X] Slurring of Speech
[X] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[X] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[X] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[X] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[X] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[*] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
*I’m not quite sure.
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[X] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[X] 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?
No treatment - 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)?
No blood test - Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
I wish I had found this site before I decided to take the drug. - Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
I has been on this site right after I quit Fin but I only read the posts and never posted anything. I think I’d wait for my side effects to be stable at some point. I didn’t want to be around the forum too often since I’d have been obsessed with my symptoms too much.
I started Fin because of the hair loss after trying Minoxidil which hadn’t worked. I got the Proscar from a pharmacy shop in my province. Like what some member said in this site, Fin is like candies in Thailand. We can get it easily without any prescription in any drug store that has it.
When I first started, everything was the same as what Thai doctor stated in our hair loss forum that I would be painful in my genital area and testicles for a few days and it would be back to normal. After a week passed, I’m back to normal and I was waiting for the day that my head would look good again. I’m quite sure there’s no side effects back then.
It’d been ok until 3 months before I quit when I noticed the side effect. My partner was giving me a blow job and even though I felt the sensation, it somehow didn’t please me as it should have been and I took longer than usual until I ejaculated. After that for a month, I think I could just lie in bed and let my partner do a blow job without being pleased and I blamed him for not doing it right for me. How stupid. I also noticed that my penis couldn’t sustain its hardness without hand stimulation when I was trying to jerk off a week after but I didn’t quit Fin yet. Just on and off when I forgot bringing it with me. I’d taken my last pill just before I had sex with my partner. My penis couldn’t keep erected even with the hand stimulation so I couldn’t put on my condom. I was panicking a bit but somehow I managed to ejaculate with masturbation. I felt numb on my genital area and testicles and I couldn’t get to the deep sleep later that night. I think that’s my first crash. Then I found this site and realize that I got the side effect from the drug. I didn’t think taper it off would be a good idea since my genital area and testicles were so numb and it made me suffer. Taking more pill would damage my body more so that was my last pill and I quit it cold turkey.
There were a few weeks within the first month after quitting that I experience the worst. My genital area and balls hurt. I still feel the sensation but my penis was so numb, like somebody said, it was more like a rubber dildo than my penis. I was impotent and had no libido, no nocturnal erection and no morning wood. Porns were like this Disney’s movies to me. For the mental side effects, I couldn’t focus on anything and I couldn’t finish anything in office in those few weeks. I had depression daily and also wanted to suicide every day with reason. I thought have brain fog (my mind was not so clear like I was always asleep) and a strange headache. My sleep pattern was so terrible. I was half-awake-half-asleep for all night long and got up around 3 AM every day.
I have no about clue how to cure myself. Hormones check would cost me a fortune since the fancy laboratory will be in the private hospitals so the fee is expensive and the endocrine society of Thailand is just the society of the doctors who interest in endocrine system so I decided to cure myself naturally by trying to eat healthy and do the weight lifting which I think help me a lot. I also quit drinking alcohol and coffee which made me feel pain in the genital area. I also let my close friends and family members know about my health condition since I wanted them to understand me in case that they notice some change in me. I take it as my courage to confront the PFS.
After 6 months, I started to feel better. I’m so glad that my sleep pattern recovered at some degree. I can get to the deep sleep and even better with the help of zinc before sleep. I got up close to my normal time. Brain fog faded but my brain is still slow. My penis is still numb every other day but at least it’s not all day every day. Erection has been improved as well. My penis can get hard like 70-80% of my pre-Fin hardness, good enough to penetrate, but I still have low sex drive. There were just a few times that I felt horny and really wanted to have sex within the past 6 months, otherwise I felt like I was forced to have sex with my partner. Speaking of sex, I don’t enjoy it anymore since there’s something wrong with the chemicals in my brain. It’s always ticklish when I was touched in the way that would have made me horny and even though I get hard, I don’t feel horny for most of the cases. It’s like when you have a morning wood. The penis is hard but you don’t feel like having sex. Now I have some morning wood too but not very often. I also notice that my penis and balls become smaller than my pre-Fin self as I checked the pictures and clips I took before I took Fin. Anyway, I think I’ll keep up my healthy life since it has helped me recovered and I hope I’ll be more recovered.
This might sound ridiculous to you guys but I could find the bright side of PFS. It’s not about the health but it’s about the mind and people who support you. I remembered well when my partner held me tight when I told him that my dick didn’t work. He replied me that he didn’t love me just because of my dick. I even understood my mum when she was so depressed because of her hormone loss (Of course, I experienced it myself). My attitude about life changed. I now take care of myself more then I used to. I think I wouldn’t take it this serious if I didn’t take Fin, comparatively to my co-worker who still eats unhealthy and enjoys drinking a lot.
There is a Buddhism thought about health which says “Being ill, if not getting better, then death”. It means that the illness won’t last forever. It’ll change, either good or bad. This helps me a lot when I was down.
That’s my story for now. I would love to hear from anyone so feel free to post something here.
