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Where are you from (country)?
USA -
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: propecia numb penis -
What is your current age, height, weight?
27, 5’1, 110 lbs -
Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
Yes, push ups, sit ups, bicycle -
What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
Lots of meat, fast food junk food diet. -
Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
Hair loss from switching TRT methods -
For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
5 months -
How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
27, February 8th 2016 -
How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
27, June 10th 2016 -
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
Cold turkey -
What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
Generic, also Duprost -
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
Started 1mg/day, increased to 5mg/day, then 0.5mg/day of dutasteride -
How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
Immediately, I thought it was the lack of TRT at first -
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
[X] 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
Mental
[X] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[X] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[X] 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
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] 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)
[X] Muscle Wastage
[X] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[X] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[X] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[X] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[X] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[X] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
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What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
Tried winstrol, andractim, testosterone suspension, testosterone enanthate, Axiron, various OTC pills, estrogen pills/cream -
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)?
Don’t have bloodtests after Finasteride so can’t compare -
Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
Shit didn’t even work for hair loss. Estradiol pills stopped and reversed my hair loss–but now I’m stuck with the side effects of this worthless medication. -
Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
I had an orchiectomy a long time ago, so I have to be on TRT or face the consequences of no hormones whatsoever. I had to switch from androgel to axiron for insurance reasons, and axiron caused accelerated hair loss. Axiron felt great, worked perfectly, but the hair loss was nasty so I refocused on halting and reversing it. I reduced my dose from 60mg to 30mg and went on minoxidil, which didn’t help. So my endocrinologist refers me to a dermatologist, he runs blood tests and prescribes finasteride. I take it and at first things seem ok…but my dick stops working, starts shrinking. Before I had a very active libido, and I used to complain that my penis was TOO sensitive. It was like blood had stopped flowing to that body part. Erections didn’t have that pulsating feeling in them, they were limp and rubbery, and orgasms were unsatisfying. Physical activity, which used to be deeply pleasurable, became thankless drudgery. It felt nothing like going off T before. It was the medication, I knew it. It wasn’t stopping my hair loss either. I told the dermatologist and he told me to be patient, stay the course, and wait. Now I was hellbent on solving the hair loss problem, so that was not an option–I told myself I could have tolerated the sides if it was restoring my hair, but it wasn’t. So I took matters into my own hands and ordered dutasteride, estradiol and spironolactone online. That stuff made my hair grow back, rapidly. But the side effects…I felt like shit. After I had a scary blood pressure drop/fainting spell after biking downtown, I dialed back my protocol to see what the minimum was to halt the hair loss. It turned out all I needed was estradiol. I could even take Axiron with the estradiol and my hair wouldn’t fall out! But then I ran out of Axiron and couldn’t get a refill, so I stupidly took some more dutasteride “in case.” I stopped a month later and took just estradiol. I waited for the libido symptoms to return to normal…and waited…and waited. They didn’t.
I tried Andractim, applied directly to my penis, and all it did was briefly, slightly increase my libido. Nothing else. No relief of numbness, or erection firmness.
So four days ago I got my Axiron refill and took the same dose as had always worked. It felt amazing on day one. And day two. And then, it stopped working. I stopped feeling it. This is not good, considering that I have to take exogenous testosterone because of the orchiectomy. I’ve tried doubling and quadrupling my Axiron dosage in the past few days after the crash, and stopping the estradiol, and it hasn’t helped.
At least I know I have some response to androgens, given the two days when it worked again. It may be that I have to taper onto TRT even MORE carefully than I did before, which is a huge pain in the ass that I can’t just take a medication and expect it to work. I am going to solve this problem, one way or other, just like I solved the balding problem. Trial and error, observation, and waiting. Thanks for nothing, propecia and dutasteride!
This gives definite credence to the acquired androgen insensitivity hypothesis, because there’s no hormones coming from inside my body, it’s all exogenous. And on top of that, there is no reason Axiron, which gave me supraphysiological levels of T on just 90mg/day and felt GREAT, and masculinized me beyond belief, should suddenly stop working after two days restarting. Or that andractim should be doing barely anything.
My theory is that propecia and dutasteride make your body produce some kind of residual gunk after stopping, that plugs up the androgen receptors in response to the introduction of DHT. Like a chinese finger trap. The more you dump into yourself, the more this gunk pushes back and stops it from working. If PFS were to be cured, it would require re-adjusting the body to the presence of DHT, so whatever regulatory mechanism has been thrown off can go back to normal and stop reacting to small amounts as “too much” and deploying the gunk.
I may have had a mild androgen resistance similar to this before, because I had bizarre reactions to testosterone cypionate–the more I took the shittier I felt, and even on the smallest dose I got constant test flu that never subsided. Then again I was on Lupron for several years prior to testosterone cypionate so this may be bigger than just propecia. It may be that hormone blockers–all hormone blockers–have farther-ranging effects on the human endocrine system than the pharmaceutical companies and doctors are willing to acknowledge. When a hormone is blocked, it may be the case that it stays blocked long after the blocking drug is discontinued.