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)?
Sweden
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
What is your current age, height, weight?
31,178cm, 65kg
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.)?
1 dose topically
What condition was being treated with the drug?
balding
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
Once
Date when you started the drug?
24-10-27
Date when you quit the drug?
24-10-27
Age when you quit?
30
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
cold turkey
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects?
6-7 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
[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
[x] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[x] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[x] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[x] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[x] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[x] 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
[x] Testicular Pain
[x] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[x] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[x] Muscle Wastage
[x] Muscle Weakness
[x] Joint Pain
[x] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[x] Prostate pain
[x] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[x] 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
[x] Frequent urination
[x] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
None, there is no tratment for this
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.
In October 2024, I decided to start using finasteride because my balding was getting bad. But since I knew the potential side effects of finasteride, I decided to start with a low dose topically. I crushed and dissolved 3mg in 60ml of PG free solvent and only applied 2ml of this. I figured this would be low enough that would be safe, oh how wrong I was…
Already that night I woke up in the middle of the night and was experiencing pain in my testicles. The next day my penis was numb and the pain in my testicles was getting worse. This is where i decided to stop with finasteride. The next day it was the same, maybe slightly less pain in my testicles. I figured this would pass in a week or so and I would just have to accept my baldness at this point. Little did i know the nightmare was just beginning…
That night as I was beginning to fall asleep, i felt what i can describe as being hit with a bolt of lightning, like a massive seizure and something went through my entire body, and my muscles started twitching like crazy. It got incredible cold and i started uncontrollably shivering. This was beyond scary, and the shivers lasted for around an hour or so. That night i didn’t sleep a single minute. This was the crash i guess.
After this things only kept getting worse. When i tried to exercise the next day, it felt so strange. It hard to even describe, but everything felt completely off. I had this odd pins and needles feeling when lifting, and my strength dropped substantially. That night as i was drifting off to sleep again and seizure like thing happened, and this time the shivering was even more violent. It lasted longer. At this point i thought about ending it.
Over the next week or 2, new symptoms just kept popping up. I started getting this really bad pain in my lower abdomen area. It would be really bad at night, the pain would come in waves. Also my digestion would be destroyed, my poop became strange, yellowish, and soft. I felt really bloated and kept burping for no reason.
After the crash i also started feeling incredibly cold, even in normal room temperature i started shivering. I tried to eat ice cream and after only a few seconds i started shivering like crazy. Another clear sign that something was incredibly wrong.
The insomnia during this time was also brutal, i was getting 2 hours of light sleep at most. But i didn’t even feel tired after waking up just wired. It was just impossible to fall asleep, almost like a wire in the brain had been cut.
A few more weeks after this, while the pain in my testicles subsided, i still had strange pins and needles type feeling down there. Also i noticed the head of my penis was discoloured, it looked like blotches were appearing. It would be there a few days, go away and then appear at another place. About 6 weeks after the crash i also noticed my scrotum skin was sagging like crazy. This again appeared out of nowhere. It looked like my ballsack was completely empty, no fullness at all and my skin was stretchy. The skin on my penis was really dry and white flakes appeared.
I also started noticing my skin was changing, it was getting stretchier, a strange texture. On my forehead the skin is much more loose now, this just appeared over night. And wrinkles popped up over night too. I swear I’m aging more rapidly too.
During this time I also noticed I was sensitive to a ton of things all of the sudden: foods, drinks, shampoos, conditioners, soaps, fragrances, detergents, fabric softeners etc. Smells alone. If I’m exposed to some of these things, i immediately notice a worsening of my symptoms and the twitches start like crazy.
There were a ton of other side effects popping up during this time, dry mouth, tinnitus, dry skin, dizziness, head pressure, ear pressure, loss of appetite, dysphagia, nausea, eye floaters, chest pressure, extreme suicidal ideation and depression/emotional blunting, and the list goes on.
I could still get an erection, but it was difficult and maintaining it was even more so. As soon as i stopped jacking it, it would immediately go down. When i ejaculated only like 2 drops of watery fluid would come out and i felt nothing, it was like a sneeze.
Despite all this extreme suffering i was going through my worst day was still to come. I decided to stop masturbation for a few weeks as it was just depressing me even more. So one day i decided to test it out to see it was any better. So on that day i could get an erection much easier and maintain it more and it felt pleasurable. But here is were something went really wrong. A few minutes after i started, i started getting this really bad feeling, like impending sense of doom. For some reason i just knew if i came that something really bad would happen, so i stopped. After i stopped a few minutes later my heart started beating like crazy, my throat felt like it was closing in, and it felt like something horrible was happening inside me. So this would be happening a few minutes, then it would go away for a few minutes, and again and again…This came in waves and lasted for hours!!! I just stood in my kitchen and tried my best to calm down but it was impossible, no matter what i did this just kept coming on. It felt like my body was short circuiting, like the cables were all mismatched. I really though i was going to die that day. This started around 4pm and lasted until i went to sleep around 10. Needles to say i barely slept that night.
So now I’m 5 months into this nightmare and not much has improved sadly. Here are just some of my symptoms that I’m still dealing with
• Lower abdomen pain
• Insomnia
• Feeling cold
• Muscle twitches
• Suicidal ideation
• Emotional blunting
• Dizziness
• Tinnitus
• Loss of appetite
• Dry skin, dry, wiry hair and body hair
• Burping/GERD
• Dysphagia
• Digestive issues (SIBO)?
• Discolored penis head
• Increased urination amount
• Eye floaters
• Weakness
• ED
• Cold testicles
• Sagging skin, just overall worse skin
• Sensitivity/allergies to a ton of things
There are more, these are just some i can rattle off the top of my head.
Do I even need to say I’m extremely suicidal by this point?
This is easily one of the worst conditions on the planet. It destroys you completely, and leaves you to rot, doesn’t even have the decency to kill you.