Another One Bites The Dust

  1. Where are you from (country)? Myanmar

  2. 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 Search: “Propecia Side Effects”

  3. What is your current age, height, weight? Age: 22yrs; Height: ~5’8"; Weight: ~160lbs

  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise? Walking around, the occasional hike

  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)? I suppose I generally eat well

  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)? follicular reconstitution

  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)? ~5 months

  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride? t +0:00; 21yrs

  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit? ~5 months later; 22yrs

  10. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? misplaced my script, found ~2-3 weeks later, reestablished regimen, quit ~1 month afterwards

  11. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic? generic proscar, quartered

  12. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? 1.25mg ± .25mg, missed a few days here and there

  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects? 3-4 months to detect pallid ejaculate, remaining sides descried immediately upon cessation

  14. What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation? "

Put an X beside all that apply: x

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
[x] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[x] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental (parameters 2-5 relatively mild)
[x] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[x] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[x] Confusion
[x] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[x] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[x] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[x] Depression / Melancholy

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
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[x] Prostate pain
[x] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[x] Lowered body temperature

[x] Other (please explain)

  1. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug? prior to discontinuation, self-prescribed Ashwagandha, Bacopa, Rhodiola, Mucuna, Schizandra, Gotu Kola, D-Ribose, Acetyl-L-Carnitine, Coenzymated B-Vitamin, etc. Since discontinuation, I’ve tried an herbal tea, to some effect

  2. 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)? urologist appt. scheduled for thursday 6/23

  3. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride? umm, hmm, uhhhh, mmmmm, see item number seventeen?

  4. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.

I can’t recall quite when I purchased my ticket to sexually-insipid hell. January-ish. Maybe. I remember my GP, his gigantic visage, his massive digits tracing lines in the air, time graphs depicting just what it was that Finasteride does. “If you have a family history of male-pattern baldness, you may still lose some hair, but just not really as quickly.” He contrasted two lines with each other, one that illustrated the the time-induced abatement of hair that defined ordinary androgenic alopecia with an identical line, but with the additional variable of a “DHT-Blocker.” He’s a kind heart, but I wish more medical professionals would be more professionally scientific, for my technical comprehension. I already understood the therapeutic modality of Finasteride; that’s why I asked for it. I like not to think I longed for a scalp more pulchritudinous than my uncle’s (they say that maternal uncles better determine balding propensity than maternal grandfathers), or my father’s, for that matter. Who am I kidding? I was afraid! My hairline had undergone a slight recession around the temples, and there was a spot in the rear of my scalp that had been gradually dilating since I was 18. My scalp wasn’t going to end up like theirs…

Lo and behold.

I wasn’t keenly aware of my body during my inadvertent Finasteride lacuna, when I lost that diminutive orange bottle, but I still got rock hard. I would have noticed if I didn’t. Now, I am encumbered by a manifold constellation of symptoms as well as a fear of what they might become.

No spontaneous erections, and none in bed (nocturnal, morning wood). I’m less capable of a hardon with my imaginative faculties. Porn doesn’t burgeon my gonads nearly as feverishly. I’m markedly less sensitive, I never get rock hard, my balls remain languid through a weak release, which begets the most meager ejaculate I’ve ever produced. My dick used to be 7.5" long, too. I’ve no drive, not even with my pants adorned to my waist, not for anything. I’ve roommates, so I regularly contribute to the cleanliness of our common living quarters, but lately I just don’t care. [Expletive!] Everything’s flaccid, my sh!t hurts, I can’t think when I haven’t had my herbs (some of which I actually need, now, i.e. Ashwagandha, Mucuna, Rhodiola). I’ve even a mollified musculature, AFTER A WEEK AND A HALF; my roommate has this pull-up bar; it’s this gangrenous dirge that bathes my mind-box with some mephitic reminder that I can only do one pull-up. Two weeks ago, I could manage 4-5, depending on what muscle groups I’d isolate for. One pull-up. One. F*ck me. It’s so difficult. I can’t wait for my bloodwork.

I’ve conflagrated myself, and I need to go to bed. Maybe I’m becoming emotionally labile, but it’s too early for me to tell. I haven’t gotten this way around my roommates.

There’s more, but I’m so tired.

1 Like
  1. Where are you from (country)?
    'murrika
  2. 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
  3. What is your current age, height, weight?
    23 years, 5’8", ~145lbs
  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    not really, used to walk and hike a bit…
  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
    no gmos, no hfcs, no artificial colors, no preservatives, organic when i can, no fast food, etc
  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
    androgenic alopecia
  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    5-6 months, can’t remember exactly
  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    Jan 2011, 22yrs
  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    May-June 2011, 22 yrs
  10. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
    cold turkey has always been my style
  11. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
    generic 5mg tab quartered
  12. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    since splitting the tablets wasn’t always perfect, between 1-1.25mg
  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    near the time when i decided to quit
  14. What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
    on the drug? prostatitis, general weirdness, i guess
    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
[x] Watery Ejaculate
[x] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[probably] 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
[occasionally] Slurring of Speech
[x] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[markedly more, albeit not extreme Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[x] Depression / Melancholy

Physical
[nominal shrinkage 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
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)

  1. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
    so, so many. Though I experience bouts of despondence and hopelessness where I simply want to die because of PFS, I’ll rebound into an obduracy so psychologically potent, I’ll refuse to complacently languish in non-functionality. In short, I become highly motivated and optimistic about recovery. I’ve always told myself that I could accomplish things when I wasn’t sure how to, and I have.

  2. 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 the tests, but last time I checked, lower total and free T, higher E, higher prolactin, higher SHBG, not sure FSH and LH, but they were strange

  3. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?

  4. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.

First off, there is so much that I can say. This will not be all of it. I have been through so much, there is so much detail to tell. I’ll be leaving a lot out, I just can’t remember ALL of it and lay it down for you. Just fyi.
So for future reference, feel free to pm me with personal, specific questions, what have you. I’ll try to answer as best I can.

In January of 2011, I went to my GP for a routine physical, and I asked him about hairloss interventions. I love my hair, always have, and it was slightly receding in the front and in the back. I mentioned that I didn’t want to rub rogaine into my scalp every stinking day, so I asked about other options. He offered me Propecia, drew me a little hairloss time graph indicating how it wouldn’t totally prevent balding, that it would just retard the process, and handed me a prescription. When I asked him about side effects, he sad that my prostate might shrink a little bit (didn’t know it at the time, but that’s bad for a 22 year old!), but other than that I’d be okay. So I took the drug. And my hair started growing back in. Oh boy, oh boy!!!

I’m not quite sure quite when all this was (foggy memory), but sometime around the time when I decided to quit taking it, I was about to get laid when I just couldn’t piss. I’d been drinking. Agh, my prostate felt like a balloon! It hurt a lot, and I wasn’t quite sure why. I do have a family history of prostate issues, but at 22? That was a weird night. I did not get laid.

Between a couple weeks and a month following that disaster of a sexual encounter, I found this site while researching the side effects of Fin online. Even typical side effects of the drug were much worse than I had been informed. So, I decided that the loss of my sexual function wasn’t worth the hair that I loved (and still love) so dearly. I experienced a reflex hyperandrogenic state, and then I crashed. I can’t be sure exactly how long it took. Those were foggy days. But I do remember that I developed all of the hallmark symptoms of PFS: your dick doesn’t f*cking work, and your “mind’s dick” as well, if you will. It was gone. Poof. Nothing.

since I crashed, I’ve been lurking on the forums, fyi

Yeah, I was physically and psychologically asexual, but there were the other sides too: blunted affect, reduced ability to concentrate, poor memory (working, short, long), fatigue, reduced immunity, weight loss (in my case, I lost 15lbs of straight muscle), hypogonadism, pain throughout nearly my entire urogenital tract, it was bad. Despite the unsuccessful experiences with “lay-doctors” you all seemed to have had, I went to see a urologist. He must understand my plight, he must! He didn’t, duh. Guy told me to go see a shrink. About three months ago, I went to see my GP again for something else, I can’t remember, and I ended up telling him about my PFS. He “didn’t discount the physical symptoms,” but he kept referring to my problem as “psychological.” Telling a medical professional that you don’t have a cremasteric/bulbocavernous reflex just goes in one ear and out the other sometimes, i guess. Around that time, I ended up telling my parents. They don’t really understand. I deal with this sh*t every day and they’re only transiently sympathetic when I go out of my way to tell them how much my balls/prostate hurt. They keep pressuring me to get a job. I don’t know if I could hold one, tbh.

I guess I should fill you in on my living situation. I’m a college dropout and I live with my parents. My sleep schedule is way out of whack, I haven’t gotten a 24hr cortisol panel, but I’m pretty sure my adrenals kick in after the sun goes down. I don’t function nearly as well as I used to, obviously. My diet always excludes the badstuffs like high-fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, gmos, preservatives, fast food, pesticides (which means sticking to organics) blah blah etc., but I’ve been on a gluten/dairy-free diet (started in 2009 maybe, lost 30lbs, in a good way) that I mostly keep to (I drink kefir). I’ve tried juicing and eating raw (vitamix) with great results, though I’m not currently doing so because my equipment is on the other side of the country (long story).

As far as herbal interventions go, I’ve tried so many things. I’ll have to make a whole separate thread for what I’ve tried and what’s worked and what hasn’t and how little and how much. I’ll just rattle off what I see in front of me right now:

Phosphatidylserine/DHA complex
Mangosteen
Coleus Forskohlii
Acetyl-L-Carnitine Arginate
Various forms of Magnesium
Ubiquinone, Ubiquinol
Several detox blends
Cordyceps, wild and hybrid
Various amino acids
Fish oil, GLA
Deer Antler Velvet
Various Thiamine analogues
Various TCM herbs and formulas
Various Ayurvedic herbs and formulas
Various south american herbs
Various androgenic herbs
the list goes on…

Either I’m crashing or I need to eat badly, so I’m going to adjourn this introduction for the time being. Nice to meet you all, I’ll be more active on the forums from now on.

Hi Pax,

How you doing man?
Any improvements?