Another victim

Member Stories
#1

  1. Where are you from (country)?UK

  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

  3. What is your current age, height, weight?34 94kg 193cm

  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of exercise?Weight training

  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?Healthy, intermittent fasting

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

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

  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride? 29

  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit? 34

  10. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? Cold turkey

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

  12. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? 1Mg per day

  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects? On reflection straight-away

  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:

Sexual
[x] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[x] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[x] Watery Ejaculate
[x] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] Suicidal Thoughts

Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[x] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[x] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[x] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[ ] 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? At present I have continued to weight train and eat an intermittent fasting diet.

  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)?N/A

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

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

I started to take finasteride after experiencing about 3 years of aggressive mpb. Very slowly over the course of the 5 years I was taking this drug I developed some pretty nasty side-effects.

Which with hindsight crept up on me, however I never associated this with the drug, these symptoms included terrible jock itch, erection problems, by far the worst was the fact I became withdrawn and just wanted to be alone rather than the sociable person I had been pre-fin.

Looking back it gave me strange sensations of wanting to lash out at people who got into my personal space, and really horrible thoughts of wanting to hurt people.

The trigger for me to stop this poison was, laying there with a beautiful girl and feeling nothing, totally dead penis, no connection what so ever.

I quit cold turkey, and had a period of about 3 weeks feeling slightly unwell but was feeling like I was returning to normal.

However after 3 weeks, one day after weight training I had a feeling of panic and waves of anxiety, and had to lay down and go to sleep, when I woke up I felt like my mind had been wiped clean of emotions.

symptoms including extreme panic attack like feeling, total shrinkage of my penis (including colour changes, the skin took on a tan/suede type appearance) with rubber like texture.

Not being about to sleep more than 4 hours without waking ie 4am and not being able to get back to sleep,10kg weight gain of stubborn fat,Black circles under my eyes, extreme fatigue. Constant urination and prostate issues.

It’s been about 6 months since I quit and most side-effects have gone, thankfully apart from the fact something seems missing in my head, the part that controls arousal etc.

So the side-effects I’m still suffering with are inability to maintain an erection and fatigue, and reduced testicle size.

I have always been fit and trained hard, and I believe that’s the way to improve my quality of life.

I have just bought 2 courses of androhard and pct, and test boosting herbs and plan to start a program to try and fix myself.

1 Like
Totally better
#2

After browsing this site, a general consensus seems to be just to take the natural way out. The only pills/supplements you should be taking should be over the counter (IMO). Just keep training, eat healthy, and avoid caffeine and alcohol. Those two seem to set me off pretty easy in regards to anxiety and panic attacks. Also, keep your stress low. Avoid any extraneous activity that you know might cause any mental stress. Good luck though with your recovery! I saw that none of your symptoms seemed to be related to depression like some of the guys on this sight. Just keep your mind clear and your head up, you’ll make it through man.

#3

Thanks for your encouraging words, I feel lucky I have no depression or cognative issues, just can’t sleep properly, and have bad ed.

#4

Hi Guys.

Today I Recieved an email from a member asking me how I was doing and remembered about the forum! I’m happy to say I feel totally recovered.

I used 1 mg of generic fin for 5 years with no break.

Some of my sides on the drug were prostate pain, trouble urinating, became a recluse, had urges to harm people who came close to me in social situations, total impotence, lack of interest in women.

I after I quit I crashed, you can read in my previous posts. My tesicles wasted away to almost nothing, I had bad penile shrinkage and massive fat gain. My eyes had black bags under them for about 3 months and I was basically a walking zombie, people thought I was a drug user probably. I couldn’t sleep more than about four hours a night for about a year and thought I’d never recover.

Now I have no sexual problems, no prostate problems, no sleep issues, generally I feel on top of the world.

I’d like to help anyone who wants advice.

Some pictures of my body now.

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1 Like
#5

Hey, how did you recover? Please tell us. Thanks.

1 Like
#7

Hi Guys. So recovery…abstain from any sexual activity for prolonged period of time to try and somehow give your system a break. At some point get in the gym and force yourself to train (I know this might seem impossible but you have to) training must be circuit style/high intensity intervals on cross trainer etc (use caffeine preworkout). Need to eat clean (high protein low carb) and no smoking or drinking. I’ll be honest I started an Anavar cycle when these photos were taken, that’s why I look in great shape. I’m now using TRT (200mg test E) and SARMS (Ostarine and cardarine), similar effects (I think after the testicles have been fried by Propecia some sort of hormone replacement is the only solution) (I got this idea from another member who used pro hormones in a similar fashion and had success). Three years on I have no issues apart from PE (use dapoxetine and cialis) and long refactory period.

Hope this helps…

4 Likes
#9

Yes massive weight gain and belly…that’s due to hormones being out of sync. Try the things I recommended…good luck.

1 Like
#10

Sorry… What does it mean PE?..
Thank you!

#11

Impotence, DE i understand.

#12

Did you have any neurological sides or all sexual?

#13

PE = Premature Ejaculation.

1 Like
#14

you have PE from pfs ? me too …

#15

Firstly i would like to thankyou sincerely for coming back to this forum with this information.
I’ve had the same issues as you had for years now due to steroid use i started taking finasteride to combat hairloss being caused by testosterone and dianabol.
I was cycling testosterone enth deca and Dbol and using 1.25mg of Finasteride.
As soon as i started the finasteride along came major issues penile shrinkage numbness total lack of desire zero libido impotence ball ache etc
I was a fool and listened to the hairloss guys saying don’t worry it will soon pass just stay on Finasteride things with level off needless to say they didn’t so i took the next step of advice take viagra until things get better but yet again nothing changed by this time 3 or 4 months had passed so i was worried that if i stopped Finasteride my hair would shed faster than pre finasteride as this is what the hairloss forums tell you so i ended up with a decision on my hands option 1 take finasteride keep hair and use viagra to compensate for some of the sexual issues or option 2 stop Finasteride and lose hair.
I stupidly took option 1 and stayed with finasteride in the hope that things would sort themselves out eventually.
Years later I decided enough was enough i couldn’t bare all of these side effects and the yoyo effects of steroids it was time to stop steroids and finasteride and try to get back to normality.
To my shock after strict pct i was still stuck with genital numbness impotence etc
I tried clomid tamox hcg etc but nothing seemed to help I went to a doctor which was quite a negative experience with no real answers.
I decided to continue to lurk this forum for a few years trying various ways drugs and supplements to make things better.
To be honest nothing really helped I’ve tried most of the protocols with no real improvement.
I’ve now gone a full circle ended up back at my doctors with no real answers from them again so i asked if i could see a urologist.
First visit to urologists i informed doctor of issues and mentioned the steroids and Finasteride I then had the physical examination and was told I’m suffering with secondary hypogonadism the urologist thinks my system is not producing enough testosterone he said the combination of steroids and finasteride has basically crashed my system.
I had some blood tests they found my testosterone levels low im currently due for another blood test to check levels again then I will be starting TRT.
Your post has definitely made me feel very positive as to this maybe the road out of this mess.
I show all the signs of low testosterone i.e
Low libido erectile dysfunction impotence muscle loss extreme depression and anxiety tiredness memory issues painful joints and back pain etc
Keeping in mind these are all symptoms of pfs too its all very much a mess that I’m never going to walk away from without medical help.
Since joining this forum recently I’ve been keen with pushing people back towards doctors and urologists as i feel many people may put themselves through all the drug and supplement trials pointlessly if they haven’t already had blood tests and spoken to doctors to at least report symptoms.
Without blood tests we are in the dark.
My hope is that I have the same success that you have had and I will be able to come back to this forum with the same positive story / outcome and help other people out of this awful mess before they waste years of their lives stuck in this horrible situation.

Don’t give up on doctors if you get thrown from your horse dont be disheartened climb back up on it and try again.
It’s highly unlikely anyone on this forum is going to find a cure to these problems medical help is the only sensible way forward.
Rule out every single possible acknowledged medical cause before you condemn yourself.
Stay as positive as you can

1 Like
#16

Sign me up, lol. I’d take that over it being extremely difficult to finish a lot of the time.

#17

what do you mean ? :sweat_smile: my english is not so good sry

#18

but i think not many here have PE except us

#19

I meant I’d almost rather have PE than the opposite. It’s extemely difficult for me to ejaculate unless I wait 3-4 days between each time. It sounds good… being able to last forever, but in reality it sucks

1 Like
#20

I have to teach my doctors what pfs is. I might as well go see a dentist, he wouldn’t have a clue just the same but at least he could check my teeth.

1 Like
#21

I cant imagine teaching or more to the point trying to teach a doctor is going to be productive they are set in their ways.
What we have to do is work with them
Explain our symptoms voice our opinion and then let the doctor have his opinion heard.
Going in their with PFS on the brain isn’t going to get us anywhere we are basically asking a doctor to agree with the self diagnosis of a syndrome that has next to zero medical acknowledgement in todays medical world
Unless we see a doctor that specializes in PFS the outcome will be the same everytime.

#22

We have to make the best of what we have mate.
Unless you have thousands of dollars and a ticket to fly out to one of these famous doctors your stuck with what’s to hand.

Either way any medical help has to be better than zero we can sit hear tapping keyboards reading studies trying to make sense of things or we can put that same amount of effort and time getting out their asking for help.