Any advice? I'm lost

Member Stories
#1
  1. Where are you from (country)?
    Spain
  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 sides)
  3. What is your current age, height, weight?
    21 years, 1,85m , 75 kg
  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    i go running once a week
  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)
    semi-vegetarian
  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
    hair loss
  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    1 month
  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    21 years (December 21, 2010)
  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    21 years (January 20, 2011)
  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?
    propecia
  12. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    1mg/day
  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    i noticed ball soreness during finasteride usage, that’s why i stopped, but a time after stopping appeared all the side effects
  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
[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
[ ] Confusion
[x] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[x] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[x] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[x] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[x] Depression / Melancholy

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

Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[x] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[x] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[x] 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?
    I’m only taking multivitamins and vitamin d. I also tried tribulus and arginine, but they made me worse

  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)?
    The only thing out of range was prolactin, but now is in range.

  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 of all, sorry for my english.
I took finasteride for one month, and at that time i was taking an antidepressant (zoloft) which i was the second time in my life that i took it. I know the sides i have are due to finasteride, not zoloft, but they all started after finishing zoloft (march), two months after finishing with finasteride.
Since they started, every week is worse than the one before. At first was only e.d., then appeared ball pain (which had subsided after leaving finasteride). My penis is hard when is flaccid, and it has los all elasticity. (when i go running, it doesn’t shrink, it becames large and thin) The shaft is extremely painful, both in flaccid and erect state it makes impossible sex and masturbation.I did a doppler, and it showed a fibrotic line of 1,5 cm, and lots of microfibrosis and microcalcifications. That makes me think that my corpora cavernosa has been so extremely damaged. I suspect i have also calcifications in the pelvic area, because it also hurts.
Every day i wake up with a panic attack.
I don’t think TRT, or clomid can help with the pain and lack of elasticity.
Any advice would be really appreciatted.

#2

what did your doctor say about fibrotic line and microfibrosis, microcalcification? Did he say it will cure on its own or tissues are dead?

#3

He said it can be cured, but he didn’t look very convinced. He told me to start taking vitamin e+ cialis low dosage. But i’ve already tried cialis and since then i have some disturbing eye floaters, so i think i’ll take vitamin e + l-arginine. He said that if the curvature i have keeps worsening, we will try with colchinine.

#4

what is colchinine.?

#5

Your doc didnt mention trental (pentoxiffyline)?

#6

i meant colchicine
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchicine

no he didn’t, but i think i’ll ask him to try it.

#7

i’ve done an urine test, and it seems i have also problems with my liver

#8

what problems?

#9

high AST-GOT, (290 U/L when it should not be higher than 40)
high ALT-GPT (95 U/L when it should not be higher than 40)
high LDH (715 U/L when it should be between 230-460)

My urologist told me that these values where related to problems with the liver, and he told me to see an internal medicine doctor, who i’m visiting next week.

But i don’t really know how to improve these values.

#10

Ehh, what are you doing about these liver issues?

#11

I did a new test and was ok.

#12

That’s strange, but very good obviously!

#13

ehh, this happened to me. My liver results were super out of range once then came down to normal in the next test. Did your doctor say what might have caused this?

#14

The last days i’ve had the worst panic attacks, so i decided to take Klonopin (which before my crash used to be very powerful for me). I’ve tried it two times in the last days, and for some reason, i’ve felt absolutely no effect, apart from ache in the penis.

#15

ehh dose your dr recommend you any MRI or CT scan?
did you talk to him about calcification like what treatment can help to reduce it?
have you got any blood test?

#16

I only took propecia for 30 days. Only 30 days. It’s been many months since i stopped, and i’m worse than ever. I don’t know what i’ve become. I just started university and many people who i haven’t seen during the summer tell me that i have changed a lot. I have a lot of muscle wastage, my ribs are clearly noticeable, and my face looks horrible, my skin is rubbery. Mentally i feel like an idiot, i used to be talkative, and now i just don’t feel the connexion with people, and all i can say are short sentences. I’m not able to follow my university classes. My vision is bad, ed pills stopped working, my penis is shrunken. I don’t even care now about hair loss, but it extremly increased after taking the drug. I’ve lost EVERYTHING. My hair loss wasn’t even important before propecia, i just went to a dermatologist and told him: “I’ve noticed that i’ve been losing hair during the last months”, and he said: “oh, don’t worry, i’ve got good news for you: hair loss nowadays has a solution”, and he gave me the pill. “And what about side effects?”. “It has few side effects, and in case you experience it, they will disappear after stopping taking the pill”.
So now that i’ve lost everything, and i know i won’t improve my condition just with a healthy lifestyle, i have to try a treatment. I have bloodworks, and everything is between the limits. I have an MRI, also fine. No doctor is going to help me. So i will appreciate any advice about a strong treatment which i could start on my own.

#17

this is the real tragedy, i was mislead too about this last sentence.
unfortunately there are no answers, no treatments

time is the best healer but for a certain degree
however it depends

u can try some standard protocols but nothing is sure

#18

Although a few people seem to get better with time, this doesn’t happen to many other people. I took even fewer pills than you and started a long downhill trend immediately after stopping fin. A year off, I was at my worst. When I realized that my life was destroyed, I realized that I had to start treating some of the several hormonal imbalances caused by propecia.

Yes, same thing here. All these sides got fixed by boosting pregnenolone, progesterone, cortisol, and T4 to the top of their ranges.

That sounds reasonable. But I’d like to suggest you to avoid simple boosts in androgen levels–they almost never work. Fix the other imbalances (adrenal, thyroid) first.

#19

I would say start vid D3 and Magnesium so that at lease you can slow down muscle loss and bone loss.

#20

It’s really a shame that the doctors don’t know how much harm Finasteride can do to people. It really is a tragedy.