Any help appreciated!

  1. Where are you from (country)?
    USA
  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?)
    Internet research.
  3. What is your current age, height, weight?
    23, 5-7
  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    Yes, light weights and run.
  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
    meat eater, healthy
  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
    hair loss
  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    10 months
  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    23, February of this year
  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    23 November of this year
  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?
    finasteride
  12. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    1.25mg/day
  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    9 months
  14. What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
    head pressure, loss of sex drive and pleasure of being close to the lady, weight loss, muscle fatigue, and fatigue.
    Put an X beside all that apply:

Sexual
[x ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ x] 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
[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
[ ] Depression / Melancholy

Physical
[x ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] 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
[ ] Prostate pain
[x ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[x ] 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? None so far. Just multi-vitamins

  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)? All blood tests were normal, however I had an adrenal test and was determined I had adrenal fatigue. My cortisol levels were high at night.

  3. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride? The head pressure really gets to me.

  4. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug. So, where to start, I started losing hair about 10 months ago. I took 1.25 mg/day. At the beginning everything was fine, however I started losing tons of hair the first 3 months. Then it tapered off and went back to the normal few hairs a day while I say shower, etc. Then soon after the 4 or 5 month range I started not wanting to be “close” or sexually active with my girlfriend. We used to be 3-4 times a day easy. I constantly was losing weight. It stopped around 15 pounds. I was 150ish and went down to 135ish. I started getting very bizarre head pressure, mostly in my forehead and nose. I even got spider veins in my nose. I figured out the pill was probably the cause, so I stopped cold turkey. Soon after I noticed the pressure slowly going away. However, now it is just kind of this weird sensation over my whole body. I have some blurred vision it feels like. My body has a hard time relaxing and sleeping at night. I take cortisol manager for that which lets me sleep most of the night. I’m not sure if what I am feeling is the brain fog or what. I work in front of a computer all day and maybe that has something to do with it, because I know adrenal fatigue and bright lights don’t go well together. I also have been starting to twitch a little bit which is slightly getting better. I am just really worried that it is something else? What do you guys think? I can provide more info if need. Thank you so much!

Hi everyone! I am a 23 year athletic guy who has been pretty much ran over by this pill. At least it feels like it. Lately I have been waking up and feeling ok from about 7 am to 1 pm and then my day goes downhill from there. I’m not sure if its the pill or if its my brain making me feel this but it almost feels as if the left side of my body is tingly/numb maybe a little bit. Should I try and get an mri ASAP? Or do you think it could be the pill “finasteride”. I also have other symptoms such as: weight loss, fatigue, head/nose pressure, loss of libido a tiny bit, red eyes, dry scalp, and muscle density loss. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!!

what you describe here perfectly fits into PFS. please go for PET scan as discussed here viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7435&hilit=pet. The normal scan will not reveal any thing as normal scan picks up physical damage where as we are likely to have got chemical damage. I am not trying to scare you just giving you some knowledge. Normal Scans for almost all of us ( including my three scans) have been normal.Normal scan is just a wast of money, time and possibly damage to health.

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I had a cortisol saliva test (4x daily) which showed i have low cortisol throughout the day. I’m taking a cortisol supplement and without it, i experience fatigue, weight gain around the abdomen area and poor quality of sleep.

I have not had any further tests to check if i have primary, secondary or tertiary adrenal insuffiency:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrenal_insufficiency

Has your doctor recommended any other tests?

Cheers

im very interested in having a complete saliva hormone test done…I will look for it this week.

Hello all,

I took Finasteride for about 10 months. I have been off the pill for about a year now. My sexual side effects are sooo much better now and my ejaculate is much my powerful. However, the mental side effects still remain. My anxiety is pretty bad and it is really starting to annoy me. The pill caused me to have sinus problems. My energy levels are very low and I have been having very weird breathing problems. All of the side effects are getting better but are still there almost every day. I was wondering if anyone knew how to speed up the process. Thank you for any and all help!

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