boston332's story

Member Stories
#1

I’ve been reading this forum for a long time. Frankly it scares the shit out of me. I’d like to list some of my problems and anyone with any information or supplement ideas please feel free to comment.

I started taking Fin about Nov 2008. I was on it until March 2010. I took 1mg daily. When I went on it I felt a slight retract of my penis. I bit of a loss in size in girth and lenght. It lowered my libido a bit. But, I couldnt believe the results on my head. It regrew alot of hair on the crown of my head. I got mezmerized by those results and believed the shit my doctor said. That the sides should go away after prolonged use of the drug.
Finally this March I quit it cold turkey. Then at about the 6 week mark the real hell began -

  1. EXTREME penile shrinkage. This is definately the worst of my sides. Penis shrunk up to about 1/2 its normal flacid size. I AM NOT exaggerating here. Also smaller when it is erect.

  2. Dry skin spots on my upper lip and on my forehead. Skin just flakes off. So bad it looks like I got hit in the forehead.

  3. Aching and tingling sensation (numbness) in the shaft of my penis at all times.

  4. Extreme depression. Can barely get up in the mornings. Suicide a daily thought and consideration. My sister died recently and I couldnt put my parents through another death.

  5. Erections difficult to acheive. And again, much smaller than before the propecia.

  6. Much smaller volume of ejaculate.

  7. Aching in testicals. Mild - about a 2 on a 1-10 scale.

I have an appointment with Dr. Shippen on Oct. 6. That is the only thing I can hang onto. Thank GOD for him and the Dr.'s who acknoledge we arnt crazy! Can anyone recommend anything I can do or try (to keep my sanity) before my appointment?

Much thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read my details and respond.

#2

Welcome.

Pls participate in the following study so we can make headway into this problem.

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=3497

#3

Yeah I crashed at the 6 week mark too. Things recovered slightly over the next few days, then crashed even further at 8 weeks.

I wish there was something I could tell you that would help. Good luck with Dr. Shippen and please let us know how your visit goes.

#4

If you are in new york and want an appointment sooner, may i also recommend Alan Jacobs - (212) 888-0002 - he has offices upstate and in the city

#5

Im actually closer to Reading PA than NYC. So, Im gonna give Shippen a shot.

Oh, I forgot to add Insomnia to my lists of sides. Sides seem to be dynamic. Some worse on some days, some better on some days. But things always go back to the “crash” level.

Im taking cialis and that seems to be getting a little more blood flow down there but its far far from normal.

I just have this feeling that this is something that has changed me forever and I will never go back to my old self. If Im lucky and God willing maybe a partial improvement. Very depressing.
Worst thing about this is you can’t even feel sorry for yourself. I did this to myself over something as silly as trying to keep my hair.

#6

It’s not our fault.

Shippen has probably seen more men about this than any other doc and seems to try a wide range of approaches.

Sleep, or appaling quality of it, appears to be a feature for most men coming off finasteride. Maybe add this to the member story template?

#7

Forgot again to add Loss of Libido. Seems so obvious that I guess I neglected to even mention it.

I used to be able to have sex with a woman and masturbate maybe twice or 3 times a day. Sex was a big of my life. Now Im lucky if I can ejaculate once every few days or a week. After ejaculation penis shaft even more sore and testicals ache more. From what Im reading this is due to the lack of DHT to maintain the tissue properly.

#8

Is it even possilbe to bounce back from this crash? I still have shrinkage , ED and very mild ache in my testicles. I’m approaching 6 months off the poison.

Is anyone here aware of anyone who actually got better 100% after the crash? Are we destined to live like this forever?

#9

get ur blood tests. monitor values for thyroid, Vit D, iron etc.

#10

I had blood test done in May. Things were basically in “normal” ranges from what my Dr. says.

I have sent them down to Dr. Shippen. I see him on Oct 6. Last time I spoke to his office the girl said this is very difficult to treat and they only get “some” recovery out of about 40% of patients. She was very non commital. I keep having this dream that I’ll get to Shippen and he’ll say its something other than PFS. But, who knows.

I can’t find any stories of people who crashed ever getting back to “normal”.

#11

She told me 50%, but yeah I don’t think they’re having much success. I tried to ask her what the worst case was that Shippen has seen and has been able to cure, and she didn’t have an answer. Still I made an appointment and can cancel anytime up to a month before without penalty, just in case by some miracle I am feeling better. You are certainly doing the right thing by being proactive about this, as the condition does not seem to improve for many with time. Perhaps the sooner you attack this the better chance you have of recovering.

As for people who have recovered after the crash, I’ve seen several who have claimed significant improvements, but a 100% recovery appears to be unlikely.

#12

Honestly, if it werent for the emotional blunting (I dont care about anything) I’d prolly have taken 2 bottles of xanax and ended it by now. How depressing to think we are sexless zombies for the rest of our lives over this shit.

#13

I’ve been pretty suicidal too… the main reason being that my health is now severely compromised, all while I have no insurance or job. Three months ago, I was young and healthy with not a doctor in sight. Now I’ve already run up $1000 in medical bills trying to figure this out, and it will only get much worse once I see Shippen. There’s no telling what the long-term effects could be of being left in this unbalanced hormonal state for many years, which is why I want to make sure I’ve done everything I can as far as restarting the HPTA post haste. I imagine quite a few of us on this board will end up with some very unfortunate health consequences once we get older because of this.

By the way, overdosing on Xanax isn’t going to kill you. Might knock you out for a couple of days and get you sent to the mental ward though.

#14

Thanks for telling me that. If I do decide to end it I dont wanna be another one of those who people say “it was just a cry out for help”. I’d wanna be gone honestly.

I’m gonna see Shippen and find out what he thinks. Honestly, Im not sure how Im gonna react if and when Shippen positively diagnoses me and gives me this life sentence. I pray that he can give me some hope cause I have none at the moment.

#15

From what I’ve read on this forum, he’s got several different protocols he’ll try in succession to see if you respond… might take a couple of years to go through them all. He definitely seems like the one to see among the four guys listed on this site. I’ll bet most of his “successes” though have been the types of guys who would have recovered on their own anyway(those who never “crashed” but had lingering effects from while on the drug, or who crashed with only mild symptoms).

#16

I guess I can only hope he says this is something else at this point.

But, I do have the dry skin patching on my forehead, severe ED, pretty bad shrikage (like most describe here with the narrowing), and insane depression. I did get a little bounce back to almost normal about 2 weeks ago. But since then things have been pretty shitty. Guys who have put up with this for years must better men than I.

#17

Guys I think you are doing the right thing seeing Shippen soon. There are a couple instances where guys have improved by dealing with this quickly, it’s possibly the best chance you have. Many simply wait a year or so before ‘taking things further’ and trying one of the listed docs. At least you won’t say ‘what if’.
Shippen seems to try a number of different approaches that Crisler or Jacobs don’t, or at least that is how it seems, and is generally considered the best around anyway.

Good luck.

#18

Who are the members that have been brought back by shippen? I have not found one person that has gone to one of these doctor’s and been treated and got better.

#19

True. And after finding how much it costs to get your blood tested today, I think I’m leaning towards canceling my appointment. I couldn’t believe it cost $210 just to get T, E2, and PSA checked, or maybe I’m just getting ripped off. I can’t imagine having to get a whole battery of tests done every couple weeks while going through Shippen’s protocols(without insurance of course).

That’s got to come out to at least $500+ a month, depending on how often he tinkers with your plan and needs you to check your blood. If there’s a cheaper way to get the blood tests he would need without insurance, I’d sure like to know about it.

Regardless, I’m likely going to cancel and just try to go the supplement route like cdnuts. He IS a guy on this forum who has shown marked improvement.

#20

It’s perhaps a case of finding someone quickly who will treat you with clomid/hcg etc rather than palm you off or give you androgel. At least with Shippen you know he know’s that something is worng and is prepared to treat early. But yes he can’t work miracles.