Brazilian 4 yrs story after quitting

Member Stories
#7

Here i am again!

One of my physicians thought that i had a beggining of diabetes due to my persistent fatigue.

He recommended some bloodtests and i bring the results:

19/06/2015

HB A1C - 5,3% (4,0 - 6,0)
GLICOSE - 67 MG/DL (75 - 99)
URIC ACID - 5,1 MG/DL (3,4 - 7,0)
TOTAL COLESTEROL - 152 MG/DL (<200)
HDL COLESTEROL - 43 MG/DL (>45)
LDL COLESTEROL - 88,4 MG/DL (<100)
TRIGLYCERIDS - 103 MG/DL (<150)
AMILASE - 47 U/L (28-100)
LIPASE - 21 U/L (<60)
T-4 - 7,15 UG/DL (5,1 - 14,1)
TSH - 2,03 MUI/L (0,27 - 4,2)

GLICEMIC CURVE - INDICATORS ARE NORMAL

my glicose is a little bit under the common range. I thought i read something about hypoglicemia here. The other thing is my HDL… first time under normal range… Is there any explication for this?

Cheers!

#8

Forgot to give a feedback about the diet.

I’m being more flexible, doing carbnites every 7-10 days (as cdnuts recommended).
I don’t know if it’s psychological but i’m feeling more energic. At the end of the day i usually feel tired, but the timing is changing. Before, i felt tired everyday after 2:00pm or 3:00pm until de end of the day.
i’m eating more fruits cause i was losing weight too fast into the paleo diet.

One thing that i’m doing as well is drinking 1 or 2 “expressos” during the day. Coffee certainly gives me more energy while keep my mind more clear. I love the sensation after 1 cup of it.
I’m not masturbating frequently. Trying to do it 2x per week (heard of testosterone peak after 7 days).

My overall situation (updated) is:

Sexual
[x] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive (60%)
[x] Erectile Dysfunction (30%)
[x] Loss of Spontaneous Erections (50%)
[x] Watery Ejaculate (60%)
[x] Reduced Ejaculate (70%)
Mental
[x] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat (60%)
[x] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating (50%)
[x] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness (40%)
[x] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency (60%)
[x] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks (90%)
[x] Severe Depression / Melancholy (80%)
[x] Suicidal Thoughts (100%)
Physical
[x] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled) (15%)
[x] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness (30%)
[x] Muscle Wastage (20%)
[x] Muscle Weakness (30%)
[x] Joint Pain (20%)
Misc
[xx] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion (30%)
[x] Lowered body temperature (i think my normal temperature at night is 36.5ºC …At 21:00 pm on 23/06/2015 i measured 36,2ºC)

#9

Back into the mud again.

It’s so disapointing to have a sequence of good days and then fall into this useless body again.
The past 4 days were good, not great, but good. But today, oh man… Made me remember in what situation i’m in.

Didnt read anything close, but i often feel dizzy and feel a strange sensation in my stomach. Can’t relate do any habit or food. I feel my blood leaving my arms and legs. Generally the fatigue is present.

I was diagnosed with the vasovagal syndrome 2 years ago (never had it before fin) and my cardiologist says that what i described above is the beggining of a vasovagal crisis…

To discard any gastric ill, i went to a gastroenterologist who asked me to do a endoscopy as well as testing my gut bacteria. I agreed and remembered chi’s story (fatigue due to bad bacteria in the gut).

When i get the results i come by to tell you and update the post.

Does anyone have a similar situation to mine?

#10

Today i decided to give up on paleo diet. I concluded, based on a diary, that the effect was null. Had no improvement nor decrease on my overall condition. Had ups and downs like i had just months ago.

The decision of giving up on paleo diet is because i’m getting too thin and the lack of energy is not improving, but i’ll continue eating healthy, as i have done my entire life.

Again, it would be easier for me to live this syndrome if i had more energy. The sexual side effects are a lot better, but this fatigue is killing me!

Anyway, hoping for the best!

#11

Hey Brazil,

How bad were your mental sides when you first crashed? I’ve seen you’ve made some recovery on that front. I still have debilitating brain fog/loss of personality/emotional blunting one month off the drug. Any advice for me?

Best of luck.

#12

First two years for me were bad… I had brain fog, severe depression and anxiety. Those symptoms did improved on the past year. However, emotional bluntness is still present. No big tip for you, time will heal, but its slow. If you feel depressed, dont hesitate to take meds, they were the reason i didnt suicide. But, when you feel confident enough to take them out of your routine, do it. You will heal faster without strange substances in your body.

Try to think that all of this is just a period you’re going through. It will go away, as you can see many on this forum got completely cured.

If i did not have fatigue i would workout hard… Feels good and rockets your testosterone high sky
Eat healthy, rest everytime you can.

And, above all, take it easy!

1 Like
#13

Thanks for the tips, and good luck to you. It seems you’re definitely on the road to recovery, and that’s good to see for an early-off guy like myself.

#14

Here i am again.

Last 2 months were normal. I have, according to my diary, 4 types of days:

1 - great days 6,7%
2 - regular days 43,0 %
3 - bad days 33,0%
4 - awful days 17,3%

Comparing to post-crash it’s huge improvement, but comparing to last year, there is no noticeable news…
On my scale i tend to judge more a) energy b) joint pain c) mental clearness d) sexual sides, by this order.

Energy continues to be my main issue and influences the other aspects.

#15

Just to give an update:

No changes, still the same.

I noticed that when i do some kind of exercise i feel better for the following 2-3 days. But it’s really hard to get it started, since i have major fatigue and joint pain (when i do exercises, i have to bear up the pain). That’s all.

#16

So, this month i complete 5 years off.

I’m stable, still struggling with the persistent fatigue. Those studies are taking years… Are they finding something? Are they giving up?

#17

Wow… Fatigue and joint pain are killing me…
Im redoing bloodtests, but they are coming normal once again.
No doctors can explain this. I went to all specialists, no one could find anything :frowning:
Feeling depressed and hopeless

#18

Can you describe your fatigue? What time of the day? Is it with weakness in your body?

I am also suffering from fatigue but it’s not so bad anymore and i am making progress. At the moment i am doing T3, progesterone, canxida and paleo.

#19

Hi Jorden.

Fatigue is present the whole day with a peak when i wake up and at about 4:00 pm until i go to bed. It’s very debilitating and it worsens my pain in the joints.
I tried paleo and sorghum, but i refuse to use hormones to treat this as i know that hormones are fucking me.

#20

taking hormones to try and fix things can make your pfs much worse,same thing happened to me when trying progesterone cream,some sides got worse and I got some new ones aswell…

#21

Try raw diet for a few months…it has enough proof in here that it cured emotional blunting and most of all…brainfog and fatigue…

#22

Hi everyone,

nothing great to add to my story. In August, i completed 6 years without Propecia (24 years old now) and still struggling with fatigue and joint pain mainly.

Went to some doctors recently and one of them wants to try a treatment against hypothyroidism. As i have nothing to lose, i decided to give it a try for 3 months.

I returned to my workout routine this year and already put 9 kgs in muscles, which is great. My testosterone levels and other indicators, like SHBG are in best numbers than ever, but it doesn’t reflect on my libido, strenght and “masculinity” overall.

#23

Are you still taking antidepressants? If so you should know that depression drugs can cause PFS too dude. They might be making your symptoms worse.

#24

So you presently struggle with the following:

  1. persistent fatique
  2. lack of libido
  3. Reduced number of spontaneous erections
  4. reduced ejaculate
  5. Penile tissue changes
  6. emotional bluntness

Is that accurate?

6 years after discontinuation?

Thanks.

#25

I’m not taking antidepressants anymore. I’m “clean” for more than a year.

@pdvl, i’ll put in parentheses how i feel recovered compared to the first months of post-crash:

  1. persistent fatique (20% <- i have to decrease it compared to the previous evaluations, since it got worse)
  2. lack of libido (40%)
  3. Reduced number of spontaneous erections (not so much, when i have one i almost celebrate)
  4. reduced ejaculate (100%)
  5. Penile tissue changes (100%)
  6. emotional bluntness (30%, still not very emotional. Even with my family)
#26

Update: i have come up with bad gut problems, beside the other problems.

I think i can’t digest food properly. Like everytime i eat, i feel my intestines moving and producing a lot of gases. Sometimes at night i feel pain in my stomach.
Today i am going to a general doctor (don’t know what it’s called in english) to restart all the investigation again.

I also feel that when i eat something more industrialized, i get worse. Also, my poop is coming disform and watery, unlike years ago when it came normal.