On Feburary 28th of this year I took ONE finasteride pill that I split up into 4 quarters so In actual fact I took one quarter of 1mg. Within a few hours I felt tingling down my whole face, went to bed and tried to sleep it off but awoke and was sweating heavily. The next day my dick had shrunk and I could’nt get it up despite watching porn but through those weeks I forced myself to masterbate which was near impossible but I did see gradual improvements over the weeks however I had really bad fatigue and ringing in my ears and had to take 3 weeks off work. It wasn’t until March 18th that shit really hit the fan, I got an upper respiratory infection, swollen tonsils, oral thrush, swollen lymph nodes, diarrhea, racing heart and extreme fatigue I was sleeping for 20 hours a day for months. Fast forward until present day I have really blurry vision, the worst nerve pain imaginable in hands, weakness in biceps, shoulders, pains and aches all over body, insomnia (rembering dreams and waking up at night, I wake up exhausted and with severe depression and sleep at least 18 hrs per day on and off. Been to the hospital 19 times, local docs 9 times, called an ambulance after I fainted, had MRI’s, lumbar puncture, coutless bloods, neurologists. My life has turned upside down the day I took that pill, I think I have brain damage to some degree and pain I’m in 24/7 is unbearable and the worst thing is NO doctor can tell me whats wrong. I’m in despair, I’m only 27 and have spent 6 months bed bound. Ihad dreams of getting married this year with my long term girlfriend and had everything going for me until I took finasteride. I can see no other way out although it hurts me so bad to think about my loved ones.
Hold the fuck up.
That sounds awful. I am so sorry to hear how you’re suffering. I think if we were to survey how many people here have considered suicide I would expect us to be way over 50%. I have thought about it. I am in a position which I know is enviable in that my condition is changeable.
A couple of days ago, I slept 7 hours, woke up with an erection, a desire to be creative and was checking out women on my way to work.
Today, having woken up after 2 hours sleep, I feel like utter shit, my penis looks like it did when I was 5, I’m exhausted, I feel no positivity and the thought of killing myself had flickered across my mind a number of times. I’ve even thought how my girlfriend would be upset but that she’d get over it and would be better off with someone else.
Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to know that all this position is changeable. Nothing is broken in you. The circuits aren’t firing properly or the petrol isn’t burning or some other analogy that makes sense.
Whatever has gone wrong with us, is not a permanent change. I am confident that once we have it worked out, someone will give you a pill and you’ll wake up the next day feeling normal. I would also say that given time you may well improve. We have many, many cases of people saying that they have improved with time. I’m one of them.
I beg you to not throw yourself away. At 27, you have so much time for things to get better and live a full life. When I feel bad, I often think “what if I ended it now and they worked out the cure tomorrow” or some breakthrough happened and they knew the beginnings of how to fix it, the rat study people go on about starts. They work out how to even fix my sleep so I’m not exhausted all the time. Something, anything.
It’s way too early to check out. That’s all there is to it. You can and will handle this. It’s going to suck. But you can do it. You can get better. Give it time and it might happen all on it’s own. Give it time and someone will get you the answer. Hold on. If you can’t do it for you, I’m sorry to do this to you but you’ll have to do it for those who you love and who love you. You have to hold on.
Thank you for your kind words but out of all the sufferers out there I might stand alone in that I cannot function properly due to severe nerve damage and all the rest of the PFS symptoms combined. I’m always retracting back in time in my head and regret ever swollowing the pill, I knew of the sides but not from a single dose and God did mess me up. I know the biochemistry behind the pill which is a non competitive inhibitor which means that it binds to the androgen and neurosteroid receptor sites changing the structure so they cannot activate properly thats why there is very few recoveries. How a drug like that was approved in the first place is CRAZY heroin is safer and that’s the truth. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve cried and rang lifeline I just can’t see a future anymore its been taken away from me. One of the hardest parts is watching life pass by in front of you there’s only so much one man can take.
Sorry to read about your symptoms. Debbie Hampton could barely speak after a suicide attempt went wrong. She spent several years in recovery. She has a website and book on how she recovered from brain damage. Hopefully it will give you some inspiration about what’s possible.
You might consider stem cell treatment if you can afford it. Let me know.
All that sleep is great for your recovery and a big positive.
Find a buddy on here and set up a whats app group. There’s a few of us who do this. I can add you and I’m sure others here will do the same.
For depression classical music has helped me. You can get this for free on Spotify. Also try the proms on bbc iplayer.
https://medicaladviceforyou.com/ Contact here for medical advice on PFS. They are based in Ireland.
It’s natural to feel like ending it. Hopefully over time your brain can repair itself to the point that you have a life. I read of someone with 5% brain function who managed to make a partial recovery against all the odds.
I just don’t understand what happened to my body adrenal crash seems likely but all the other symptoms that followered are like something out of a horror movie. I haven’t seen any improvement and thats stopping me from havin any sort of life, i’m super fucked. If anyone can give me some advice as to what to do I’d be very thankful I’m in such an awful way right now
The effort you put in to help others on this forum is so admirable @Greek. You’re always one of the first to respond to posts like this, going out of your way to help others. It doesn’t go unnoticed. 
@Blueryan123 as has already been said, please don’t go ahead with these thoughts. I know how difficult it is but you mean too much to too many people and you have a great support system here when you need it. Please hang in there and things will improve.
Maybe a lot will not support me, but the only advice is to jump into researching and experimenting with herbs and meds. Have you tried anything so far? When its that severe as you described and its not getting better, there is no other way. A lot of symptoms can be improved and reversed.
I once had benign fasciculations syndrome. at first I even thought about suicide, then I learnt to ignore twitches in the calves then I found a medication thats helping to control them and after another few trials I found herbs that completely helped to improve condition. OF course its not comparable to your situation, but at that moment i was going crazy about permanent twitches in my legs.
I have twitches above left ear and especially in my legs plus aches and pains all over. I’m completely drained barely have the energy to jump into the shower. If anone has idea what’s going on with me please let me know as I’m struggling so much right now. I’d try anything!!!
I’ve read other posts with him helping others and greatful for people like that esp when themselves are suffering.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is good for fatigue. MS centres have them. Cheap treatment. See the author I recommended. You might also have chronic fatigue so see Dr Myhills website. Maybe avoid methylation supplements like b12/glutathione.
Thank you I have encountered HOT after I drank hydrogen peroxide in a suicide attempt but i suppose it would do no harm to look into it.
Ryan, read this
That was my post from around 14 months ago. Read the rest of the thread if you want to. If someone would have told me then that I would have made the improvements that I have now, I wouldn’t have believed them. I’m not going to lie and tell you that I have recovered because I haven’t but I am no longer stumbling around the house and the depression has improved drastically. You are only six months post crash; you do not know how much scope there is for you to improve in the next month or three months or two years. I wrote this in another thread but I will post it here for you too:
Improvement is possible. It can take a long time though and no matter how hopeless it feels, remember that people HAVE improved. The first year is almost always described as the worst by most pfs patients. You have to grip tight during this period.
One thing I’ll ask you: are you spending time in the sunshine? This doesn’t seem to be that common judging from the thread I made on it but many of my neurological symptoms are exacerbated by sun exposure. Once I stayed out of the sun, certain things began to improve.
What kind of twitches is that ? does it feel like pin and needles ? or its more like contractions ? or both ?
More like contractions feels like blood gets clogged then eventually gets through it had only started 4 weeks ago. I had tingling down my entire face when I took fiasteride
In what part of the body are contractions ? Could it be involuntary muscle contractions or just part of muscles ?
I had all my muscle fibres contracting in the legs non stop. And I had persistent tingling also.
Yes it went away completely now. But I also used some meds that helped significantly. You can read this study
Just above left ear it kicks up at night time then I get spasms across my legs
Has it went away?
Mate I can relate to your post and cry for help…
Over two months, my life was shattered to pieces “overnight”.
I woke up impotent, to an 8 year old dick, terrible brainfog, anxiety attack, and rushing on my laptop at 2 pm googling painful suicide…
My GF just threw the towel after I spent a year edgy and fussy because of fin…
I will second @Greek. By the way mate I second @Andrew35 on your reactivity…
Your style is no frills, no false hope but always well intended. You are a great bloke.
A week ago my GF came to give me back some things.
I was horrible and weak in my sofa…
She told me you knew there were sides, you can only blame yourself…
I almost came close to ending it…
3 days later I kicked myself in the butt, took a cold shower, shaved my scruffy beard…
Got a haircut, threw some things in a bag and drove to friends…
I forced myself to go to busy supermarkets, malls even if I did not feel to.
We worked on music with my mate focusing on a new song we wrote…
I went to a bar, looked people in the eyes and cracked jokes…
In 6 weeks I went from impotence to getting it up daily with serious stimulation…
Still, a month ago I thought I would never have an orgasm.
Mate I know it is hard and I will never downplay your cry for help.
We have been here before…
I know I will be there again on the path to improvements… But I know that if I had done something silly last Monday I would not have spent some good times with my friends…
If you wish we can talk on WhatsApp whenever you feel shit.
We have this system with a couple of guys on this thread… It helps. When one is up the other is down but help is always here…
Hang on buddy!
I had all my muscle fibres contracting in the legs non stop. And I had persistent tingling also.
Yes it went away completely now. But I also used some meds that helped significantly. You can read this study