Crashed again today, fortunately it took only a few hours to pass. I ate a small amount of lentils and rice in the afternoon, which probably triggered it. Exercised again very hard to ease the crash, and luckily did not have to exercise more than a couple of hours. I am now going to stick to a low carbohydrate diet.
Same than me.
Same than me when I gave it up.
I thought that heart palpitations and not being able to sleep was due to job’s problems, but reading the fórum now I realise that it was all because of Finasteride.
Let me tell you, that like you, I was taking the drug for many years, 10, and I had the same symptons after giving it up. Palpitations and sleeping problems disappeared after some weeks.
No the rest of the side effects. I still have some brain fog, but not as strong as before, sometimes I still slur words, but nothing to do whith the past, and the worst of all of them, I can not get a 100% erection. Maybe 70-80 % and must be stimulating my penis continuously, if not, it goes down.
Same
Thanks for response. I would like to know if did your erection problems start immediately after the crash, or did they develope over time? Have you tried Viagra or other medication for the problem?
My erections are pretty good at the moment. I have got noticeable blue veins in my penis, and currently have slight burning discomfort every now and then. I dont know if is the low testosterone attacking the penis or what, but I hope it will pass, like it did during the 2 weeks after the first crashes.
I am feeling otherwise pretty good, but have a total loss of appetite. Managed to sleep maybe 7 hours last night (3 hours sleep, 2 awake, 2 sleeping, 2 awake and 2 sleeping). Dont know if I should eat something though, or would it just cause me to crash again. Cabbage and broccoli do not seem to worsen my situation like carbohydrates, so i’ve been eating small amounts of them. I am still wondering if I should eat protein and fat in some form.
My erection problems didnt start inmediatly.
Definitely, the origin of all my problems was the fact that I havent had a serious relationship until I was 28 (9 years taking the drug), so with my one, two nights, or 3 weeks relationships I wasnt able to realise that I had a problem. Masturbation is not a problem, I can do it 3 times per day, but not getting a 100% erections. It is quite different from having to have regular sexual relationships with a sexually “active” woman. In this situation, I have problems as I can not have a 100% erection. Penetration is possible, but as the penis is not as hard as it should be, she really doesnt feel what she should be feeling because the penis, not being hard enought, does not do enough pressure.
And the rest of my symptons, I thought they were normal, that it was my personality, I just never imagined that they could be related to the drug (depression, not feeling connected to people, slurring words…).
I started taking the pill in september 1999. In 2003 I can remember spending summer in some kind of camp, where we shared room, were there was no privacy, so that I coud not masturbate. I can remember having continuous erections, even having night pollutions. So I can say that 4 years after taking the pill I had no ED or loss of libido.
In 2008 I had several sexual relationships with a girl, and I had problems to ejaculate. By the same time, I had started to feel a total disconnection between my brain and my penis, as if it was dead meat. Then I remembered my derm telling me, in 1999, that Finasteride could have libido side effects. But as I have always desired women and I have always been horny I just thought my libido wasnt affected. I never knew about blocking the conversion of Testosterone to DHT, I never knew about the physiological changes. I started looking for information in the internet and I found this fórum. I started a serious relationship and my problems to ejaculate continued so I decided to give up. There is where I had palpitation and sleeping problems. I made a big mistake and started to take the pill again but not dayly. Finaly, by may or june of 2009 I gave it up defintively, and this second time I didnt have any heart or sleeping problem.
Sincé I gave up my problems to ejaculate disappeared, no more watery sperm, not slurring words so much, etc… everything got better.I have never had loss of libido, even now, I truly desire women.
The fact is that I took the pill since I was 21 until I was 31. For me, its realy hard to remember how I was before, its hard to determinate what was caused by Finasteride or not, but I think that if I had and have the same symptons than everyone here, they must have been caused by Finasteride.
Im really in love with this woman, this week Im going to the specialist to see if he can help me. I want to check my hormones, what I have never done.
If I loose her because sexual problems, I ll be able to say that this fucking drug ruined my life.
I feel like going to the derm who prescribed me finasteride for 10 years and have a chat with her.
Thanks for the response. I have too met my doctor and reported what happened. Hopefully we can get this poison banned.
From now on I will follow the instructions given by member “gefinauser” earlier:
The thing about masturbation I already did it. I know I must keep all my “energies” for my woman. It is easier to keep erection if you have not ejaculated in 5 days, for example. But sorry, I dont know what means PMO…
In the other hand I read that masturbation and watching porn help to increase testoserone levels as you get horny. Maybe watching porn withouth masturbating would be nice.
About food and sport I do it, and what I have realised is that if I drink alcohol and have a great dinner, things wont work properly, so If I know Im having sex that night I just dont have dinner, or maybe one apple.
I also read that it is good to do sport but no more tan 45-60 minutes, because after that time, cortisol level increase and testosterone decrease.
I started jogging in april, and I must say that it helped me.
I think both of you are right about masturbation and testosterone. I found this
I have two questions (my english is not very good):
1- What is PMO?
2- What do you people exactly mean when you say you crashed?
It’s not masturbation that causes the increase in prolactin and drop in hormonal levels, but ejaculation. If you manage to masturbate without ejaculating it may actually raise your Testosterone
Ok, thanks dude!
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PMO = Porn, Masturbation, Orgasm
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Google “endocrine crash”. My crash symptoms have been described in previous posts.
UPDATE:
I feel fine again, went to eat chicken and vegetables for lunch, and I think paleo-diet suits me better than vegan food. I even managed to take a nap during daytime, and felt really good afterwards.
Hi,
I just slept 7 hours straight and have the best feeling in years. It might be that the change in diet caused this. In addition to chicken I’ve eaten a lot of salmon since yesterday, and only some carbohydrates in form of fruit.
Noticed today that a low-carbohydrate diet should be strict, meaning no fast carbohydrates at all. I made a mistake of drinking half a litre pineapple-coconut juice and eating an apple after swimming, and an hour afterwards my testicles contracted and the bloodflow to the penis was worse. I made myself vomit some part of the carbohydrates and ate some salmon and went running sprints, and now things seem to be returning to normal.
I have some kind of hormonal imbalance:
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My hands are sometimes cold and after a while they are hotter than the rest of the body
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My testicles are sometimes really contracted and sometimes very down. Sometimes the testicles can also be in the middle but the skin is not contracted, instead there is loose skin under the testicles (never happened before).
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My penis is sometimes slightly cold and sometimes warm.
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My mood varies from anxious to enthusiastic to emotional. Overall I feel better than during the taking of the drug though.
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I have noticeable dark areas under my eyes.
The low-carbohydrate diet seems to work. Yesterday might have been the best day so far, I did not notice hormonal changes (coldness of the hands etc) or they were mild. The adrenalin seems to be dependant on the carbohydrates. I slept for 11 hours last night and currently feel rested and normal.
My sleep is bad again. For many nights my sleep pattern has been the following:
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I fall in sleep around 10 or 11 pm, and sleep for 3-5 hours. I have dreams during them.
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I wake up, and do not feel tired at all for 2-3 hours.
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For the next 2 hours I can sleep maybe around 30 minutes light sleep at a time. During awakenings I am in an anxious/enthusiastic mood (probably due to excess adrenalin).
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Later I can sometimes sleep 1-2 hours more, and I do have dreams.
I have developed noticeable dark eyebags since stopping finasteride, and I think they have appeared because of lack of good sleep. I also have a similar feeling and mild a headache, which I used to have when I did not sleep enough.
I had quite strong mood swings today. Also for the most of the day I’ve had a tingling in my hands, legs and penis. Sleep is bad again, I went to sleep at 10 pm, but woke up only after 1,5 hours. My ballsack is very big, but still my testicles hang in the middle and there is some loose skin underneath. I have some testicle pain occasionally. The veins on my penis are very dark and visible in the surface.
I do not know what to do. I am afraid of more testicular and penile shrinkage, although until now it has not been noticeably permanent.
I have not ejaculated in over a week and have been eating a paleo diet these last few days. Also started to take vitamin B -complex, vitamin C (1mg per day) and fish oil. Please comment if you have any suggestions.
Small correction to the previous post, I take 1g of Vitamin C currently.
Thanks to this page: finasteridesyndrome.blogspot.fi/ , I now understand that my crash was caused by excess cortisol. And because high cortisol lowers testosterone, I also experienced genital reactions due to the low testosterone:
From now on I will try to avoid future crashes by keeping a low cortisol level according to the advice on this page: paulinehardingmd.com/page5.html
Even sexual stimulation can raise cortisol (see attachment for tests on stallions), so to limit cortisol, there should not be any sexual activity: journalofanimalscience.org/c … /2724.long
I currently feel somewhat better again. Managed to sleep a total of 7,5 hours, although in 3 phases.
I had a mild crash today. Compared to previous crashes, I was able to fight the cortisol increase just by walking, whereas previously I had to do harder exercise (eg. squats). I am currently in Spain, and walked maybe 30-40 km today. I have not eaten anything since this morning, but currently have quite a good mood/feeling. This might have something to do with increased vitamin D production due to the sunlight. I have been drinking a lot of green tea during the evening (I rinse the teabags before using them to get rid of caffeine).