dmartinez144 Story

  1. How did you find this forum?
    I googled high prolactine and low testosterone and I came to a spanish website “similar” to this one. In that website there were links to this one.

  2. What is your current age, height, weight?
    34, 1,74 mts, 78 Kgs

  3. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    Tennis, Bycicle, Football (soccer)

  4. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
    Meat, Fish some vegetables (but not many), no fruits

  5. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
    Hair Loss

  6. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    Almost Five years (aprox)

  7. How old were you when you started Finasteride?
    25

  8. How old were you when you quit?
    29-30

  9. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
    Taper off for some weeks (as Dermathologist said)

  10. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
    Propecia

  11. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    1mg/day

  12. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    Looking back now, I’d say within the first year but I thought it was because of the stress I was suffering by then.

  13. What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
    The most important: Anxiety, sexual effects are very important too.
    Put an X beside all that apply:

Sexual
[X ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[1/2] Erectile Dysfunction / I have improved in these years though
[ ] Complete Impotence
[1/2 ] Loss of Morning Erections / Improved also
[1/2 ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections / Improved also
[X ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections (very rare)
[X ] Watery Ejaculate / i think is getting thicker
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[X ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[X ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[X ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Depression / Melancholy (almost but I wouldn’t say Depression is a very strong word)

Physical (I had some but after these years everything returned more or less to pre-fin).
[ ] 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) My wife used to make fun of me because of my big breasts (I thought it was because of weight gaining), not sure now.
[X ] Muscle Wastage
[X] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[X ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[X ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)
Since I quitted the drug I live in a constant “fear” everything affects me extremely, sometimes I have the feeling that I’m going to faint. I was sent to Psychiatrist twice (once I had Adofen and the other Motivan). Recovered a little bit but again and again keep on living the same drama. It’s making me avoiding social events or just being with friends.

  1. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
    It’s been now when I’m completely sure all this was caused by Finasteride, I’ll finish all the blood tests, RMI’s etc and start trying tu heal.
    (So no treatment besides the anti depressants).

  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)?
    Before taking Propecia I was asked to bring my bloodtests, nothing was wrong as she said I could take the drug. But I don’t keep those results.
    My bloodtests are in hormone and bloodtest forum: propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1702

  3. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
    That I feel some hope even I know It will be very difficult to get to somewhat normal. Happy for finding people, help and guideance, so at least I could ease my deep pain.

  4. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
    As all this happened so far ago there are issues that I can’t recall accurately. I was really tired for no reason, I started not having the great interest in women I’d allways had. I felt emotionally low but I blamed all to my job. Propecia worked well for me on the hair loss problem but It devasted everything else.
    I can say though that I’ve been through improvements, specially Physical: (erections, etc.) but the mental effects are being my main battle and secondary libido.
    Thank to all of you.

Upadate as of august 20th 2009.

I’d like to share with you that the sexual side effects brought by propecia are gone. I think is due to the cabergoline treatment I’m in since October 2008. I have been feeling better sexually for some months but I think today I can state it.

My libido has returned tremendously I get aroused very, very easily (it’s almost scaring me. lol.). Erections back at 95%, morning woods and sexual dreams are back again. Semen a bit thicker.

I can say now that I have a normal sexual life (at least as I had it before propecia plus the old that I am now - 35).

I still can not post in Recovery section as I have not improved my mental sides.

Best luck to all of you.

This is tremendous news, thanks for sharing.

Clearly based on your blood tests – propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1702 – bringing prolactin down from the 35-40 range to 3-5 range (<15) has made a massive difference in your sexual wellbeing.

Can you please quickly recap which of the following sexual side effects you had while on/after quitting the drug, which the Cabergoline treatment has improved or fixed?

From your questionnaire:

[X ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[1/2] Erectile Dysfunction / I have improved in these years though
[ ] Complete Impotence
[1/2 ] Loss of Morning Erections / Improved also
[1/2 ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections / Improved also
[X ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections (very rare)
[X ] Watery Ejaculate / i think is getting thicker

Also, what is your plan with respect to the Cabergoline? Are you planning to continue it indefinitely (is this even required to keep prolactin in range?), or discontinue it and hope the improvements remain?

Thanks.

Looking at the past I can see clear now a recovery in my sexual life.

  • Before propecia: Complete normal sexual life (high libido, sex with my girlfriends several times a week).
  • On propecia: At the beginning didn’t notice any changes (maybe the first year).
  • On my second year of propecia and after two years quitting it: No libido, loss of some % of pleasure in orgasm, no interest in sex, very weak erections and even failures while trying to have sex.
  • From 2006 to october 2008 (two years after quitting propecia): Small recovery. Some improvements in erections and a tiny bit of libido.
    From october 2008: Gradually improved everything, specially libido. It’s like having an inner motor that asks me for sex. Great sensation that returned after so long I almost forgot about it. I have lost the fear of not performing as my penis will respond.

So today, I’d say my only side in this area would be watery ejeculate, even though is whiter and thicker than some months ago.

[ ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction / I have improved in these years though
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections / Improved also
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections / Improved also
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections (very rare)
[X] Watery Ejaculate / i think is getting thicker

About Cabergoline, I’ll ask my endocrinologist, I have read that some patients with high unexplained prolactine indefinitely mantained normal levels after two years on cabergoline treatment, so maybe I’d go for these two years with this medication.

I’m doing more sports now, taking omega-3, gaba with inositol and supermiraforte to raise testosterone and try to low estrogens.

Now I’m fully focused on improving my mental sides.

Surely this is worthy of being in the recovery section? are we keeping some stories out because they are not quite 100%?