Welcome to our community. Please fill in the following template as a way of introducing yourself, and helping others to understand your background and situation.
Where are you from (country)?
USA
How did you find this forum (Google search – if so, what search terms? Via link from a forum or website – if so, what page? Other?)
What is your current age, height, weight?
25, 5’8’’, 132
What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)?
Finasteride
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
1mg
What condition was being treated with the drug?
Hairloss
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
3 days
Date when you started the drug?
12/2
Date when you quit the drug?
12/6
Age when you quit?
25
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
Cold
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects?
Ball pain and headache and watery ejaculate right away
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
Check the boxes that apply. You can save your post first, then interactively check/uncheck the boxes by clicking on them. If your symptoms change, please update your list.
Sexual
[ ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ x ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ x] Loss of Morning Erections
[ x] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ x] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ x] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ x ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[ x ]Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ x] Testicular Pain
[ x] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ x] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[x ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ x] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[x ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ x] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
Balls are continuously moving
Insomnia severe
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
None
If you have pre or post-drug blood tests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug (please post your test results in the “Blood Tests” section and link to them in your post)?
Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience?
Tell us your story, in your own words, about your usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
I am one month off of the drug and I keep having recoveries and crashes back down. It’s insane.
My first crash was four days after I stopped. I had the classic insane surge in libido Tuesday night and then something dropped out of me, my balls and penis retracted and I felt sick. Was crying for that whole night. The next day I started to feel better towards the night. Then by the Thursday I was back to normal, aside from muscle twitches and slight insomnia (waking up but able to go back to sleep not normal for me).
Later that week I had what felt like a mini crash after masterbating. Couldn’t sleep at all after and was super lightheaded. That cleared up by the following day as well.
Aside from these days throughout the last few weeks I keep having mini crashes or episodes where I feel a sudden surge of anxiety that goes away after hours. These happen often.
Then this last Sunday I woke up at 2am with my head spinning and my penis and balls shrunk and numb. Slept two hours. This feeling lasted about a day as well but I felt more messed up after this one.
On Tuesday of this week I was super horny, jerked off, then I woke up hard but my dick was numb. This seemed like a turning point. After this the constitution of my dick started to fluctuate and look different. It’s either shrunk with weird wrinkles or loose in an unnatural way. My balls also started moving constantly after this. Sometimes my dick is back to normal in one of these daily upswings I’m talking about.
Today is Saturday four weeks and a day out from my last dose. Every day since Tuesday I feel good in the morning, progressively get more horny throughout the day, feel good and then have a crash down from it at night, dick is messed up, feel so sick and devastated. Yesterday however was much more intense I got as horny as I was the day of my first crash and when I came down I felt awful, dick was messed up, could not sleep at all. Then I seemed to recover again in the middle of the night and crash again, feeling even worse at 4am. My sleep this whole week has been awful in general. Has any one ever experienced this kind of cycle in such a short amounts of time? I’m bouncing up and down uncontrollably and I feel like it’s doing so much damage. I haven’t jerked off since Tuesday, should I do that to try and stop this?
Even now I feel relatively normal but I can feel the hormones building back up it’s bizarre.
Please try and be positive if possible, I’m so grateful this forum exists and I am trying to stay hopeful. Thank you for taking the time to read this I know many of you are struggling so much but your strength is insanely inspiring to me.
Self-reporting template - ONLY USE FOR FUTURE POSTS TO REPORT ANY TRIALS OF TREATMENTS, NOT YOUR INITIAL MEMBER STORY
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Name of the therapy/substance:
- Dosage:
- How often you took it:
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Status
- Still using [ ]
- Stopped with no lasting change to initial symptoms [ ]
- Stopped with persistent change to symptoms [ ]
- Duration of use: Days [ ] Months [ ] Years [ ]
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Response when you started:
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [ ]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]
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Current response (if you’re still using the therapy/substance) OR Response in the time before you stopped the treatment
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [ ]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]
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Lasting changes to initial symptoms after cessation (if you have stopped for more than 3 weeks)
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [ ]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]
