Early stages

Member Stories
#21

Just a thought - and I’m probably clutching at straws here. I’ve been weaning off my citalopram SSRI since Christmas and I’m down to practically nothing and will stop in 3 days time.

I’m having common withdrawal symptoms ie vivid dreams, fatigue. brain zaps, a little insomnia. I can handle all of this - I’ve done it before. However, what I’ve also noticed is a return of the symptoms I had when I first came off fin. Although in a milder version ie slight testicle pain, very slight prostate pain, a little more sweat, one or two spots.

SSRI’s are allegedly supposed to inhibit T, raise estrogen etc. Just wondering if these symptons are a good thing ie a slight increase in returning to something approaching normality.

Can ball pain ever be a good thing? I’m sure I’ve read on here that some theories are that it is. As I say though - straws/clutching.

Once I’m off these I’ll have a better idea of where I am. Wish I hadn’t taken them to be honest, wish I hadn’t taken Fin but that’s a whole different story. Booked in for blood tests next week.

#22

hmmm - for me most pain was in/behind left nut. Did see more shrikage in that testicle. If I were you I would check the estrogen levels…

#23

Six months off.

Finally went for blood tests last week and waiting for results. Completely off the SSRI’s which brought their own problems. At the moment I feel ok-ish sexually ie I can get erections, get the odd nocturnal one. Semen quality isn’t brilliant, the volume is still quite down and sometimes a little watery, sometimes not. Feel pretty tired most of the time.

Left ball is still half the size of the right, which also has shrunk a little. Still get the odd pain down there, quite mild and not very often. Prostate feels a little ‘fuller’ every now and again.

Facial hair growth still patchy.

Feels like my body wants to recover fully but is been held back. I don’t think I’m suffering like some on here but I’m definitely a sufferer. Never had the brain fog problems. Get anxious from time time to but only because I think when will I (if ever) be back to something like normal.

Had a check up with the doctor last week. He checked my prostate and all seems fine. He’s booked me in for an ultrasound for my balls just to see if it picks up on anything.

#24

Hey Chris, where are you in the UK? Have you told the doctor about finasteride?

#25

West Yorks.

No, just blood tests so far.

#26

Just called about my blood tests. Not got the exact figures yet but my estrogen is out of range. Made a doc’s appointment to discuss.

#27

7 and 1/2 months off. The natural recovery never happened so I’m in for the duration.

Most of my problems seem to be thyroid/adrenal related. Massive fatigue, never feel like I’ve had enough sleep - although I sleep well, brain fog, dry skin, loose stools, body hair loss including eyebrows and beard.

This has got worse in the last few weeks when I stopped Citalopram. I’ve also got what I believe is Candida - my tongue is covered in a white coating and I feel really drained. I know it’s not a popular subject round here but I’m going to attempt the diet soon to see if that improves things.

Advice given to me on here is to try preg cream for the fatigue. What I want to do is go to the endo I’ve been referred to without being on anything at all and start from square one.

Sexually - things are distinctly average. I can get an erection albeit a lot slower than before. I also have nocturnals and the odd morning one - surely that’s a good thing plus the odd horny dream. Semen quality/volume and strength are all well down. It fluctuates but on the whole we’re looking at 3/10 for effort.

One thing I’d say about body hair - despite losing a fair bit (and on the sides and back of my head) - my chest hair has all re-appeared after Fin. It’s easy to spot as I’m not that hairy but there’s a lot more there than previous - DHT???

I had an ultrasound recently as my left ball is really shrunk. The right isn’t so bad. They said it looks mostly ok but there was a couple of more ‘watery areas’ although nothing to worry about.

All in all I’m feeling pretty shitty but still feel my body is trying to sort things out and it’s going to be a roller coaster ride. If I can get on top of the candida shit, hopefully the tiredness and brain fog will lift.

I’m also trying not to beat myself up about this as much as I used to. I’ve gone from calling myself a ‘f**cking idiot’ twice a day now instead of 5 times!!!

Oh yeh, one other thing. At the GP’s yesterday he got his reference book out and read me the propecia side effects and the 2% statistic and told me it was doubtful my problems were related to that. Yeh right.

#28

Two weeks into the shitty Candida diet and the brain fog is definitely lifting.

Felt like I was living in a bubble a few weeks ago.

#29

Only small things but gives me some optimism:

Losing a bit of hair.

Semen’s not so watery - still low on volume and strength though.

I can get an erection without touching it, takes a while though.

#30

All due to this diet??

#31

Semen quality seems to have improved with the diet - the other is just something that appears to be happening, also more chest hair. That’s easy to spot as I’ve never been what you’d call hairy.

#32

Finally saw an endo for the first time today. This is just a regular UK NHS one. I sat and explained everything to him and his boss and they listened. They’d not come accross the problem before and were quite interested. I said that they’d get more cases in the next few years.

They agreed to test for everything I’d requested except Adiol G (which they knew nothing about) and reverse T3 which their lab won’t test for so I assume I’ll have to get this done privately.

He also checked my balls against a size thing and I mentioned my prostate, been having discomfort, and he’s referred me to a urologist.

I talked about this forum and told him that people are having success with Preg/T3 and also treating the prostate. He said until the results come back we’ll have to wait. My next appt is in 6 weeks which will be a long 6 weeks.

The fatigue is killing me at the moment, need to get on top of that.

Things are really shit and all of this has really got to me now. It’s affecting every part of my life. The other endo, a woman, asked if I regretted taking it now. Jesus, what an understatement.

#33

That’s good you had someone taking you seriously at least, hopefully they will discuss this with other endos and start taking notice of it. Did you ask about HCG?

#34

This fatigue is wierd. 10 minutes ago I felt absolutely dead on my feet as if I could just curl up and die. Now I feel less fatigued. Seems to come and go in waves.

#35

Who was the endos name?

#36

They didn’t want to talk treatments until all results are in.

I did the ACTH test too - I’m hoping this shows that I need treatment.

#37

Stay positive Chris, the fact that you had improvements through diet alone and you are having occasionally horny dreams etc shows that your body has the potential to return to normal. Well done for having the courage to get yourself to the doctors and present your issues too, I know it’s not easy.

If you want to have a cheap but apparently effective go at the candida you may want to look into caprylic acid and pau d’arco. I’m still not sure whether i believe in candida, but it would seem that i may have some yeast issues so I do both of those. Apparently caprylic acid can be as powerful as nystatin.

#38

It was Dr Ward, the woman, I was meant to be seeing. She came in for a couple of minutes at the end. But mainly it was another Doc, can’t remember the name, started with an E - Asian chap.

This was at Leeds St.James Hospital.

#39

Doctor did a swab last week of my cottage cheese tongue and it came back as negative for thrush. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve ordered a private stool sample now. If that comes back negative too I’ll be fucking delighted.

#40

For the last few weeks and particularly in the last few days I’ve been getting real discomfort in the prostate, achy balls and pains up each side of the scrotum. also lower back pain. That’s really not good is it.

When I first quit I had ball and prostate pain for a few weeks but it went away. Balls are shrunken too.

Add all this to massive fatigue and ED - I’m in pretty bad shape.

10 months in and things are so much worse. At first it felt as if my body was trying to sort itself out. Not now.