elpovo's summary

Member Stories
#1

BEFORE POSTING IN THE MEMBERS STORY SECTION, PLEASE COPY/PASTE THE FOLLOWING SYMPTOMS/PROFILE TEMPLATE INTO YOUR POST.

This is so that we can more easily track our symptoms and hopefully find patterns in our syndrome. This will also help others understand your background, and help us try to determine what are the most commonly experienced side effects after discontinuation of Finasteride.

COPY AND PASTE THE FOLLOWING INTO YOUR OWN POST, then answer the questions.

  1. Where are you from (country)?
    Australia

  2. 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?)
    Google

  3. What is your current age, height, weight?
    5’11, 76kg

  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    weights and cardio 2-3 times a week

  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
    meat eater, high protein low carb diet

  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
    hair loss

  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    A week followed by a pause, another week followed by another pause and then 8 days. Recovered every time with a few days except for the last.

  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    1 June 2012 to 8 June 2012

  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    8 June 2012, was 26 years old

  10. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
    cold turkey

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

  12. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    1mg for the first week, followed by .5 mg the two sepaqrate week long sessions after that.

  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    1-2 days

  14. What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
    during the drug I experienced severe loss of libido, total impotence and severe depressions/anxiety. The sexual side effects substantially disappeared after about 2.5-3 months (though there was still brief cycles of them returning) and the mental side effects (which I was treated for) lasted acutely for 6-8 months, and have slowly dissipated over the last 2 months or so.

Put an X beside all that apply:

Sexual
[x] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive <substantially recovered - still lower than pre fin and fluctuates more susbtantially>
[x] Erectile Dysfunction
[x] Complete Impotence
[x] Loss of Morning Erections
[x] Loss of Spontaneous Erections <substantially recovered - not as often as pre fin but sex has been fine>
[x] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[x] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[x] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[x] Confusion
[x] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[x] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[x] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[x] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[x] Severe Depression / Melancholy <cyclical depression substantially recovered but still have occasional feelings of it coming on, not anywhere near as deep however>
[x] Suicidal Thoughts

Physical
[x] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[x] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[x] Muscle Wastage
[x] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

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

[ ] Other (please explain)

  1. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?

Took 5-htp and lamictal (anticonvlusant/mood stabiliser) for emotional ups and downs.

  1. 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)?

I did but haven’t got them on me. Test was approximately 300 just after stopping and 450 2 months out. range of 250-1200 or something.

  1. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?

  2. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.

Tried it on and off for 2 months or so while overseas. On return to Australia went off for good after side effects kept popping up and notice that sexual sides remained. After about 1.5 months of high but normal range anxiety and depression depressions seemed to take on life of their own. Went to psych, went on meds due to family histroy of bi polar. Sexual sides substantially disappear (started having sex with no issues) after 2.5-3 months. still cyclical but recovery increased. Mental side effects most acute as tapering up on lamictal. between 3-8 months mark racked by 3 hour periods of intense depression and suicidal thoughts followed by periods of normality. lamictal appeared to take the edge off. Finally tapered up to effective dose around 6-7 month mark. Since then mental side effects have abated and felt much better. Sexual side effects are gone.

Now want to get off meds. Hoping bi polar hasn’t arisen due to hormonal changes caused by the drug. Timeline of recovery from mental sides seems on par with others on this forum. Going to stay on for a few more months until sides totally abate then taper off.

Last 9 months have been a total hell.

#2

I’m now 13 months off the drug and romantically, physically and professionally things have started to look up.

The only issues that continue to remain are low libido (still there, but only maybe 60-70% of normal), occasional minor sexual issues (hasn’t failed during sex, but has caused some nervousness at times, usually cyclically over a number of weeks), minor depression (coming and going in a weekly cycle - worse on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, better Friday, Saturday and Sunday and OK Monday - this pattern seems to get more and less prominent in line with the sexual cycle above) and massive drastic hair loss.

I know this shouldn’t effect me dodging the bullet as I have but it is still sucks given everything else I’ve been through. Any of the recoveries had your hair grow back? Could also possibly be a drug side effect. I know the replies to this will likely be “no one here cares about their hair” but I can’t see the vanity aspect being any worse than bags under the eyes or dry skin, which plenty of people have asked about.

As promised by Mew and others, the mental symptoms have significantly lessened over time and the cyclical depressions have improved massively. At my worse they were like an hour (or multiple hour) long depressive decline of intense hopelessness with me bawling my eyes out the whole time. Now they manifest as more of a negativity towards the world.

I’ve now been on the mood stabiliser lamictal for roughly 10 months. The drug may have had a positive effect but there is no real way of knowing how much of my recovery is due to it and how much is due to time. I do know that when I miss a pill the mental symptoms do get worse for a period, but given the drug is very prone to withdrawal halving my dosage could very well have an affect. I’m also clearly sensitive to the changes regardless.

I’m (very slowly) titrating off the meds in late August, will report back once I see how I go.

Not sure if this is technically a recovery with some of the effects I’m still suffering from and my sexual side effects largely clearing up so quickly (around 3 months). Mew feel free to put in the recovery section if you think it is worthy.

2 Likes
#3

I’m with you on the hair loss. I would have had a full head of hair for many more years. Type “scene guy hair” into google and that’s what mine was like. Now I’ll be lucky if I’m not bald within 2. I get really, really depressed about it. Especially considering even among PFS people, which is rare, massively increased hair loss seems to be even more rare. Most seem to continue losing it normally, slightly slower, or Fin somehow “cures” their hair loss even after they recover. Of course with my luck I get the tiny fraction of the tiny fraction. Fuck. But congrats on your recovery so far. Happy for you, man.

#4

Now roughly 16 months off the drug, and am ever so gradually titrating off the lamictal. The main issues I’m still dealing with are short periods of pessimism and lack of confidence of a similar duration to the periods of depression I was feeling before. Sexually everything remains fine, and periods where I was less ok in this area have completely disappeared.

I’m also dealing with an inability to tolerate stress, which sucks given my job has been quite stressful lately. Hair loss has also just gotten worse and worse. My memory has been pretty bad and I still struggle to remember commonly known facts.

Interestingly enough, got my blood tests the other day and my testosterone has gone from a 13.5 roughly a month after quitting (out of a range of 13-32) to a whopping 32 the other day. In other words I’ve gone from the bottom of the normal range to the very top and increased nearly 250%. My doctor (who has not really believed me up until this point) nearly fell out of his chair.when he saw that. All taken at identical times of day as well. Crazy.

Regarding the lamictal, currently down to 70mg a day (with the active dose at 100mg and the average effective dose at about 160mg). I’ve been feeling some withdrawal effects but nothing too bad. I could also attribute most of it to the lamictal also. It’s great to feel something after the bluntness I’ve been experiencing.

For those with mental effects, the sides do get better over time. It’s also probably best to not take anything as it will just make it more difficult to fully recover.

If anyone has been in my shoes it would be nice to hear from you - while I’m probably 80-90% mentally, that last 10-20% would be massively useful for work etc. How long did it take till you would say that the mental side completely disappeared? Would you say you were completely back to normal?

#5

bump. I’m really interested in this last part too. Exactly how long/what did people need to do to recover 100 percent? is it even possible?