Extreme Fatigue

Symptoms Neurological
#1

Hi everyone

This is my first post so I’ll give a little bit of background on myself - I’m 28 years old and first started noticing my hair thinning when I was 25/26. I first tried rogaine foam which worked great but I made the classic mistake of not sticking with it and then when things worsened assuming that it didn’t really work. Then I went over to generic propecia which worked wonders but I couldn’t afford to stick with it and of course my hair started thinning again.

Anyway since November 2012 I’ve taken propecia every day (1mg) and have been using rogaine foam for the last 6 weeks. For the last 6 weeks I’ve noticed I’ve been extremely fatigued almost every day. It doesn’t make any sense I always get enough sleep but I just don’t feel refreshed at all when I wake up. I’m sluggish and lethargic throughout the day. I must say that I am about 50 pounds overweight and did attribute my fatigue to that for a while but it just doesn’t make sense to me. It’s a horrible mental lethargy that I feel and it just doesn’t make sense that it’d be down to my weight.

Anyway I’ve decided to through all my fin tablets away. I’ve just read too much negative stuff now to continue taking it. I’m only going to use topical treatments such as rogaine and nizoral from now on and hope that they do the trick.

I’d be interested to know if anyone else has suffered from fatigue, lack of energy/motivation due to finasteride…

#2

It’s definitely something that many of us have experienced. You should probably taper off the drug to make sure you don’t shock your system. It’s a good thing you notice it now and are able to understand that it might be related to finasteride. There’s a lot of people on the site that got into deep shit because they didn’t make the connection between the non-sexual symptoms they began to have and the drug they were taking.

#3

well I can almost certainly put this down to propecia. Didn’t take any less night for the first time in 9 months and felt noticeably different today. Didn’t have the lethargy to anywhere near the same degree however I notice that I did feel a bit spacey in the afternoon and also have been randomly sweating at different points. I’m just hoping and praying that I haven’t done any lasting damage. I feel very happy with my decision to stop taking it about now

#4

This is only an opinion. There are many guys here with full-blown symptoms that tapered. It is my understanding that finasteride is NOT dose-dependent, meaning if you take 1mg or .1mg, it will have the same effect. Some will advise you to stop at once, others would advise you to taper. It is up to you. It is unknown which method is safer/better, if any method is.

#5

chrb, you sure took the right decision.

ihatefin, seems like you want to have a theoretical debate when someone just needs some sensible advises.

Your assertion is at least questionable, and the fact that people have crashed even though they tapered off doesn’t prove anything. Since we’re not sure about that kind of facts, it seems wiser to put all the chances on your side when you’re quitting. When you’ve been on the drug for 10 months, there’s a certain logic to taper off because there’s the possibility that it will be easier for your system to adapt to the change, even though you don’t know if it will make a difference or not at the end. I would understand someone who would say to stop cold turkey when you have been taking the drug just a couple of days, but what would be the reasoning of someone who “will advise you to stop at once” after 10 months?

#6

Yeah I’m definitely I stopped taking it now although I am still a bit worried as 9 months is quite a long time to take something.

To be honest there’s no point getting into a debate about it since I am just stopping completely. I accept your point that it might be better to taper off slowly but I just don’t want to put anymore of that stuff in my body.

#7

The important thing is that you’re stopping.

#8

Look guys 10 months is not that long. I have taken the drug for over eight years close to 10 years. I think I tapered off didn’t do much help. if you stop cold turkey. if your body’s going to crash it’s just going to crash there’s no way to stop it