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)? New Zealand
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 search and I have known about PFS from reddit
What is your current age, height, weight?29, 5’8", 65kg
What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)? Saw Palmetto
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? topical dose (640mg once) on the head for 4 hours
What condition was being treated with the drug? Hair Loss
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)? 1 day
How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start the drug?29
How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?29 same day
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? cold turkey
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects? 2 days later
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
Complete impotence is replaced with hard-flaccid. Prostate pain (pain in the bum and thighs).
Full strong erections sustained when seated or lying on y back, turns to hard flaccid when standing.
Had pains in my chest (start of gyno) currently stopped with Boron.
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
[ x] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ x] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[x ] 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 - due to the current situation
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ x] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ x] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ x] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ x] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] 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)
The penis looks weird - like it looks like it has been pulled down and looks like its been filled with blood most of the time.
My prostate pain gets worse with gym.
Have a bit of ejaculation pain and dont feel the full orgasm.
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
Boron - 6mg/day helped with stopping the chest pain related to gyno
Magnesium - 150mg/day
Probiotic
Vitamin D - 4000 UI
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)?
So when i had full ED my testesterone was (23.8 nmol/L), checked it 2 weeks ago (when i am hard flaccid standing up - 34.7nmol/L) ( week 1 and week 3) (range 9-29)
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.
So the worst mistake of my life happened on 4th of September 2021, when i applied Saw Palmetto to my head for four hours (got a headache afterwards so had to wash it off). The Saw Palmetto is from 2 oral capsules each 320mg (so 640mg in total). However, it was still oily when i had the shower so no way all of the saw palmetto got absorbed.
2 days later, I get full ED (shriveled penis), prostate pain, testicle pain, extreme burning pain while urinating and ejaculating and pain in the bum. No mental issues whatsoever.
The full ED was gone in 3 days and my morning and evening erections came back. However, the penis looks different (not smaller or bigger) just filled with blood all the time (looks longer when flaccid).
its been almost 5.5 weeks and symptoms have not improved fully. Testicle pain is gone and ED is gone however my penis is still looking weird and I still got prostate pain.
I had chest pains in week 4 which seemed to go down with Boron intake. ANother interesting fact is that my hair fall has stopped quite a bit (iused to loose around 50+ hairs a day now its around 10 per day).
I think my DHT has still not recovered and I am hoping to jump on to DIM to reduce the oestrogen (relatively high 110 pmol/L estradiol (<200range)). and I have been eating very clean. I am also planning to ‘jump start’ my DHT by starting creatine. The reason being, this whole hair loss started last year when i went to gym hard and started creatine. i suspect creatine caused large conversion of testosterone to DHT and thereby started my hair loss.
I cant go to gym cause it worsens my prostate pain and I seem to worse ED afterwards.
I am hoping any members here can give me advice? share experiences?
