Fighting the battle...

Member Stories
#1

I’m 32 and this is my story. My hair has been thinning in the front for probably six or seven years, but I still have plenty of hair. Most people could never tell I have a problem but it’s always bothered me. Hence I decided to try Proscar.

I started proscar last March. I bought a pill splitter and began to cut it into fifth’s to save money. Within a couple of days, I could tell the drug was working as I stopped having morning erections. It didn’t really bother me though, as the rest of the unit worked fine when needed. My libido stayed the same as did my erections. I can honestly go two to three times a day and keep erect as long as needed. The only thing really different was I never had awesome “releases” , and my limp penis felt numb, almost like a disconnect from my body.

Around August, I tapered down to .5 mg, and finally .25 mg. having read that the drug was just as effective at those doses minus the side effects. No dice for me though as the symptomns persisted.

I took my last dose in mid November. Propecia really didn’t work for me as I continued to lose hair. I also felt it hindered my weight training gains, so I decided to try and be myself again. Initially I felt a post proceia surge where everything was fine, including having the feeling back while not being erect. Slowly but surely though I find myself unable to keep myself erect, the disconnect is back and my penis feels smaller. On top of that I can no longer get that “super erection” you get when you feel your’e about to cum. In fact the last four times Iv’e had sex, I haven’t been able to finish at all. (It was good for the women though, cause I went like a jackhammer for close to an hour)

I find myself getting worse at this point. Sometimes reading this site gives me hope, but it’s also very pessimistic to know what I put in my body is now affecting me in such a big way. I’m fighting this thing though. Iv’e ordered Sustain Alpha and Toco 8 from Primordial performance after hearing about it on this site. Iv’e been on Alpha for four weeks. It’s definitely helped my libido, but no luck on the erections. I’m going to the doc to get my blood tests, I need to know where I stand with that. I weigh train four times a week, and take 50 mg zinc everyday.

It sounds like you just need time to get your body to restore itself to normal. At least that’s what I’m hoping.

#2

I hope so. But I’m getting very worried. Things were getting better and better for me as soon as I quit the drug. For about 8 months. Then they started getting worse again.

Over the summer (about 10 months after I quit) I started getting my panic attacks again and my liver began to ache (or some sort of internal organ in that area under my right rib cage… maybe gallbladder, or pancreas; some sort of endocrine/metabolic/digestive organ is having some issues, I presume) Now I can’t have ONE beer or glass of wine without feeling horrible, or one cup of coffee without having a major panic attack and being up all night. So I gave them both up, but I fear it may be too late. I am not having shooting, stabbing, pulsating pains in my liver area. But the doctors look at my blood tests (which come back “normal”) and tell me they look fine so they won’t do any other tests.

I have an appointment on Thursday in which I am going to basically demand an ultrasound and if they won’t cover it, I’ll tell them I will pay for it myself. I need to know what is going on and what is wrong with my liver. It could even be cancer, cysts, tumors, abcess, cirrhosis, who knows what… not hepatitis, obviously (that would show up in bloodwork); but anything major – life-threatening stuff like that – should probably show up in ultrasound I presume, so that would be a first step.

I have never had the sexual side effects, but I have gynecomastia, sensitivity to alcohol and caffeine, panic attacks, depression, muscle atrophy, fatigue… but worst of all, I fear I may die within the next few years from whatever damage has been done to my organs.

16 months off of propecia, and I feel WORSE THAN EVER (well, as bad as ever, anyway)

#3

the internal pain you feel above your liver on your sides are your adrenal glands expanding because they are over worked and stressed out. they are actually located on both sides of your body right above your kidneys. the same thing has happened to me etc. your adrenals expand and expand and get bigger because they are constantly strainging to keep production of cortisol and other adrenal hormones up based upon the actions of the drug. yes and things like alcohol and caffeine put further stress on the adrenals. your situation sounds somewhat similar to mine as i dont have any sexual sides and upon quiting the drug things get worse and worse etc. basically you won’t die within the next few years of internal organ i can assure you that, but you may not get better if you dont do anything. there is a protocol i was following that was helping, however, i stopped because i want to try a different approach first. i’ll spare you the rest but if you need to pm me for more info i will be more than happy to help.

#4

If you guys are having a problem with your adrenal glands, you might consider a product called Reset AD. It claims to help resensitize your adrenal glands and control cortisol levels. Check it out.

nutraplanet.com/product/palo … sules.html

#5

It’s got Bovine Adrenal Tissue in it. You do know what BSE is don’t you? You don’t know what country that tissue comes from, either. What if it’s from the UK? Are you going to chance it? What about the purity and safety of it? You thought Fin was safe, what makes this any safer or trustworthy?

Another thing is, there was a guy on here by the name ‘solonjk’ and he took some stuff like this and got himself into trouble. Look up his old posts and you’ll see. I think people here shouldn’t be self diagnosing adrenal fatigue and trying to treat it with these dodgy supplements that haven’t been proven to even be safe to use.

Bottom line: If you think you have a problem with your adrenals, go to the doctor and have them checked!

#6

How can you check adrenal glands? What are the name of the tests?

#7

markus you are very misinformed bovine extract doesn’t contain any sort of harmful animal meat related diseases i can assure you. also adrenal fatigue is very very real, it is not well diagnosed by the medical community because most only believe in addison’s and not a milder case of it etc.

Tests for adrenals should be a 24 hour saliva test of cortisol, DHEA etc along with a full thyroid panel as hypoadrenal and hypothyroidism go together. TSH isn’t the end all and be all as Free T4 and T3 are important but any TSH above 2 especially for a younger man should be looked into as possible hypothyroidism.

#8

It’s not well diagnosed in the medical community because it’s not a real diagnosis! I’ve asked 3 doctors and my Endo and all have said that the term “adrenal fatigue” does not exist. Yes, there could be something wrong with your adrenals and they can do tests for that, as they did for me.

ithappens - Have you actually spoken with someone in the medical community (I’m talking someone with an M.D. not N.D.) that has told you adrenal fatigue exists and should be treated with such supplements??? If so, who is this person? And how in the world can you guarantee me or anyone here that bovine extract doesn’t contain BSE or harmful bacteria, parasites, or fungus? Do you even know what part of a cow BSE is in? Look it up. You have no idea what country this stuff is from, what the processes are of extracting it, the purification process, NOTHING. Fin had to go through the FDA and it failed us, what do these supplements go through? Nothing. What mechanisms are in place to assure me that this product is safe let alone even works or is appropriate? None.

I suggest you have a read through this:

supplementquality.com/news/mad_cow.html

The fact that people here could be guessing and self-diagnosing based on symptoms and not a medical diagnosis is quite dangerous. I understand how frustrating it is for all of us. Many have gone to our GPs and have been told nothing is wrong yet we still suffer. But in our desperation we start to embrace potentially dangerous ideas. My advice for anyone who thinks they have adrenal fatigue is to go to their doctor or endo and get tested and don’t forget to ask them what they think of taking a supplement with Bovine Adrenal Extract in it for their supposed adrenal fatigue.

#9

markus you amuse me you are so paranoid by your fin experience so i can understand how you’re thinking. yes i have talked to md’s who have verifiabley told me adrenal fatigue exists and is a diagnosis you just have to find the right one. it’s funny how you hold dr.s on such a high pedestal yes they are md’s but medicine is not an exact science nor are there only one opinion on various things. dr.s dont even have answers half the time. the last dr. that i just dealt with from my sleep study was practically in shock at the amount of alpha intrusion and my whole sleeping pattern based on the study, it was something he had never really seen before. meanwhile, i’ve gone to endos that have said nothing was wrong with me etc etc but if i would have believed them and held their opinion as God than i would still be suffering now. you want articles on adrenal fatigue and cortisol here ya go.

here’s one from dr. lichten who diagnosed me with adrenal fatigue and hypothyroidism

usdoctor.com/cortisol.htm

here’s another article talking about adrenal insufficency and how it affects women when their pregnant

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1808 … d_RVDocSum

here’s another one
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1176 … PlusDrugs1

do i really need to keep going on with this

#10

Is adrenal insufficiency the same ad addison’s disease? Kennedy has addison’s IIRC

#11

I think the major problem is that adrenal fatigue has a complete loss of proven, based on any blood tests backround. People who support this “adrenal fatigue” telling that it exists because… hah… because what…

Why I do not call my situation this way?? Answer is simple.

I did my full blood work, and I know what is going wrong, even if there is not a specified remedy to arrange any drug therapy… My “fatigue” is basicaly caused by:

  1. PROGESTERON 50% above the range —> prog is a natural 5AR killer, it is even more potent then finasteride.

2.CORTISOL 15-20% above the range ----> it is mainly a result of elevated progesteron first.

  1. LIVER - AST,ALT above the range ----> I need to take care of my liver cells where 5AR exist, to make it work more efficient

  2. I keept this imbalance by alcohol, cigarets and… jerking off to see my status…hah… jerking of daily will keep this imbalance because you are turning yourself into a loop mechnism, the more you jerk off the more progesteron will inhibit your 5AR, instead of being converted via cell. It will also boost testosteron conversion to estradiol due to the progesteron killing effect on 5AR.

I will say it again if you want toi call this sophosticated mechanism a “adrenal fatigue”, call it so, but you should first realize what is it all about.

If anyone will just install in his head… “I have adrenal fatigue”, with all the respect, will be as dump about his situation as he was before knowing the name for it.

I suggest anyone to explain what his fatigue might be caused by due to his blood work, and then we can speculate about the potential reasons. I do not expect to bring any medical backroud, so it is not estabished among medical society. FDA and doctors will not necesserly help us because most of them are as stupid in this field as we are.

#12

ithappens - I think you better get your terminology straight.

Your first link is related to adrenal overload and mentions fatigue as a symptom NOT that the adrenals are fatigued. Your other 2 links talk about adrenal insufficiency. This is a real diagnosis and doctors can test for this too. However, if you read carefully you will see

“…as soon as the diagnosis of adrenal insufficiency has been done, a main point is to determine the cause of the endocrine failure.”

In other words, adrenal insufficiency is symptom. A.I. is the “defective production of adrenal steroids due to either primary adrenal failure or hypothalamic-pituitary impairment of the corticotrophic axis causes adrenal insufficiency.” My Endo did these tests with me so doctors and Endos do know at least how to test for this. Go get them if you think it applies to you.

Notice that nowhere in your links does it recommend to take supplements such as Reset AD nor will you ever hear or read such a thing from an M.D… The Adrenal Fatigue that’s so popularly talked about on the internet and who’s proponents push stuff like this are no better than snake oil salesmen peddling poison.

#13

the problem with your theory is that there are guys here going through similar states as you are with optimal hormone ranges and normal progesterone ranges. how do you explain that then?

#14

I think that my problem is different then the problem of guys having low testosteron here. I have completely no idea what is going wrong with them and would not even speculate about the potential cause.

My profile is normal/high testosteron, elevated progesteron and cortisol plus liver disfunctions. If anyone (I am in contact with 3 other persons with similar profile) is also suffering these symptoms I can speculate about the potential cause because there is nobody else that can judge my situation, better then me myself.

Doctors that I have appointed lately (including Polish guru of endocrynology ----> Mr. S.Zgliczyński a known worldwide endo) sent me to psychologist, when he saw my perfect brain tomography and blood work with useless progesteron test.