Hi fellow sufferers.
This is my regretful story.
After 5 month of suffering I decided to join this page.
I took the 5mg tablets cut into 5 pieces for a period of 5 days and experianced the sexual side effects straight away.
On the 4 day I already experianced shrinking of the genital area and was totally impotent and was really scared to death.
I took the drug for the reason of hairloss and only decided to give it a try because I was told from a doctor that there is no reason to be afraid. He is doing his job for years and didn’t experiance one person with negativ sides. If something should be, quit the drug and sides will go away. And in more cases, sides come and leave again after a period of time. So I even was told after contacting him with my bad experiance to continue with the drug. I decided to stop.
On the next few days things were not as bad as before, still struggling with erections, but I was able to get them. Genitals looked quite normal and after exactly 3 weeks things were going good. I was really really horny. I could look at a girl and things were going good. Strange thing was that my genital were growing too. I didn’t take this as a bad thing. I did know this isn’t normal, but things are going good. I thought this is the end of the nightmare and for the good.
As you guys know I was wrong. It was like a timeline mechanism that was started by this drug. Exactly on friday again, the same day as I stoped this poison, I felt something like the energie leaving my body… I remember telling my girlfriend, this shouldn’t happen. Then came extreme panic attacks and I told my girlfriend, you know I love you. Looking back I felt what was happening and I crashed few days later. A out of body experiance and a pinch in my brain. The next day I woke up with an other personality and dead genitals. I didn’t recognize my self in the mirror anymore.
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0) Where are you from (country)?
Switzerland, Zürich
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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 -
What is your current age, height, weight?
age: 27 years
height: 1m 74
weight: 75kg -
Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
I was doing heavy weights 3-4 times a week over 10 years and was really fit. Since the crash I only started hill sprinting again every second day this month. My body isn’t ready for heavy weights yet. I have bad shrinking during this sessions and even only with hill sprinting. Weird syndrome. -
What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
Healthy but normal -
Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
Stupid hair loss (sorry), I hate my self writing this -
For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
5 days -
How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
27 years -
How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
27 years -
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
cold turkey -
What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
Propecia -
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
1 - 1,3 mg/day -
How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
If I think back it gave me a strange feeling right away, but I only got scared on the 4th day as soon as nothing was functioning anymore. -
What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
Put an X beside all that apply:
Sexual
[x] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[x] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
I’m getting strange morning erections some days, not to know what they mean or if it’s even a normal morning erection
[x] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[x] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[x] Watery Ejaculate
[x] Reduced Ejaculate
[x] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
Orgasm only over genital area
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
I had experianced all the sides inclusive the mental ones since the crash. I’m happy that my libido returned to about 30 after 5 month and the mental side effects are no longer a problem for me, that means no brain fog or slow motion thinking anymore. I’m now depressed because of this situation and the life that I’m in and not waking up every morning with funny thoughts and not even having control over them. After the crash I could have made an ‘x’ everywhere
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[x] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[x] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[x] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[x] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[x] Testicular Pain
[x] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[x] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[x] Muscle Wastage
[x] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[x] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes(not as bad anymore)
Misc
[x] Prostate pain (sometimes a strange feeling, but was bad after crash)
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[x] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[x] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
Since I have so many sides from only 4,5 tablets it’s hard to stay optimistic. I have days that I’m searching the whole member storie section for all users that have had some recovery over some years and I’m happy to have at least found 15+ plus the ones in the recovery section. Some days this really gives me power to go on and fight and other days I just feel hopeless and hope that studies will find something that mew and other older members on this board were able to arrange. At least I got the power again to do hill sprints every secound day (thanks to Chi).
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What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
First I tried things like Tribulus, Maca, Arimidex, Iodine but with time I feel like it’s a waste of time and will only push me further down the rabit hole. I think I’ll take the hardcore natural path way and only hope for better times. -
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 have pre and post crash blood tests. I know that my T went a little higher again since the crash in march.
Pre crash after propecia usage:
DHEA-S 17.10 / 7.59 - 17.36 mcmol/l
FSH 3.6 / 1.0 - 14.0 U/l
LH 2.6 / 1.5 - 9.2 U/l
Prolaktin 12.5 / <20.0 mcg/l
Testosteron 26.6 / 9.9 -52.4 nmol/l
Freies Testosteron 77.7 / 31.0 - 118.3 pmol/l
After my crash my T level crashed down to 11.3 nmol/l but came up again by the end of month to 22.0 nmol/l but I think my T levels were great before Propecia usage because I was a really fit guy. Because I only took 4 pills it’s really hard to find persons that believe you.
Let’s hope for the life of all of us and that we one day are able to live the life we loved again.
Hope to have some good news in future.