No, unfortunately.
I have achieved three complete recoveries with hCG and anastrozole, insulin and the last with levothyroxine (and also with selenium combination).
All my recoveries last about a week and also T4 half-life is about a week.
Metabolism is strictly involved in pfs state however with my dad and the endos we are under investigation about an hypothetical abnormal immune response to stimuli.
Can I ask what your symptoms are between recoveries? And when you are recovered do you have complete reversal of them?
I tried saw palmetto before I tried Finasteride as i thought its a natural product so would be a better road to try.
For me all it did was give me a bad stomach i had cramps and didn’t feel like eating.
So i switched over to the miracle drug Finasteride but now I’m waiting on another miracle drug to end the damage finasteride did.
Talk about swings and roundabouts
The next miracle will be the Baylor studies
During recoveries symptoms were completely reversed.
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Anyone who’d even consider taking finasteride again after developing pfs, I would think they are actually insane. It can get so much worse. After I got off fin, in my brain fogged state i actually convinced myself it was all in my head and to take another pill. Thankfully I didn’t.
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Honestly I’ve thought about it. I took finasteride for 2 months and then quit COLD TURKEY. In hindsight I feel this might be what has cause some of the persistent side effects. The flooding back of neurosteroids (Allo,DHT etc) could have damaged the receptors and/or the over expression of the receptors never had a chance to acclimate back to their original state. When I think about how my body reacted to the cold turkey quitting, I recall my penis doing all kinds of weird things and just feeling bizarre in general for a few weeks after. Then persistent side effects just kicked in.
I wonder if we would have slowly tapered off over a long period of time it would have given our neuro/endo system time to slowly adapt back to normal.
I’ve often wondered what would happen if we went back on fin for a week and then slowly slowly tapered off. And if Saw Palmetto could be used to the same effect.
I agree with your hypothesis of flooding brain chemicals. If you look at people who did too much mdma, the same thing happens. They take too much, their neurosteriods flood their brain and damage neurons and axons. I don’t think getting back on the drug is a good idea because the damage is done. I really don’t think their is a “switch” to be flipped. I think the ppl who recover simply have some neuro plasticity left and their brain repairs slowly over time. Some people and some parts of the brain simply don’t recover. So going back on the drug would basically produce the same result, but it’s operating an already damaged brain, so I can only assume it would do even greater damage than the first time. All just a theory.
I think that theory, though depressing, is a good argument to not do anything rash.
As we get closer and closer to understanding this condition, it would be extremely unfortunate to add to the damage when a breakthrough could be on it’s way.
There are plenty of people here who have worsened their symptoms with subsequent uses of 5AR inhibitors.
Anyone who’s had varying symptoms knows that it’s entirely possible to be worse off and that taking a stupid risk is what brought many of us here in the first place.
its hard to taper off fin because its so potent
This paragraph scares me the most:
" It should be noted that 5α-RIs alter cellular biology with uncertain outcomes. For example, treatment of animals with 5α-RIs resulted in marked increase in the expression of the AR [70]. The implication of such dysfunctional metabolism may contribute to loss of androgen dependence and to acquisition of high-grade tumors. In addition, Yun et al. [71] postulated that finasteride increases expression of hemoxygenase-1 and other related factors in PCa cell lines (PC-3). The authors suggested that finasteride-induced alteration in gene expression may be in part responsible for finasteride-induced high grade prostate tumors [71]. It is not surprising that Theoret et al. [15] reported a significantly number of high grade tumors (Fig. 4), with finasteride and dutasteride in the data from the PCPT [14] and REDUCE trials [13] respectively, even after using the revised Gleason scoring system [15].
I’m really worried that I could have cancer. I’ve had an ache on my member on the right side near the base since March (it’s hurting considerably as I type this), other aches in the prostate area, urination issues, they found nodules on my liver during an ultrasound. Man, this is so bad.
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@Wings, I agree that this is extremely scary. I have read personal stories of men getting diagnosed with testicular cancer after having taken finasteride, and of course reading about all the evidence for high grade prostate cancer as a result of Finasteride. I myself had sharp pain in my balls, perineum and the base/side of my penis for about a year, during which time I was convinced I was going to get testicular or prostate cancer. It is now a year since I have last had the pain and I haven’t gotten cancer yet, not that I have been examined. So it is definitely not hard to convince yourself that you are about to get cancer from reading about this and having the pain.
The way I dealt with this particular problem was to just fully accept the absolute worst – I was dead, they had killed me, I was done. It is not an easy place to be, especially if you need to get up every day for a job, which luckily I didn’t have to at the time, so I just wallowed in self-pity all day. After a while I started thinking - OK, now that I have all but died, every day is a bonus, so let’s just see what I can do - out of curiosity. I can’t say I still don’t think about death every day but it is a bit easier. If I get cancer I am ready to face it.
Having the cancer consideration at the back of my mind has been one of the reasons I haven’t tried any T-boosting supplements and protocols. That and my quickly thinning hair. I have thought of trying Tribulus for example but I am afraid of what increasing DHT might do to my body. So I haven’t tried anything and I am just sitting and waiting (while life is passing me by). I don’t know which is worse.
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I read your post and cannot understand for the life of me why you haven’t sought medical advice to have tests done in order of finding out if you have any health issues especially when considering something as serious as cancer.
Until you get checked out you will not be able to move forward mentally or physically you really do have to make an appointment soon as possible.
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@Baz44uk @Greek Hey guys, thanks for your concern and suggestion. I don’t really worry about it any more, however, for a couple of reasons. First, I don’t have pain any more, for the past year. Second, simply put - I have accepted death, as grisly as that sounds. Let’s just say that if you stopped hearing from me on this forum, it wouldn’t be because I died of cancer.
Now, assume I were worried and went to the doctor. Most of you probably live in countries with good health care but I do not. If I went to my GP and told her I have pain in my balls and I suspect it might be cancer the most I would get is a pat down on my balls. If I wanted any serious test such as ultra-sound or MRI I would have to pay for it out of pocket – money that I don’t have. Obviously I would also have to stay silent about finasteride because no doctor knows or believes that theory so they would only think I am a hypochondriac if I bring it up.
Finally, pain in the nether regions is one of the most frequent side effects of PFS. We don’t know what causes it and most people who have seen doctors for it have found nothing. Admittedly, being checked would minimize the risk in the case of a serious complication (cancer). I just haven’t done it and, as I don’t have pain any more, I don’t plan on doing it.
What country are uk located in mate ?
I am from Bulgaria. Not there now but was there at the time.
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So how can someone like you or me, take 1-2 pills, and down regulate our receptors so badly? Remeber I felt issues after the first pill, it was never from a “rush of dht” back into my body. Presumably the dht was out of my body for 5 hours before I felt extremely dizzy and had virtigo. Disregulation and subsequent extreme symtoms shouldn’t happen in a matter of hours.
Hey @Wings, I realize you mentioned this a few months ago, but have you been checked out for possible cancer? What you describe is very concerning.
I had an abdominal-pelvis CT scan over a week ago and no tumors were found. the ache I described comes and goes these days, and it’s not as severe, but not entirely gone. I still have urination issues (frequency, urgency, mild incontinence) and sometimes prostate/perineal pain during a bowel movement. But no cancer has been found, so that’s at least good. Thanks for taking interest.
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