- Where are you from (country)?
'murrika - 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 - What is your current age, height, weight?
23 years, 5’8", ~145lbs - Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
not really, used to walk and hike a bit… - What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
no gmos, no hfcs, no artificial colors, no preservatives, organic when i can, no fast food, etc - Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
androgenic alopecia - For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
5-6 months, can’t remember exactly - How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
Jan 2011, 22yrs - How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
May-June 2011, 22 yrs - How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
cold turkey has always been my style - What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
generic 5mg tab quartered - What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
since splitting the tablets wasn’t always perfect, between 1-1.25mg - How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
near the time when i decided to quit - What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
on the drug? prostatitis, general weirdness, i guess
Put an X beside all that apply:
Sexual
[x] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[x] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[x] Loss of Morning Erections
[x] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[x] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[x] Watery Ejaculate
[x] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[probably] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[x] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[x] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[x] Confusion
[x] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[x] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[occasionally] Slurring of Speech
[x] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[markedly more, albeit not extreme Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[x] Depression / Melancholy
Physical
[nominal shrinkage Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] 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
[x] Joint Pain
[x] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[x] Prostate pain
[x] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
-
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
so, so many. Though I experience bouts of despondence and hopelessness where I simply want to die because of PFS, I’ll rebound into an obduracy so psychologically potent, I’ll refuse to complacently languish in non-functionality. In short, I become highly motivated and optimistic about recovery. I’ve always told myself that I could accomplish things when I wasn’t sure how to, and I have. -
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)?
don’t have the tests, but last time I checked, lower total and free T, higher E, higher prolactin, higher SHBG, not sure FSH and LH, but they were strange -
Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
-
Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
First off, there is so much that I can say. This will not be all of it. I have been through so much, there is so much detail to tell. I’ll be leaving a lot out, I just can’t remember ALL of it and lay it down for you. Just fyi.
So for future reference, feel free to pm me with personal, specific questions, what have you. I’ll try to answer as best I can.
In January of 2011, I went to my GP for a routine physical, and I asked him about hairloss interventions. I love my hair, always have, and it was slightly receding in the front and in the back. I mentioned that I didn’t want to rub rogaine into my scalp every stinking day, so I asked about other options. He offered me Propecia, drew me a little hairloss time graph indicating how it wouldn’t totally prevent balding, that it would just retard the process, and handed me a prescription. When I asked him about side effects, he sad that my prostate might shrink a little bit (didn’t know it at the time, but that’s bad for a 22 year old!), but other than that I’d be okay. So I took the drug. And my hair started growing back in. Oh boy, oh boy!!!
I’m not quite sure quite when all this was (foggy memory), but sometime around the time when I decided to quit taking it, I was about to get laid when I just couldn’t piss. I’d been drinking. Agh, my prostate felt like a balloon! It hurt a lot, and I wasn’t quite sure why. I do have a family history of prostate issues, but at 22? That was a weird night. I did not get laid.
Between a couple weeks and a month following that disaster of a sexual encounter, I found this site while researching the side effects of Fin online. Even typical side effects of the drug were much worse than I had been informed. So, I decided that the loss of my sexual function wasn’t worth the hair that I loved (and still love) so dearly. I experienced a reflex hyperandrogenic state, and then I crashed. I can’t be sure exactly how long it took. Those were foggy days. But I do remember that I developed all of the hallmark symptoms of PFS: your dick doesn’t f*cking work, and your “mind’s dick” as well, if you will. It was gone. Poof. Nothing.
since I crashed, I’ve been lurking on the forums, fyi
Yeah, I was physically and psychologically asexual, but there were the other sides too: blunted affect, reduced ability to concentrate, poor memory (working, short, long), fatigue, reduced immunity, weight loss (in my case, I lost 15lbs of straight muscle), hypogonadism, pain throughout nearly my entire urogenital tract, it was bad. Despite the unsuccessful experiences with “lay-doctors” you all seemed to have had, I went to see a urologist. He must understand my plight, he must! He didn’t, duh. Guy told me to go see a shrink. About three months ago, I went to see my GP again for something else, I can’t remember, and I ended up telling him about my PFS. He “didn’t discount the physical symptoms,” but he kept referring to my problem as “psychological.” Telling a medical professional that you don’t have a cremasteric/bulbocavernous reflex just goes in one ear and out the other sometimes, i guess. Around that time, I ended up telling my parents. They don’t really understand. I deal with this sh*t every day and they’re only transiently sympathetic when I go out of my way to tell them how much my balls/prostate hurt. They keep pressuring me to get a job. I don’t know if I could hold one, tbh.
I guess I should fill you in on my living situation. I’m a college dropout and I live with my parents. My sleep schedule is way out of whack, I haven’t gotten a 24hr cortisol panel, but I’m pretty sure my adrenals kick in after the sun goes down. I don’t function nearly as well as I used to, obviously. My diet always excludes the badstuffs like high-fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, gmos, preservatives, fast food, pesticides (which means sticking to organics) blah blah etc., but I’ve been on a gluten/dairy-free diet (started in 2009 maybe, lost 30lbs, in a good way) that I mostly keep to (I drink kefir). I’ve tried juicing and eating raw (vitamix) with great results, though I’m not currently doing so because my equipment is on the other side of the country (long story).
As far as herbal interventions go, I’ve tried so many things. I’ll have to make a whole separate thread for what I’ve tried and what’s worked and what hasn’t and how little and how much. I’ll just rattle off what I see in front of me right now:
Phosphatidylserine/DHA complex
Mangosteen
Coleus Forskohlii
Acetyl-L-Carnitine Arginate
Various forms of Magnesium
Ubiquinone, Ubiquinol
Several detox blends
Cordyceps, wild and hybrid
Various amino acids
Fish oil, GLA
Deer Antler Velvet
Various Thiamine analogues
Various TCM herbs and formulas
Various Ayurvedic herbs and formulas
Various south american herbs
Various androgenic herbs
the list goes on…
Either I’m crashing or I need to eat badly, so I’m going to adjourn this introduction for the time being. Nice to meet you all, I’ll be more active on the forums from now on.