Hello! I'm the Duck!

Member Stories
#1

Where are you from (country)?
United States

  1. 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
  2. What is your current age, height, weight?
    • 22, 5’11, 190lb
  3. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    • I do a lot of powerlifting. I also bike, row, swim, and do martial arts and other outdoor activities.
  4. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
    • I eat very healthy. I don’t eat a lot of meat. I have totally cut-out caffeine and alcohol. I mainly eat veggies, fruits, nuts, grains, and some dairy.
  5. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
    • Hairloss
  6. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    • 1 month
  7. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    • 19, September 2007
  8. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    • 19, October 2007
  9. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
    • Cold Turkey
  10. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
    • Propecia
  11. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    • 1mg every day
  12. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    • I only noticed the side effects once I felt like I was dieing… about 3 weeks into taking it.
  13. 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
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[X] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Depression / Melancholy

Physical
[X] 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
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[X] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[X] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[X] Other (please explain)
- These are no longer so much a problem, but their effects can still be seen: Cystic Acne Scars (face and chest), Stretch Marks (on thighs and buttocks)

  1. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?

    • My main treatment has been strenuous exercise and a healthy diet along with some supplements (daily Omega 3, 10,000IU Vitamin D3 a day, Quercetin, Resveratrol, an occasional Ginkgo Biloba before sex to help with erections)

  2. 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)?

  3. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?

    • Uh, Finasteride is the devil.

  4. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.

    I was stupid. I doubt I was balding, but my entire life I had a huge fear of going bald that stemmed from many things. When I was younger, I remember my mom telling me that if my dad went bald, she would leave him. Also, when I was in middle school and high school, kids would make fun of me for having a large forehead, so I was scared to death of going even a little bald since it would make my forehead look even larger. When I turned 19, and my DHT levels started to explode, I noticed some thinning on my temples (now that I look back on it, I was crazy. I had a full head of beautiful long hair… but I was just so terrified). So, I talked to mom. “Mom, I think I’m starting to go bald”… “Okay, son” she says, “We can give you Propecia.”

    Now, mom and dad are doctors, so they could get any drug they wanted. My dad happened to have a bottle of Propecia lying around somewhere that he wasn’t using so my mom gave it to me, this was a week before I started my sophomore year of college. I went back to college and things started off great. I looked amazing. I was young with long blond hair and a nice thin muscular body. My skin had no flaws. When I walked by girls, they would smile. I was happy. I was a joker. I loved life and I was a STUD. However, things soon changed.

    A couple weeks later, I was a different person. All I did was sleep all day. I would get up, go to class, come back to my dorm and sleep. I would sleep from 9pm to 10am wake up for a couple hours, then sleep from 1pm to 6pm. I used to be active and have so much energy, now I was doing nothing but sleeping and I was still tired. I began to have really weird dreams; these dreams then seemed to blend with reality until nothing seemed real. I was never really awake and never really asleep. My mind was a giant thunder cloud and the only light I saw was the shadow of a bolt of lightning. I became psychotic; and once I realized that Propecia was responsible, I became very, very angry.

    I suffered through practically every symptom known to this discussion board. I lost all interest in sex. I could not achieve erections. My semen was water. I soon became soft looking. I lost my facial hair. I developed breasts. I lost my body hair. The hair on my head became thin and brittle. The skin on my face began to wrinkle. My eyebrows began to thin. My hair got lighter. I cried all the time. I dropped out of school.

Fueled by the hate for capitalism and corporate greed (especially towards Merck), I decided to leave the world behind in June of 2008. With three thousand dollars and a 1996 Ford Escort, I went on the highway and traveled West. I did not know where I was going, but my first stop was the Bridger Teton National Forest in Wyoming. There I spent two weeks in the forest with vagabonds, shamans, and tribal elders. I took mind altering substances. I saw things I never knew existed. I danced amongst speckled fires and dancing fireflies; I danced with naked wanderers of the night. I lived fantasy.

For 6 months, I drifted. I was homeless, I was a no body. I did not exist. I made ate food that was given to me. I slept wherever I could. I was constantly harassed and consequently arrested… but I was free. Courts could not hold me, for if they called me, I simply would not show. Just leave, and go to another state.

Those were the most exciting times of my life and they led me to the other side of the nation where I now live and go to school. I could not have done it without the psychosis given to me by Finasteride. However, now I’m older, I’m wiser, and I want to heal.

And now, I graciously bow, before you, my friends, for I hope we will become friends, and I pray for all of us that our plague will end, and for a new beginning will come. Thanks for reading, and I wish you all the best. Till next time.

( “)> ThE DuCk <(” )

#2

Welcome Duck… you clearly are a finasteride victim.

Your story is pretty daunting, and it echoes with my own, especially the experience of Propecia affecting your state of mind and pushing you toward a psychotic state where nothing really seemed to matter… I had the same sort of problems with that.

One question. You mentioned your parents are both doctors… have they had nothing at all to say about your situation? Seems they had no qualms about giving you the bottle.

It’s important to get a grip on what fin caused us, and and find suitable solutions. You seem to be doing that. Good luck and cheers dude.

#3

Growing up my parents solution to sickness was to throw a pill at you. My dad’s an anesthesiologist, which is just a fancy name for a guy who thinks he knows a lot about drugs. So at the time, I don’t think my mom or dad thought anything about giving me Propecia. My dad had been on it for about 5 years and I don’t think he noticed any side effects (but I’ll tell you what, now that I look back on it and look at my dad today, I can definitely see the effects of Propecia on him). After they saw what happened to me, and I told them I was 100% positive it was Propecia, I think their attitude towards drugs in general have changed… especially when it comes to their children (and especially after my older brother and baby sister were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes).

I was a mess on Propecia, and I actually think it made me somewhat schizophrenic. While I was on it, and for about 5 months after quitting, I was having vivid daydreams and hallucinations. I remember sitting in my History of Marxism class, closing my eyes for a second, and having split second dreams. I have notebooks full of attempts to draw the images my mind was producing. These began to happen so frequently that I actually began to question what was real. Reality did not seem physical. Everything seemed mental, my head was so clouded with dreams. When I was asleep (which was very often), I had insane dreams. My most vivid dream was seeing a galaxy explode into existence. It was so mind-shattering that I began to cry hysterically. I watched the galaxy swirl in front of my eyes and then noticed that I was actually awake, standing in the middle of my bedroom, with my head tilted toward the ceiling. I could see my room out of my peripherals , but I couldn’t move and the galaxy was still floating there in front of my eyes, beneath my ceiling. It lingered for about 10 seconds until it slowly vanished. I also began to became 100% paranoid. I stopped eating, because I thought I was choking every time I would swallow food. Furthermore, my History of Marxism class made me a staunch communist and I thought the government was tracking me. I lost my rocker, and my friends from college all thought I was having a nervous breakdown.

To this day, I don’t know the extent of damage that Propecia has done to my mind and body. However, I think it did make me more creative. After Propecia, I was able to pick up a guitar and play melodies that I would hear in my head and transfer them instantaneously to the guitar. I could play music beautifully, but when I tried to talk I sounded like a stuttering idiot. I couldn’t put a thought together in words coherently. So, needless to say, when I traveled around the country, I always carried my guitar. People seemed to love me whenever I played, but without it, I was socially inept. My guitar for about two years became a part of me. Wherever I went, it went and I attribute this to Propecia. Physically, like I explained, it 100% cut off my nuts.

I’m getting better now, a lot better, especially physically and socially, but I still have problems with ED and the occasional unexplained fatigue. Dreams are still very intense, but the daydreams are gone and things seem real again.

Was your psychosis similar, 3pm?

#4

I think most of us have or had all those symptoms to some degree. Maybe not as colorful as you describe, but I can certainly relate. I’ve directed the blame everywhere, including myself. Maybe you should print out the studies and posts here on this site and show your parents. It would only help having more doctors involved. Maybe they have connections?

#5

welcome duck,

I have always blamed myself for my predicment. One of my family members recommended propecia as well, but it wasn’t my parents. That’s really a shame that your own mom would put looks over eveything.

You may want to start out by getting a thorough blood test done. There are a couple of lists of horomones and proteins to include on the main site area. At least this way you can see what areas are worst.

#6

I’m sorry, but is this story not a joke?

#7

Surely this isn’t for real?

"Fueled by the hate for capitalism and corporate greed (especially towards Merck), I decided to leave the world behind in June of 2008. With three thousand dollars and a 1996 Ford Escort, I went on the highway and traveled West. I did not know where I was going, but my first stop was the Bridger Teton National Forest in Wyoming. There I spent two weeks in the forest with vagabonds, shamans, and tribal elders. I took mind altering substances. I saw things I never knew existed. I danced amongst speckled fires and dancing fireflies; I danced with naked wanderers of the night. I lived fantasy.

For 6 months, I drifted. I was homeless, I was a no body. I did not exist. I made ate food that was given to me. I slept wherever I could. I was constantly harassed and consequently arrested… but I was free. Courts could not hold me, for if they called me, I simply would not show. Just leave, and go to another state."

#8

I agree that his story seems a bit over the top, but the essence of some of what he’s saying is identifiable with me. (I want to avoid slamming any other member on this forum, because I do feel sorry for their situation.)

I was also very, very angry as well. The anger and obsession with this ridiculously outrageous Propecia situation consumed my life completely and I know to some extent it must have appeared to impact my mental and emotional stability; I spent the better part of a year using my free time to do nothing but read about hormones, endocrinology, urology, Propecia, other drugs, treatment ideas, talking to people about my problem, searching for doctors, running test after test, etc. I totally isolated myself socially, stopped dating, had trouble performing at work, had trouble sleeping, lost enjoyment of hobbies, lost ability to exercise effectively and be healthy and everything else that filled out my life…it was really terrible.

Not only was I angry at Merck, but I was also angry with doctors, the FDA, capitalism/corporate greed, and the attitude of the medical community in general which allowed this preventable disaster to occur. The drug has been on the market for years now, but even as late as early 2010 the majority of doctors I’ve encountered will prescribe this drug to anyone who requests it without any hesitation. How after all these years is it possible that the medical community still hasn’t gotten their act together and turned against this product?

…By the way, just to clarify; I have never spent any time in the forest with vagabonds, shamans, or tribal elders, nor have I have consumed any mind altering substances and danced with fireflies :slight_smile:

#9

i hope that people is not so bad to make joke on our situation, however this story looks so excessively weird

#10

I’m 100% serious.

#11

It also looks like a story of someone who had bi-polar tendencies and finasteride flipped the switch from “tendency” to “full on”. I don’t know why this would be a joke. This guy basically said he took fin and went crazy. If I had the presence of mind to run away like this after I had gone a bit nuts I would have stopped taking fin and hopefully would have been in a better position.

The modern political and social system pushes people with such personalities to the fringe, we don’t see many of them anymore so we tend to think they don’t exist.

That being said, where exactly did you find these people in the Grand Tetons Duck? And what did you do during the winters?

#12

I went to the 2008 National Rainbow Gathering that took place in the Bridger-Teton National Forest of Wyoming during the week of July 4th. I stayed in and around Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the remainder of the month. I camped out by a river and played guitar in the Elk Antlers Park all day. I also took a trip to Yellowstone and made friends with some of the employees there that worked at the Roosevelt Lodge. I stayed there and went on hikes around the park and trips with these people, including one trip up to Bozeman, Montana (They liked the fact I had a car). I was seeking a job there as a chef, and the head chef, who became a friend of mine, recommended me to his boss, but I was not hired due to the fact I looked like a long-haired drifter, and I was escorted out by security the next day. After a few more adventures, and making friends with random people, I went back to Jackson Hole. It was now late July. From there, I met a hitchhiker who told me about Eugene, OR. A couple days later, we went there. Long story short, I spent 6 months traveling constantly up and down the West coast. I went to tons of music festivals. I could get in for free by working on the deconstruction crews and helping to set up stages and booths. When it began to get cold, I traveled to Southern California. I stayed mostly around Santa Barbara.

#13

We’ve all done that.

#14

Not for me at all. I guess we all experienced different levels of damage for this poison.

At my worst I had serious issues dealing with people and I became incredibly introverted. I have been to Wyoming. There are very few places that offer the sense of getting back to nature as amazing as this place does. I can fully appreciate someone feeling a need to do something like this.

#15

Travel story makes sense, Ive been to these areas but hadn’t heard of rainbow gathering before. Must have been quite a time…

#16

Personally, ever since Propecia happened to me, I’ve had fantasies of taking off on a motorcycle to see Montana and the Dakotas; I’m being totally serious and honest in stating this fact. I do think it’s a bit funny though that he actually went and acted his fantasies out. I guess everyone gets a little flakey after this happens to them.

#17

Hahahaha :stuck_out_tongue:

#18

That sounds interesting. I’ll ask him and see what he says.

#19

I have noticed that a lot of people on this forum seem to have “on the fringe” personalities and political views. It makes me wonder if there is a certain personality type who is more likely to have a bad reaction to medication.

#20

I only started hating corporations once I found out one of them cut of my nuts. Before that, I was apathetic… a moderate.