- How did you find this forum?
Internet search around March of 2011 - What is your current age, height, weight?
25, 5"11’, 198 pounds - Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
I am exercising more. 2 to 3 times a week. I lift weights (compound lifts) and do light running. Additionally I sometimes do yoga. - What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
I eat meat. Sometimes I eat healthy, sometimes not so much usually due to my mood. I try to buy organic when I can. - Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
Slight hair loss - For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
14 months total. 1 month stand alone April 2009, and then 13 months mostly on and occasionally off in between shipment. (September 2010 to November 2011) - How old were you when you started Finasteride?
23 - How old were you when you quit?
24 - How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
Slight taper off but over a week. It was really more cold turkey I suppose. - What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
Propecia for the first isolated month and then finpecia for the rest of the time. - What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
1mg/day - How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
November 2011 so about after a year of use. - What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
My erection quality and strength have not returned to normal. I have a lowered body temperature (97.7).
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
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[x] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
x] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[x] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[x ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[x] Depression / Melancholy
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[x ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[x ] Testicular Pain
[x] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[x] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[x] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[x] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[x] Lowered body temperature
-
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
Not really too much other than weight lifting. I am now consulting with an endo and have gotten my first round of blood tests last week. -
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 will post next week when I have the results. I am still trying to find pre fin blood tests.
My story:
Sorry for the personal details, but I need to get this shit out and you guys are the only ones who know what my life has really been like for the last year.
I was 22 at the time and noticed that my hairline was receding a bit back in my senior year of college (Spring 2009). It wasn’t even bad at all but I started to notice it and I had always been very fond of my hair. I hadn’t been the most successful with women and my old ex girlfriend had really messed me up in the confidence department as well. So I was freaking out a bit at the prospect of going bald early. Even though that I only had a very minor receding hairline!
My life hadn’t been the easiest but things were really looking up at that point. This was my last semester of college (well second to last considering I was graduated in August to finish my honors thesis). So I did a lot of research about balding on the internet and came across that fateful fucking pill propecia. I went to a local Doctor and said I was noticing my hairline are receding a bit, he was balding and he said “welcome to the club” and promptly prescribed Propecia. No blood tests, no warnings, no no nothing. Well I was going to be joining a different club. The fucked up hormones and fucked up life club, which really hasn’t been that fun.
I minored in biology but apparently I didn’t learn fucking shit about anything considering I was willing to put this severe endocrine disruptor in my body. So I got a month’s supply of the damn poison. I believe this was before anything about permanent side effects was released. God if I had only found this forum! I may have ignored it in my vanity and idiocy however.
I read the sham study Merck put out about the 2% with sides and how they all went away when the “medication” was stopped. So I figured I would try this out for awhile. Modern day Faustian bargain.
I took the one months supply approximately April 2009 and then didn’t get any more due to the cost.
So I graduated in August 2009, (great time to graduate in the teeth of the recession) but I couldn’t find a job right away so I moved back to my childhood home for awhile. I was still a bit concerned about my hair and found I could get the generic Finpecia over the net for cheap and I didn’t feel like there was any ill effects from my one month trial earlier. So I ordered a 3 month supply. This was September of 2009.
I was dating a girl briefly in the fall of 2009, but she was studying abroad in the Spring and we never had penetrative sex though I didn’t have any problems getting aroused around her. I was very attracted to her. She left at the end of December. All the while I was continuing taking the horrible pill. I would maybe go off it for like 10 days between 90 day shipments.
So later in the summer of 2010 I was living at home but I was able to secure a job at an NYC non-profit. I was happy to have something and packed up my bags at the end of August and moved to the city.
So for the first month of so in NYC things were going well. I was meeting new girls, and I met a great girl who I connected with. We started dating and she wanted to take things to the next level. I had been trying to “monitor” myself for propecia side effects but I hadn’t really noticed too much up to that point probably because I had not been with a girl since December. Now I am someone who hasn’t even had that much sex in the past due to bad relationships.
We had good oral sex but after about a month of dating she was wanting full on sex and I was too. We tried once after a night of drinking and I wasn’t able to stay hard in the condom. This was obviously very disturbing to me because I was attracted to her on many levels. When we tried to have sex again another night and I couldn’t stay hard when I put on a condom I knew something was wrong. I freaked out and I broke up with her. This is something I totally regret to this day. I just had no idea what was wrong with me. This was late November 2010. I had been on the drug for about 13 months with a few on and off weeks.
I immediately thought it must be the finpecia. I noticed my semen was watery and I had a lack of morning erections. I had probably lost the morning erections long before but I really didn’t fucking notice for some reason. Additionally I noticed that I had lost some body hair and I had a slight pain in my right testicle in the shower. I stopped taking finpecia soon after and I sort of weened off it over a week. I was a psychological mess after this incident because I threw away what would have been a very important relationship with a caring, attractive, stable, and talented woman. It was just so embarrassing that I kept losing my erection, I couldn’t handle another failure. After the crap I had dealt with in the past with some girlfriends and my general lack of sex, this was a devastating blow. I was never totally impotent (I could still masturbate and be hard for oral sex) but something was clearly fucking horribly wrong. I used to get hard at the drop of a hat.
I hoped things would just kind of work their way back to normal. I will admit I resorted to smoking weed a lot just to get some of these things out of my head and be numb. I was able to plod through my job but my mind was obviously elsewhere. I started researching and I found the propecia help forum probably in March of 2011. So for the first half of 2011 I was hoping things would improve and I started to exercise a bit more. I had some man boobs but probably not gyno and I felt generally weaker. Though once I started lifting weights again I was able to put on some strength quickly. I was monitoring my erections (or lack there of) and I actually secured another job but in the field I have wanted to work in out in California. This job started at the end of August 2011. Again all this time I was still smoking weed almost every day. Actually occasionally it seemed to help my erection quality possibly due to its vasodilation effects.
So I noticed some improvements in my condition over the summer. The propecia help forum freaked me the fuck out and confirmed my worst fears. My semen quality generally improved and my erections were better in masturbation. I still had somewhat of a libido per se in that I still wanted to masturbate every other day. So I moved out to Northern CA in early August and have been here since. I am very poor however.
Luckily with healthcare reform I was able to get back on my mother’s very good insurance plan for a year starting in September. I finally manned up last month and found a good endocrinologist in town that specializes in hormones, regenerative medicine, and quality of life. He said he knew propecia could cause hormone problems and seemed open to talking to me about it. I got my blood test done a few days ago and I will be seeing the endo again next Tuesday. I kind of avoided the blood tests for awhile which was dumb but I am dying to know where I stand now. I am going to see if I can get an appt with Dr. Shippen because I am going to be near that area during the holidays.
Lately I have noticed some other slight improvements but other troubling signs as well. My body hair pattern has seemed to come back and I am losing a slight amount of hair. I was so happy to see the little hairs on my shoulders return which hadn’t been there since last year! Additionally I am lifting weights again (deadlifts, squats, bench press, etc) and I am seeing nice gains in strength. My man boobs have cleared up significantly and I seem to be putting on muscle which is promising. My semen is normal looking and if I abstain from masturbating for a few days I started to get mild morning erections again and more sexual dreams. However I am experimenting with condoms and still am having some problems keeping hard in them.
However my body temperature is low (97.7-98.1) and I have cold hands and feet often. I am extremely concerned about this due to the underlying hormonal issues this points to. Sometimes I can have a really decent erection but I have trouble maintaining it but I get horny looking at porn. Also I am not sure about erection strength in different positions. All I have been taking is a multi vitamin, ginko biloba, vitamin D, and fish oil. Over the past year, there were some periods where I was eating healthy and sometimes not so much, usually due to depression. I hope to get on foodstamps soon so I can afford a better diet. I am aware of the paleo diet and I think I should try to go on this for awhile.
Over these past months I have obviously been suffering from depression because of all of this. It makes it worse that you can’t fucking talk about it to anyone. So sometimes I binged on food and still abused weed a bit too much. My father committed suicide when I was young so I am aware I probably have a predisposition to depression as well.
On the brightside I have a very strong chance at having sex when I go back to the east coast for the holidays due to a friend with benefits who I will be spending a few nights with. I have levitra that I ordered online though I am not sure if I really need it. I tried a 5mg dose one time and that was extremely effective, almost too much so. So I think I may not need it or only at a very small dose (2mg or so). Also I think if I abstain from masturbation for a week I should be pretty horny.
I have avoided sex and dating all year due to my mental state and fear of performance issues. So due to my failures last year I haven’t had full on sex in nearly two years! I really need this almost assured sexual encounter to work out during the holidays just to get a little bit of motivation and sanity back. I am exercising more regularly but my financial situation is making eating healthy a bit harder but I do understand nutrition fairly well.
I am so ashamed and angry at what I did to myself. I gave away so much. My prime years, a potentially life changing relationship, and large chunks of my sanity all for vanity. I am now 25 and I feel like I have gone through hell. In the future the “medicine” of this era will look like true barbarism. Especially the giant fucking pharmaceutical industry which kills people on a daily basis.
This god damn drug and the fuckers who pushed it should burn in hell. No way this shit is on the market in two years.
I realize that my vanity and choices had a large role to play in this and I regret that everyday. However the fact that something like propecia could even be on the market is truly insane and speaks to the greed and lies that dominate our society. The endocrine system is not something to be messed with in this manner.
A few thoughts:
Thanks for reading, I have read through many of your stories and I feel for each and every one of you especially, the guys who had the most extreme reactions. Thank you for posting because it makes me feel less alone. However sometimes I need to get away from the forum or I will go nuts.
Does anyone know decent docs in Northern California I can consult? I am really concerned about my body temp problem.
I will post blood test results when I get them next week and post about what my endo tells me.
Any advice on preparing for trying to have normal sex again? I got some L-arginine and I might try to get some horny goat weed as well.
As for the medical side of things, I think trying to treat our bodies the best we can is a good start. The endocrine system is a balanced integrated machine. In our case, not so balanced.
We probably need true regenerative medicine to repair the likely cellular damage in the various regions of our body this drug could have affected.
Additionally please take a look at this article: nytimes.com/2011/12/01/business/dna-sequencing-caught-in-deluge-of-data.html?pagewanted=all
We are fast approaching the era of the $1000 genome. Genetic sequencing costs are falling much faster than Moore’s law. Biology doesn’t have the tools to effectively analyze this data yet but us PFS sufferers should all get our genomes sequenced when we can in the coming years and compile the data to compare to normal people of our age. This might shed more light into our conditions and I know that Dr Jacobs suggested perhaps some epigenetic change on an androgen receptor gene. Could have our genomes sequenced shed some light on that theory?