I’m not 100% certain the saffron tea had anything to do with my symptoms anymore, but I can definitely confirm it had a very negative mental effect on my wife. It gave her significant depression that resolved immediately upon stopping drinking of the tea.
That really makes me laugh !
I’ve never called it dog food on this forum ! Just as a pm to you. I say that to my kids because the poor quality beef I get in Thailand has somewhat of a dog food smell to it. But made with good beef, it’d be a quality meal !
Thank you for posting, you’re doing a great service by giving hope to people here. Also thank you for describing your symptoms. I had the same neurological symptoms as you plus some, but less sexual symptoms. I’m glad to see the diet did work on your sexual symptoms and overall symptoms.
I really believe in this diet ! I know. I must have said it a hundred times. This is why I’m grateful you’re giving a second opinion on it. Others have had good results, but none have posted like you did. The good you’re doing will come back to you . It’s all to your honor !
I also got most of my symptoms gone within the first few days, with fluctuations for many months. Now I’m stable and as you said, if I had to live the rest of my life like I am now, it’d be perfectly fine with me. Pfs is not a burden anymore.
Your diet is certainly more interesting than the “Dog Food” I eat only once a day. I’d love to eat what you’re eating !
However, it’s got too much lactose and I was allergic to it before I had pfs. Plus lots of things you eat have more than one ingredient. The chemicals in there can account for your fluctuations. You’d be surprised how a little MSG can crash you for many days !
You’re doing great !
There is hope ! We can beat this !
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Thanks Ozeph!
I have no way to know if this diet is really what helped me. I may have recovered on my own if I had waited two more days. Also, this may still be a temporary recovery and I may crash again. If it holds until Christmas, I will be fully convinced I’m on recovery road. I have not heard of accounts of temporary recoveries lasting 2+ months. That being said, the timing is undeniable. I was in a VERY bad way for so long with no improvement and the 2nd day of the diet I had such a miraculous swing. With as bad as I was, I am afraid to change anything with my daily routine. I will do this until I’m 100% sure I’m stable. 6 months at least as long as it’s working.
You bring up a good point Ozeph. You mentioned to only eat food with one ingredient. I also somewhat do this. Yes I have a lot of cheese and dairy, but I pay very close attention to the ingredients and get only organic or items that have minimal ingredients that I recognize. This is fairly easy in the US, there are so many options. Only the cream cheese and has very minimal carbs, like 1-2g along with some small amount of vegetables I eat. Mostly spinach, I eat a good bit of Baby Spinach. Heavy cream and other dairy and cheese I eat has zero carbs. No MSG or anything like that is in my diet. Everything has minimal only recognizable ingredients. Even the ketoVitals electrolyte water mix Magnesium, Sodium, Calcium, etc. and Stevia, Beet Juice, and Monkfruit. Only ingredients I recognize, this is why I chose this brand.
Again for everyone, I have no idea if this is actually resulting in my recovery, but I can only tell you what is currently working for me. I just woke up, which is always scary for me as I often go to bed feeling great but never know how I’ll feel in the morning. I can’t count how many times in the last few months that I’ve gone to bed feeling 90%+ and woke up feeling suicidally bad.
However this morning I feel fantastic. With the resolution of my mental sides, I honestly could care less about my sexual a sides, but I know many others would like to hear progress there as well. I got 6 hours of sleep with only one wake up last night and had solid nocturnals. Still no return of morning wood though. Also, I had sex last night with 100% normalcy and it appears to have zero effect on my current state.
I hope this holds, I have my life back for the time being. Stay strong everyone.
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All,
I said I would stay away but I have to come on and let everyone know I am currently recovered 100% today. I have been steadily rising for some time, but haven’t felt this good in so long. I’m sure I’ll regress and fluctuate, but hopefully my baseline will stay very high. I will say that this feels very stable.
Libido is back, zero anxiety, I am excited to attack the day and what is to come in the future. Please don’t let this be a temporary recovery!
This is on the back of best night of PFS sleep I’ve had. 5 hour session + 2 hour session with very short wakeup.
I hope we can all feel like this one day, best of luck everyone on our continued recoveries.
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Well, bad news. I woke up lower this morning. I kinda figured that might happen as almost all of my significant dips or crashes have been on the back of a upshot to 100%.
That being said, the drop off is not THAT bad this time. I don’t feel great, but I feel ok. Anxiety is back but bearable, I just hope that this is the new bottom and I don’t drop off anymore. I’m back again to thinking it’s best I provided only monthly updates as day to day progress is always fluctuating.
Gonna go hit my morning exercise and hope it curbs my symptoms. Good luck everyone!
Edit: For record keeping, I think this is day 25 or 26 of feeling pretty good. I’ve only had maybe 2 somewhat bad days in this streak. Still hoping these are genuine improvements and not temporary recovery.
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Well, at least it’s not that bad this time. I hope it’s slowly but steadily improving. I’m looking forward to hearing some better news from you in your monthly update.
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Quick update, still in a mini-crash but thought it was worth noting that morning wood has returned only lacking in intensity and duration past 4 of 5 days.
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What about your anxiety?
A week(or so) ago I thought my morning wood had finally returned on a regular basis, but it’s gone now.
Anxiety has been fluctuating since my mini-crash but is manageable. Periods of the day it is gone completely, typically in the evening. Exercise seems to help me manage my anxiety somewhat. When it’s at its worst I will hit a workout hard and during (and a few hours later) it seems to improve.
The main symptoms I’m dealing with since the crash besides anxiety is return of some anhedonia and light depression. My sexual symptoms seem to continue to improve. I’ve now had sex twice in 3 days, which previously I was going at least 1 week and up to multiple months without.
One more thing, do you experience the so called hard-flaccid syndrome?
I just briefly looked this up, but I don’t believe I’ve experienced this although I have had some of those symptoms they’ve never really been correlated.
So, I want to clarify. Yes I did experience this syndrome. I had forgotten what it was like when sexual symptoms were hitting full force. They all came back and this syndrome pretty accurately describes what I experienced. When I’m flaccid state, penis is shrunken severely but somewhat firm to the touch. Penis and center of scrotum is ice cold, severe ED, but can get some level of erection with manual stimulation. I say this as all of my symptoms returned with this most recent crash.
First got hit with the mental, then separately a few days later with the physical. I was in a very bad way for 1-2 days. Things improved quickly though after the crash and I’m in a much better state although not back up to the very good place I was in for the past 5+ weeks….YET. I hope things continue on this path and I have good news for everyone when I do my end of month update.
I’m sorry to hear that. I’m currently experiencing something like that. Btw have you noticed soft glans during erection? Developed any curvature?
Mental came next for me, but it’s easier to deal with. I hope things are gonna improve soon. Looking forward to seeing good news in your update too.
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I haven’t noticed that, but my severe dip down back to full on sexual dysfunction healed in 1-2 days. I haven’t been overall on average as good as before, but past two days Im tasting full recovery again in small spurts. Let’s hope it holds until my end of month update. Overall still doing well despite my ups and downs.
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Merry Christmas everyone!
Wanted to do my update today since I have time and I’m planning to enjoy the rest of the holidays with my family and forget this forum even exists for the next month. I have been VERY close to fully recovered past 3 days. I still often have bad mornings (which are not THAT bad) but am generally better by 10AM-noon. I have taken off exercise for the holiday break or exercises significantly less but still feel great. Here are where my symptoms stand keeping in mind things are still fluctuating.
- Loss of libido - 7/10 - uncontrollable urge to have sex is back and can do twice a day now. Urge to do so is not AS often as normal, and not 100% as intense as before.
- Erectile dysfunction - 10/10 (recovered)
- Spontaneous erections - 4/10 Starting to return periodically.
- Nocturnal: 10/10 - (recovered)
- Morning: 1/10 - still don’t have these for some reason.
- Penile shrinkage: 10/10 (recovered)
- Penile pain: 10/10 - (recovered)
- Emotional blunting - 9/10 fluctuates from 8-10
- Lack of motivation - 8/10
- Anhedonia - 8/10 I enjoy most everything I used to, just not with 100% same intensity yet.
- Anxiety - 9/10 - can actually sit down to eat now and fully relax sometimes. No more constant pacing. Laid down and watched a Xmas whole movie in a relaxed state! It was wonderful!
- Unusual stress response - 8/10 - still an issue but I am managing things to be as low stress as possible. Cannot watch very negative media still.
- Depression - 9/10 - rare glimpses of return
- Insomnia - 6/10 generally 6 hours per night with some better and some worse. 1-2 awakenings and sessions up to 5.5 hours.
- Suicidal thoughts - 10/10 (recovered)
Genital numbness - 10/10 (recovered) - Orgasm quality - 12/10 my orgasms are WAY better now, I don’t understand this one, maybe because I’m having sex rarely for time being?
- Nerve pain - 10/10 (recovered)
- Muscle twitching - 9/10 (returned periodically)
- Testicular pain - 10/10 (recovered)
- Lowered body temperature - 10/10 (recovered)
- Appetite - 8/10? Difficult to gage as my diet is so different now.
- Dry skin - 9/10 only between fingers and on feet, improved from last month.
- Dry eyes - 8/10 fluctuates and does not generally bother me anymore, sometimes I need eye drops.
- Digestion - 7/10 - Much more stabilized and much less noise.
- Loss of aggression - 6/10 - returning and I now have some sort of mood swings where I get quite angry and annoyed again when my aggression returns.
The progress I have made in the last two months is simply astounding. I went from thinking my life is over to being almost 100% recovered. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and make great progress in your recoveries in 2022!
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Came back to note that I slept almost 8 hours with a single wake up (6.5 + 1.5) and that was with some light cheating on my diet yesterday for the first time since I started. (2 bites of ice cream and half a cookie) I haven’t slept more than 6 hours hours total in basically 7 months minus my initial fake recovery. So this is a SUBSTANTIAL sudden improvement. I mean that was basically normal sleep, I just woke up to pee once. I used to sleep 8-9 hours every night and wake up groggy still, so I’m not normal but 8 hours and waking up like a morning person is actually improvement from where I was.
A few things I wanted to note for everyone, just random things.
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I have a mild Tourette’s, and this went away for the most part or significantly lessened while I was suffering but is now returning. Maybe this points to some root cause of mental issues?
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I Also have an issue with nasal swelling, non-allergic rhinitis that bothers me significantly when I lay down to go to sleep Primarily. I even had turbinate reduction and it helped but is still a significant problem. This also went away while suffering but is returning. Another clue? Neither has returned full force yet.
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After first-hand experiencing PFS, I was able to diagnose my father-in-law, who lives with me, with PFS. How under-diagnosed is this horseshit??? My god, two people in the same household? It cannot be as rare as they say. He is a long term sufferer, a husk of a human being and a constant reminder of what I can become if I don’t somehow dig myself out of this hole. My poor wife, she lost her dad to this and now almost her husband. This shit has to get off the market somehow.
I feel for everyone still suffering and hope you find reprieve soon. Stay strong, you’re legends all of you.
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So, I hadn’t really noted that I have not worn deodorant in 6-7 months and have not really smelled. I have noticed in the last week that I smell horrible when I work out now again.
Had a minor dip with some depression, anhedonia, and anxiety today that lasted a few hours but some intense exercise later and now it’s gone.
I don’t know if it’s a regular dip, but I had taken a week off from exercise and been cheating on my diet a little. I’m going to tighten things up again and try to push this recovery across the finish line.
My sleep is back to crummy again since my REALLY good night, it’s not that bad. I am getting my main session up to 4.5 to 5.5 hours now, but Not getting much more than 6 total hours if that. Still, it’s good enough for now.
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Thought of some more early symptoms I previously had that I now attribute to finasteride and wanted to record them while I’m thinking about them. These are all now resolved for the time being.
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Inability to get the last bit of urine out. Just felt like it got stuck in perineum and then last bit in my penis just would come out. If sitting down, when I would stand up…. It would then annoyingly come out and make a bit of mess.
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Skin rash on the back of my neck, in my hair. Just bumps on the skin that kept coming and going away. Initially thought it was allergic reaction.
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Joint pain, especially in knees.
Having a down day today with my mental sides, but overall have still been good lately. Hope to recover back up to where I was quickly. I’ve still been cheating on my diet and exercise lately with my holiday and staying up way too late. I think the staying up late and not getting great sleep is the thing that is getting me the most. Now that holiday is ending, I’ll get back to routine and hopefully have another good report end of January.
Also, something that could contribute to my downswing is having sex 4 times this week. I have been doing it much less previously. Going months without at my worst and once per week at most when feeling better. I do notice that I seem to feel different the day after sex, I seem to have hot flashes and slightly lower mood. This seems to get worse the closer together and more that I do it. This may be the cause of my downswing.
It seems this was only an option for you because you still had erectile function and some genital sensitivity, right? Severe cases would be more like a rare if any erection and, if so, anhedonia. If any ejaculation would occur, there would be no orgasm whatsoever, simply a mild ejaculation.
It seems like perhaps you recovered because, as rough as the ride was, your symptoms were still relatively minor.
Maybe, I don’t know. At my worst, it’s hard to see how it could’ve been much worse. At the bottom when my anhedonia hit the hardest and was 100% complete I had joy in nothing. I paced around all hours as I had no direction. I wanted to do nothing, I got joy from nothing, I didn’t want to eat even, no desire. Didn’t want to live. I had ice cold genitalia, no sensitivity and severe ED, could barley make any difference in erection level with tons of manual stimulation. Penis felt like rubber and was 100% useless for anything but pissing. Visual stimulation was non-existent as I mentioned before looking at a naked woman and a dead kitten was the same. Anxiety so bad, I could never sit down I paced all the time, even while eating.
This 6 weeks or so where I was at my bottom, it was BAD. It was truly, truly bad. There is no mistaking this point. It wasn’t relatively minor. It was a state that if stuck in, I would absolutely 100% have killed myself at some point in the future. I planned my future suicide every second of the day when I wasn’t scouring the forums for some other way out.
Now that I’m partially recovered, things are definitely not nearly as bad, even in my “down” days. I feel completely blessed that I am to this level. For example, I had a “bad” day today and yesterday. My anhedonia is back and I don’t get enjoyment from much of anything, but I can still respond to music, I hum tunes in my head now on bad days. I can make myself watch a TV show and get some distraction from it, whereas before I couldn’t even do this. It would be like the visual equivalent of a nails on a chalkboard. I can enjoy the taste of food, and get some comfort from hugging my children even if I don’t really enjoy playing with them right now like normal. I am playing a video game currently and while I don’t enjoy it like I normally would. I am getting something from it. I don’t have much libido on my down days, but can respond to porn or my wife if I make myself and can get pretty much a normal erection although not quite as responsive and my desire is low.
My low times are getting shorter and not as bad and my good times are getting better and longer now. My sleep is improving, I feel all the pieces slowly falling into place. I am still not recovered, there is a lot I’m still missing except on rare days when I approach 100% but those are RARE and almost always followed my a crash of varying severity. 3 days ago I hit 95%+, now crashed past two days. I already feel it fading right now though and expect to wake up tomorrow improved. I don’t know why I seem to be on the way to complete recovery and so soon. Soon being relative as 7 months of this shit is enough already. I am completely dumbfounded why I should be given this second chance, but I seem to be getting one. I had it bad, and I’m recovering. Don’t try to rationalize it away by saying I’m only recovering because I didn’t have it bad. It could be a false recovery and I could crash completely any day. I’m terrified constantly of this possibility, but it’s been almost two months now of more good days than bad. I’m starting to believe this might be real.
I had it bad, and I’m recovering. I don’t know why, but I hope it gives others hope to know that this is possible.
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