Hi everyone,
It’s now been 3 weeks since I experienced a tidal wave of brainfog similar to the kind I had daily when taking topical Finasteride. The sensation of cloudiness - like my head’s been stuffed with cotton - hasn’t left me since around March 20th. It coincided with me getting quite sick.
Here’s the crazy thing though - I haven’t actually taken Finasteride in almost 2 years.
Hairloss hit me REALLY hard in my early twenties. My self esteem fell through the basement, and I became quite psychologically ill. When I finally shaved my head in 2020, I became reclusive.
In 2022, a careless remark about my appearance from a family member stung so deep, that I decided I HAD to do something about my hair loss…I started saving for a hair transplant, and looked into meds.
To this date, virtually everything under the sun has given me some horrid side effect.
By the time I got my HT in November, I had whittled my options down to a regime that would make most people laugh.
This included topical Alfatradiol, pumpkinseed oil at 500 mg (I was prescribed that earlier for an overactive bladder), Keto shampoo, and a couple growth stimulants.
Everything else - including topical Saw Palmetto - always seemed to create the same neurological side effects.
Fast forward to two weeks ago. If I look at what changed in that week, I can point to the addition of two other topicals - one was new, the other was used before and could have no way of effecting me like this.
CosmeRNA - likely a quack cosmeseutical out of south Korea - and bloody Stemoxydine - almost certainly a quack treatment from L’oreal.
The latter is a growth stimulant I’ve tried before, with no side effects.
Regardless - having dropped pumpkinseeds, the Stemoxydine, even nightly melatonin - I still feel this familiar pressure in my head (familiar as a side from Fin), slightly blurred vision - though thankfully, my thought process hasn’t been so horribly damaged, as it always felt with topical Finasteride, Dutasteride or SP.
I’ve been in a loving relationship now for a year, and it’s just RECENTLY dawned on me that my sexual appetite (which, to be fair, isn’t exactly volcanic), performance, and size have felt chronically diminished this last year.
Maybe I’m putting the puzzle pieces together far too later here…this past one is a tricky issue, as my body image issues around hairloss previously led to a sense of avoidance around sex.
I hope any of this makes sense. I feel very weird every day. It feels like there is a foreign presence in my head - a sort of foggy intruder. I’m doing my best not to panic. But I also thought it best to reach out to the people who know best about this.
Any thoughts anyone? They’d be greatly appreciated.