Hollow Eyes and Tinnitus!

Symptoms Physical
#1

Since finally wising up and quitting almost 10 months ago, my hearing has declined due to sudden onset, mild-to-moderate tinnitus. I’m only 20 years old! Right now I’m sitting in a silent house and it sounds like I’m stuck inside a refrigerator, to give you an idea of how annoying it is. Sometimes I’ll avoid certain social situations because I know I won’t be able to hear over the background noise.

My other concern is just as big. After starting propecia for the second time (big mistake), maybe 6 months into the ‘treatment’, my eyes became sunken quite rapidly. This was not a natural change, it happened way too fast for that. Ever since then, nothing I try makes a fucking difference. I’ve tried getting a lot of sleep, getting exactly 8 hours of sleep, drinking a lot of water, exercising more, you name it, it does nothing. I’ve been off propecia for 10 months and I’ve been moisturising beneath my eyes every morning and night during that time period. I stopped for a while thinking that it wasn’t helping, but they looked even worse. This eye problem is extremely concerning as I already had self-esteem issues regarding my appearance, and I stress over my eyes so much now.

If I raise the alarm at the doctors surgery, they’ll probably refer me to a psychologist or wheel me off to the loony bin.

#2

The eye thing may be a sign of overactive thyroid, which apparently can be caused by the whole PFS thing. Is it possible for finasteride to cause tinnitus? I don’t know… Anyway get your thyroid levels tested, if thyroxine is a bit high but TSH is normal it may be that your levels will settle down and medication could give you other problems. Personallly having a similar thing with my eyes, last test showed by thyroxine levels as just over the upper boundary and my TSH as totally normal. I plan to get it tested again soon, if at this point it has gone up further it’s likely that there’s a problem there.

#3

My hearing isn’t as sharp as it used to be and i’ve seen anecdotal reports relating fin to hearing problems here, someone else may be able to help better here. I assume it has to due with nerve transmissions similar to visual acuity decrease. All of my senses have decreased since pre fin.

Regarding the eyes, I don’t know how many people recovered this problem but I still have it and I’ve almost been off for three years. I use Kiehls Creamy Eye Treatment with avacado oil to combat dryness which helps and I also use some eye wipes to clean the lids and lashes to get rid of bacteria. A good face lotion is Anthony - Action for men. The tanning beds or sunlight helps me too. Exercise usually causes a worseing of puffy face.

Sorry I don’t have better news.

#4

Hearing has never been a problem. Ironically I just got a hearing test unrelated to ongoing pfs stuff Ive been to the doctor for. I passed with flying colors (and I’ve been to more bars and concerts etc than you can imagine, so I should have bad hearing).

As far as the hollow eyes. This has been a huge problem for me. I had dark circles for the first two months post crash. After that I saw all the collagen completely leave from beneath my eyes. The skin used to protrude nice on the lower outer portions of my eyes. That all disappeared and is now deflated. Wrinkles have moved in and I look terrible. I don’t think this is reversible. I am doing my best to try to accept this.

#5

Same here. My hearing has declined substantially since this problem (also with tinnitus).

#6

I have bad tinnitus a constant reminder of how important hair is…cough cough

#7

I know, it’s pathetic. And my hairline hasn’t even got any worse since I was 17 anyway. I was paranoid and took this stupid drug for no reason at all, now I’m paying the price!

Anyway, thanks for all the replies guys. I just wanted some opinions because I’m not prepared to say that my tinnitus is definitely a result of propecia, but I’m pretty convinced about the eyes. Has anyone found something that has helped improve the area under their eyes? I heard that both ingesting and breaking up Vitamin E capsules and pressing them into the affected area could help but I’m yet to try it. And like MartinM said, I’ve heard good reviews for avocado oil but you say it does little good? The various top-line eye creams I’ve tried don’t seem to do much good either (Lancome, Estee Lauder).

I also want to warn everyone not to use anything Vitamin A based like Retin-A, I personally think this will make the situation worse by thinning the top layer of skin.

#8

just get the Kiehls, the avacodo oil is mixed in. Sadly nothing replaces the original moisture content in the skin though…

#9

omg me too!! my hearing has been fucked tinnitus!!! i can barely hear people in environments with background noise… and also my eyes have gotten wrinkles too and im only 23!

#10

Tinnitus is a common thyroid related problem.

#11

No question my hearing has deteriorated in the last few years. I have had family tell me I should go get my hearing checked. I don’t don’t even want to know the results. There’s only so much I can handle.

#12

The area underneath my eyes looks horrendous now. The skin is all loose and lines have formed. I had beautiful skin before all this. Also, now when spots appear they are so hard to shake. Usually, 1-2 days, gone. Now weeks, same spots.

I hate what this drug did to me. It is gradually destroying me.

The sad thing is i think i will break up with my girlfriend soon, and just because i’d rather not have to go through the monumental task of trying to make myself look a bit nicer each time i see her (which is alot). It is becoming more and more difficult to look good for her; i am looking tired, weathered and old. Before i was youthful, healthy and looked radiant. I would rather live out my days alone.

#13

Don’t break up with the girl unless there is a fundamental problem. Girlfriends don’t care about you looking a little different. If they weren’t attracted to you, they wouldn’t have been with you in the first place. At this point its how your personalities click.

#14

yeah, girls are more concerned with how you act and present your as opposed to how you look.

and to chime in this thread… my hearing has also been negatively effected, my right ear feels like it has a plug in it and sound isn’t right from it, also tinnitus… i’m actually a member at the american tinnitus association, its an organization trying to collect research information to find a cure. it was actually really nice to read it and check it out because it eased some paranoia for me on it… will shatner is on there talking about how he has it and everything as well.

#15

It just crushes me every time i look in the mirror and see i am getting worse and worse externally

#16

My ears are fucked. I keep getting random tinnitus and also pains in the ear drum.

#17

Ditto.

#18

Just a quick update. My hearing is probably worse now than it was in May of last year, if anything. I can’t hear over any background noise, in cars, at restaurants, bars, even during class.

I had my hearing tested by an audiologist and I have “mild”, conductive, low frequency loss in my left ear. The other is within the normal range. She said this should not affect me too much and will get better if I don’t contract any infections in the next 12 months. It’s funny that I’m just expected to accept these results and go on asking people to repeat sentences 10 times an hour, simply because my results aren’t too bad. Also, the speech discrimination test over background noise they use is ridiculous. Some quiet mumbling is played, then a man screaming “JUMP!” ten times louder. Unfortunately real background noise isn’t so quiet, and people don’t always scream.

It’s been close to a year and a half now of not being able to hear people properly or follow certain conversations. I’ll be seeing an ENT soon to find out if there’s any physical explanation for this.

As for the eyes, I’ll get some restylane under them when I can afford it because they look shocking.

#19

I’ve had tinnitus before finasteride and almost commited suicide over it. I don’t think my hearing got worse after finasteride like significantly or my tinnitus but then again: instead of suicide i got to a doctor who had trained himself into Dr. Hazel’s Protocol and my noise in my ears that equaled to a raging sea close up got lessened into a nothing and sometimes a little noise. This is a real story btw and I can attest this. (anonymous attests…) Look into Dr.Hazel’s TRT Protocol if you are interested of getting rid of it.

As for sunken eyes - i had those pretty terribly but either time or the Kos therapy made those much better. Idk if people pick on me for the latter but it’s my body and it’s around those times i started to look a little more like my old self in appearance.

#20

my tinnitus has’nt cleared up 2months after quitting. there were days i’ve felt improvements like lessening of the noise but will go back all of a sudden with a loud whistling sound.

is this most likely permanent? please hope its not. i cant focus because of this constant ringing.