huge problem with my scrotum - PLEASE HELP

Symptoms Sexual
#1

Hi
I’ve been on propecia for the last 3 years. Never knew it can cause any problems so i was just taking it , thinking that it’s the safest drug in the world.
About 1.5 year ago , all the mess has started. At first, I only noticed some sort of a shrinkage in my scrotum . Nothing too serious, but it got my attention to this issue. Since then I always was on the look out , monitoring the situation to make sure that it’s not some sort of a process .
To make sure that I have everything under control, i had an ultrasound test done , which said that everything’s correct.

About 6-7 months ago the situation has gotten worse again. My whole package- testicles, scrotum and penis have started to get smaller, day by day, slowly but surely. Because of this I decided to have another ultrasound and again the results didn’t indicate that something’s wrong but they clearly showed that the size of both testicles is something around 50-60% of the size in the previous ultrasound that I had a year ago.
i went to 3 urologists which are considered the top3 in my country, none of them had any clue about why this could happen. all my blood tests were perfect, my ultrasound tests were ok and they just couldn’t get any lead on why this is happening to me.
Only one of them said that propecia might have something to do with this but he wasn’t sure at all in his words.

I decided to check online and here I am…
I hope you guys can help me here because none of the doctors I met had any idea how to stop my scrotum&balls shrinkage.
I don’t care about my sex desire, it’s ok for now, but this shrinkage is just driving me crazy because it got my balls hanging so close to my body , really like they can get back to my gut at anytime . I can’t walk normally because it has this disturbing feeling that with every step I’m doing, I might squish my balls . I can’t run, I can’t workout at the gym, I can’t even speak freely because I always has this disturbing feeling that my balls are almost in my gut.

Needless to say , I stop using propecia the day after I came across this forum , but I don’t know if my situation is reversible.
What can I do in order to get my whole package back to how it was ?
Please help me guys I’m that close to giving up :frowning:

#2

Its very early days for you, hopefully in coming weeks/months things will reverse since you’ve stopped taking an anti-androgen/feminizing medication (Finasteride).

Anti-androgens are prescribed for male to female transexuals. Finasteride is an anti-androgen, and has been documented to cause estrogenic side effects (gynecomastia, weight gain etc) and hormonal imbalance in males. Finasteride would therefore be expected to cause similar effects as men undergoing male to female hormonal therapy:

See this document, note mention of genital shrinkage:
racgp.org.au/afp/200808/200808kabir.pdf

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormone_replacement_therapy_%28male-to-female%29

You should get bloodtests done to see what your Testosterone, Estradiol, DHT, LH, FSH, TSH, prolactin, 3-adiol-G levels etc are at: viewtopic.php?p=3534#p3534

If you come back with sky high estrogen levels and low Testosterone, you’ll have an answer and treatment areas to consider.

#3

thank you for your response Mew
I have these results from my last bloodtest from last month.
FSH mIU/mL 5.4 0.95 (……) 11.95
LH mIU/mL 5.81 0.57 (……) 12.07
Prolactin mIU/L 221.7 54 (……) 380
Testosterone nmol/L 23.31 6 (……) 29.2
Free Testosterone pmol/L 47.89 31 (…) 142
Estradiol pmol/L 100.0 40 (……) 161
TSH mIU/L 2.32 0.35 (…*…) 4.94

What do you say?

thanks again

#4

Your testosterone seems ok. Your free test maybe on the low side thou. If this doesn’t get better for you soon it would appear you are in the same boat as the rest of us minus the sexual side effects. I have similar issues except that I DO have the other side effects my testicles/scrotum are shrunk up and my penis is shrunk up except when I can get an erection.

#5

Broken_Pecker thanks for your comment
Is there anything I can do to help my recovery? Everyday is a nightmare for me I can’t do some stupidly easy things because of this disturbing feeling.

#6

Hi Worried - welcome to the boards. First off let me say there is a decent perecentage of folks going through the same thing as you. Whether you look into the “shrinkage” topics, “the small ball club” thread, the “fin shrunk my junk” thread etc. you will find folks like you and I whose scrotum, testicles, and penis have “shrunk”. The pulled close to your body sytpmtoms, painfull balls, etc. - we are with you on those. Please post and contribute to those threads - I find too many threads never get added to on this site and tend to just die off. That is a travesty - the people we will learn from the most are others going through the same experiences and also trying various treatments.

To me this is the biggest PFS issue - and I am desparate to find a solution.

Don’t lose hope - I have at many times but you WILL experience days where everything comes back to close to normal or you old self. So we are not necessarily permanently broken. The real issue is trying to figure out what helps and what doesn’t. Sometimes it makes no sense at all why these episoides happen - but my thinking is we are in a bad loop hormonally - it is our new normal. Every once in a while our bodies get more in balance to our pre-fin days but for some reason our bodies fight the correct balance for this new crappy normal. But the hope comes from those occasional brightspots.

Any way welcome -please add to the threads and keep us posted on everything you are going through. STD

#7

so there isn’t something I can do to hurry my recovery? It’s a nightmare for me

#8

Well a big reason this site exists is because many of us never fully recover (or even partially) or else we wouldn’t be here all the time looking to see if any progress has been made toward a cure.

I have heard that alpha-blockers do help the penile/scrotum shrinkage issues, but only certain types of alpha blockers help. I have yet to try this myself. I’m sorry there really doesn’t seem to be answer, at this point. All I can say is maybe try the alpha blocker thing (look around of this site for the specific thread) and try to live as low stress as possible… given our situation.

#9

have you tried taking androgenic drugs (so called “steroids”)? can it help in some way?

#10

I took steroids when I was your age before propecia just for asthetic reasons. I wouldn’t take them now, they shrink your nuts even more and propecia sides may prevent them from coming back after your done with the roids.

#11

@Worried1

Hey man. You JUST quit, right? The odds this will stick with you are pretty low as far as I know of. Normally, your system will re boot, the few of us here just have some pretty bad luck for now I suppose. It is genetic. In the next few weeks to months, just relax the best you can. Limit orgasms, do not drink and eat crap food, and based on what I have heard, everything will be just fine. Like I said, I am told it is very, very rare that these side effects actually persist. Just be very kind to your form now on. Most importantly, be calm, the odds are on your side.

#12

Wow - actually had no idea you are still on the poison. Think about that - you know propecia is shrinking your nuts and package and yet you continue to use??

Get off - but try to taper over a couple weeks. Then eat a healthy diet and avoid masturbation for the first four weeks off. Hopefully your body will recover.

#13

He stopped the drug as of Feb 20th:

“Needless to say , I stop using propecia the day after I came across this forum , but I don’t know if my situation is reversible.”

#14

I think its worth doing a 4x daily saliva test to check for post-fin adrenal issues.
Here is a link if you need it:
gdx.net/product/10102

#15

thank you guys for the support. just one thing - why is it i need to limit my orgasms?

#16

well - as your DHT begins to rise post fin you will have the urge. I think alot of us took that to mean our bodies were recovering and perhap overdid it. Anyway, there no science but it could be that your body new norm of hormonal balance is shifted and will fight it - masturbation seems to hurt this balance.

#17

A lot of guys on this board have had sexual activity precedes a crash or severe worsening in symptoms that take an extended period of time to recover from - if they do at all.

#18

One other thing is during or right before a bowel movement my scrotum tightens significantly…sack almost diappears

#19

Happens to me too, it’s normal. My dick shrinking and becoming pale/ discoloured, however, is not. I used to get erections before bowel movements, with PFS it makes everything down there go scarily small and weird.

#20

Shrinking inside your body isn’t normal never did it to this extreme before finasteride use. Does the same thing with me thou… all the stuff you said above.