So I’m a disability-retired 50yo lawyer residing in Charlotte NC USA. I’m intelligent/normal/rational, definitely not confused/deluded/mendacious etc.
See my earlier posts for my detailed history - these are highlights/tips.
I’m posting SOLELY to benefit/encourage you, not to brag etc. I’ve handled 20+ difficult non-jury trials and can easily prove my “PFS story” via 50+ “conventional” medical experts I’ve consulted since 2014, countless medical documents, my ex-GF, family/friends etc.
Yes, I truly have 100% recovered from ALL “POST” FS maladies as follows:
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I took 1.25 mgs finasteride daily for 15 years. I discontinued it early Dec. 2014. The PFS “grenade” exploded in my brain in mid-Dec 2014, instantly transporting me to the PFS “Twilight Zone.”
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I instantly transformed into an emotionless/sexless robot. Zero emotions, zero libido, sexual plumbing entirely ceased functioning. My very last erection felt awful, like a foreign object attached to my body.
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All minor PFS maladies – body-feminization, breast development, black/green eye skin area, penis pain - 100% resolved in four months. I have no tips/explanation for this unfortunately, other than Tylenol for penis pain.
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Full emotionality returned mid-2005. I have no tips/explanation for this unfortunately.
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I had ZERO erections for at least a year. However, to my surprise, one morning a full “morning wood” erection appeared but I still had no libido and it was not sexually responsive at all.
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In early 2017 an “insatiable lust demon” reappeared in my head and I’ve had normal libido since then.
TIP: Peruse visual erotica weekly to perhaps reawaken your sexual desire.
- I still believed PFS had permanently/irreparably severed the brain-penis connection. I never had the slightest trace of a sexual erection or any hint that my sexual plumbing was working. However, “for the hell of it” I resubscribed to Playboy and downloaded some erotic videos but never attempted masturbation (to avoid “failure frustration”). In June 2017, I watched a video and felt an intense physical sexual desire for the first time in 2.5 years. Without any trace of an erection, I experienced an intense orgasm and very weak ejaculation. The next day I experimented and discovered EVERYTHING worked normally again – intense sexual desire, masturbation (20-30 minutes full erection), explosive orgasm, normal ejaculation. Since then I’ve daily masturbated 2+ times, no problems.
TIP: Try masturbating weekly, with or without erotica.
NOTE: I won’t answer Qs about sex/masturbation/sexual plumbing. Don’t ask. It’s all good.
- I was suicidally-depressed from Dec 2014 – Jan 2017. (I’ll spare you details of my thoughts/irrational actions.)
My thoughts on surviving PFS:
+ Don’t buy a gun or pre-arrange suicidal techniques/suicide notes, to avoid acting rashly.
+ Take boatloads of anti-depressants prescribed by doctors. (I did for 1.5 years but have forgotten names).
+ See a psychiatrist/psychologist regularly (I did).
+ Socialize and exercise as much as possible.
+ Don’t overshare your PFS story; refer everybody to pfsfoundation.org for more info.
+ Don’t read suicidal forum posts or interact with suicidal types.
- I have NOT recovered at all from “spectacularly awful” sleep dysfunction that began in June 2014 and certainly caused by 15 years of finasteride use (but not POST-FS). I rarely achieve unconscious sleep and instead “rest nap” randomly.
TIPS:
+ Belsomra helps considerably to make me sleepy for extended periods although it rarely renders unconscious sleep. It is RIDICULOUSLY expensive - $15 a pill – so expect resistance from your insurer! www.belsomra.com
+ I exercise intensely late at night, which thoroughly exhausts me and sometimes renders unconscious sleep.
+ Two cheap prescription drugs taken nightly perfectly restored normal sleep from April 2015 – Dec 2016 but thereafter ceased helping at all. (I’ve forgotten exact dosages.)
- Mirtazapine (Remeron), prescribed off - label to induce REM sleep
- Nortriptiline
MISC TIPS
- Doctors will ignore and/or not understand your references to PFS. Refer them to the published medical literature: www.pfsfoundation.org/publications/. However, there is no medical treatment for PFS, so docs cannot solve your PFS issues.
- Avoid alternative medicine like the plague! (I wasted moola bucks on truckloads of mysterious pills prescribed by an alternative doc – he had a medical degree so I took a chance.)