I’m Really Scared Right Now

Member Stories
#1

Welcome to our community. Please fill in the following template as a way of introducing yourself, and helping others to understand your background and situation.

Where are you from (country)? USA

How did you find this forum (Google search – if so, what search terms? Via link from a forum or website – if so, what page? Other?) Reddit

What is your current age, height, weight? 23, 5’9, 130

What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)? Finasteride

What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? Topical 1 mg a day approximately

What condition was being treated with the drug? Hair loss

For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)? A little over 1 month

Date when you started the drug? October 1st

Date when you quit the drug? November 10th

Age when you quit? 23

How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? Cold Turkey

How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects? 3 weeks

What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation? Erectile dysfunction and low libido

Check the boxes that apply. You can save your post first, then interactively check/uncheck the boxes by clicking on them. If your symptoms change, please update your list.

Sexual
[ x] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ x] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] Suicidal Thoughts

Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)

What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?

If you have pre or post-drug blood tests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug (please post your test results in the “Blood Tests” section and link to them in your post)?

Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience?

Tell us your story, in your own words, about your usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug. So I took finasteride for a 3 month span originally back from March until June. I quit the drug because I was having side effects. I ended up convincing myself that the side effects might have been nocebo since I was so anxious about the whole thing and convinced myself to give fin one more try but topically this time. Started noticing low libido by week 3. Then had weaker erections by week 4. I quit the drug over a week ago and if anything I’m worse off now then I was while using the drug. For the first time in my life I couldn’t get hard when I looked at porn. I haven’t looked at porn or tried to masturbate in 3 days now because I’m terrified I won’t be able to get an erection. I can’t tell if it’s in my head or not. I still wake up with morning erections and I’ve even had a random erection once during this period, but every time I think about masturbation I start getting flooded with anxiety. Im honestly so scared right now guys.

Self-reporting template - ONLY USE FOR FUTURE POSTS TO REPORT ANY TRIALS OF TREATMENTS, NOT YOUR INITIAL MEMBER STORY

  1. Name of the therapy/substance:
    • Dosage:
    • How often you took it:
  2. Status
    • Still using [ ]
    • Stopped with no lasting change to initial symptoms [ ]
    • Stopped with persistent change to symptoms [ ]
  3. Duration of use: Days [ ] Months [ ] Years [ ]
  4. Response when you started:
    • Greatly improved [ ]
    • Slightly improved [ ]
    • Stayed the same [ ]
    • Slightly worsened [ ]
    • Greatly worsened [ ]
  5. Current response (if you’re still using the therapy/substance) OR Response in the time before you stopped the treatment
    • Greatly improved [ ]
    • Slightly improved [ ]
    • Stayed the same [ ]
    • Slightly worsened [ ]
    • Greatly worsened [ ]
  6. Lasting changes to initial symptoms after cessation (if you have stopped for more than 3 weeks)
    • Greatly improved [ ]
    • Slightly improved [ ]
    • Stayed the same [ ]
    • Slightly worsened [ ]
    • Greatly worsened [ ]
#2

Ok you’re getting erections sporadically and you don’t have any other symptoms based on your chart above.
You will probably be good in 3 months.
I’m early into this as well so take this advice with a grain of salt, other may weigh in to great effect.
I can only tell you what I have researched.:

  1. don’t panic, you don’t want to flood your body with anything else that will screw up your hormones,
    Besides blood tests consider not changing too much in your life, less is more here.

  2. do not take anything for this like vitamins or supplements except vitamin d. Everyone here is low on Vit d, also spend time in the sun if you can.
    Even if your dr prescribes something assume they know nothing of this condition and consider not taking it, or just ask here for a second opinion. Get blood tests and a hormone panel. You will need a a baseline to see if you’re improving over the next two weeks. Keep getting blood tests and panels.

  3. if you are already go to the gym then great, you will want to make sure you do not do endurance training, switch to compound instead.
    If you do not go to the gym then consider going but do not over train, 20-30 min compound is find every other day or once every three days. Your body is healing and spending energy on repairing muscles may hold you back.

  4. avoid antiadrogen foods feel free to google.

The general consensus here is to relax take things slow, major changes can cause crashes.
AR receptors which is likely causing the ED take time to recoup usually a few weeks, also fin causes the 5α-Reductases enzymes to stop producing DHT which is required for normal male operation, they have a 31 day half life and can take sometime to recoup as well.

Eat a couple of eggs each day to steal some enzymes from them, it’s not much but I suspect over time it will help.

Take really steamy showers 1 hour at a time or whatever you have time for. you do not want your testicles to be super hot. Think sauna, prolonged periods in a sauna like environment will cause testicles to produce testosterone. Some people do cold showers instead but from my understanding that’s more of a bursty and not sustained secretion.
I have found the sauna route to be more effective for me.

Personally I sit in the shower, turn up the heat, keep the water on my legs only to wick heat.
The sauna shower probably not more then once every two days, I know my balls hurt after a successful one but dealers choice. Don’t do this right after eating or exercising. You want to be in a relaxed state, I do it a few hours before bed or just go to the pool.

The goal should be to make your body do the work, it’s how it’s going to go back to a proper cycle. Little changes not big ones, or no changes at all (except food no antiandrogens).

No need to fap, I did work on erections without orgasm to keep brain genitalia health but evidence is anecdotal. You do not want to get orgasmic, it will reduce AR receptor expression.

#3

Have you improved at all? How long did it take you to see improvement?

#4

Iam improving, it took a week before I saw any improvement. I’m in my third week now and some symptoms have gone. I still have ed, low libido, brain fog, and some digestion issues.

The ed is slowly improving and I suspect will take several weeks before I see significant improvements. Like most people here it’s the crash I worry about but that may or may not come.
I try not to stress about it since I do see things getting better.
Just keep an open mind or talk to someone close to you about it. It often helps.

#5

I think I’m recovering. My erections feel a lot better these past few days. Libido still feels low, but I’m sure that will come back.

The problem is, I’ve had this wave of depression come over me as well. I don’t believe this is due to the fin though. I just feel so lost. On one hand, I value my penis so fucking much and despise hormone treatments for myself specifically. On the other hand, I’m a 23 year old losing his hair and without said hormonal treatment will likely be fully bald within a year or two.

If hair systems were cheaper and less stigmatized id got that route, but they aren’t. I just don’t know what to do :frowning:

#6

I think you get the choice to value your junk or your hair. From my experience women don’t care about hair. They do care about your junk. What you do is shave it all off and see what people think. In two or three days no one will care.

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#7

I originally shaved my head 3 years ago and it looked really bad bro… I can’t grow any facial hair at all and have a laughably tiny head. The girl at my work literally burst out laughing when she saw me and told me I needed to grow my hair back immediately because it looked so bad

#8

You have to understand that visual stimulus eventually dims. People get used to it, just don’t go backwards. Keep it shaved.
Women want confidence, and resolve. Make a decision and stick with it, build confidence in that decision and you will have no issues with the ladies.
There are always going to be negative people, they are not worth your time.
I promise if you can be happy with yourself, someone will want to be happy with you.

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