During those 5 weeks (September 2011 basically) I took on the average 0.5 mg of procepia a day, notice huge drop in erection quality. So I stopped taking them. It took until mid November to get back to normal, but 2 weeks after that it seems everything is as bad as the worst times during when I was actually taking procepia. Does this mean I’m screwed even though I was on the drug for very very little time?
Thanks
Sexual
[ x] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[x ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[x ] Loss of Morning Erections
[x] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[x ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Depression / Melancholy
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
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
I took Propecia for around 5 weeks back sept-oct 2011. After I noticed sides I stopped taking them. My sides were only sexual (ED/libido) that I could tell. I felt that 6 weeks after I stopped I made a recovery, but then a couple weeks later it went back to the way it was (ED/libido).I had no morning wood and can only get a very poor erection even with a lot of simulation by hand. It’s being a week since that, and I think it’s gotten slightly better (can have poor spontaneous erections, a poor, but better simulated erection, and a little morning wood). I’ve started to exercise and avoid caffeine/alcohol/sugar. Do I have a good chance of recovering, or am I really screwed.
And so far, the only other symptom I’ve noticed is occasional pain in the testicles. But after reading this board sometimes I’m wondering if I’m just imagining symptoms or if they are actually there.
Only you know yourself what you were like before the drug. For many guys with issues while on/after quitting, the difference is night and day. If you think your issues are psychological, see a psychologist. However, loss of morning erections points to a possible physiological cause.
Get bloodtests so you can evaluate your current hormonal status.
I’m really sure that the ED/libido is physiological, but it’s the only one I know is.
I also think most of my symptoms can be acribed to tst levels (gonna have bloodwork done asap, also have bloodwork from before procepia to compare with). Does anyone have success with boosting tst levels and have it resolve their problem?
What is TST levels? Testosterone?
If you have low Testosterone post-Finasteride compared to before you took it, that could be a possible treatment area to consider.
Yeah, I mean testosterone
crap I think I’m feeling numbness in my penis which wasn’t there just yesterday too
You could be in some trouble here. Try to stay calm.
My only advice would be to try and accept what may have happened and do not spend ANY money whatsoever on supplements or medications. If you do want to attempt to tackle/ attack this in any way then apply the simple stuff - visit your doctor, cut booze, fags, any drugs, eat healthily, try exercise to find out how you react etc.
How long should I wait before I consider the other things?
Should I start a diet right now? (fish oil etc)
Add waking up in middle of night to that
Welcome to hell
Just count yourself lucky that your crash doesn’t sound that severe. Trust me you would know if you crashed - your body will go really cold, your penis and balls will shrink, your beard growth will stop and you’ll feel very weak. You won’t be able to sleep and you won’t be able to stop urinating. You won’t be able to get an erection and you won’t recognise yourself in the mirror. You’ll struggle to communicate to anything, even yourself, in your own mind. Your emotions will be taken away, never to return. Your vision will be impaired, blurred and hazy. Your legs and teeth will feel weak. That said, you are still alive and most can still walk at this point.
If this sounds familiar, then i am afraid to say you are completely and utterly screwed. However, have hope because things do get a tiny bit better - maybe 0.1% better. Some days 0.05%, some days 0.15%. Just scrub your old self out now, wipe the slate clean. Your body, as you knew it, has gone.
Too much?
I thought so.
Mate, although is sounds harsh, you are very VERY lucky you only have mild ED sides. You have many reasons to feel lucky, trust me. I have (had) all of the aforementioned.
No, I don’t think, thus far, any of the things you have named have happened to me. At least that I realize.
It’s like we all being through a really severe car accident: one day we were all fine, then we make a bad decision, and things can never go back to being the same…
Taca, i wouldn’t even bother with fish oil mate. I have spent roughly £700 on high quality supplements and creams and it has all been one big waste of money. I take fermented cod liver oil (the best) but once it’s ran out i have no plans to buy another supplement again.
Boosting testosterone for most brings no improvements and has even caused worsening symptoms for many, however, if your testosterone reads low then of course you should certainly treat it to see how you react. Basically, treat any abnormal test results and if you don’t improve then that’s that i am afraid.
My advice to any new PFS sufferer would be to not spend a single penny on anything apart from doctors or one of the more promising experimental treatments i.e. GHB and live how you like. No fancy diets, no exercise regimes. If your going to crash or you already have then there is nothing you can do.
Life is fucking miserable with this condition and you need as much money as you can get to survive because given the economic climate - being a motivation-less zombie with a dead piece of skin for a dick doesn’t put you in a good position for keeping/ getting jobs, living as normal humans do in the world.
It’s like a pre-determined car crash if anything - you get into that life and you start living that life and work your way up like any survivor.
If you want to do extra well and want to ensure that maybe this helps you now, do this stuff:
go straight-edge and learn a raw diet or paleo diet lifestyle and get into it quickly. raw is preferable. there are tons of good websites about this and it’s fairly simple. no sugar is obvious as is no fruits too.
drop alcohol and coffee now. don’t take it. you won’t miss em. don’t slip on this!
don’t masturbate constantly, it’s not like it makes you heal you or make you more confident sexually.
Do moderate exercise but don’t overstress yourself in it. do excercie that does the big muscles = legs, burst training.
Sleep well, don’t overstress.
These work the best for us finasteride people and it should do magic to a normal folks too. Order the bloodwork of your hormones now too.
If shit falls through… if you go REALLY deep into the shit, just plunge into the living hell… keep your head cool ALWAYS. This condition improves and gets worse, ups and downs but the best bit is that it improves and you have times of peace. don’t do that mistake and give in to depression in every turn. Depression is a cold air, it comes and goes like the wind and it’s an abusive friend to say the least. Idk if you have been depressed before this (hopefully yes so that you know what it means physically).
There is this fact: lot of us have found relief on variety of things so some things work. So our quality of life improves vastly. Some people have recovered from this. For lot of us, the latter is either the goal or the dream.
…Good luck!
this is horrible advice.
i definitely disagree with the fish oil part. fish oil supplies the body with omega 3’s which are highly depleted in most people and they fight inflammation in the body… if you aren’t fighting inflammation in your body, your doing yourself more harm than good.
without a doubt go on a diet high in green veggies. don’t eat gluten, sugar, or dairy products. all three of these things affect health negatively and there’s no use contributing to it in our body. start exercising on a daily basis, get your probiotics in, and see if you can handle digestive enzymes. if you can, go on as an extreme diet as soon as you can… that means mostly vegetables, at least a liter of water a day, meat that you can handle, not fatty foods… look into leaky gut diet, raw food diet, paleo diet, etc as these will all do good for you. do this as soon as you can to help yourself get better before you get worse.
start paying attention to your lifestyle and how it affects you. everytime you eat, think if you feel better or you feel worse. try to bring foods to your body that make you feel good as opposed to feeling bad.
sitz baths and hot wrap will help bring circulation back to your penis.
i had the same sleep problems like you, mine are gone now on this diet and i can finally SLEEP. i know for a FACT that this diet helps me greatly and it will do great things for you as well.
get on this diet, keep your head up high, and get off this forum for a month is my advice.
An update:
I had a upswing period in which I was almost 100% from Dec 17 to around Christmas time, had strong erections, libido was basically back. But around the same time I seem to notice mild brain fog even as the sexual sides went away: mainly with reading comprehension and recalling the right words and periods of dissociation at the worst. But it isn’t too severe and didn’t impact my social life too much, and those sides have gotten better since then.
But after Christmas it seemed like my sexual sides started to return slowly. mainly in terms of ED. Then I drank a moderate amount of alcohol on the 30th and then ED have gotten a lot worse. But it still wasn’t as bad as the worst period of my last crash. More disturbing though is that last night I got pain/tingling feeling in the groin area for a few hours. Right now libido seems to be around 50-80% of pre-fin depending on the day
In the week prior to the upswing I started to maintain a good sleep cycle and also went around walking a lot (like 2-3 hours everyday) and exercising lightly everyday which I ceased when my upswing started: because of Holiday celebrations and I naively thought maybe that was that for my sides. I’m going to try to restart it (walking everyday, gym every other day), as well as taking supplements like fish oil, zinc and Vit E and see if it improves my condition. Going to almost completely cut out sugar out of my diet as well as alcohol and caffeine completely, have already done so for the most part.
Can anyone recommend anything for me/have similar experience with the ups and downs changing week by week?
Also, sleep problem have gone away
Erection seems to be getting better today, unfortunately also noticing an slight hourglass shape at base of my penis. I’m not too sure if this was there before fin, because I only noticed it after reading about it on this forum.