Jack's Story

Member Stories
#1

Ok, I once created a username for this board, but i think maybe I never posted. Here’s my stuff.

  1. How did you find this forum? Google, others

  2. What is your current age, height, weight? 22, 6 foot, 180lbs; skinny

  3. Do you exercise regularly? If so, what type of exercise? I try to, and I have found that cardiovascular exercise makes a HUGE difference in the quality of my erections.

  4. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)? i try to eat healthy and cook my own food, eat vegetables, protein shake w/ spinach and celery and blueberries and healthy stuff like that.

  5. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)? hairline receding after 1st semester of college.

  6. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)? I took it for a little over two years. at about the 2 year mark i stopped for maybe a month or so, trying to “shock my system” to retain hair benefits, but i may have shocked my system in bad ways too.

  7. How old were you when you started Finasteride? 18

  8. How old were you when you quit? 21

  9. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? i kind went off it, then tried it every other day, and stuff like that for a little while and then eventually stopped it entirely.

  10. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic? brand name propecia

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

  12. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects? it took two years. now here’s a crazy anecdote as an indication of how good i was, and also an indication of what maybe caused my problem:

  13. What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?

Put an X beside all that apply:

Sexual
[somewhat, but actually I think more related to the ED] 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 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
[X] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[X] Depression / Melancholy

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

Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[X] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[X] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)

  1. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug? Basically just exercise and L-Arginine, Vitamin E

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

propeciahelp.com/forum/viewt … ight=#6669

  1. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.

Ok, here goes…took propecia for two years with no sides. I was conscious that there could be sides, but always glad that I had none. I remember once in December of 2006 I was trying to study for exams, but could not concentrate, and just felt horny. So, I masturbated, and I just kept doing that over and over hoping to get out the horniness and also just to see how much I could. I ejaculated either 7 or 8 times that day. (plz don’t think this was normal for me, i was not a chronic masturbator i just wanted to see if i could do it). This shows A: a possible cause for my problem. B: just a sign of how good I used to be. naturally afterwards, my penis had that sore feeling of overstimulation. today i worry it could have been too much and maybe hurt something. they say you shouldn’t have an erection more than 4 hours at once, well, i had breaks in between but i had an erection for probably wayyyy more than 4 hours that day. it’s not very cool that you spent an entire day whacking off, but it was over a year ago. i remember at the time thinking propecia definitely hadn’t touched my sex drive.

over the christmas break, it was christmas break, but i remember still having a high sex drive. about that time i stopped propecia for a month or so to shock my system, then when i started back i thought i noticed a slight bend, and by Spring Break my penis was definitely functionally different. I hoped it would just go away, and sometimes yoyo’d in my propecia treatment at this time, but in june i quit completely.

I think that the only thing to improve my erections has been cardio exercise. time since i last took propecia has not been a major factor (i think). but even with exercise it’s still not what it used to be. even with a girl it is very difficult for me to ejaculate and i rarely do it from just sex or oral, she has to use her hand a lot to finish me off.

even when i don’t exercise i get erections all the time in class, walking around just from thinking about something sexual, so i know the libido is there. the problem is that it’s just very flimsy, weak erections.

my bend is not very prominent, it’s very small in terms of degree of angle, but about half way up it’s clear that there’s a shift in the shape of the penis.

i’m trying to make this better, but it’s so difficult to even think about this problem as it makes me feel enormously depressed.

I hoped the problem would get better on its own, it has not, so a few months ago I saw a urologist. He said i should just take viagra. A few weeks ago, a urologist said that it should get better soon, and some treatments were available but had minimal success. From what I’d read here, it seemed like most people had no success w/ such treatments, so i didn’t object. It seems to me like surgery is the only thing that can fix this, more and more I am thinking that i want to have this thing surgically straightened. I think there is a tiny piece of plaque on the right side where it curves to the left. Sorry if this post is all over the place. Just thinking about this stuff like this makes my head go crazy. I’m glad that I can get an almost full erection when I exercise, but I want things to go back to normal completely. It’s still not as good as it was before, as easy as it was before, and after just one orgasm my penis has that sore feeling. After two it’s quite sore; too sore to consider more. Please help!!! Do you think I should try surgery since it seems less hormonal? Also, since this hasn’t improved since i quit propecia, but my hair has worsened i really want to go back on propecia!!! I know it seems like a bad idea, but i can’t be 22 bald with a semi functional penis.

#2

So you too got in trouble by quitting/starting fin again. This EXACT same thing happened to me, I too have some plaque or some kind of hard nodule on the right side of my shaft and it bends to the opposite side after that. I’m not completely sure it’s peyronie’s disease, as it should bend to the same side the plaque is, right? I too feel that the penis is not getting proper blood flow and the tissue feels more rigid or hard, as if the previously “soft” tissue has been slowly converted into something more rigid…like the dick now lacks “body and fullness” and is narrower. Is this the case with you?
It feels absurd to talk about and to describe these things, but it has to be done if we want to find out what the hell is happening.
Has your prostate been checked? I also don’t think it’s hormonal anymore. I have some(although litte) libido, but it’s like my dick does not really respond anymore and feels different.
Yes, going from slightly balding to bald, impotent and having tits is depressive as hell, I’ve almost killed myself many times over this.
Keep us posted

#3

You are crazy and I don’t understand why you are even bothering to post here if you are contemplating getting back on the drug.

If you believe it’s a physical issue, go see Dr. Goldstein in California.

#4

Mew:

yes I am crazy. And part of why I say I’m thinking about it is b/c I want people here to tell me I’m crazy. But the thing is, you can only hear so many doctors tell you that fin can’t cause penis bend online and in person before you start to believe it. Look at these message boards. It looks like a lot of people are having this problem from Propecia. But actually this is a very small percentage of people taking this drug. Is it possible that we all would have had this problem regardless, and that since we were on Propecia we looked on the internet and decided Propecia was the cause? Ok, maybe not for some of you, but just for the guys with Peyronie’s I’d say that it is a possibility. I actually started Strattera for 1 month in November, and that stuff really messed me up. My concentration was crap, couldn’t remember anything…anyways, Peyronie’s is the kind of disease one typically looks up info online for before talking w/ friends, family, doctors.

Other thing is, I feel like I’ve lost all hope and I’m at the end of my wits here. Taking Propecia again may be like Russian Roulette (if only the odds were so good), but I feel so desperate that I might actually listen to the medical advice I’m hearing rather than the circumstantial evidence which i pray is coincidence or non-recurrent

I fell in love w/ a girl in Europe a few months ago, and felt content to stay off Propecia, but I don’t think it’s going to work out w/ us (hard to find a way for one of us to move) and she is slipping from this relationship, i don’t have enough confidence to meet new girls w/ hair + penis situation.

Onni (i warn all readers this is a lot of detail, sorry, wish i could make it shorter):

I have a question: has anyone ever gone off Propecia for 1 year, then gone back on and had more problems? this is another reason i’ve though of starting back up. i figure my hormones are stabilized, so if i take propecia consistently it shouldn’t mess up my system, just like it didn’t mess up my system for two years.

Yeah, my dick is definitely narrower and less full now…sometimes. IDK it’s hard to say, i remember on cold days before Fin being shocked how small my dick looked once in a while. Now i sometimes am shocked after orgasm after it’s gone back down at how skinny it looks though, and that seems to be a new development. I think before it looked smaller and now it’s starting to gain some fullness back. Maybe due to exercise or no Fin, idk?! to me the best analogy is this: before this, my dick was a part of me, just like a car become a part of you after you drive it for a long period of time. but when you don’t drive a car for 4 months and come back to driving, you can still drive, but it doesn’t feel the same. the car is no longer an extension of you. and that’s how i feel about my dick quite often. i can no longer take an erection for granted.

and NO, my prostate has not been examined as a matter of fact! i’m not too happy about that, but i’m not going to request a doctor insert his finger in my ass if he doesn’t see fit to do so. anyways, i’m sure once i requested such treatment a doc would think i was crazy anyways and probably dismiss me. but yeah, i’m left wondering, how the hell do these docs know this isn’t a problem with my prostate? i keep hearing about how ED is usually a symptom of something else, but no one’s checking for this.

I took 1/2 of viagra once, and i didn’t like the sides and it did nothing for me. but then i took a whole pill and it did work for me. even the next morning i liked that my penis looked fuller for a little while at least (i know i said before i don’t consider this a major problem. it could be, but truth is i try not to think about this stuff b/c it makes me go fucking crazy, so maybe i try not to read too much into symptoms). i read the thing about Viagra and L-Arginine working together, and i wonder if taking these drugs daily could help my curve. i only have samples of viagra, so i have not taken any since then.

I’m also having a hell of a lot of sleep trouble due to breathing/allergies, neck pain, and just general anxiety. I know that I sound like a hypochondriac with all this stuff, but i’m just saying how i feel, it wasn’t always like this and i pray it wont be like this in the future…or at least i would if i hadn’t lost faith in God.

Edit: Onni, I also have a prominent vein on the right side, although I can’t remember if it was there before or not.

#5

Oh, one more thing if any one is still reading this after my giant posts.

A few months before I quit the Propecia I started to get hairs on the shaft of my penis (which I still have). To me, growing hair on the shaft of your penis when you’re 20 or 21 says that you probably have adequate Testosterone levels, and your male hormones are not deficient and thereby not the problem. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

#6

ok, after spending a painful number of hours in front of my computer, i believe that i have decided (for now at least) not to re-continue fin. if for no other reason than that i would probably get scared and stop again and yo yo and fuck up my system. but actually b/c i’ve read so much saying it’s not worth it on a variety of websites.

question: is saw palmetto safe? the first page on google has sites claiming it can both help or hurt erections. in addition, is it even remotely effective at helping w/ hair loss? thank you for your time.

#7

Get on nizoral and rogaine, starting fin will at least NOT help with your dick issues.
Yes, and many seem to get in a lot of trouble after stopping fin or starting it again after a pause. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I, a previously quite healthy guy, had hypogonadal testosteronelevels and developed peyronie’s a few weeks after quitting fin at the age of 24. And as others are in the same boat, I am 99% sure fin is the culprit.
I however understand your idea though, if hundreds of thousands take fin and about 4% of the male population develop PD at some point, surely some of them are on fin.
I would check for prostate issues as fin messes with male hormones and the prostate, it’s possible that something is not right. That could explain your issues downstairs too.

#8

sorry for the crazy long posts, it’s hard to keep my head whenever i’m thinking about this shit.

Exactly. This has always been exactly my thought process. If I’d developed it 1 month after taking it I would have said it’s definitely related, but 2 years…well there’s a hell of a lot of variables there. If I had developed PD after 5, 10, 15 years of Propecia, it could likely be unrelated, but of course I would see this message board and say “oh, the Propecia must have caused it.”

Nonetheless, I keep really identifying with so many symptoms. I never would have claimed “brain cloud” before, b/c I’ve always had trouble focusing, but it does seem like for that period of time it was worse than before and worse than now. but that could just be b/c in high school i was smart enough to excel at assignments even if i didn’t pay attention in class…i’m not smart enough to do that in college.

Did you ever have neck pain? It seems to be a problem that won’t go away, although i’ve had x-rays and everything’s good.

#9

No. I’m tired and don’t have the energy to read your post again, so did you get the dick changes 2 years after stopping fin or after stopping? If it’s the first, I don’t think there is connection…if it’s the second…we’re in the same boat and I’m 99% sure it’s the fin/dropping it. All I know is that I was fine before fin, was feeling weird while on it and had libido issues and then everything went to hell right after dropping it.

#10

yeah, no i was on it 2 years, had dick changes, stayed on about 4 more months on and off until i finally quit. now it’s +9 Months.