Juniper's Finasteride Story

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)? US

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?) On Reddit

What is your current age, height, weight? 53, 5’8, 185lbs

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

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

What condition was being treated with the drug? Hair loss

For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)? 16 days

Date when you started the drug? July 2022

Date when you quit the drug? July 2022

Age when you quit? 53

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 days

What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation? Body numbness, genital numbness, lack of libido, lack of body odor.

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
[x ] Loss of Morning Erections
[x ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[x ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[x ] Reduced Ejaculate
[x ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

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

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

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

[x ] Other (please explain) Tremors and hot flashes at the beginning

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

TRT: HCG/Testosterone/Anastrozole
Homeopathic antidote: Dilution of finasteride LM
Acupuncture weekly

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)?
Have not done blood work yet.

Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience?
Can’t really yawn anymore, not ticklish anymore. Now on the plus side, I am a musician and even though I experienced emotional blunting in everyday life, in performance the palette of emotions is the same.

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

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 [ ]
1 Like

How are you on/were on TRT, without bloodwork??

I did blood work before starting TRT but not after finasteride

Hi
I see you liked my old thread for homeopathy. I want to make it clear, Hpathy did not help me for PFS /SP induced sides. So please remove your like.

I only put a like on the post where you say SP is naturopathy. I also got bad sides from SP that’s why I like the fact that you were deriding the naturopathic side. I am not taking any SP anymore obviously.
Anyways I’ll try to remove it, when I click on the like it doesn’t remove it. Could you please tell me how to remove?

I just want to let you and other people know that homeopathy has not helped me at all so far.
If I am allowed, I would like to edit some of my old posts.

I get that, and so far I cannot tell if it has helped me. Did you select remedies yourself or work with homeopaths?
Right now I am doing better, but it’s most likely because the doc gave me both antibiotic and prednisolone for a nasty cold. Last time I used antibiotics I got better for a few days and then it went away.

Not sure why I chose it, I guess I like the sound of it :slight_smile: But thank you!

Some I tried myself and some by two different homeopaths. Initially I thought these meds were helping me but turned out to be placebo.

Went to the urologist today, was prescribed to drop TRT and do HCG monotherapy at 2500ui twice a week.
I’ll report results if any.

1 Like

I have been using homeopathy for many years and I’m now using even more to help with PFS. I found a lot of articles explaining the effect of homeopathy on epigenetics such as this one.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nindia.2015.154