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Where are you from (country)? Washington State, USA
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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?) Google search
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What is your current age, height, weight? 38 years. 5’ 6"
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Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise? Force myself About once a week these days due to energy problems.
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What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)? Been on gluten free the last month…I have all sorts of digestion issues now as well as Lymphocytic Colitis! AWESOME
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Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)? Hair Loss
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For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)? Took it for 6 months about 13 years ago…then started losing hair again and Rogaine wasn’t cutting it…Started up again 3.5 years ago and was on it for 1 year.
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How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride? 25 fist time for 6 months…34 2nd time lasting 1 year.
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How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit? 35
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How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? Cold Turkey
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What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic? Proscar first time, generic 2nd.
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What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? 5MG cut into 4th’s…so 1.25 MG daily
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How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects? Right away…but they subsided for 6-9 months…then lambasted me.
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What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation? Itching and twitching…I have much more side affects off the drug.
Put an X beside all that apply:
Sexual
[x] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[x] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[x] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[x] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[x] Confusion
[x] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[x] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[x] Slurring of Speech
[x] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[x] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[x] Depression / Melancholy
Physical
[x] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[x] Testicular Pain
[x] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[x] Muscle Wastage
[x] Muscle Weakness
[x] Joint Pain
[x] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[x] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[x] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[x] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[x] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[x] Other (please explain)
Itching, twitching, severe thirst a lot. You name it I got it.
- What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
No treatments…have just tried different things with vitamins, exercise and diet.
- 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)?
No pre-tests. I have done post FIN bloodwork…both standard and with ENDO. Regular bloodwork showed nothing abnormal other than low Vit D, but I live in Washington and that is common around here.
Endo blood tests showed a lot of stuff as VERY low, including T. I have those at home and will post those results tonight.
- Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
No…just 3.5 years of hell.
- Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
My story…
I took it for hairloss…got off because of weird symptoms 14 years ago. Everything went back to normal as advertised. So, after noticing my Rogaine wasn’t cutting it any longer, I made the life changing mistake of going back on 1.25MG of generic FIN 4.5 years ago.
I immediately felt like things were changing in me hormonally. I instantly got forehead acne, muscle spasms, hot flashes etc. I just assumed this would pass as my body adjusted. It did pass after a month or so. For the next 6-9 months…my hair thickened and my sides went away. I was loving my decision.
Then the sides started back. The acne, the itching, the twitching. Only now they were stronger as well as new sides. Including a rash on my face, random shooting pains, testicle pains etc.
It all came to a head when I took a trip to Vegas for my brother’s B-Day. I happened to get very sick right before going and almost cancelled due to feeling horrible anyway and getting sick on top of that. But, I sucked it up and went anyway. We drank quite a lot while there and on the last night went to a concert. Keep in mind, I was struggling with the sides and very sick on top of that. After a few drinks I start feeling no pain and pretty much forget about how run down I am. We got extremely carried away with the booze at the concert and probably had 15 whiskey and cokes each. The next day I felt EXTREMELY horrid…but I guess that was to be expected. But it was still a new level of horrid for me…even after drinking all night. So later in the day I had to catch my flight home. As soon as I got on the plane and sat down, my body, mind started freaking out. My heart started racing and pounding out of my chest. My hearing got all weird. My vision got weird and it felt like I was in a movie and not really living what was happening. Pains, hot spots and muscle spasms shooting all over. I was literally losing it as I sat there. I had to sit there and take deep breaths for 2 hours on the flight all while battling world war III inside my head/body. It was easily the worst 2 hours of my life to this point. I thought I was dying and was pretty sure there was no way I could do this for 2 hours.
Amazingly I made it to Seattle battling this indescribable internal nightmare and was somehow able to get my luggage and find my car. I then drove home an hour and a half when I could only see about 30 feet in front of me and was still just completely freaking out in all facets of the human body. Amazingly I made it home…which was the most difficult drive ever. 10x more difficult than driving wasted…and i was hungover…but sober. I really could’ve/should’ve died or killed somebody else on that ride home.
Couldn’t sleep at all when I got home…but was just amazed/happy that that heinous life altering journey I just took was over. When I was finally able to get some rest I started to feel back to normal…and by normal I mean…just having all the sides I already had instead of panic attacks, heart exploding and freaking out.
This is when I knew something was DRASTICALLY wrong with me and I thought I really was on my way out of this world. I started going to doctors to see what F’d up disease I had that was killing me. So, I got blood work done…all good. Went to auto-immune type doctor to check for MS (my mom had) and Lupus type diseases as they have similar auto-immune type sides. MRI of brain all good as well.
This is when I brought up my suspicions about FIN. He said the obvious call is to get off and see if this stuff goes away. It was an easy choice…I stopped cold turkey immediately. All of my sides subsided over the period of two weeks. I knew my hair wouldn’t last…but after what I went through…I didn’t care and was so happy at the thought that I wasn’t dying and that I could feel human again.
That’s when I crashed. 2-3 weeks into getting off FIN, my whole world collapsed. All the sides came back with fury along with plenty of new ones. Over the next few years my sides included…face rash, lethargy, brain fog, shooting pains, anxiety, dark urine, thirst, spasms, diagnosed w/ lymphocytic colitis amongst more.
New sides in the last 6 months include. Face has changed shape…rounder, beard thinner, sunken dark eyes, Calogen in face has melted away…caved eyes/forehead brow bones more noticeable, deep nasty wrinkles on forehead and under eyes and my body shape has changed…haven’t really gained weight…but feel like i’ve lost muscle and gained fat and the fat is going to areas usually that affects women…chest, belly, butt, hips.
Funny thing is…my junk still works fine. The libido is not there…but I can get 'er done whenever needed. Worst part of all of it is the brain fog and mental sides for me. It’s a struggle to get through a standard day EVERY day of my life. The worst part about that is…that after 3.5 years of it…I’m not so sure I can do this forever. The pretending to laugh and be happy while you are brainfogged out and can’t even focus on anything that’s going on around you is beyond draining the life out of me.
This is my long ass story and it could be way longer if I don’t just stop…I will post my endo stats that I just got back yesterday when I get home.
Just looking for any help I can get just like all of you.
Thanks for your time!
krieg17