Looking for hope. (New member story)

  1. Where are you from (country)?
    USA

  2. 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?)
    Looking for help after taking finasteride and feeling side effects from it

  3. What is your current age, height, weight?
    26, 6ft, 145 pounds

  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    I have started exercise since this happened. Lifting heavy weights and short intense sprints

  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
    I eat a combination of meats and veggies, no sweets or any junk food this this started

  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
    Hair loss

  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    roughly 3 weeks

  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    26 10/11/15

  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    26 11/02/15

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

  11. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
    Generic

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

  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    2 weeks

  14. 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
[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
[x] 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
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] Suicidal Thoughts

Physical
[x] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[x] 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
[x] 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?
    Exercise, Lifting weights, Vitamins

  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)?

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

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

I started taking finasteride after first noticing some slight hairloss on my temples which i was not really fond of, so I wanted to make sure it didnt get worse.
After trying things such as minoxidil and other hair loss products that didn’t really seem to work for me… I turned to finasteride. The first couple weeks I felt fine.
Nothing seemed wrong but then I was watching porn one night and noticed that i couldn’t maintain an erection, after i noticed this i thought i might need to stop but i
heard if you keep taking it then your symptoms would most likely reslove. I took it for another week and noticed this was not happening so I decided to quit. I almost had
an immediate crash once i decided to stop. I noticed that my dick and testicles became numb and cold. It didn’t feel like i had a dick anymore, the dick brain connection was severed. I also felt like shit and could not get any kind of sleep. after a couple weeks it seemed like I was improving and I almost thought I was recovered that quickly… unfortunately this was not the case… it seemed like the symptoms came in waves and it still kind of feels like that. Fast forward to now…

As of now I am better than i was when I first crashed but no where near normal…

Improvements
-Regained feeling in my testicles and dick
-No longer feels cold in that area
-When I am able to masturbate it seems like I cum a lot and its not very watery
-Get morning wood almost every other day but it is not consistent
-Some days dick looks it did pre fin while flaccid
-Waves of slight arousal that comes and goes

I’m still not back to normal but what has happened so far gives me hope that I may recover. It seems like my condition comes in waves… some days I feel like normal and other days I can’t get horny no matter how hard I try. I will keep a strict diet, lift weights and continue to take vitamins in hopes to get better.

Just keep waiting. If you still have symptoms after 2 months you have PFS. The fact that you are improving is a good sign. I hope you keep improving. For now it is just a waiting game. Try and stay healthy.

Maybe you’re not affected by PFS… I remember when i stopped, i felt great only for 1 week, like if i suddenly turned to view life by a colorful filter… After that week i crashed hard and recovery has been slow (4 years)

I’m not sure, I’ve noticed some odd things still happening. Before this happened I used to have a very strong sex drive which now seems to have been lowered greatly. Like I went from watching porn every day to watching porn every 4-5 days. Sometimes I don’t even get turned on by porn which is extremely unlike me. The size of my Penis has been fluctuating, sometimes normal size, sometimes smaller, noticed that there seems do be a decreased amount of hair in the area. I think I may have a mild form PFS, I don’t feel too awful but I also don’t feel like I did before I took the drug. I used to have a crazy sex drive that now seems to have been lowered dramatically. No mental sides at all.

Mate, I would say by 60 days you should have more answers. Your hormones still fluxuate for a while after quiting. I was speaking to a guy who got full ED 30 days after quitting only to recover in the next week. I wish you the best.

So I figured I spread some good news. After 3 weeks of taking this drug I crashed and crashed hard. I am now basically back to 100%. I really thought I was going to be stuck in the PFS state for a long time, if not forever. But about a week ago I started to feel myself returning to normal. My penis feels the same as it did Prefin now. It’s warm, full and I’m getting aroused easily again. My libido has pretty much got back to normal as well, I’m getting sexual urges daily again and it’s quite a relief. The only problem that remains is my size still fluctuates sometimes but it’s very rare now and usually only lasts for an hour at most, other than that it hangs full and warm. I just figured you guys would like to hear another story of someone getting out of this nightmare. I hope the same for anyone else effected by this shitty condition. I’ll still be on the forum just to help out and support you guys because I know first hand how shitty this situation is.

Wish all of you the best and good luck on recovering

-Daniel