Hmm, so what do you think the reason for the HIGH SHBG is? From what I have heard, T decreases it as it binds to it? And E2 increases it. Do you know any other mechanisms that can increase it? Have you ever tested your free estrogens via siliva?
hey m_81…which doctor are you seeing currently?
i hope you are recycling the antifungals…4 days each…
don’t swallow the same anti fungal for 21 days…candida can develop Resistance
try to use natural anti fungals as much as you can…don’t use nystatin…i hope this is stressing you liver too much
I have sent this as a PM to you..I am not sure you have seen it...but this guy seems to have the most knowledgeable information i have seen on the web [health-truth.com/2.php](http://www.health-truth.com/2.php)did you test free e and t in siliva test?
Just want to give a brief update. I’ve been on an anti-candida diet, complemented with antifungals and nystatin for the past 6 months. After a surge of energy and (some) libido during the first couple of months, my energy levels have continuously decreased. My blood pressure, which used to be high before the diet, dropped and is now very low. Before the diet, I used to have troubles sleeping more than 5h; now, I want to sleep all day but I never feel rested. I’m not sure why this change, but I’m very disappointed by the lack of improvement. Nonetheless, I will keep on the diet because it is theoretically healthy and I have no troubles staying on it.
A month ago, I’ve taken an Allergy Food Panel, and it turns out that I’m not intolerant to anything. Interestingly, I had one long before propecia, where I resulted intolerant to half of the foods. My guess is that the diet cured any intolerance I might have had. Unfortunately, it didn’t improve my symptoms. Recently, I’ve also taken a stool test and a heavy metal urine test, and I’ll receive the results in a little over a month. Will keep posted.
Just got my stool analysis results back. Believe it or not, I have fungi, helicobacter pylori, yeast, and parasites, despite a hard-core anticandida diet and antifungal supplements for 6 months!!! What the hell!!!
Although frustrating, this gives me hope: if I fix my gut, I’ll feel better. The problem is “how” can I fix my gut? I’ll meet with my doctor in a week and discuss with him.
your gut problems are result of your PFS not PFS is result of your gut problems.I have got stool analysis right after crash (after constant indegstion ) but all was ok. If I get something now , can not blame pfs b/c of gut issue.
I agree, candida doesnt make your legs thin out, face turn red, penis curve to the left 1 day after taking propecia…sorry guys.
m_81,
Have you been cycling the anti-fungals?
watch the video on this web page: health-truth.com/2.php
and that guy seems pretty knowledgeable too
After my disappointing stool results (see my last post), my dr put me on diflucan (100 mg/day) for 3 weeks. Although he’s against drugs, he said that diet and supplements can only get you this far; if they don’t work, then diflucan is necessary. The diflucan didn’t do anything at all, except slowly decreasing my energy and increasing my brain fog. I dumped it and stayed on a raw food diet for a couple of weeks to give the liver a rest.
While the diet helped with my brain fog (it’s still present though), it didn’t do anything for erections, libido, emotions, or sleep. Inspired by FJ929’s experience, I started taking 5-htp two weeks ago hoping that it’d help with sleep, energy, and brain fog. To my surprise, it made my erections improve almost to pre-fin levels and it gave my libido a solid boost (libido did not quite reach pre-fin levels though). I now have great nocturnal erections and lots of spontaneous erections throughout the day. 5htp is helping a lot with shrinkage too. The positive effects were immediate after the first dose and have not weened off yet after two weeks. Although 5-htp is helping with sexual sides, so far it is not helping with any other side.
I’ve tried different doses. I’ve consistently taken 300 mg before bed, which guarantee great nocturnal erections. If I also take 5-HTP thoughout the day (100 mg for 2 or 3 times), I also get spontaneous erections.
Linking my exprience with 5-htp to that with pregnenolone
Before trying 5-htp, the only way I could get good nocturnal erections was with pregnenolone before bed. I thought it was because pregnenolone regulated cortisol. Now, I’m more inclined to think it’s because pregnenolone regulates neurotransmitters, as shown here. Also, I thought that taking pregnenolone before bed was the only way I could reach a normal body temperature in the morning. Without pregnenolone, my morning temperature had always been low. With 5htp before bed (and no pregnenolone), my morning temperature is perfect. I read on the “serotonin” wikipedia page that serotonin is involved in the regulation of blood sugar. Maybe this explains why it helps with temperature regulation too.
nice to see you have moved away from the moronic “leaky gut”/candida theories. Please continue to update how you are doing on 5htp.
You are supposed to lose temperature while sleeping. In sleep the body’s thermostat is also turned off. Having a higher temperature perhaps means you’re not sleeping properly while taking the drugs? Though, erections suggest otherwise. How do you know, if you’re having nocturnal erections?
when i stop to eat carbs my shbg raise a lot. when i start to eat carbs again he back to 20’’ - 30’
you still use lifewave glutathione patches m_81? or was it a different patch? they have 3 total i think.
Hi everyone, it’s been 11 years since my last post. I figured I’d give an update that might be useful.
Short summary:
I was 28 years old when I took fin. By year 5 post-fin, things started to seriously improve. By year 10, I had reached a point where my symptoms were successfully treated and I was once again thriving: I now have a wife, two kids, a house, good job, etc. Last year (year 13 post-fin), unfortunately, I got a bad case of long covid and now my life is ruined again. I thought propecia had been the battle of my life, but it turns out it was only the first. I hope I will get out of this hole once again and when I do, I will be damaged and scarred, but I will live the most fulfilling life that my body allows me to.
What (I think) I learned:
- The bad news is that except in a few cases, post-fin is a life-long condition. I am sorry, but you must wrap your head around this fact. You will never be the person you once were. However, over the years you will learn your new self and learn to love him and to cheer for him. I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but it’s important.
- Things do get better. I don’t know if it’s time itself, or rather it’s you who slowly learn how to deal with this condition, or probably both factors, but it does get better.
- A message to those of you in your 20s. I am so so sorry that this happened to you. Right now, you watch your peers living their life to the fullest and you are a shell of your previous self. But you’ve got to see the long game here. Over the next 10 years, your peers will age and get worse, while you will be a little Benjamin Button who gets stronger and better. With luck and discipline, the gap will essentially close, as it happened to me. When it does close, you’ll look at the previous 10 years, and you’ll see these years not as something that you lost, but as something irrelevant.
- Do not mess with testosterone or DHEA unless sex drive is the only issue you have. If you have brain fog, fatigue, etc, just leave your sex hormones alone. If you boost them, you might experience some good days, which will inevitably come to a sudden end. Your body wants to see a low level of testosterone because of other issues you have, so if you boost it, your body will find ways to go against you, like increasing estrogen, SHBG, etc.
- Diet, physical shape, and sleep are key. You have to see yourself as an old man who wants to be the best he can be. So, these three things are key. With a bit of luck, some of these lifestyle changes will be temporary; when you are better, you can relax them without getting worse.
- When you find a supplement that works, even just temporarily, you should be happy. You can use it in the future occasionally to give you a boost.
Here is the longer story and what I did to improve. I am no doctor, so this is not a suggestion to do what I did; actually, I think that what I did was kind of crazy. It’s important to document it though.
Year 1:
I took propecia back in 2009 (1 mg / day for only four days). I crashed around a week after stopping propecia, and in the first year developed most of the symptoms that everyone develops: no libido, shrunk penis, smaller tight balls, no energy, dizziness, brain fog, GI issues, insomnia, anhedonia. I had good weeks alternating with bad weeks, my body was a mess. A doctor put me on clomid – bad idea. I developed some serious adrenal issues thanks to that, and my penis was still useless. Toward the end of year one, I ditched clomid and started a mostly raw food diet. Within days, my sleep was excellent and my energy was through the roof. My brain was sharp and I could play soccer for 4 hours a day just like when I was a teenager. Libido was still lacking. This great period lasted one month.
Year 2:
At the beginning of year 2, I had an accident and a complicated surgery. I crashed again and became worse than I ever was. At this point, the raw food diet didn’t help anymore very much. This was for me the lowest point. Needless to say, in my first years I was on this forum all the time trying to find answers and protocols. Over the years I tried diet, hormones, addressing gut issues, neurotransmitters, etc.
Year 3:
I was in grad school and I needed my brain. I realized that high-dose pregnenolone completely fixed my brain fog and lack of energy. Before you start bathing in pregnenolone like I did, though, keep in mind that pregnenolone will cause your cortisol to be very high, which is pretty bad long term. In this period, my heart rate was always high, I couldn’t sleep more than a few hours a night, etc. This was not a problem though, because as soon as I woke up I would take pregnenolone and within 30 minutes my brain was alert and functional. Again, it was crazy, but I needed to graduate and find a job, so I stuck to it for a little over a year.
Year 4:
After finding a job, I decided that it was time to stop this pregnenolone madness. Of course, fatigue, some brain fog, and lack of stamina came back. At this point, I found the miracle drug for me, gabapentin. 100 mg every night, together with melatonin and other sleep supplements, and I would sleep much better and feel much better the next day. I kept taking it for 5 years.
Year 5:
I bought a juicer and experimented with juice fasting and oh boy, that helped. For a week I slept like a baby and my mind was as clear as ever. Mood was great, colors were more intense. I kept juicing occasionally ever since (for a day at most). That year, I got married to a wonderful woman who accepts me for what I am post-fin. At this point, I could have sex but it wasn’t great and my penis and balls were still shrunk. I still didn’t feel like myself though.
Year 6:
Our first child was born. And that is when things really started to turn around. I have a few hypotheses, from the most likely to the least likely:
I started working less. importantly, I didn’t work in the evenings any longer. And it turns out that minimizing tv and computers in the evening made me sleep much better.
I started to sing (to my child) every night. i read somewhere that singing stimulates the vagus nerve and that has positive effects on hormones and neurotransmitters.
I had a oxytocin overdose. Before my child’s birth, I thought I couldn’t feel emotions very well. I was wrong: witnessing the birth of my child triggered the strongest emotion I ever felt; I’m sure I had a oxytocin overdose. Look it up: having a child releases a flood of oxytocin that changes the brain of both parents permanently.
That year I also changed my workout. Up to that point, I was focusing on going to the gym and lift weights. That year, I focused more on long walks of about an hour. It improved my sleep and appetite.
Year 7-10:
We had another child, again another huge oxytocin overdose and less computer-related work for me. I also stopped taking gabapentin. I forgot to mention that over the years I kept taking some pregnenolone here and there when I felt like I needed it.
Year 10-12:
At this point, I had ok energy, ok physical stamina, but I still had sleep issues and still couldn’t drink alcohol or have a large dinner without my heart rate stay up all night. I decided to start running. In these years, I trained up to the point to start winning medals in local races. I specialized in 5k, which I could run under 20 minutes at the age of 40. I was running 3-4 times a week, which helped my sleep, my mood, my appetite, and my ability to drink alcohol. However, that feeling of happy relaxed drunk was gone the day I took propecia and never came back: after that drinking gives me a drunk but not stressed feeling. My libido was acceptable: I could have sex every day if I wanted to. Talking to fellow 40 year olds, I found out that some (not many) of them also started having trouble sleeping and couldn’t really get drunk without paying the price the next night or the next day.
Year 13:
At this point, at 41 years old, I had the same mental and physical stamina I had pre-fin when I was in my 20s, and a similar enjoyment of life. I was sexually completely functional: I could have sex for as long as I wanted, no problem with erections, etc. The only thing I was missing was the raging libido from my 20s. To address this, I decided to cautiously try to boost it with DHEA, which I had low. Note that I had supplemented with DHEA in the first few years, but any result I got didn’t stick. It was not the right moment yet: I needed to fix everything else first. Well, on 100 mg of DHEA a day I had similar libido as in my 20s; I simply couldn’t stop thinking about sex all day. It also increased my aggressivity. I don’t know how a normal 40-year old is supposed to feel like, but it can’t possibly be much hornier than I was on DHEA. I was planning to stay on DHEA forever.
Year 14:
Unfortunately, I stayed on DHEA only for two months, that is, until I got covid and my heart rate skyrocketed, so I had to stop it. My long covid is a new nightmare that I don’t want to really discuss too much here. It’s just a very different disease from post-fin. I have high heart rate and blood pressure upon standing (hyperadrenergic POTS), insomnia, and reduced ability to work because of all the adrenaline that my body is constantly pumping in my system. With long covid I have had bursts of raging depression – and I’m not saying this lightly. With fin I had anhedonia, that is, I didn’t care if I lived or died. With long covid, I felt the urge to hurt myself. Thank goodness the depression is mostly gone, but it is scary. A big difference between my post-fin and my long-covid is that with long-covid if I do too much activity, I get worse permanently; with fin, I could try drugs, hormones and what not and I never got worse permanently.
I don’t want to get too much into how I’m doing now because it’s not that relevant to this forum. I hope that my experience might give some hope and perspective to others, especially the youngest victims.
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Suggest you start with strict paleo diet immediately.
Just Meat,Veggies,Simple carbs like Rice
No Fruits/Sugar/GLuten/Any hard carbs
Huge thanks for sharing your story. As a ‘mid long term’ sufferer (going on almost 4 years now) these stories really mean the world to me and keep me alive and fighting. Literally.
I wish you all the best in your next struggle. Your PFS background hopefully gives you the strength to keep on pushing. You’ve got a lot to live for now too.
u improved with that? whats your symptoms?
thanks for the post
but I’m 3 and a half year into this and already very very tired of it all, to be honest (as I’m pessimistic) it doesn’t give me lots of hope, which I need.
I’m a at a loss
Yes. I do.
I also do ‘Andy Cutler Mercury Chelation’. There is a FB group where everything is explained in detail.
Please search for it in facebook.
I have been doing chelation for 4 years and along with diet is what helped me the most…
Hey man, I have PFS and long COVID too. Can we chat? I’ll try to PM you.