Have you ever had 3-adiol-g tested?
Iām not taking fin, so these effects cannot be caused by pathways being blocked by fināunless, of course, you can provide scientific evidence that shows that fin permanently inhibits these pathways.
There is a paper that Iāve cited somewhere that shows that pregnenolone boosts neurotransmitter activity, but Iām not in the mood of digging up my old posts.
Anyways, the main scientific evidence is my case.
Only clomid without adrenal boost = brain fog, anxiety, fatigue, depression, low cortisol on a saliva x 4
Clomid + adrenal boost = excellent cognitive capabilities, good energy, good mood, high cortisol on a saliva x 4
If thatās not enough to convince you, well, I honestly donāt care much, as long as I feel like a human being.
No, Iāve asked Goldstein and he said that that is the most useless test of all, because, regardless of its outcome, we wouldnāt know what to do for it. I agree 100% with him. If I have sexual issues (and I do), I obviously have low 3-adiol-g. Or not?
yes it is. Thanks, visionquest99.
I only have a $10 co-pay though my insurance, so I just throw in everything I think is relevant even if I āwouldnāt know what to do with itā. 3-adiol-g seems relevant to me in that there seems to be a pattern with many of us. It would have been especially interesting in your case to see where your level was at to start, and how/if it changed throughout your different boosting/treatment protocols, and how that related to how you felt at the time. But I can totally understand not wanting to add on another expensive test if youāre having to pay out of pocket, I probably would only test the bare minimum as well.
Hi m_81
any updates? how are you feeling now?
I update this thread once a month. I can provide a more objective feedback that way.
M81 - did you take the 4 pills for hair loss?
Yep. When I realized I was getting no spontaneous or nocturnal erection I did a search, found this website, and stopped taking fina.
Jesus christ. I am amazed that some guys can take just a few doses of finasteride and suffer from such severe problems. Then again, it only took me about 1 blister pack.
hi m_81
how is going your treatment?
Long due update:
Sorry for the delay updating this thread, but Iāve been super busy at work lately. In short, although on clomid (+T4+T3+pregn+DHEA) I was feeling better than before clomid, I never felt 100% or recovered completely. After stopping clomid, and continuing supplementing my other routine hormones, I have felt a worsening in sexual functions. A new blood test taken 3 weeks after stopping clomid (Iāll post the details if I have time) shows that T and Free T dropped back to pre-clomid levels. Also E2 dropped back to low levels. In practice, all sex hormones went back to where they were before clomid. However, Iāve kept good level of energy and excellent quality of sleep. Right now, I am very satisfied in the non-sexual area, especially because Iām taking a lot less hormones than before clomid. In practice, I realized that I need way less pregnenolone and thyroid hormones to have good energy levels. Right now, Iām taking 40-80 mg TD in the morning and before bed, and occasionally a 150 mg MLM tablet at mid-day. Iām taking 50 mcg T4 in the morning and 10-15 mcg T3 throughout the day.
What to make of this experience? First, with higher T I was feeling better sexually than with low T. This gives me tons of hope for the future, when I might think about TRT. Of course, this was true only because I took good care of the other hormones (unlike in 2010, when clomid made me feel like shit). Second, that our bodyās homeostasis is wrong: our body will try to keep low levels of available hormones (by achieving low T, high SHBG, high E2, or low metabolic rate i.e. low T3), no matter what the other hormones are. chillnās theory says that by increasing thyroid and cortisol levels, your body will be willing to accept higher levels of androgen. This may well be true for some of us, but not for me, as proved by some of my recent labs where I had highish T4,T3,cortisol, but still low levels of T.
Although on T I was feeling better sexually, I am not going to boost it any time soon because I fear that, by doing that, I will stop the positive moment Iām having now. But Iāll definitely talk to my doctor about boosting T again in the future (a few months from now).
Chillnās theory might be true for normal hypogonadal people or primary hypogonadals (due to age, testicleās injury etc) but it is not true for us. We are messed up cases. I believe ,we have got poisoned our selves. I think our body cells have got damaged and they are now less then normalā¦ we need biopsies of different body tissues to confirm this hypothesis.
updates?
Iāve been super busy in the past months and have had no time to update.
I tried the combo pregnenolone+clomid+T4 back in August-October. That gave me mixed and very extreme results (some days really great, some others really bad). Tests showed that clomid made my T go up to the 700s, but my cortisol went up a lot too. I tried to limit this effect by reducing pregnenolone but brain fog would come back. After clomid, all hormones quickly went back to their pfs baseline.
A few months ago, (after clomid) Iāve tried to taper off pregnenolone and thyroid hormones, but brain fog, extreme fatigue, and decrease in sexual function occur if I try to do so. So, I kept taking them.
More recently (past few weeks), Iāve been experimenting with diet and some of the anti-candida supplements taken by IHP. So far, Iāve experienced similar results to other people who tried to replicate his success: strong nocturnal erections, better morning erections, and also a slightly lower heart rate. I plan on staying on the anti-candida diet for a couple of months. Iām busy, so Iāll have no time to update this thread very often, but Iāll try to write something in a few weeks.
Thanks, is your brainfog due to low cortisol?
Some good news.
About a month ago I started an anti-candida treatment and mineral+vitamin IV injections andā¦ wait for itā¦ after a few days I felt better and stopped supplementing with pregn+T4, which I had been taking for longer than a year. Itās now been 4 weeks with no hormones!! During this month, Iāve had some bad periods too, but overall, the trend is upwards. My energy level is good, my mood is good, no brain fog at all. My libido is much better; my erection quality, on the other hand, has not improved significantly. My penis size is much better (but oddly fluctuating). The strength of my urine has increased tremendously ā I never noticed how low it was. Nocturnal erections are absolutely great, sleep is good. If I wake up to pee, 50% of the times I have to wait for the nocturnal erection to go away. My beard grows faster ā Iām sure my free T went up. Here is what Iāve been doing:
Diet
Foods to avoid http://www.thecandidadiet.com/foodstoavoid.htm; foods to eat http://www.thecandidadiet.com/foodstoeat.htm. My diet is strict. There are no exception, no time-off, itās a 24/7 commitment. I tried eating something slightly wrong (corn oil rather than olive oil) and felt worse within one hour. There is no way around: I must follow the diet religiously.
Supplements
When starting the diet, I started taking anti-fungal and intestinal support supplements: candida clear, candida cleanse, candida quick cleanse, essential enzymes, pb8 probiotics, phellostatin, black walnut, glutamine.
Medication
Iāve been taking nystatin tabs (4/day) 2 weeks into the treatment.
Exercise
I followed the guidelines for candida sufferers: exercise (and in particular, sweat) to eliminate the toxins that are freed during the candida die-off. So, I go to the gym almost daily and do weights and at least 20 min bike/run. Interestingly, I generally feel better after exercising than before.
IV injections
Once a week, I take an IV injection of 2000mg magnesium chloride, 196 mg calcium gluconate, 100mg pyrodoxine, 1mL B complex, 1000 mcg hydroxocobalamin, 10 g ascorbic acid, 1000 mg glutathione. This mix has been tailored to my needs. (I have high cortisol and low immune system.) The shots are expensive (~$100/shot), but they make me feel really good quickly. In particular, my emotions are boosted to decent levels, and - I know it sounds weird - my sense of smell is enhanced, in the sense that smells trigger colorful memories, which hadnāt happened since propecia.
With this, let me say that I am not recovered. Although I have improved, Iām not even sure that Iām still improving. If I am, I am improving very slowly. If Iām improving, the improvement is not steady either: I have bad and good days, although the good days seem more frequent. Also, because I introduced a lot of changes at the same time (diet, injections, supplements, stopping hormones cold turkey), itās impossible to say what is helping. However, I wanted to share my experience. Also, since change is occurring slowly, I will update this thread rarely (i.e., monthly), in order to avoid the emotional swings given by a good or bad day.
Whats candida got to do with taking finasteride? Surely if you have high levels of candida this is probably because something else is out of balance.
There is a definite theme here. I have been trying to convince myself that Candida is not possible for so long, despite my symptoms matching up 100%. Probably because the diet and lifestyle changes for treatment are so difficult. However, another long time member finding improvements from treatment simply cannot be ignored. Thank you for the update M_81.
Interestingly, since cutting sugar and fast food completely out of my diet. Exercise helps me to feel better, whereas previously strenuous exercise would make me crash and feel terrible.
Seriously, you took 4 pills and you think that injecting vitamins and minerals and cleaning candida is the root of the problem? Sounds pretty crazy to me.