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Canada
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Another forum
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28 5’ 11", 185lbs
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Regular weight lifting
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Meat eater / healthy
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Hair Loss
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Over 7 years
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I was approximately 21 years old when I began
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I quit in October of last year
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Cold turkey
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Proscar, both generic and branded. A few months of dutasteride as well
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1.25mg daily
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Zero side effects for first 7 years
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Significant reduction in libido. Testicle pain, tightness in prostate.
Put an X beside all that apply:
Sexual
[ ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Increased hair loss
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None
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N/A
Early Days
Even as a young teenager, I could see that my hair was particularly thin in suspicious places. By my late teens, my scalp was itching and flaking badly, and I was clearly shedding.
Since I was obsessing over this from a young age, I was already aware of Propecia from having taken note of commercials. I went to the doctor, got a referral to a derm, got on fin.
Almost immediately my scalp felt better, the itching was gone. One strange side effect was an outbreak of cystic acne on my back early on, which cleared up after taking antibiotics. Strangely enough, from time to time I could get large facial cystic acne, to such an extent that I was need to get it drained at the same derm. Bad incidences were relatively rare, but frequent enough that I got on accutane, and after a summer where the situation seemed to be aggravated, it calmed down and was better for some time.
This continued on for the better part of 7 years. Negligible hair loss, occasional cystic acne issues, but all in all a great experience. As an interesting aside, in and around the time of starting, I noticed great muscle gains at the gym.
The Start of the Trouble
Fast forward to last spring. At the age of 27, I started a new very stressful job in a new city. I began working ridiculous hours, and working out less. A few months later, I noticed my scalp becoming itchy, and having scalp sores.
About 6-7 months in, one weekend, I had a sudden onset of strong pain in my left testicle, and a strange tightness in my prostate. It also become clear that the finasteride was no longer working properly. My hair had been shedding significantly.
The pain was bad enough for me to consider going to the hospital, but it subsided slightly, though never fully went away. I ignored the dull pain which continued on in my left testicle, and sought a way to get my shedding stopped. I doubled the Fin dose, and had a week or so where everything felt better on my scalp, but soon it began again.
I visited a new derm and got on Dutasteride. While dutasteride seemed to take away a bit of the itch, the shedding seemed to continue, and the dull pain in the left testicle never seemed to go away.
Throughout this time, I noticed a marked decline in my libido. I was still able to get erections as needed, but something was definitely strange.
Where you find me today
I left my stressful job for a number of reasons, but large amongst them was I feared the stress was the reason for my hair loss, and potentially other issues.
Since leaving the job, I sadly have had the shedding continue. I switched back to fin from dutasteride as it seemed to be getting me nowhere. My doctor had tested my Test levels and found them slightly elevated, but otherwise everything normal.
In and around this time I noticed that my bones were much weaker than normal. I had fractured my shin with a hard bump, which seemed very strange given how I had never broken or fractured a bone previously.
Through experimenting, and unfruitful doctor and endocrinologist visits, I dropped the fin for 10 days. I noticed a significant reduction in the testicular pain that had been with me for months, and an improvement in libido very quickly after going off the fin.
Immediately after resuming and taking even one fin pill, I got immediate testicular pain.
I found myself in a situation where fin wasn’t seeming to stop my hairloss (though when going off of it, my scalp itch did increase), and yet caused me a very problematic set of side effects.
Going Forward
I have fully quit both Fin and Dut for at least 3 months now. I would say that within two weeks of being off of the drugs, the situation had improved markedly.
I would still say that I have improved to no more than 60-70% of where I was prior to taking Fin. In the past when I would miss a day or two of the drug, I would notice an immediate impact on scalp itch. I have been off for 3 months and still my scalp doesn’t feel like it did then.
I seem to get a return of this testicle pain after sexual encounters. I would agree with some others that my reaction to alcohol consumption is not the same as it used to be.
I would love to hear any takes on what the science is behind this. Also, I hope that my story is useful to somebody.