I used to read this forum and stumbled upon this thread recently. My story is pretty similar to FINished, with a few major twists, so I figured I would share it. I started Fin in Jan 2017 (age 23) and took it for one month. (Side note: I was taking Saw Palmetto for at least a year before that, at very high doses for part of the time because I had no idea wtf I was doing. Never had sides until I took fin). At first my sides were just stomach/digestion related but towards the end of the month I started having some problems down below and stopped immediately. It wasn’t until then that I found out about this whole universe of former Fin users who were having long term side effects and it scared the shit out of me. My sides continued to get worse until March 2017 when I crashed. Crash was pretty typical of what you read about here so I won’t go into too much detail. I was in bed for almost a week straight. I felt like I had ruined my life and quite honestly reading this website was playing into my depression. I finally decided I had to get out of bed and come up with a plan to try to make myself feel better.
My diet was already pretty clean, for me it was just cutting out that occasional cheat meal and any occasional sugary snacks/desserts.
Starting taking Omega 3
Staring taking probiotics
Got back in the gym for the first time since I started taking Fin (weight lifting and cardio 5 times a week)
And perhaps most importantly I stayed positive. I felt an immediate lift when I stopped beating myself up about the whole thing. I approached everyday thinking about how I could make the most of it, and it helped me immensely.
By June/July 2017 I was feeling pretty good. The stomach sides, which were always the biggest problem for me, lasted the longest and continued to flare back up just as soon as they had disappeared long enough for me to forget about them. Every few months I would have an “episode” where my stomach/digestion went haywire and some of the other sexual side effects would come back. These usually last 4 - 7 days. I’d say it happened 4 times between June 2017 and June 2018. I will also add that I don’t think my sex drive is quite what it was prior to Fin. But outside of these episodes I don’t have major problems.
Now here’s the twist. In June 2018 while I was dealing with a particularly bad episode I decided to see a doctor. To be fair, my stomach had been generally more temperamental than normal over the last few months. Just attributing my visit to an “episode” isn’t quite fair. To my utter shock, I tested positive for Celiacs disease, which was confirmed by a biopsy a few weeks later. I have no family history of celiacs and never had any stomach problems (or health problems, for that matter) prior to taking fin. It was an interesting development to say the least, and for a couple reasons. I would go months at a time feeling pretty normal and I certainly was eating my share of gluten. in fact when I got the call from the doctor about Celiacs, I had just finished a plate of penne vodka, which I now refer to as the last supper. The whole thing is very strange.
So I’ve been gluten free for a couple months now and here we are in early October and here comes another episode. The discomfort in my lower abdomen has been particularly bad this time around. Sexual side effects are also there. I’m considering fasting for a week or two since it sounds like some people have had some success with that.
Overall, I can’t complain, a lot of people have it way worse than me. I can’t help but wonder how celiacs played into this whole thing. Is it just a coincidence?