You are having the same experiences as me. Unfortunately, now I am in a down spot. There is an interaction with alcohol here. I think alochol upregulates GABAA receptors in the days AFTER consumption - although not always it seems. This could be causing your pelvic floor to release and then everything slots into place. It really is a great feeling and I hope yours lasts a long time, if not for good! I have had it twice now - first time almost full, second time FULL recovery in all areas. Unfortunately, both times it all crashed down after something like eating too big a meal. Watch out for this; try to reduce your food intake, keep stress low, drink fresh spring water and get out in to the fresh air a bit. Good Luck mate 
Back down. Amazing, a week at near 100 percent and then down. The latest setback started Friday with an intense basketball session at the gym. I played pretty hard for about thirty minutes. Afterward, I felt my back completely stiffen up and that was it. I started to sink back down. Then I went out Saturday night and drank pretty heavily. Now Iām back to pretty much non functional sexually. I canāt even masturbate really. I cannot get an erection fully at this point. I feel a pretty dull feeling in the prostate area. My testicles are really shrunk. I can really feel gases throughout the abdominal region. This is usually indicative of high estrogen. I used to get very heavy gas while on the drug. Something I havenāt heard anyone report here surprisingly.
[/quote]
yeah manā¦ i read through your last postsā¦ you are having some interesting ups and downs. i noticed during one you said that you didnāt masturbate for 2 weeks, then masturabted, then you were back. you didnāt mention masturbation in other posts after thisā¦ but did you see this as a factor contributing towards your spontaneous periods of getting better? iām sure your consistent workouts are helping a ton as well.
[/quote]
Not a contributing factor. I masturbate one to two times per week. Iām completely all over the place. Nothing makes sense or matches up. Iām just riding a roller coaster. I have no control. The only thing I can do is work out every day and hope for the best. Its encouraging that I see my body getting back to its old shape to some degree and the fact that my androgenic body hair and facial hair are growing like they used to.
Iām in full blown prostatitis mode now. I canāt even fart. The pelvic region is completely swelled up and sore. Testicles are completely shrunk. Complete ED. Amazing, one week ago I was a stud. Now Iām a complete eunich. Iām getting very sad with all these false hope situations.
hey, proscarā
I have had some of the same symptoms as you:prostate tenderness,breast tenderness, and even eye-lid twitching. This must obviously be too much estrogen, correct?
Qeustion: how did the scalp burning go away, as I have had that too. Did liver cleansing with those chinese herbs help? which ones were they, and do you take milk thistle? Do you think increasing progesterone might help to get rid of scalp burning/inflamation?
I have also had the gaseous activity quite extensively in the abdomen area. I beleive this is candidasis caused by the estrogen wiping out the good bacteria. Supplementing with a ton of probiotics has helped me quite noticeably.
It looks like me and you share a lot of the same symptoms man, have you gotten any blood tests?
I bounced back from the week of bad prostatitis and started another upswing. This upswing started one week ago and pretty much peaked over the weekend. Iāve started another downward slide again. I feel somewhat estrogenic now. Genital numbness, testicles are smaller, my abdomen has some bloating, and my muscles are smaller. Last Thursday I felt really oily and muscular. I canāt figure out this disease. The only clues I have are that alcohol send my downward pretty much everytime except a few times where it actually makes me feel unbelievably good for a few days after drinking.
Are your upswings 100%? Also, if its alcohol, maybe propecia damaged your liverā¦
Upswings are not 100 percent. I had an upswing for a little less than a week right after new years eve where I was right near 100 percent. That was nice. that was after drinking a lot new years eve. I just keep battling. I will never give up.
I had the worst crash since the initial about ten days ago. My whole body pretty much went haywire. It was so nuts that you could hear my insides grinding as estrogen was taking over my body. I was traveling abroad for work and I think the stress may have triggered it or the time change etc. It was crazy. I lost ten pounds, muscles were wasting like crazy, super depression, anxiety, I was picking at my nails all day long, night sweats, sleep was horrible, my nipples bulged way out, pain the nipples, abdominal fat came on, penis shrunk and got really numb. It took about a week to get over it and Iām now on an upswing again. My body has transformed back toward normal. abs are flat and hard again, muscles are slowing growing back, more oily, penis is bigger and more sensitive, breasts not as fat, sleep better, etc. I canāt believe how out of control my body is at almost the two year mark. Hopefully it is a sign that my body is still trying to reset itself. I donāt know of many people still having violent crashes years after theyāve quit. I guess is wishful thinking.
Iāve had a really good 3-4 weeks. I felt near 100 percent that past week. Sleep has been near perfect. I notice some dips here and there throughout the day, but overall I am starting to feel like ME again. I have even started to enjoy porn again. Today I a had very strange episode that made me want to post. I was feeling great today and even extremely horny from the morning up until lunch time. My plans were to run some errands, stop and eat, and then go to the gym. I ended up eating some middle eastern food for lunch and didnāt think anything of it. Suddenly, 30 minutes after I ate, I was completely bloated, weak, and basically melted down at the gym. I couldnāt work out and had to immediately shower and go home and rest. My breasts were bulging, stomach looked like I was having a baby, and muscles were shrinking by the second. Upon doing a quick internet search I realized the problem. I had a bigger portion of hummous for lunch and also some lentil soup.
Word to the wise. Avoid legumes, peas, etc. such as these. They are HIGHLY estrogenic. Anyone who thinks this disease is not an estrogen dominance problem is mistaken. My life has been nothing but a battle against estrogen since the first day I ingested a 5AR inhibitor. Amazing how I can be doing so well and then ingest a god damn meal that poisons me with estrogen. I should just start fasting. Screw it.
Its as if the signaling for male hormones is not working but the estrogen signaling is overactive or something.
I am sorry to hear you are back in the bad place, but your body does seem to fight back for you which is fantastic. When you say you feel near 100%, you mean literally like before finasteride? Like sensitivity, libido, genital size, basic good feelings etc.? As in the whole package? Just wondering. Also, try not to get too discouraged, your body will fight for you man, and for that you are āluckyā. Feel better.
Among all the amazing theories, I will put mine tooā¦ Mostly all of us are estrogenic dominant, and since all of this works on feedback loop, why not taking more estrogen, cause the estrogen formation to stop and dht, free T to increase. Vague I know.
When I am in a good place. I feel almost 100 percent. Libido, sleep, genitals, and everything seem to rebound to near where they were pre finasteride. I canāt say Iām back at 100 percent though. There is always something thatā not where it should be. Example, when I feel great sexually, I look at my body and the muscles arenāt back to normal size. Or when my body looks great, my sexuality is not up to par. many other examples of one thing being up and the other not at the same level.
Ive been feeling down for the past three to four days. This was after feeling very muscular going into last weekend. Iāve had a great two/three weeks. I drank a lot of beer last weekend, which I think has contributed to the latest downturn. Drinking, stress, and sleep quality all lead to these episodes. I drank a lot Saturday and some on Sunday, didnāt sleep well because of allergies on Monday, and then had an episode of stress on Monday. Then boom I felt the body change. Iāve put on five pounds and feel my pants not fitting as well, stomach bigger, weakness set in, nice mucsle tone has gone away, nocturnals have stopped, back has been aching. The strange thing is that my pissing has turned around and appears to be staying. Iāve been pissing normally the past week and it appears to be sticking. The flow and stream are now pretty normal. After two years of this disease. Deep prostate uncomfort and strange feeling in my head upon waking up in the morning have gone away also. These down periods are also a lot more managable now. I can feel some of the symptoms coming on, but they come with a lot less intensity. For instance, sleep problems or muscle twitching during a down period are a lot less intense. Like this morning I could feel my arm starting to twich, but it was really deadened.
Iāve had really good luck using zinc picclonate since early february. Its effects have not worn off over that period.
I had a one week upswing followed by a for sure crash. This is not just a dip or a downturn. The wierd thing is that this crash has not seen a big depression phase. I felt a little bit of anxiety at one point and maybe some mild depression last weekend, but nothing compared to the previous crashes Iāve had. This crash (like all the others) was caused by a drinking binge. I had gone almost a month with drinking on weeekends and not having a crash. I thought I was through the woods. I thought maybe Iād have some downturns like I had a few weeks ago, but crashes were in the rearview. This is not the case and probably will never be. This was very strange in that I woke up last Friday morning after an allday drinking binge at a baseball game the day before. I actually felt the most horny Iāve felt in over two years. I was literally rubbing my hardon when I woke up. I was great. Its funny, I actually believed that I had this thing beat. I figured with no crashes in over two months, fighting through the drinking weekends successfully, body looking better, etc etc and now this. So I was in an exellent mood and went to the gym. I did some light cardio and soon as I got done after about 15 minutes I felt the boom. I could actually feel my body give out. I went home and passed out from crippling fatigue for three hours. That was it. Iāve actually felt my body chemistry change since then, I feel the estrogen overtaking me. My stomach has been bloated and completely fat ever since, buttocks is a lot bigger, clothes donāt fit right anymore, zero nocturnals in a week (before that I was getting them pretty consistantly), zero energy, zero muscle.
Wow, you are really living like a rollercoaster. My situation is very stable. Iām not sure whatās better. I never feel anywhere close to 100%, but I also never crash really bad.
This is very similar to how I feel a lot but Iām not as extreme. I have periods of recovery where Iām at about 85%, but then when I think Iām getting better I dip back down to about 50%. During the recovery periods I can get 80% erections hands-free, but during dip periods it takes some manual stimulation. I seem to have been in one of these recovery periods since about March 25th (Iāve been keeping track of symptoms) and I have also noticed that I have a much much easier time delaying ejaculation than I used to. I can stroke for ten to fifteen minutes now, it used to be a challenge to last for two. And finally, my urinary symptoms seem to come and go. Some days I feel like I have to pee every three hours or so even without drinking anything, other days I can last forever. What are your urinary symptoms usually like? Mine actually seem to worsen slightly during recovery periods, but even then they can be good or bad.
Put me down for one who feels like his body is always bouncing but definitely not as extreme as Pro.
My theory is we get into a bad balance for our hormones - pro is having period where his body is trying to get back to a better balance but we are still fragile - hence something small can throw us into a tailspin. The good news is your body is not just downregulated in a bad state like so many others.
I am in the same boat. About a month ago I experienced one of these brief ārecoveriesā (Iād say 85% of my former self is a good estimate). I found myself singing, smiling, and laughing quite a bit. For me, singing along to a song is something Iām not compelled to do much anymore. And once I noticed myself doing this, it was an obvious sign for me that I was feeling better. I was really able to feel life again. Just about everything you mentioned I felt as well. I noticed:
-muscles looking better and fat disappearing around my midsection
-oil on the face
-started shedding hair again
-sleep definitely improved (would wake up and not have much difficulty getting out of bedā¦ also felt somewhat refreshed)
-more frequent/normal looking bowel movements
-my penis hung much better (definitely still fluctuated, but drastically improved)
-pornography gave me easy erections without stimulation (and they lasted without stimulation)
-energy levels were much improved and I was more alert and mentally active
It lasted about a week and a half, maybe two weeks, and it was really was wonderful. However, I knew it wouldnāt last. It wasnāt abrupt though, I wouldnāt say. I started feeling a bit worse after about 10 days, and it continued day by day until I was back to square one. Itās been a little over a year off the drug for me, and this was probably the third or fourth period like this. It was the longest period however, and was definitely all-encompassing in terms of my side effects. Just about everything improved.
By the way, I play basketball as well. It has been one of my passions that I refuse to give up, even though it always seemed to have a negative impact on me, both physically and mentally, after my initial crash (especially within the first month off of the medication, during which time I sprained both of my ankles). However, I feel like my body is definitely learning to tolerate the physical activity better. I do still have periods where my head can get foggier than usual after intense games, and I always get severe shrinkage that lasts a few hours (I mean shrinkage in addition to the PFS shrinkage), but some of my best masturbation sessions in the last few months have come after playing. And for whatever reason, the next I feel pretty good.