Welcome to our community. Please fill in the following template as a way of introducing yourself, and helping others to understand your background and situation.
Where are you from (country)?
How did you find this forum (Google search – if so, what search terms? Via link from a forum or website – if so, what page? Other?)
What is your current age, height, weight?
29, 180c, , 85kg
What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)?
Finasteride
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
1 mg EoD
What condition was being treated with the drug?
MBP
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
2 weeks
Date when you started the drug?
Jan 13th, 2019
Date when you quit the drug?
Jan 28th, 2019
Age when you quit?
22
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
cold turkey
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects?
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
Immediately
Check the boxes that apply. You can save your post first, then interactively check/uncheck the boxes by clicking on them. If your symptoms change, please update your list.
Sexual
[x ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ x] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[x ] Loss of Morning Erections
[x ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[x ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[x ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[x ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[x ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[x ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[x ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[x ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[x ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[x ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[x ] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[x ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[x ] Testicular Pain
[x ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[x ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[x ] Weight Gain
[x ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[x ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[x ] Joint Pain
[x ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[x ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[x ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[x ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[x ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[x ] Lowered body temperature
[x ] Other (please explain)
Change in hair color from black to dark brown
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
Carnivore diet, water fast, various supplements
If you have pre or post-drug blood tests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug (please post your test results in the “Blood Tests” section and link to them in your post)?
Much lower testosterone levels, borderline within acceptable range
Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience?
Tell us your story, in your own words, about your usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
Title: My 6-Year Recovery Journey from PFS
Hey everyone,
Long-time lurker here. I wanted to share my full recovery journey after developing PFS in early 2019. I know how hopeless it can feel in the beginning, so hopefully this timeline gives some perspective to anyone going through it. I will admit, this forum, even though I did not actively post, gave me a place I felt weirdly safe in with everything else going on, so this is my way to contribute back.
I will not be naming any brands, and please take everything with a grain of salt because these are based on my experiences, and everyone’s circumstances will be different.
Background
- Started finasteride in Jan 2019, 1 mg every other day. Took only 7 doses before quitting.
-Quit because of numbness, severe abdominal pain, and realizing it wasn’t worth it for my hairloss at the time . I did try taking zinc because I read it could counteract numbness, but I quit anyway because of the abdominal pain.
Timeline
0–1 Month After Quitting
-
Symptoms came fast, within 2-3 days after quitting cold turkey: full-body numbness, intense brain fog, gynecomastia, penile skin changes (cold, scaling), rapid collagen loss in face, insomnia, and depression, among the other symptoms above.
-
Bloodwork: testosterone very low, but nothing doctors found out of the ordinary. Repeated blood work 1 month and 4 months post-quitting showed no real change in hormonal levels. Endos and derms offered no real help also.
-
Tried Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture: acupuncture temporarily helped brain fog, but herbal medicine made things worse.
Supplements / Early Attempts:
-Zinc helped a little with numbness, but not long-term.
-Ginseng and curcumin — no real effect.
-
Broccoli and Asaparagus diet - felt really good the first week, brainfog lifted, but effects tapered off.
-
I never tried hormonal replacement. I think this was probably a good thing.
-
Tryptophan as a sleep aid was the only thing that worked consistently. It was really important that I had enough sleep.
0–2 Years
-
Brain fog was the worst symptom — it constant until I tried the carnivore diet (see below).
-
Erectile dysfunction persisted; Cialis helped physically but not with sensation or pleasure.
-
Other bodily numbness did not improve. No other physical symptoms got better either.
-
Started losing hair in other areas (eyebrows, legs, etc.)
-
Insomnia, depression, anhedonia.
Tried extreme approaches:
-
Carnivore diet (6 months) — major turning point; eventually lifted brain fog. I realized that my brainfog was the worst after eating, so I started to eliminate a lot of different food groups. I did this for 4 months, only ribeyes, ground beef and lamb chops with salt, no butter, no pepper. After not feeling the brainfog for an extended period of time, I was able to slowly introduce new foods. These days I only have a reaction to caffeine.
-
1-week water fast — did not help, would not recommend. Lost ~10 pounds.
Other notes:
Did not work at this time, but COVID actually helped because housemates stayed home, played board games/mahjong, and it was a good distraction.
Title: My 6-Year Recovery Journey from PFS
Hey everyone,
Long-time lurker here. I wanted to share my full recovery journey after developing PFS in early 2019. I know how hopeless it can feel in the beginning, so hopefully this timeline gives some perspective to anyone going through it. I will admit, this forum, even though I did not actively post, gave me a place I felt weirdly safe in with everything else going on, so this is my way to contribute back.
I will not be naming any brands, and please take everything with a grain of salt because these are based on my experiences, and everyone’s circumstances will be different.
Background
- Started finasteride in Jan 2019, 1 mg every other day. Took only 7 doses before quitting.
-Quit because of numbness, severe abdominal pain, and realizing it wasn’t worth it for my hairloss at the time . I did try taking zinc because I read it could counteract numbness, but I quit anyway because of the abdominal pain.
Timeline
0–1 Month After Quitting
-
Symptoms came fast, within 2-3 days after quitting cold turkey: full-body numbness, intense brain fog, gynecomastia, penile skin changes (cold, scaling), rapid collagen loss in face, insomnia, and depression, among the others above.
-
Bloodwork: testosterone very low, but nothing doctors found out of the ordinary. Repeated blood work 1 month and 4 months post-quitting showed no real change in hormonal levels. Endos and derms offered no real help also.
-
Tried Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture: acupuncture temporarily helped brain fog, but herbal medicine made things worse.
Supplements / Early Attempts:
-Zinc helped a little with numbness, but not long-term.
-Ginseng, curcumin — no real effect.
-
Broccoli and Asaparagus diet - felt really good the first week, but effects tapered off.
-
I never tried hormonal replacement.
-
Tryptophan as a sleep aid was the only thing that worked consistently. It was really important that I had enough sleep.
0–2 Years
-
Brain fog was the worst symptom — it constant until I tried the carnivore diet (see below).
-
Erectile dysfunction persisted; Cialis helped physically but not with sensation or pleasure.
-
Other bodily numbness did not improve. No other physical symptoms got better either.
-
Started losing hair in other areas (eyebrows, legs, etc.)
-
Insomnia, depression, anhedonia.
Tried extreme approaches:
-
Carnivore diet (6 months) — major turning point at the two year mark; eventually lifted brain fog. I realized that my brainfog was the worst after eating, so I started to eliminate a lot of different food groups. I did this for 4 months, only ribeyes, ground beef and lamb chops with salt, no butter, no pepper. After not feeling the brainfog for an extended period of time, I was able to slowly introduce new foods. These days I only have a reaction to caffeine.
-
1-week water fast — did not help, would not recommend. Lost ~10 pounds.
2–4 Years
After the carnivore diet, introduced other foods fairly quickly; brain fog never came back — the biggest turning point.
Sleep normalized, depression resolved. Returned to work. I was able to stop taking trypotophan as soon as I resolved my brainfog.
Erectile function improved significantly; no meds needed.
Body numbness persisted but improved.
Stress could still trigger symptoms, but periods of normalcy became longer (from ~2 weeks up to ~6 months starting in 2024).
Main Takeaways
- Recovery is possible, but painfully slow. Please do not expect any one treatment to heal you overnight, over a week or even over a year. I experienced diminishing returns on everything I tried.
Carnivore diet + time were the biggest factors. COVID’s slowdown was a fortunate circumstance that reduced stress because no one else was working so I did not feel like I was falling behind. I highly suggest you take some time off of school/work to focus on yourself.
For me, curing my brainfog was the BIGGEST catalyst for my recovery.
Most supplement protocols do not work; some can make things worse.
You learn to live with lingering symptoms. Crashes may happen, but over time you gain control over them. I would say I live a very normal life now. I used to hate meeting new people because I would feel like I’m so different, but I do not feel that way anymore.
I haven’t checked the forum in over 6 months and it’s probably better that way for me. But for now I will stay around if anyone has any questions or want to reach out. I’m also definitely forgetting some treatments I tried so if you reach out to ask me, I can confirm whether or not I’ve done some of the things you are trying.
-Kev
Did not work at this time, but COVID actually helped because housemates stayed home, played board games/mahjong, and it was a good distraction.
Self-reporting template - ONLY USE FOR FUTURE POSTS TO REPORT ANY TRIALS OF TREATMENTS, NOT YOUR INITIAL MEMBER STORY
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Name of the therapy/substance:
- Dosage:
- How often you took it:
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Status
- Still using [ ]
- Stopped with no lasting change to initial symptoms [ ]
- Stopped with persistent change to symptoms [ ]
- Duration of use: Days [ ] Months [ ] Years [ ]
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Response when you started:
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [ ]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]
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Current response (if you’re still using the therapy/substance) OR Response in the time before you stopped the treatment
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [ ]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]
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Lasting changes to initial symptoms after cessation (if you have stopped for more than 3 weeks)
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [ ]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]