My Long PFS Journey

Member Stories
#1

Hope y’all doing good. I’m back here to offer support to those who desperately needs it because I know how grueling the journey to recovery can be.

Like many of you, I’ve been cursed with PFS that were perplexed by other lifestyle choices (getting overweight, stress, corticosteroid treatments, retinoids, vitamins & supplements misuse… etc.). It literally took me years of never ending suffering in search for a cure or at least an effective treatment. My depilating symptoms included fatigue, low libido, brain fog, gastrointestinal issues, low motivation, lack in zest for life, anxiety, depression, and even ED.

As I said in my previous posts, I’ve tried everything out there, you name it, Testosterone cycles, HGH injections, resistance & endurance training, diet changes, AI’s such as adex & aromasin, proviron, DHEA, andractim, myriad of supplements and vitamins and herbal stuff, amino acids, no fap, sex, meditation and so on and so forth. I’d say I had periods where I felt like I’ve completely recovered but these have always came to an end and I’d wind up feeling like a complete sh#$3 again and is back to square one.

I’ve also run numerous diagnosis such as countless blood works (TT, FT, E2, AM & 24hrs Cortisol, Ferritin, Serum Iron, Vitamin D, Zinc, DHEA-S, Liver Profile, CBC, SMAC-20, TSH,FT4,FT3,LH,FSH among others), Colonoscopy, head MRI, Abdominal sonar, Testicles ultrasound, STDs testing and many others. The only things I didn’t test were Progesterone, & Pregnenolone.

My biggest challenge was to determine what really worked since I literally was running a cocktail year in and year out. The crux of the matter was to carry out an elimination process using several factors (both measurable & non measurable) to assess the end results. The factors included certain bloodwork parameters (TT, E2, Cortisol, Thyroid, Adrenals among others) and non-measurable (Libido, Mood, Cognition, Memory, Well-being, Sleep, appetite and others).

In order to overcome the above hurdles, I had to start writing a journal in which I track everything that I feel and do on hourly basis all day everyday. This was so crucial in my long term recovery plan and I can’t stress enough how important it is to have your own journal.

To be continued…

4 Likes
Success Stories Compilation
#2

Bruh you left us on a cliffhanger.

Are you cured now? What are your symptoms now? What are you taking?

1 Like
#3

Sorry I started writing this post first thing in the morning and had to get to work afterwards. As I said, I always had periods where I was completely recovered but symptoms would relapse after a while. However, I’ve noted that my symptoms were lessening over time and the feel great periods were becoming longer and longer. My original plan was to share my findings in detail to benefit others in the same boat so they could better navigate through this.

Guess I’ve to cut this really short. However. Bear in mind that we’re all different so what worked for me might not work for others. At any rate, this is what I believe have tremendously helped me recover:

-Balance out T:E2 ratio: Get a BW done and see what are your current TT & E2 values. TT should be higher than 500 & E2 around 25-50). Stay away from AI’s altogether.
-Optimize Thyroid (Test for TSH, FT4,FT3): TSH shall be around 1.0 and no more than 2.0 and FT3 in the upper range. Also measure your body temperature first thing in the morning and check if your hands and feet are cold.
-Test AM Cortisol: It should be in the upper end.
-Resolve any gastrointestinal issues: I can’t stress enough that optimal gut function is the road to recovery!!! Check if you have any symptoms of constipation, SIBO, Crohn’s disease, colitis, diarrhea, bloating, GERD, gas, or cramps. Guess what, 90% of Serotonin (AKA feel-good neurotransmitter) is made in the guts! Read on Brain-Gut axis and the enteric system.

Vitamins, Minerals & Supplements:

-Tongkat Ali (160mg a day): It helps with elevating TT.(need to be cycled)
-Nettle Root (1g a day): Don’t worry Nettle Root won’t decrease DHT levels, it’ll bind to SHBG and thus increase FT levels, you need 2% FT to feel great! IT REALLY WORKS!!! (need to be cycled)
-Ashwagandha (400mg a day): It helps stimulating your thyroid & relive hypothyroid symptoms (need to be cycled) . It will also help elevate Serotonin (The well-being & feel-good neurotransmitter & promoting sleep). Also, couple it with 250microg iodine & 150microg selenium.
-Mucuna Pririens: Look for a brand with around 15% L-Dopa extract. This helps with increasing Dopamine (The libido, motivation, & reward neurotransmitter). Beware to not go overboard, so limit the L-Dopa to not more than 100mg a day (need to be cycled) because higher intake may kickstart anxiety and might even down regulate dopamine receptors in Substantia Nigra. You really don’t want to do this!
-Vitamin D: Check level and make sure it’s higher than 50. If lower, supplement it.
-Ferritin: Check level and make sure it’s higher than 70.
-Magnesium: Take 300mg a day.
-Zinc: Take 15mg a day but don’t go higher.
-Digestive enzymes: Use an organic brand if you have any digestive problems after meals.
-L-Arginine: Take around 2.5g a day before bed: Helps with nitric oxide and stronger erection.
-L-Glutamine: Take around 3-4g a day before bed: Helps with releasing HGH and healing guts.
-L-Tyrosine: Take around 150-300mg intermittently: Boosts thyroid hormones and precursor to L-Dopa.
-L-Tryptophan: Take around 300-500mg before bed; A precursor to 5-HTP, which boosts Serotonin level in the brain and increase melatonin for a deeper sleep.
& last but certainly not least
-Multi-Vitamin: Use a good quality one. Don’t go overboard. Consider one that provides about 50%-70% of your daily RDAs of vitamins & other minerals.

Lifestyle changes:
-Control stress through yoga or meditation.
-Resistance Training: 3 days a week. Beware to not overtrain!
-Cardio: 3 times a week no more than 30mins each (helps with well-being).
-Eat about 2,000-2,500 calories a day.
-Get enough saturated fats. 40% of your weight should be your total fats consumption. so if your weight say 200lbs, your fat intake should be about 70-80grams a day.
-Remove artificial sweeteners altogether! So NO Aspartame, Sorbitol, Sucralose, Saccharin, Acesulfame Potassium. Natural Stevia may be ok but I’m not sure either.
-Get 7-8hrs of sound sleep! Get to bed no later than 11PM.
-Intermittent fasting: Have 3 meals a day and don’t eat in between.
-Have coffee: 100-150mg caffeine day will increase catecholamines. This helps with alertness but don’t go higher with caffeine.

Again, WRITE YOUR OWN JOURNAL! It’ll help you track any changes to your feeling and parameters so your could adjust things accordingly.

Hope this helps. I’ll post more stuff later.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Best Regards,

13 Likes
#4

Thanks for coming back and writing that up, I wish more recovered people would. Would you mind answering some questions?

Do you still live according to the plan you’ve written? Do you have any symptoms or flare ups now?

Can you explain what you mean by “needs to be circulated”

Do you mean cycled? How long on/off? Did you decide for yourself or did someone guide you? Can you give us an idea of the time frames involved in your up and down periods and how long it took for you to feel like you were getting better?

And:

What’s an AI? Is this a drug only term or are you talking about foods and supplements too?

Is TT total testosterone?

One of our members @Ozeph is writing up recovery stories at the moment. He might like to ask some questions so I’m just tagging him here.

Thanks again for returning to share your information.

#5

@doomed80 Are you okay to elaborate on how you fixed your gut, was it through a specific diet?

#6

Hi doomed80

This is remarkably similar to what I’m doing. I’m 7 months after crashing and I’m basically symptom free except for insomnia, which varies greatly from days to days.

I have a few questions so I can add your story to the success story compilation.

1- How long ago did you crash ?
2- How long were you sick
3- For how long can you say you have recovered ?

I also paid much attention to the guts, I took hydrolyzed collagen, glycine, glutamine and pro-biotics to make sure guts functions were optimal. I avoid gluten and eat very little carbs for that matter.
I’m on a high saturated fat and protein diet and I take 1 coffee a day as a supplement.
I do resistance training to boost 5a-Reductase production, intermittent fasting etc…

Your post will inspire me to try new things and It makes it seem i take too much of certain stuff.

Thank you for sharing.

2 Likes
#7

@Greek

Most welcome bruh. Yeah I know how most of those who are recovered move on with their lives without looking back and I can’t blame them for it one bit! To be honest with you, I also was reluctant to come back here since I wanted to close this chapter of my life once and for all. While writing this post, I had flashbacks of those hellish times where I felt suicidal because I was at my wits’ end and didn’t know what to do or who to turn to.

But here I am posting on here because I know there are many hapless souls out there lost in this relentless journey.

So enough with the whining and let’s get to work. I’m 150% better now than before! Yes, I had ups and downs every now and then and that’s why I started my own journal so I could track everything and what works and what doesn’t. It has been the most helpful tool in my journey, wish I started with the personal journal from the very beginning, it would have saved me years of unnecessary suffering. I’ve been stable for over 3 months now. Even before that, I was feeling like 80% recovered.

Yes you are correct I meant “cycled”. sorry for the mistake I edited the post. The cycling depends on the specific supplement, for example with Mucuna Prieriens you could go like 5 days on & 2 days off or like 1 month on and 2 weeks off. This is to prevent body tolerance effect. Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to cycle all stimulants and boosters.

AI is an Aromatase Inhibitor, a class of Rx drugs that inhibit aromatase enzyme responsible for converting testosterone into estrogen. Examples include Arimidex, Aromasin, Letrozole…etc. Yes, TT is total testosterone.

5 Likes
#8

@Chapman

Sure thing. Fixing the gut depends on the individual diagnosis. As I said, I had numerous tests done including Colonoscopy, H-Pylori breath test, Hydrogen & Methane breath test, Abdominal SONAR, Stool test, CBC, SMAC-20 and others.

Use the following questions as guidance:

Were you diagnosed with IBS? such as IBS-C or IBC-D or alternating?
Do you have abdominal pain?
Are you regular? BMs I mean
Do you have symptoms of GERD? Bloating? Gas? Belching? Flatulence? or others?
Constipation? Loose stools?
Stomach ulcers?
Bad digestion? Malabsorption?
Any other symptoms?

By answering the above questions, I might help you more. However, in my personal case, I had SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth) and had to take a round of certain antibiotics like Rifaximin and Flagyl. I also ingested 5g Glutamine on daily basis for about a month. Last but not least, I used a peptide so called BPC-157, which is known to help healing the guts. By the way, I stopped using probiotics in tablets form, I resort to eating natural Greek yogurt now and I feel much better than I was on probiotic pills.

I also take digestive enzymes right after meals and I think they are helping me digest carbs/protein/fats much better.

Diet-wise, I highly advise you to steer clear from artificial sweeteners listed in my original post as they’re suspected to have detrimental effect on gut microbiome (something you don’t want). Just stay away from anything with sugar-free printed on. I stopped eating junk food for a long time and I try to have my dinner no later than 7pm. You could have yogurt before bed.

In general, stay away from processed foods and avoid foods that trigger any gut symptoms. Spicy foods makes me feel sick in my gut so I avoid them. I’m fine with gluten and lactose. Also, ditch the fat-free milk and go with the whole milk instead :slight_smile:

Many people find low FODMAP diet helpful, particularly those with IBS.

That’s about it pal.

3 Likes
#9

Thanks man, really appreciate you coming back and replying.

Please don’t be a stranger and do let us all know how you’re getting on in a while, but please stick around for a while, I hope people take the opportunity to ask some questions. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#10

Cheers Doomed for the response.

I have GERD/GORD, I had a endoscopy recently but came back normal (no stomach ulcers), I previously had H. Pylori as well diagnosed from a stool test but cleared with standard eradication therapy.

I do have IBS like symptoms (never been diagnosed): constipation, odd stools sometimes soft/hard, no diarrhoea recently. Bowel tend to move about one hour after a meal so usually 2- 3 times a day unless I’ve had alcohol and then they’re all over the place.

I’d say I have bad digestion but then I think I always have, bloating etc. Betaine HCL I’ve been taking has been helping with that.

My worst symptoms are chronic brain fog/insomnia going on for 2 years now.

I should say as well congrats on your recovery and thanks for detailing your regime.

#11

Are you on probiotics. Try a megadose of probiotics. I read where a woman cured her ibs and cfs with one huge intake of probiotics (like 10x) and then normal recommended dose. She had a lot of the mental fog, insomnia, cfs and ibs symptoms. I’ll try to find the article. I attempted to copy it a few years ago. I take probiotics daily. I can’t say wether that helped me … but I’m close to cured now. I relate my cured ness to TRT but if I don’t take probiotics I’m miserable!

#12

Not PFS exactly but symptoms overlap. I was seeing a cfs doctor for a while but my issue was hormonal. I did do this however and I can say i felt amazing (after th initial discomfort of so many probiotics)

To this day I alternate between different brands and my gut has never been better. Looking back to 4 years ago my bathroom visits were awful

1 Like
#13

I’m not sure about probiotics, I eat probiotic yoghurt and kefir but I’m sure I saw an article that said they had almost no effect.

Should we start a discussion about probiotics somewhere else?

2 Likes
#14

After taking heavy antibiotics for a bronchitis and a bad wound on the hand, I ended up with anxiety. I fixed it by stopping the antibiotics and taking probiotics for a week.

I think probiotics shouldn’t be taken everyday. The ones I’m taking are pretty potent and I get gas, diarrhea etc… from it after a while. that’s when i know I’m loaded with the right bacteria, and I can stop the probiotics.

I then take them once a week, for a reload, just to make sure, and I get no side effects from that.

BrongFogBoy had a nice thread on probitotics: Game Over PFS - I'm Recovering. I’m not sure he recovered, but he was on to something.

Also @doomed80 mentioned peptide to fix the guts (along with Glutamine). Peptide is also known as hydrolyzed peptide or hydrolyzed collagen. I use partially hydrolyzed collagen in the form of pure gelatin 5gr, dissolved in hot water, or bone broth on a regular basis. Collagen is 30% Glycine (which is also very good for fixing the guts) and 15% Glutamine.

I made a collagen experiment here: The use of Collagen and although I had a mini crash in the middle due to too much Cystine by eating liver and whey protein isolate shake (both loaded with Cystine) in the same day, it was unrelated to collagen. After that and until now, I can tolerate food that used to give me food allergies and exacerbate my pfs symptoms.

axolotl warned us of the possibility to make ourselves worst by the use of collagen.

#15

Hi doomed80.

I would like to add your story to the compilation of success stories I’m doing, otherwise it might just get lost with time.

May I asked you when did you crash, for how long were you sick ?

How long after you crased you started your protocol ?

You mention you’ve been symptom free for 3 months and before you were 80% recovered. What were the remaining symptoms 3-4 months ago ?

Thank you for your help, it’s greatly appreciated.

#16

Post removed by author

#17

Hey Doomed,

Great post and very informative, thanks for posting. I have tried much, but not all of the supplements/aminos you have mentioned above and found that several of the supplements in your regimen were effective in trial. Are you still actively following this regimen? I’ve been reading much into the gut and thyroid issues as well, I’m curious what made you think of treating hypothyroidism? Was there a specific symptom you were aiming to relieve?

#18

Any probiotics you’d recommend? I tried home made kefir for a while last year and didn’t notice any effects. I was making it from pasteurised organic cow’s milk.

1 Like
#19

@Cornwellsb
Thanks for your help. I’ve been on probiotics for a very, very long time and have experimented with different brands and doses but my gut issues were not improving (e.g. constipation, bloating, cramps, flatulence to name a few). Frankly, I’m still unsure whether they were positive or negative in regards to my gut issues including SIBO. However, I opted to stop Probiotics as part of the “elimination process” I described in my original post. I also took a round of antibiotics in addition to Diflucan in an attempt to press the “reset button”.

I haven’t taken any probiotics since then (except for Greek yogurt) and I’ve generally been feeling great. My BMs and gut issues were all normalized. I don’t plan on going back to probiotics.

1 Like
#20

I use this one, but only once in a while. Especially after taking antibiotics. It’s too strong to be taken everyday.

1 Like