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)? United States
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?) Google Search for PFS and PFS symptoms
What is your current age, height, weight? 30 years old. 6’1" 175lbs
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.)? 1mg/day
What condition was being treated with the drug? Hair loss
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)? 3.5 months
How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start the drug? 27, Dec 2017
How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit? 28, March 2018
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? Cold Turkey
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects? About one to two months
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation? ED, low libido, lack of motivation, brain fog, anhedonia, pelvic pain
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
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[x] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[x] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[x] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[ ] 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
[ ] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[x] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[x] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[x] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[x] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[x] Other (please explain) Excessive sweating, mostly in armpits but also groin and foot areas as well. Occasionaly testicular discomfort
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug? Various methods discovered on this forum: amino acids, pine pollen, tribulus
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)?
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.
Hello friends. Long time lurker here that finally decided to create an account for support. Here is my story. It is fairly lengthy, and I appreciate you taking the time to read it.
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In 2017 at the age of 27, I began experiencing extreme hair shedding. Whether it was due to stress or other factors, I began to see a lot of hair fall out on a daily basis for about a 9-10 month period. I began to notice receding near my temples, and naturally wanted to do something about it. The sad thing is anyone on the street or my friends wouldn’t even be able to notice. I have a great head of hair, and was trying to keep it. I always heard its easier to keep the hair you have then replace the hair you lose, and that’s what I wanted to do. After meeting a few times with doctors and not seeing much help from Rogaine, I decided to take Finasteride. My doctor mentioned there could be sexual symptoms, but those would be resolved if I stopped taking it. Foolishly, I did not do any research on the drug outside of this conversation.
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I proceed to take finasteride 1mg/day for about 3.5 months, from roughly December 2017 through mid March 2018. I had noticed a lack of morning erections and decreased flaccid penis size in addition to not feeling mentally & emotionally right, so I decided to look into symptoms related Finasteride. Upon doing so, I discovered many horror stories of finasteride and immediately went cold turkey in March 2018 at some time.
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About six months pass as I wait for the drugs to cycle out of my system. The mental sides pass, but the sexual ones persist. I was still able to get an erection, typically when looking at porn, but my libido was still low and morning erections were non existent. Additionally, I began sweating profusely, most noticeably through my armpits (deodorant does nothing) and some in my groin and feet. I find this odd as most members here report the opposite.
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I discovered this forum in September 2018, and began reading posts & stories of users here. I considered myself one of the fortunate ones, as my case did not seem as drastic as others. For this reason and others, I did not create an account at this time. I felt that I was one of the fortunate ones to “only” have sexual sides.
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I slowly experimented with some remedies that other users had reported to have some success with. In the fall of 2018, I purchased L-Arginine, L-Carnitine, and BCAAs and generally felt better with them, but gradually reverted to the mean. I then tried pine pollen concentrate with great success for about two weeks (increase libido, morning erections) after which, I felt minimal effects, even when cycling it.
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Winter, Spring, and Summer 2019 I didn’t experiment too much with additional supplements. I occasionally cycled what I had between the aminos and pine pollen, sometimes felt good, other times no improvement.
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During the summer I began doing more research into Tribulus, and eventually decided to purchase Vemoherb’s Bulgarian Tribulus.https://amazon.com/gp/product/B016QX9DU2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I did my first cycle of this in mid August 2019. I slowly built up and tapered off it with a small dose. I can’t remember exactly what but I think I did it for 5 to 7 days, starting with 1 pill for a few days, then did 2 pills, then tapered back down to one pill for a few more days. Afterwards, I felt great. Morning erections improved slightly and my desire and ability to have sex increased. This lasted for about a month, although after initial jolt it did not have as much of an effect. I did a second cycle of similiar duration & intensity about six weeks later, with minimal positive effects. At this point it is October 2019, and had been at a decent baseline but still not as sexually potent as I wanted to be. -
This is where things take a turn for the worse. In November 2019, I decided to do another Tribulus cycle. I slightly upped the dosage, maybe hitting a max of three pills in a day, and tapered off again. After my first ejaculation upon finishing the cycle, I knew something was wrong. I experienced penile numbness for the first time was not able to orgasm upon having sex with my girlfriend. A few days went by and I started to feel better, and thought nothing of it.
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Around this same time, I had coincidentally ordered Athletic Greens as a supplement simply to increase my vitamin intake. This had a very drastic effect on my sex drive, and for a period of several I felt like a teenager again. I have nocturnal erections, sex dreasm, would wake up with tremendous erections. I felt all around fantastic. And then I crashed in mid December. The erections ceased and were replaced by pelvic pain, soreness in the back of my legs, low libido, and reduced flaccid penis size, no desire/ability to have sex, and numbness during sex.
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At this time I sought help with my doctor and he recommended I see a urologist, and get some testing done. In December, my total T was 235 ng/dL and my Free T was 41.5 pg/mL. Other male hormone markers were low as well. After my doctors appt I slowly improved to the point were I felt pretty much better, and thought I had recovered from the crash I gave myself. I took another test about five weeks later and my testosterone levels had recovered to 447 ng/dL and 80.3 pg/mL. Not superb levels but definitely better than the previous month. I was pleased with this and thought I had dodged a bullet.
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Shortly after these test results I have my scheduled appointment with the urologist. He wasn’t very helpful although he did acknlowedge the existence of PFS, and said that time really is the best/only treatment known right now. I schedule a follow up with him for two months later.
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Shortly after this appointment, I crash again, although this crash is different than anyo other PFS crash I’ve felt before. Now for the first time i’ve been experiencing intermittent periods of brain fog, anhedonia, lack of motivation, depression, anxiety, and negative thoughts . It seems to be worse in the days following ejaculation, and then it somewhat subsides. I’m not sure what to make of it. I think my wildly fluctuating testosterone levels have impacted how my body utilizes testosterone, although I am not certain. I haven’t ejaculated for the last two weeks or so, I’m hoping my body will balance itself out again.
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I have my follow up with the urologist in a few weeks, although I’m not hopeful anything will be achieved in this. I may ask for a referral to an Endocrinologist.
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My main question to the forum is for people who have experiemented with Tribulus. I have seen feedback from some people that it has made their symptoms worse, like myself. Has anyone returned to their baselines after negative tribulus reacitons? I fear I have negatively impacted myself in a search for an alleviation of my symptoms, which almost upsets me more than getting myself into this PFS predicament in the first place. Thanks for letting me vent and I hope this is not too long.