My Progress after 3 months

Member Stories
#1

I took propecia for about 17 months. I took 1mg for the first 5 months and after a brief episode with ED, I switched to 0.75mg and everything was fine. Then at month 14 or so, I started loosing my erections while having sex with my girlfriend. This upset her a lot so I dropped to 0.5mg. Thats when it really went downhill. Shortly after that I started having anxiety attacks and total loss of libido so I went off it completely.

I went for blood work 3 weeks after quitting and found out my T was at 210 (241-873 range). That explained my libido issues and my doctor said, “lets check again in a month”. So I did. A month later my T was at 510. A huge improvement. I was getting morning erections a couple times a week and able to have sex.

However, the following month was strange. Only a few nocturnal erections and no morning erections. Am I getting worse or better?? I’ve been able to get great hard ons if I work on them and have full orgasms but the morning wood is just not there…

I was taking 7HR lignans which I have just dropped because I am worried that it is not allowing my prostate to heal. Now I am taking B-complex with zinc and copper, biotin, L-Carnatine, ALA, green tea extract and Fish oil to cleanse my system and try to keep my hair, but my #1 priority is to get my mojo back.

Has anyone seen this pattern after quitting? Is 3 months too early to tell?

Thanks for reading.

#2

That level of T is hypogonadal. Do you have PRE-Finasteride bloodtests to compare your POST-Finasteride results against? What did your doctor think about it? Did you discuss your issues with Propecia with him? Did he believe the drug to be at fault for your low T?

Sounds like your T rebounded over the course of a month… but now that you are experiencing issues with morning/nocturnal erections again, perhaps it has swung back down again. Would suggest getting re-tested to see what is going on, as per bloodtests outlined on this site.

How is your sex drive at 3 months off? Does porn/girls turn you on easily, do you think about sex like you used to before Finasteride? Do you have spontaneous erections throughout the day?

I would suggest filling out the Profile Questionnaire (top of this subforum) and posting your responses in this thread. Also, read the FAQs if you haven’t already.

Most guys usually recover within a month after quitting the drug, but for some (like those here), the recovery is shortlived and we end up having our T levels drop into the toilet, along with many other hormonal imbalance issues.

For some guys it can take 3, 6, 12 months sometimes before they get some decent function back… for others, nothing really changes… hence why more bloodwork is advisable if you do not feel you have completely recovered, and finding a doc/endocrinologist to work with you that is knowledgeable about Finasteride side effects and hormonal treatments.

#3

  1. How did you find this forum? Google

  2. What is your current age, height, weight? 31, 6’1", 198

  3. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise? Weight resistance and running 3 times a week

  4. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)? Balanced diet (meats, veggies, carbs)

  5. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)? Hair loss

  6. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)? 17 months

  7. How old were you when you started Finasteride? 29

8 ) How old were you when you quit? 31

  1. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? basically cold turkey. Quick 2 week taper

  2. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic? propecia

  3. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? .75MG for most of the time

  4. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects? 15 months

  5. What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?

Put an X beside all that apply:

Sexual
[x] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[x] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[x] Loss of Morning Erections
[x] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[x] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[x] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[x] Depression / Melancholy

Physical
[x] 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
[ ] Joint Pain
[x] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)

  1. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug? none exept some vitamins (see post above)

  2. If you have pre or post-Finasteride bloodtests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug (pls post your test results in the “Blood Tests” section and link to them in your post)?

  3. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride? (see above)

  4. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug. (see above)

#4

Thanks for the reply Mew. My hormones are all over the map right now. Most of the time if I just make out with my girlfriend I get hard. If I watch porn, I have to work it a little but eventually I get hard as a rock.

My real concern is the lack of morning erections and the spells of wrinkle dick. I feel like the morning wood thing is because I haven’t got a good night sleep in weeks obsessing over this. I’m optamistic because of the hard ons I do get, but not waking up without a boner scares the crap out of me.

It’s weird. I can wake up totally limp, then throw on some porn, stroke it for a min, and have pre-fin errections. Then later that day, my dick shrivels up. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster.

I have no pre-fin numbers. I will get another test in a few weeks to see what the trend looks like. My doctor really just said “don’t worry, let’s check it in a month and if it’s going in the wrong direction we can talk about TRT”.

The last test where I had 510 T I also had 2.8 LH and 6.1 FSH if that means anything. She said it was “normal” and to give it more time.

#5

Have you ever heard or anyone actually recovering after 6-9 months? It seems like you either recover in the first few weeks or after a year or 2.

#6

Anecdotally, there is a poster by the name of “dirty” on hairlosshelp.com/forums who’s brother took over a year to recover from Dut or Fin (can’t remember).

Generally though, for those destined to recover back to the way they were prior to taking the drug, it seems to occur within the first few weeks off of it.

That’s not to say that improvements don’t occur for those of us who don’t recover right away – I myself have improved in the ED department, but am still lacking in the libido dept. When I first came off, I couldn’t even get it up.

#7

How long would you say it took you to recover from the ED part?

#8

A good 3 months at least, more like 6-8 before I was able to actually get hard enough to have sex… the problem is still getting and staying hard, however, due to lack of libido.

#9

Yeah, I’d have to say its a prostate problem due to the lack of Free Testosterone “pumping up” the prostate, as an endocrinologist just told me yesterday!!
Thank god you don’t have prostatitis or urinary symptoms!

#10

Well… I do get an uncomfortable sub-orgasmic feeling behind my nuts which is symptomatic of a prostate issue but my doc just gave me a prostate exam and said it felt fine.

The weird thing is that I have to really work hard on (excuse the pun) getting an erection but once I do, they are full and orgasms are great.

No spontaneous or morning erections though. Just the occasional nocturnal erection right now.

Can you guys comment on how long it took for morning wood to come back, if at all?

#11

you wrote this in other thread:

did you give up taking them at the end?

#12

Hey everyone. Someone just sent me a private message to see how I was, and it reminded me of when I was pretty active on this forum a few years ago, wanting to read positive stories, so I thought I would give an update. You can read my posts for details, but like many of you, I suffered incredibly. Impotence, brain fog, and depression were all on the list among other things.

It’s been 4 years off Propecia and and I want you all to know that I just got married last month to an amazing woman and had great sex on my wedding night that was unassisted by boner pills. I’ve been able to have lots of sex for the last year or so. I no longer suffer from brain fog or depression either.

My only remaining complaint is that my libido is still on the low side and morning erections are hit or miss, but once I get in the mood, sex is not a problem. I can’t say I am 100% better, but I’m pretty close which I am quite happy about. I tried a lot of the recommended regimins on here to no avail. The only thing that helped me was time and hitting the gym.

Hang in there guys. It gets better.

1 Like
#13

Congratulations and thanks for coming back to let us know how you are!

#14

Great stuff jonny, cheers for coming back, i noticed you marked penile shrinkage as a side… Has this returned to a pre fin state?? Cheers