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How did you find this forum?
Through countless hours of internet searching, after the old Yahoo! Group finally went public (Thank God, and those who were involved in that decision.) -
What is your current age, height, weight?
I am 27, 6 feet, 155 lbs. -
Do you exercise regularly? If so, what type of exercise?
I used to exercise pretty regularly. Lately not as much, but I still play tennis, basketball, run. -
What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
I would say pretty healthy, but including every type of food. I love all kinds of food, there are very few things “crossed off” my list. -
Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
Hair loss. -
For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
I would say probably 4-5 years. -
How old were you when you started Finasteride?
I was 22 or 23 (not 100%). -
How old were you when you quit?
I was 26 (almost 27). -
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
Cold turkey. -
What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
Propecia and Proscar. -
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
1 mg/day. -
How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
I would say 2.5 years in. -
What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
Virtually all the side effects I put an “X” next to are not completely resolved. While most of them have gotten a little better, I think none have returned to normalcy.
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
[X] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[X] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[X] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[X] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[X] Confusion
[X] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[X] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[X] Slurring of Speech
[X] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[X] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[X] Depression / Melancholy
Physical
[X] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[X] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[X] Testicular Pain
[X] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[X] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[X] Muscle Wastage
[X] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[X] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[X] Prostate pain
[X] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[X] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[X] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
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What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
I have tried to keep it minimal. Just multivitamins, amino acids for a couple months. I took progesterone for a few weeks but at the time was reading about DHT signaling errors which made a lot of sense to me and chose to discontinue. I don’t think it was doing much for me anyway, and feel it would have been harmful in the long run. -
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)?
I will try and link these later. I have had mostly T, FSH, LH, and Estradiol. The first 3 have consistently been very low (300’s for T, 3.0 for FSH, and 1.4 for LH). Estradiol has been a little high (34). -
Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
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Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
I was 22 or 23 years old, can’t recall exactly. I went to a dermatologist to find out why my hair was falling out. In what seemed like a 4 minute office visit, he said it was male pattern baldness and prescribed Fin. I looked up the side effects at the time and the information I found was Merck’s official info (side effects in <1% of people, completely and totally reversible upon cessation). OK, NO PROBLEM!! So I start ingesting the poison. My hair stops falling out, I even grow some back. Great, the pill is doing what it’s supposed to… end of story.
Two years later, I remember having a brief episode of extreme confusion. It was memorable, but I kept operating pretty normally. Probably about 6 months later, I started having a very slow but steady decline in all of the areas I posted an X next to. I noticed more easily the mental side effects. The sexual side effects were there, but I guess I attributed them to my age maybe, and didn’t pay as much attention to them (because I never became fully impotent) so they allowed me to function (as in, MINIMALLY FUNCTIONAL, NOT optimum or normal function).
The mental sides were very worrisome. I have had my IQ tested at 142, which is pretty high (prior to taking fin). Little by little I felt less and less witty, less able to have complex thought, but it was such a slow and steady decline that it was hard to point the finger at any single day as being the difference maker. So from about the age of 25 I was well aware of my mental side effects. I search countless hours on the internet and am unable to find something similar to what I am experiencing. I suspect Finasteride all along but countless searches for fin side effects return nothing (except for Merck’s official side effects). I even choose to quit finasteride on two occasions because it is the only pill I take, hoping for a relief of symptoms. I would quit the pill 2 or 3 weeks and upon seeing absolutely no change for the better I resume taking the pill. (Now I know that it takes a minimum of a month to even leave the system… hindsight).
By the age of 26 I am full blown dysfunctional. I can’t carry even the simplest of conversations. I am stuttering. I can’t read newspaper articles designed for second grade reading levels. I have to use all of my energy to focus on even the simplest of tasks. My motoring skills are paltry. I can’t recognize names or faces for the life of me until it is way too late. I’m sleeping 12 hours a night and napping at lunch time. My penis feels disconnected from my body. I have a couple of sexual encounters where I am unable to get an erection. I’m spending nearly half my time trying to find the source of my problems. I am failing at work from a literally PHYSICAL inability to perform.
I go and have a complete physical at a hospital which finds nothing wrong with me. The only relevant info my internet searches are returning is maybe like schizophrenia or brain tumor. I go see a neurologist, have an MRI, everything normal. The doctors “take a guess” that I’m anxious or having a crisis. I have never been anxious at all, quite the contrary… I take things very much in stride. Still no reprieve. Recurring thoughts of suicide if I am unable to return to normal, I also think that I may actually die at any time from this affliction.
Finally, the first nugget of info that seems to confirm my suspicion that Fin might be causing all this. Some lady posts the following on a doctor’s website:
“Hi I found your name on the web. My husband started taking finasteride Propecia in March of 2006. I started to notice a change in him right away looking back now in hindsight., He was tired fell asleep more often when putting kids to bed. Took in prompt to naps during the day. Had no real gusto for life that he used to have. In May of 2006 we were on a cruise had a simple argument and he jumped overboard. He could not swim. He had nothing in his life that was going wrong. He was very successful and loved to travel and live life to the fullest. I am trying to prepare a case to get a warning put on this product. It is not mention in any of the medical literature about the possible finasteride side effect of depression. If this had been noted we may have had an early idea that this medicine was not a good fit for my husband. Any help you could provide me would be greatly appreciated. Do you know of any clinical studies going on in the US regarding this link between depression and finasteride?”
That post sent chills down my spine. Maybe I wasn’t crazy. Maybe this drug was causing problems. Shortly before I turn 27 I finally find what I am looking for… www.propeciahelp.com. Immediately upon finding this website I find an exact description of everything I have been feeling that I could not justify. Even symptoms that I could not put into words, I just FELT THEM. Reading people’s experiences I have ABSOLUTELY NO DOUBT that this is the source of my problems. I immediately quit fin. Since I learned it would take a month to even leave my system and then additional time for my body to attempt to recuperate, I choose to quit and reevaluate somewhere down the road.
Once 6 months had passed I chose to go to a doctor and explain everything to her. She briefly put me on progesterone which I chose to quit because I had a distinct feeling that it was not nearly addressing the problem. In these 13 months since I quit I have felt some recuperation, but definitely not to pre finasteride levels. My betterment has been in all areas, but marginal. I would estimate that I have recuperated to about 50%. I am more functional, but still feel a gaping difference between the way I was and the way I currently am. I am now considering a more proactive approach to try and jumpstart things without getting too dramatic. I don’t want to cause any more harm to my body. I am completely avoiding HRT unless it is the ONLY thing left. I am currently strongly considering the following options which have all been discussed here. I am still learning and allowing my intuition to guide me as to which one I might try first. The approaches under consideration and in no particular order are:
1 - HGH.
2 – Morphine to increase 5ARII in the Central Nervous System.
3 – High, irregular doses of DHT to see if it impacts mRNA transcription.
Specific medical tests are difficult to come by in my country (Nicaragua), but I am trying my best to get the appropriate testing. I have gotten many T, FSH, LH, Estradiol tests in the last year. I am about to check IGF BP3 and IGF-1, and am trying to find a way to test A Diol G. This is where I currently stand, better than when I was unknowingly killing myself, but a shadow of my former self.