My story (30 years old, 1 year of Finasteride)

  1. Where are you from (country)?
    Switzerland

  2. 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 and forums.

  3. What is your current age, height, weight?
    30/175/66

  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    Climbing, biking.

  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
    Everything.

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

  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    1 year.

  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    29

  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    30

  10. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
    cold turkey

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

  12. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    1,25mg/day

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

  14. 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
[x] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[x] Watery Ejaculate
[x] Reduced Ejaculate
[x] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm

[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] 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
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] Suicidal Thoughts

Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[x] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] 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
[x] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)
I’m battling with a permanent mild depression long before finasteride so I can not check some simptomes.

  1. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
    nothing

  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)
    No test made yet. Would like to but they are expensive.

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

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

[b]I started using finasteride after my hair started to fall out. I knew the sides but according to wikipedia, only 1-2% of people have them. So I gave it a try with a firm believe that I won’t get any. I didn’t have girlfriend at the moment but my sex drive and erections were normal at the begining. I was a guy with strong libido and very strong erections. My scalp stopped itching after few weeks on finasteride and the hair loss stopped. During one year treatment I never had any pain or visible change on my penis. But my sperm soon got “wattery” and I’ve noticed that my erections are not so strong anymore. I didn’t pay too much attention to it but it was getting worse and worse.

I slept with a woman 6 months into treatment and my erection was week. But it was there. I didn’t pay too much attention to it cause the woman didn’t attract me.

Two months ago things went from bad to worse. I was mastrubating a lot to prove to myself that my erection is ok. I got a huge burst of libido but the next week it all went away. I felt nothing down there, nothing. For the first time in my life I didn’t have any will to mastrubate. My penis felt like it’s not part of my body. I think that this is called a “crash”, correct me if i’m wrong. One week later i could again feel something but I can get full erection only with extreme stimulation. If I stop mastrubating the erection goes away in seconds.

One month ago I meet a beautiful girl. She took me home and I didn’t get any erection. I panicked. It was over with lying to myself. Finasteride killed my sexual life and I stopped with this poission the next day. It’s been one month now. I’m on 100mg Viagra and it doesn’t help. I can get 80% hard with mastrubating but even this doesn’t last. I’m not aroused when my “girlfriend” is naked. I have sexual thoughs, pretty kinky ones, but they don’t convey to my penis. It’s a really strange feeling. I hope that I will recover soon otherwise I will lose my “girlfriend”.

In one month I didn’t see any big improvement, but my sperm got a bit denser and yellowish. The erection is not there and every morning I hope to wake up with one.[/b]

The crash is a severe hormonal “flip”, it will feel like the floor collapsed under you and your world is falling apart. Your penis loosing feeling is very odd but it’s not the same level of scary as the hormonal crash. Cognitive impairment or instant penis “disconnect” or loss of orgasm sensation is probably just the result of sudden deficiencies that fin caused. You should be able to fix that quickly and cheaply, it is far more difficult or impossible to repair the low semen volume and depression and fatigue for example.

Start with sorghum grain, glutathione, multi minerals and amino acids (should feel results within 2 weeks), that’s about $50 total. Make sure there is 100% or more daily value of chromium in the minerals and tyrosine, carnitine, choline and NAC in the amino acids pack, if not buy them separately. Those are very important to fix erections.

Porn induced erectile dysfunction does the same thing and you can probably cure it the same ways. Take those supplements, do those brain retraining exercises everyday, fix your hormones by exercising, and avoid masturbation and porn for several months. Focus on sleep, meditation, diet and exercise and you will reboot your system and recover your sex drive. Read this viewtopic.php?p=102308#p102308