- How did you find this forum?
via Google
- What is your current age, height, weight?
28, 5’11, 150 lbs
- Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
Before stopping fin I used to run 3 times a week and work out in gym.
Now, I am too weak.
- What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
Oranic an healthy most of the times.
- Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
Hiar loss.
- For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
3 years.
- How old were you when you started Finasteride?
24
- How old were you when you quit?
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?
split up proscar.
- What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
1.25 mg/day
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How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
-
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
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[X] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[X] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[X] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[X] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[X] Slurring of Speech
[X] 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
[ ] Testicular Pain
[X] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[X] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[X] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[X] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[X] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
- What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
Natural supplements as fish oil, vitamins, zinc etc.
- 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)?
propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1553
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Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
-
Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
Hi everybody,
I took fin for about 3 yrs and have been hit hard by many sides, some of them described here as well by many members.
I started taking propecia in July 2004 and later swiched to splitting up proscar into 1.25 mg pieces/day. Already during the first 3 weeks my penis started shrinking and my body hair was thinning as well as my facial hair. At first I got scared and stopped taking the drug just to check if my penis would grow back to normal. After all Merck says that all sides would be reversible… After 3 weeks my penis was indeed back to normal so I figured, what the hell, I’ll just go with it since I did not have a girlfriend at the time. So I started taking fin again for 3 years. During this treatment my penis shrunk to about half its original size and I had abdominal pain sometimes probably because my prostate was shrinking. But despite the penile shrinkage, I still had had normal erections even if they were harder to obtain.
Then in August 2007 I stopped because the med did not really affect my hairloss. Then within 4 weeks my body hair was back to its pre-fin state. But my penis was still crunched and I got complete ED. But no mental probs up to this point.
After these 4 weeks thogh, my body hair was thinnig again as if I was still under the drug regimen. At that point I did not care much about it because I was rather concerned about my ED. Interestingly there were no brainfog issues until almost 4 months later!
It was on dec 31st (exactly!) I was literally hit with brainfog issues. (and no, I was not drinking or partying at all!). I felt dizzy, tired, weak and everything felt so unreal an dull. During the first 4 weeks of 2008 I was bearly able to get out of bed or up from the couch. I was just so tired, weak and felt dizzy all th time. Befor quitting I used to run 3 times a week and work out in the gym but all of the sudden I was feeling too weak to even buy food for the daily living. Of course like many other members I ran down all sorts of docs befor I even made the connection between fin and all these syptoms. (Btw I do belive that because of this time gap many former fin users do not even link these symptoms to fin and suffer “in the dark”). Then I stumbled over this page and whished I’d never taken the drug.
My situation did not get better in Febuary 08. Still tired, weakness etc. I took all kinds of supplements, vitamins etc. but none of it would work. Docs told me I just have a mild depression. But I know that the depression ist not the cause. The cause is the hormone mess up due to fin. My situation got a little better in April, because the dizzyness slowly faded away. But the weakness and fatigue and ED and brain fog remained. And the brainfog is the worst part of all. So finally I got an appointment at an Endo and got my bloodwork (check in bloodwork section). It basically shows moderate T and DHT levels but my FSH is through the roof an my inhibin is pretty low.
My Endo said, hormone levels are normal, but they can’t be. The fact that my body hair is again thin like under fin is the evident proof, that something is still majorly wrong. I showed him this site and he said, that he knows that there is a current discussion about fin in certain Endo circles but he also said, that since my hormones seem to be ok, he would not link it to fin. But what if my T and DHT used to be much higher and my body needs higher T to work properly? After all DHT is responsible for the growth of body hair and if it is thin, this can only mean that I used to have more of it.(Still does not explain the brain fog though…)
While I can care less about the body hair, my main problem ist the brain fog issue. I’ve already read a lot of posts here that say the brain fog issues clear up first. Well, not for me. They are the worst. I really feel like an 80 year old. Can’t remember things, always forgetting stuff, stumbling over words, slow thinking etc.
Any suggestions?