My Story & recovery question

Member Stories
#1

Hi guys. I found this site about a week ago and was a bit horrified. Immediately stopped taking fin (after taking it for 3 years). Since I stopped taking it (a week ago), none of my sides have gone, my hair isn’t falling out at all, and I’m starting to panic a bit. Is it too soon to start worrying though? How long does it normally take for the sides to go away?

I had been on 0.5 mg per day for the last 2 weeks, and 1.25 per day before that.

  1. How did you find this forum?
    search

  2. What is your current age, height, weight?
    22 6’ 65kg

  3. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    Yep, ride my bike and walk every day

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

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

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

  7. How old were you when you started Finasteride?
    19

  8. How old were you when you quit?
    22

  9. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
    tapered off over 2 weeks

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

  11. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? 1.25 mg/day

  12. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    1 month

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

Most significant:
brain fog, gynecomastia, ejaculation problems

Put an X beside all that apply:

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

Mental
[ ] 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
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ x] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

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

[ x] Other (please explain)
Dry eyes

#2

Hello, welcome to the forum.

I wouldn’t be too concerned at this stage as it is early days yet, but you should get bloodwork as outlined on this site (Hormones section), the sooner the better, so you can see what Finasteride was doing to your body.

Read FAQ at top of site to start, and this post with similar questions to yours: propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=794

#3

Well its been 25 days now and nothing has changed. Four questions

  • My hair still isn’t falling out. How long does it normally take to start falling out after quitting?

  • Still have gyno. How long does that normally take to go away? Does it ever go away? (it isn’t that pronounced, and i don’t think there is any “hard” tissue or lumps, although i don’t really know what “hard” tissue is).

  • Still brain fogged. This is subjective though, i could just be paranoid. Is there some way to measure neurotransmitter levels? I searched for GABA tests in the bloodtest section but couldn’t find anything specific.

  • Have had some wierd tingling/jolting sensations in the penis and balls a couple of times. Tingling isn’t the right word for it though… it almost feels like some hormone has been put back into them. Anyone else experienced this?

Haven’t been able to get blood tests so far as i’m travelling…

#4

You probably won’t see any increase in shedding for at least 6-8 months. For me, month 14 of being off was when things really started picking up the pace in terms of hairloss resuming.

It could go away slowly over the next few months, or remain, depending how far along it’s progressed. If it has formed hard nodules and does not go away, only way to have it removed is via surgery.

If not, Tamoxifen (another drug) can be used to reduce symptoms of gyno, but of course that should only be done under a docs supervision.
propeciahelp.com/forum/viewt … =7203#7203

Tamoxifen is also used by Dr Crisler to try and jumpstart T production for Post-Fin users, ie: propeciahelp.com/forum/viewt … =7238#7238

Yes, via either blood, urine or spinal tap test. May require seeing a psychiatrist to evaluate for GABA and the other neurotransmitters at a competent level.

Also keep in mind that neurotransmitter tests are not necessarily the most reliable as neurotransmitters fluctuate many, many times throughout the day – within minutes and hours.

Here’s some info on various neurotransmitters/testing: raysahelian.com/neurotransmitter.html

Are you saying this like it’s a good thing? I remember experiencing tingling within the first 3 days of starting the drug as my dick went numb, probably due to lack of DHT/5AR/Nitric Oxide activity… and after quitting, too, as DHT came back. But after that brief period (few weeks after quitting) tingling went away, numbness still remains.

You really need bloodtests to see what’s going on at this point in time.