my story

Member Stories
#1

  1. Where are you from (country)?
    israel

  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?)
    from hairlosstalk

  3. What is your current age, height, weight?
    23 years old. 69 kg. 1.74

  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    i excercize lifting

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

  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
    because start of hairloss

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

  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    i start month before 23 / i am 23.5 years old

  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    23.1

  10. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
    i quit in one time

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

  12. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    half pill every other day. and in the end i took once 1 mg

  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    after two months in the end

  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
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ x] Watery Ejaculate
[ x] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] 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
[ ] Depression / Melancholy

Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[x ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] 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
[ ] 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?
    i started zinc last week 75mg, and vitamin d

  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)?
    i have low vitamin d 36 (75-200) and low white blood cells.

  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.
    hi
    i took fin for 2 months , i used 0.5 mg every othe day. in the end i tried 1 mg once and the sides start.
    i have 50% erection. and litle watery semen.
    i am off the drug 4 months and its still there.

time to beat pfs
#2

hi
i off fin 4 months after i took it only two months 0.5 mg every other day.
the sides still there.
i suffer from erectic disfunction and watery semen. no morning erection and no spontenias
i think the semen improve litle but i still dont have erection.
i dont know what about the libido, i horny sometimes but i can’t tell exactly.
my hormons are good

Prolactin 193.4 mu/l
Estradiol (e-2) 84 pmol/l
Tsh 1.55 mu/l
Testosterone total 16.9 nmol/l
SHBG 34
Free androgen index 50.30
Lh 7.4 iu/l
Fsh 2.8 iu/l
but i have low vitamin d 36 (75-200)
and low white blood cells

what can i do?

#3

one more thing
i did blood test 3 weeks after quit fin and my LH was 4.3 iu/l and now 7.4 iu/l
is it good?

#4

please write ranges otherwise useless.

#5

Prolactin 193.4 mu/l (45-375)
Estradiol (e-2) 84 pmol/l (it not mention)
Tsh 1.55 mu/l (0.27-4.20)
Testosterone total 16.9 nmol/l (9.4-37.0)
SHBG 34 (10-57)
Free androgen index 50.30 (20-96)
Lh 7.4 iu/l (not mention)
Fsh 2.8 iu/l not mention

the doctor said the test is good.
i started to take zinc (gluconate) 75 mg before bed and i notice that in days with zinc i feel worse and if one day i dont take zinc i have erections in night and feel better.
why is that? is it mean my astrogen is ok?

#6

If you feel better without taking zinc listen to what your body is telling you.

You can find optimal reference ranges for your blood tests here:

Your total testosterone may be low for your age range. Please do some research. Here’s a unit calculator:

soc-bdr.org/rds/authors/unit_tables_conversions_and_genetic_dictionaries/e5196/index_en.html

The reference ranges from life extension are:

standard 348–1197 ng/dL
optimal 770–1197 ng/dL

Your testosterone number converted to these units is 487, which is on the low end of the standard range and below the floor of the optimal range.

#7

hoo thank you man.
so what can do to level up the testosteron? zinc is meant to level up testosteron, so why its worse my case?
i exrecise 4-5 times a week with weight.
i will had to take medicine all my life?
how about my estradiol?

#8

Hi
I 4 months off propecia and still not recover.
I have only sexual sides. And little less semen.
What can i do? Wait more time or take some medicine?
Thank you.

#9

Hey j don’t start messing with medicines just leave ur penis for sometime, start a healthy diet with vegetables, fruits, white meat, and nuts stress on the avocado, almonds, sea food mainly oysters and salmon, avoid sugars and toxins (smoking, drinking, etc), even though u live in israel and it is a bit hard but avoid stress, try to abstain for some time

#10

Thank you.
Is 4 months not long time?

#11

I am now 5 months off and sides still not gone.
If my astrogen is ok but testosteron little low what can i do?

#12

here is my blood test 24 months after stopping propecia

TOTAL T 15.6 nmol/L 9.4-37
LH 5.3 IU/L
CORTISOL 434.2 nmol/L 138-690
FSH 2.3 IU/L
E2 104pmol/L
PROLACTIN 171.5 mU/L 45-375
PROGESTERONE 2.0 nmol/L
IGF-BINDING.PROT.3 3.8 mg/L
TSH 1.64 mU/L 0.27-4.2
T4-FREE 17.56 pmol/L 12-22
T3-FREE 4.68 pmol/L 3.1-6.8

my e2 is higher and total t lower.

VIT D 30.2 nmol/L 75-250

#13

so i am 20 months off propecia, when i quit i had a weird ‘’ crash’’ , it was like slow crash.
month after i quit i couldn’t even get an erection to musterbate.
since then i had little better periods, maybe 3 little recoveries.
but in the last 6 month i think i am recovering very slowly. not most of the time i can musterbate with good erctions even day after day, but with woman in bed i still can’t keep an ercection. ( it is little weird that i can musterbate, but with woman i can’t get an erection).

i think if workout after 1 month i feel realy better, but beside that i tried vit d without success.
toco 8 that helped me.
and maca without success.

and now i wnat to give it all to beat this,
I GOT SICK FROM THAT .
so i don’t care anymore , i want to try everything, even to do experiments on myself.
recovering is me primary goal.
first i heard good things about the chinese herbs, it is expensive but i don’t care.

and now i need your advices about what to try?
everything is welcome.

#14

There’s lot of ideas/protocols to try Johnson but I think it’s imporant that you figure out good lifestyle habits first. Some protocols may not succeed/your recovery may not last if you smoke 15 cigarettes a day and drink beer and eat pizzas made of depression medicine AFTER you’ve done a good protocol, lol. First of all, before you do any protocol you should switch to Paleo permanently (change your diet), and think about doing times of raw veganism. Then you should think about reading a lot about water fasting and do a water fast yourself. That’s where I would start. But remember to study water fasting well before doing it, you take all the risks yourself!

#15

i know what you mean when you say you are sick of it.
i mean whos not fucked up here?! yea…
well my advice for you : (maybe you already doing it)
Do sports!!!
avoid stress !!!
use omega 3 fish oil against depression !!!
less/no sugar , no alcohol and no caffeine!!!
stay away from porn!!!
give your body time to recover/get enough sleep!!! minimum 10 hours at night!!
try to eat healthy as possible!!
i am almost 2 years off and i become better , very slowly.
our body thinks we are 90 years old at this moment, cause our hormones are fucked up.
good luck with your recovery

#16

yes man sport is one thing that helps me.
and i am also almost 2 years off.
you will not belive that, but i think i started to feel better when i started to drink 3 cofee a day.

what do yout think about the porn?
and how much did you recover until now?

#17

from an assesment of tons of people affected by PFS, there does seem to be some (not all) strange things that happen from this. There obvioulsy appears to be an acute crash period either on or off the drug. There also appears to be a cycle of improvement followed by a cycle downwards. I am 14 months of after using 9 years and I am also starting to see some changes for the better. Each time I cycle upwards I notice a tiny improvement i some areas. I seem to sweat more, I seem to not have the total mind/penis disconection i use to have, for the first 6 months I would orgasms that I couldnt feel which has seemingly disappeared. I still get bloated but not as bad as before, my face is red but not as red. It really seems that improvements do happen and that somehow the 2nd year they seem to hold or last a little longer.

Glad you are feeling better!

#18

the cycles are like that right: it get better, and then worse, then more better and then less worse, until it get better?
i saw this in a lot of people i think.

#19

Yeah, Finatruth, this is exactly what happened to me. I always see a tiny permanent improvement after a good cycle. I’m now almost pre-fin in all aspects - I don’t know how much it’s going to last, but I l have learned to enjoy as long as I can.

#20

Friend try the Huang He. Chinese herb.