My story

  1. Where are you from (country)?
    USA

  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

  3. What is your current age, height, weight?
    27, 6’2, 225lbs

  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    thrice a week

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

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

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

  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    26

  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    26

  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

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

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

  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
[x] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[x] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[x] Confusion
[x] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[x] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[x] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[x] Depression / Melancholy

Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[x] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[x] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[x] 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?
    No treatments-

  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)?

  1. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
  1. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.

I had severe hair loss when I was 26 and was prescribed propecia by my dermatologist. It took only for 2 days to completely topple the harmonal balance in my body. After popping in the first pill, I had severe liver pain and hot flashes through my head. I woke up the next morning and I could n’t get an erection after trying for 30 minutes… My penis felt like a piece of muscle hanging around. I thought that my body is getting used to the drug and took it for another day. The next day I had a severe brain fog… It took me 2 hours to get out of my bed after I woke up and was extremely depressed after that and my hair starting falling off like it never had before.

so I quit the drug immediately and gave a piece of my mind to my dermatologist… The next night I had severe anxiety attack… I didn’t sleep that entire night… It took a week for both the anxiety attack and the brain fog to clear. My erections were normal the day after I quit and my ejaculations were fine. I thought I recovered but not. At the end of first week, I decided not to ejaculate for a couple of weeks to give my body some time to heal of any residual effects (also stopped exercising). At the end of two weeks, I noticed a lot of strange things happening- muscular wastage (finding hard to climb up stairs), my left man breast was swollen in compared to the right one and loss of sex drive and morning erections. So, I mustered whatever sex drive which was remaining to masturbate that night and to my horror found my erections were weak and my semen was extremely watery. I couldn’t sustain it without constant arousal… the next day I again masturbated but I found I was doing better- my erection was better but my ejaculation was still watery.

So, I masturbated twice a week for a month after that and I found gradual improvement in terms of maintaining erection and ejaculation. After a month I found myself back to normal- even spontaneous erections, my male breast size was back to normal and I
felt I was a man again. So, in short, it took 2 months to recover from 2 days of dosage and the key thing which I did to recover is masturbation twice a week (I don’t know if it makes sense or not) and healthy food-

Sounds like you recovered naturally per the drug manufacturer’s claims. FYI this forum is for men with PERSISTENT side effects. Wish you good health best of luck.

Hey man dispite the fact that you did recover it sounds like it still put you through some hell, which is opposite of what Merck claims about their wonderful drug. You should complain to the FDA and fill out one of the medwatch forms for good measure, even though you did recover, because what you experienced is not what Merck claims in their literature and we need everyone who has been adversly effected by this drug to make their voice heard now.