Brazilliandude - also did you suffer the most extreme symptoms? Thinning legs, prominent veins, penis curving etc.
yes yes yes … i still suffer from hardflacid to this day…weird veins all over it…numb as wood…most of my side effects now are physical aside from libido…
Hej Brainburg
Are you still taking antihistamine?
As you now I managed to resolve my sleep side effects and got better erections
whit antihistamine tablets.
Yes, I´m still taking antihistamins. And yes this was the only thing that was able to remove my panik attacks totaly and calmed me down, since im taking it i feel much much better. But some symptomes have not improved by it.
@ sonder, yes im still taking it. my Sleep is great. I dream a lot, verys nice dreams and noctural erektions, even big morning boners.
Like i wrote, i was looking for a thing against my nausea in the moning and found that antihistamins are helping, so, a cool thing 2 Flys with one hit. Sleep and nausea.
Do you think it is okay, taking antihistamine every day?
What about side effects in the long run?
I have som problems with my stomach , maybe because of antihistamine?
It’s possible, there’s so many pathways to think down, the realistic approach would be that it would be due to lack of hormones having bad digestion/stress/ lack of digestive enzymes/ diet…
Who knows, all I know is my digestion was great before propecia. I know alot of guys have improvements using probiotics etc.
“Histamine is an organic nitrogen compound involved in local immune responses as well as regulating physiological function in the gut and acting as a neurotransmitter.[2] Histamine triggers the inflammatory response. As part of an immune response to foreign pathogens, histamine is produced by basophils and by mast cells found in nearby connective tissues. Histamine increases the permeability of the capillaries to white blood cells and some proteins, to allow them to engage pathogens in the infected tissues”
though if i’m correct if your hormones regulate histamines… Fairly sure they would naturally be reduced in correlation?
After reading into this more, I can’t see how propecia can cause a inflammatory response from it’s action. Though i’m open to further information.
@ Braziliandude,
I thought you were almost recovered. You posted that somewhere in the forum.
@ all others,
I took Doxylamine, an antihistamine for my sleep disorder. It helped me. But I was feeling weary/drowsy in the morning. It lasted until midday when I felt normal again.
Brainbug- a few questions. How did you decide to use a antihistamine? Did a doctor prescribe it? Was it elevated doses, basically more than the 10 mg a day, was it claritin or Claritin D, basically if it had the decongestant part that would make you drowsy.
Yes i did…however some symptons are still present…mentally i feel rather fine.
I got some bloodwork done, sure enough, cortisol was 592 [ref 200-620]!!
Testosterone was low at 220 [ref 180 - 600]
any thoughts on getting cortisol down?
You can try 1000mg Vit. C every day, this can lower cortisol levels.
So, I can’t stop thinking about why some of us take the pill 1 time and others of us take it 3,287.25 times (thats me every day for 9 years) until the effects are horrificaly evident. I also can’t stop thinking that the effects of the 1 pill taker and the 3,287.25 taker are nearly identical, except perhaps the severty and extent of the effects. The actual umbrella of PFS is identical. In other words, some people seem only to have brainfog and fatigue but have taken the drug 10 years and someone else may have all the sexual sides w/brainfog and fatigue after just 1 pill. Are we to assume that the longer someone has taken finasteride the worse the effects are? The answer I believe would be no. I can’t subscribe to the belief that overtime the cumulative effects eventually affect someone worse because…well there are just the cumulative effects. I was sharp as a tack (still am) for 9 years, quick thinking, humorous, highly motivated, energetic, extremely intelligent (actually think I got smarter on fin) up until the final moments of taking the pill. So when exactly when did my neurosteroidal degeneration or neurological damage occur? Did it just coincidentally happen to take place out of the blue 9 years later on the same day I quit the drug? Vice versa, are we to believe that one pill has depleted someone’s neurosteroids to the point of complete PFS meltdown? Perhaps it would be that powerful, but then why was I ok for so long? If I have identical symptoms 9 years later to the 1 pill taker than I probably should have had the 1 pill meltdown as well. Ok, so what am I getting at. Perhaps it is not what finasteride has done to us, but other levels/hormones in our body which did not properly adjust to the usage of finasteride. I find it fascinating that finasteride in clinical trials has proven to increase testosterone 10-15% by inhibiting the conversion of Test to DHT. Over the years, my libido and energy actually increased while I was taking finasteride as well. Just read an article on-line about Wayne Rooney and how well he is playing because perhaps finasteride has increased his testosterone levels. There are also anectodal reports on this site and others as well of people benefiting from the use of progesterone and other 5ar inhibitors. This would be counterintuitive to what most of us see as the problem. Also some anectodal reports of at least temporary benefits of taking finasteride again. Imagine this, progesterone is a precursor for testosterone and finasteride increases testosterone production, but at the same time finasteride might affect progesterone production or synthesis which could lead to diminshed testosterone levels (estrogen dominance) Did I survive so long because I may have had low progesterone but my initial spike of testosterone from taking finasteride (even though it may have been low) was at enough of a ratio that I didn’t feel the effects of diminished progesterone levels? In other words, did the inrease levels of finasteride induced testosterone production outweigh any effect that may have taken place with the inhibition of pregesterone/allopreganlone? Again I am assuming, that there is no cumulative effect of finasteride, and that what happens with one administered dose on me happens with one dose to the person affected by one pill. So, when I decided to quit finasteride or become lazy with the 1mg dosing etc, my testosterone drops to the same level as the person who has taken just one pill. So now what? I experience low testosterone from the drop in finasteride, and the neurosteroidal depleted affect (which presumably happened with the first pilll I every took but I never knew about) I have a friend who took finasteride for about 4 years and discontinued the usage about 3 years ago. He has been freaking out it since he has seen what has happened to me. He decided to get his testosterone checked and it was 200! He says he feels great though and doesn’t understand why he doesnt feel the effects of such low levels. Just food for thought
or you can try relaxing.
200 is out of range low which seems impossible. Are you sure he is right? is he still muscular?can you ask him to test his sliva estadiol and cartisole ? if his these are normal that might explain why he does not feel bad.
My latest showed 99. My doctor said she sees women wih higher levels.
It is very low man. how you guys are surviving? how is your appetite, strength, sleep etc. if I have this number I will be puking day and night.when my numbers drop I get strong nausea, get sever headache and brain fog, swelling under my feet, pain in hands etc. do you feel these all moonman1?.
Spstriken, I just hit a very low point sexual and had abdominal/pelvic pain, severe genital numbness, lost appetite, and for the first time in 6 months naseau feeling like I was going to puke. I also feel its a further dip in testosterone. How do you counter that? Does it help?
the problem with PFS is your total and free T keeps dropping (or at least it happened with me) and you keep shedding muscles unless you check it. I said many times before I use vitamin D3. This is my only remedy. undoubtedly this is God send for me other wise I would have died. I still have tough times.My feet and thin bones are my biggest problem.
Hi everyone, I believe in two fundamental things regarding PfS. The first being that all of our symptoms are indicative of estrogen dominance (objectively proven by symptomology) and the second that undeniably whatever occurred with us happened at the neurosteroid level, presumably inhibiting the conversion of progesterone to allopregnanalone (proven by what finasteride actually can do) These theories are not mutually exclusive in other words whatever possibly could happen with progesterone would lead to estrogen dominance. They are enormous keys to this whole problem and I was excited to see Awor’s update about the success of the neurosteroid studies. I have struggled with how this is possible. My theory had always been that the inhibition lead to low levels of progesterone and thus estrogen dominance. However many of you reported higher than normal levels of progesterone and minimal effects of adding progesterone and some worsening affects. Tonight I spoke with my brother who is one of the best surgeons in this country, he is also a clinical genius. He told me that my logic was wrong, that in fact inhibiting the production of allopregnanalone would clinically raise the production of its precursor which is progesterone!! Since the progesterone is suppose to be converted to allopregnanalone but is not, it would increase in your system. Ok this explains why many of you reported high progesterone levels but it didn’t explain why it wouldn’t raise the progesterone effects and thus wipe out estrogen dominance. He then told me that progesterone is a down regulator of…progesterone!! That higher level reduce the sensitivity of progesterone receptor sites! So is it possible of both reduced allopregnanalone production (headaches, anxiety, brain fog) combined with higher levels of progesterone which down regulate the receptor sites (estrogen dominance, low t, etc)
Have you considered making an appointment with Dr. Michael Irwig to discuss this with him? I would recommend doing so as I read that he too believes the problem is in the brain.
Did your brother indicate as to how someone may go about treating this? Is there anyway your brother can get involved with the studies is he’s such a great clinician? I would assume he’d want to help his own brother out (as well as many other men).