Necro's story

Member Stories
#1

  1. Where are you from - Canada

  2. How did you find this forum - google

  3. What is your current age, height, weight? 24 5’10 145lbs

  4. Do you excercise regularly Yes, try to every day weight lifting minor cardio

  5. What type of diet do you eat - Paleo

  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss)

  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (8 weeks)?

  8. How old were you, 23 march 14 2012 did you start Finasteride?

  9. How old were you when you quit, 23 May 15 2012

  10. How did you quit (cold turkey)

  11. What type of Finasteride did you use – generic

  12. What dose did you take ( 0.5 mg every day)

  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects 4 weeks

  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
[ x] Complete Impotence
[ x] Loss of Morning Erections
[ x] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ x] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ x] Watery Ejaculate
[ x] Reduced Ejaculate
[ x] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ x] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

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

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

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

[ x] Other Most of my mental side effects began after my hormonal imbalance was corrected. I believe I had hypopituitarism before taking the drug. Now that has been corrected i suffer from extreme mood swings, emotional blunting depression and suicidal thoughts. After losing sex drive mentally i was fine besides the resulting depression from the lack of sexual ability.

  1. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?

Lots of suppliments with minor success, tribulus horny goat weed arginine citruline mucana puriens vitamin e vitamin b fish oil with vit d zinc selenium ginkgo biloba wormwood extract dhea lechithin carnitine avena sativa testofen catuaba bark DIM Damiana Ginseng and Tongkat Ali

I was given HRT for three months with little effect beyond increased energy levels and increased muscle mass. My problem was in the pituitary gland and now most likely neural steroids

  1. If you have pre or post-Finasteride bloodtests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug - low testosterone

  2. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?

  3. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.

I would say this is the worst drug imaginable and I wish I could just drop dead because I feel like my entire life has been ruined by doctors and pharmacists deceiving and manipulating me. I feel like i cant lead a normal life I cant go to school or work or date anyone.

#2

Day to day its hard to cope with the fact I participated in ruining my own life because I panicked. I dont even understand how something like this can happen and then GPs tell you the side effects should have gone away even an endo said they go away. How the fuck is this still happening and how is the medical community so unaware. I feel like im going to print off all the finasteride studies and go to every GP and Dermatologist in my city and show them what actually happens when you give people this drug.

I just look at my life like this was me before finasteride where I was so unaware something so life raping could happen as taking pills the doctors tell you are safe. I kinda feel like I’m permanently screwed and everything ive done in my life has meant nothing. I think the worst part is just looking at the chain of events in my life that lead to this situation, I was having trouble sleeping because I had these bizare headaches that felt like nails were being driven into my skull and then for months afterwards there was this constant soreness in my scalp. I couldnt focus and thought nothing else was worse. Of course this situation is much worse. My doctor looked at me and was stumped just like the 3 other doctors were but the fact i mentioned hairloss he decided oh theres this drug you can go on called propecia for that and I said yes. I then wandered over to the pharmacy in a sleep deprived state unbeknownst to me I was sealing my fate. I didnt take the drug at first because I felt my hairloss was not significant enough to go on drugs and i thought a more natural solution was best until i went for the nuclear last case scenario drug. So for 4 months this drug sat infront of me every day staring me in the face until one morning I woke up getting ready for school when i start parting my hair and panick because I realize that my hairloss had seemingly overnight gotten worse. I decided it was time to get proactive and start the Big 3 a phrase im sure lots of people here have heard of. At first i thought i was stupid for not taking this drug sooner and I lost ground for nothing. The words in my head from those forums resounded that the sooner in life your hairloss starts the worse its going to get. Even my doctor said when I told him I wasnt taking the drug that my hairloss would progress if i didnt take it.
Then I think the side effects kinda kicked after a couple weeks but the fact that I lost morning errections didnt come as warning to me, I was actually kinda relieved because they were really annoying because I felt like great I either have to spend 15 minutes taking care of this or try to hide it and then pee with a boner.
Then my cat got sick and I was an emotional mess, I didnt realize what the drug was doing to me and I was still poisoning myself with it ironically while I was saving his life with medication. While I thought my cat would die for sure all while i was also studying for exams in my graduating year. Once I realized I couldnt get spontaneous errections and my semen volume had plumeted i stopped taking the drug thinking oh well ill find another solution for hairloss and move on. I dont think I ever really had the endocrine crash other people had it was more gradual to the point where it was hard to notice and then it just never got better.

And then It was a month, 2 months and my situation didn’t improve I was wondering whats going on. So I go to my gp and tell him I feel depressed, low energy, cant get errections low semen no orgasm. I’m not sure at what point I looked up long term side effects of propecia but it was like this sensation of death in me and a deep sense of betrayal by the medical communty. I got my blood tests back which showed I had low testosterone in the range normal for women.
Now 13 months later im slightly better but I feel like I have the sexual capabilities of a 60 year old fat man who chain smokes ciggarettes not the 24 year old who does weightlifting, cardio, doesnt touch drugs and eats an obscenely clean diet. My hair is grown back and I look the best I ever have in my life but im completely dead inside because theres no life fulfilment with this drug. When I excercise i dont get that same feeling of endorphins or adrenelene making my brain happy neither does sex or masturbation. It feels like a complete disconnect where you’re just a ghost of a person merely existing in some hellish limbo and every day you just think how does one human being do this to another person. How did this happen to me. I look at my possesions and go this belonged to Kevin before he got poisoned, these were places he went to and the things he aspired for. For a while I felt completely depersonalized from the person i used to be and I’ve just divided my life as before and after the drug.

Now these fucking cunt doctors dont even have the courtesy to acknowledge what this drug does and I left some papers in regards to PFS for this guy to read when I went asking for a referal to a mens health expert today and he says why dont you just stick with your current endo? Oh because she says im im slightly below the low normal range for testosterone and i should be fine. No im not fucking fine having low normal testosterone is bullshit even for a normal person who doesnt have this issue.
What in the flying fuck is wrong with the medical community where they dont even know that a guy in his early 20s should not have low normal testosterone?

#3

I had the same problem with doctors who refused to listen to anything I said and tried to refer me to a physiatrist. My advice is dont go to these close minded doctors it will just put you under more stress.

#4

Necro

I hear your pain and feel it too as I’m in the same boat.

What is your testosterone level at now?

What treatment might you try to raise it?

PM me if you ever want to talk

#5

Well i think my endo was treating it like a pituitary problem and gave me an injection of some stimulating hormone once back in june. Its odd because thats when the real mental side effects began. For weeks I felt like my emotions were stongly blunted to the point where i literally couldnt give a shit about anything and i lost the ability to cry or feel any strong emotion for more than a few seconds. Now she is thinking there is something up with my adrenals because my androstione and dhea were above normal.

She talked to me about potentially using clomid but i dont think thats good enough because I believe I need an actual HPTA restart.

on a plus side i believe that using high doses of carnitine and alpha lipolic acid along with yohimbine are working. Ironically I had to go to the doctor who convinced me to use propecia to get Yohimbine because no other doctor would give it to me because of side effects. I can report absolutely no negative sides from using it and i believe it helps me sleep better

#6

So what is your T level nor then?

Do you still feel rubbish?

I thought Clomid was a type of HPTA restart?

#7

I think my free t levels are around like 28 and the normal is 33-80. Back in july of 2012 it was at 6 and the gp was like well shit do you want to go on testosterone injections?

I still feel like shit, libido is broken, weak errections low sperm low orgasm sensitivity.
Honestly I feel like i should kill myself quite a bit. This happened to me at 23 when I was a relatively happy person and the only thing that upset me was losing my hair. I ate healthy and worked out people told me I looked really young and attractive and it went to my head. I had shaved my head when I was 21 which was a really bad experience, i wore hats for months and felt like shit waiting for it to grow back. I legit woke up one morning getting ready for class and I fucking panicked because I noticed for the last 5 months I had diffuse hairloss and then my hairline had suddenly receded. I would imagine this was due to the working out because I remember as soon as I got into heavy weight lifting the strength of my orgasms and semen volume went up like 500% and I was like woah this is awesome. I also realized recently that the protein powder I was using had lots of d aspartic acid in it which also probably drove my dht up leading to an itchy scalp that was bothersome. I decdied what the fuck I should have taken this medication sooner, theres no way this shit could damage my godly sex drive now. I already had the generic rogaine and ketokonazole lotion a dermatolgist gave me. how stupid I was for believing the medical community that this shit was safe.

15 months after taking propecia I would say my hairloss has become extremely negligible to the point where if I tell a doctor they look at me and go why were you prescribed this? then they say no no your side effects should go away because the drug isnt in your system.

#8

How bad is your shrinkage and sexual function these days?

Do you not think your T level could still be low?

#9

My sexual function ranges a lot. I feel like my t levels and dht are probably low and a protocol aimed at increasing those would help me immensely. I suppliment basically everything that increases testosterone and ive been taking lots of carnitine and alpha lipolic acid. I feel as my situation has improved somewhat but im just generally upset because i know my sexual function is not near anywhere as good as it was or as it should be. I would say my tolerance for excercise has also decreased and i think i am more prone to sore wrists/ankles. I used to do long distance running when i was younger and now i can hardly do it anymore due to mental and physical fatigue as well as being prone to shin splints now.
I can get full on errections with the help of cialis and yomhimbine but pleasure is sometimes very minimal to the point where im not even interested in sex but i miss the feeling of connection with other people.
I generally fucking hate myself for falling into this trap, if i had never taken propecia and looked into topicals or just saved a bunch of money for a hair transplant I would be a 100x better off now. Instead im blowing 1000s on suppliments that most likely have marginal effects and more on medications just to manage symptoms. This drug is has been a serious detriment on my life to the point where im not even sure what to do anymore I feel like im not even really attracted to people and I have serious confidence issues. I think the only plus side is that ive learned a lot more about health, drugs and the male reproductive system and hormones to such a degree my endocrinologist tells me im teaching her things.

#10

Go to the recovery post and read the guy that just recovered you need to get on some kind of testosterone booster and stay on it for a while get off of it then go back on get off of it and go back on it hopefully you will recover.

#11

Well it seems I kinda have full blown pfs.

My natural test is at 40 normal range is 31-90
my dht was at 2238 normal is 800-3300

Basically my endo said all my hormones were in the normal range.
I find that my sexual function and libido is extremely eractic. I find they are best sometimes when I have good sleep. I am about to try clomid tommorow at 12.5 mg a day to see how it effects me. I take cialis and yohimbe daily along with high doses of alpha lipolic acid and carnitine. I suppliment a lot of things like tribbulus horney goat weed testofen zinc, copper, selenium magnesium oil, iodine painting (this has interesting effects) oyster extract dim elk/deer antler citruline arginine cordyceps, multivitamin and fish oil royal jelly etc. I swear PFS has made me look better than i could have ever dreamed which is a fucking ironic joke. I do weightlifting and cardio every day.

I strongly think there is a mental component to this and correcting sleep deficiency/restoring neural steroids is a big part as well as the hormones. Its some big convuluted mess where finasteride not only disrupts the endocrine system but the nervous system. I would say i dont really suffer brain fog i more or less just feel depressed and lonely as a result of the condition. I also find that i sleep better on nights where i have good orgasms which is a huge catch 22 because when i have weak orgasms i feel depressed and anxious and dont sleep.

#12

?

#13

Make sure you cycle your supplements - ongoing use makes many of them worthless after some time.

#14

Necro wrote:
Put an X beside all that apply:
…
[ x] Muscle Wastage
[ x] Muscle Weakness

Necro wrote:
Well it seems I kinda have full blown pfs.
…
I swear PFS has made me look better than i could have ever dreamed which is a fucking ironic joke. I do weightlifting and cardio every day.

Yes this happened after I quit the drug. My testosterone dropped to a level of 6 (normal range for women is 1-9 men is 31-90) 2 months after quiting the drug. you cant maintain muscles with the testosterone of a woman. I only can maintain them now after having treatment to have my balls producing test.

#15

Necro

What you taking for your balls to produce testosterone?
Clomid?

Hope your holding out ok?
We have very similar symptoms.

#16

My endo gave me an injection i believe of Gnrh to get my pituitary working again. that was back in june. I saw some positive improvements from this but I am unsure what it all means. Semen production and pleasure have increased somewhat but no where near where i was pre fin. I still have a very low libido and have trouble with spontaneous errections. I would say structurally im ok because cialis allows me to get easily stimulated errections that are full on.
I think this suggests i either need to have really high test levels to feel any better or there is definitely something going on with the nervous system.
It feels like this drug is a double whammy where it fucks your testosterone production and screws with your nervous system.

again pre fin back in february 2012 i would say my sexual function was an 11/10 because it was higher than i ever was as a teenager. Now idk i would give it a 3 or 4 because i have to take a rediculous ammount of suppliments to get maybe half the function i had and i generally dont have a libido. I basically save one good orgasm a day to help me sleep.

I am currently taking low doses of clomid. The first time i took it a few days ago i felt really uncontrollably happy for no reason but that has not occured since.

I would say i also think daily of commiting suicide. I think this is more due to the fact of my age and im really having trouble accepting this happened to me. I’m sorry to say but i think its a lot easier to cope with if you’re an older established person in life. I wouldnt mind as much if i was 30+. Having this happen in your early 20s is mind bogglingly insane and the pressure is really starting to take its toll as im getting older.

#17

Necro

Please hang in there my friend. I’m here for you. I might be a decade or so older than you but I can tell you I find it no easier than you do, not one bit.

I’m on Clomid at the moment too, 50mg every other day
I’ve decided I’m only going to take it for 4 weeks then stop. Since taking it, my testosterone level has tripled in 10 days from 8.1 to 26 nmol. My prolactin has quadrupled and my estrogen has doubled.
I perhaps feel slightly less suicidal but it has done nothing for my impotence or libido

Do you take anything to reduce prolactin or estrogen?

Read my posts and I’m sure you’ll agree you are better off than me!

Please stay in touch. We all need to help each other.

#18

Well my point being there’s guys who took this drug for years and say oh yeah it worked for me and market it to people. Then this shit happens. I took it for 8 weeks at 23 and it raped my life. I dont even know who i am anymore as a person, i cant even begin to rationalize happiness in my life. Sometimes i will get errections but have no sex drive and have no idea what turns me on anymore.
Before fin when i had sex i used to get this good feeling in my head afterwards which always kinda helped me feel connected with the other person. Now its just mindless and monotonous. The emotional blunting is a killer because i cant feel love for anyone or cry or anything its like this drug robs you of any passion and makes you severely depressed.
I cant say what i want to do with my life other than try to get back to what i was like pre-fin.

I take Dimm thats about it but my estrogen is not elevated and my prolactin levels are normal.

#19

Necro

I completely understand every word you write. I can relate to all you say.

What disappoints me is that this drug is still been sold to young guys like you who will probably end up on this forum sometime in the future!!!

I’ve lost the ability to laugh, be happy, hug my kids and feel that love, no desire for sports or socialising anymore. It does install depression into some, me included as I find it hard to accept PFS and how my life has changed in the last 4 months!

Have you ever taken medication for your depression?
Keep posting and stay in touch as I feel it helps to get things out in the open.

Very very sad.