Swedish Member , 25M introduction

Member Stories
#1

Welcome to our community. Please fill in the following template as a way of introducing yourself, and helping others to understand your background and situation.

Where are you from (country)? - Sweden

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

What is your current age, height, weight? - 25, 183, 82kg

What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)? -Finasteride

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

What condition was being treated with the drug? - Diffuse male hair loss

For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)? - 9-10 months

How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start the drug? - 23 yrs old, early 2019

How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit? - 23 yrs old, late 2019

How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? - Cold turkey

How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects? - Probably around 5-6 months

What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation? - low feeling in penis, low pleasure during orgasm, sleeping issues and loss of “drive”.

Check the boxes that apply. You can save your post first, then interactively check/uncheck the boxes by clicking on them. If your symptoms change, please update your list.

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

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

Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[x] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[x] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[x] 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
[ ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)

What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug? - Mainly living a health lifestyle.

If you have pre or post-drug blood tests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug (please post your test results in the “Blood Tests” section and link to them in your post)?

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

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

  • So as a young male I started to experience hair loss from the age of 17/18. In my teens I had great hair and it was my bread and butter.

I’ve always had good looks and my hair was a big deal to me, since getting a lot of girls and stuff was part of my life.

So I started experience diffuset thinning at a young age. My dad is bald on top of his head so I knew it would happen sooner or later.

Fast forward a few years and it really started to show, I wasn’t super freaked out about it since I knew it would happen but I still Googled to find some cure.

Found out about Finasteride and it read all about it. Reading the studies it seemed pretty mild, with ED and gyno being the “worst” side effects. I noted them and since I had some gyno in my teenage years I noted to myself that I would stop if I felt I’d get it again.

So I started the drug and everything was fine for about 6 months. In this time my libido did decrease, but I was not really aware of it because it faded away slowly. At this time my left ball started to ache one night, got a ultrasound and everything looked fine, but some time after this I noticed it became kind of soft and decreased in size. My right nut was unaffected.

After maybe 7-8 months I noticed a decline in my drive in life. I rarely wanted to hang out with friends, never thought about girls etc. Didn’t connect it with the drug at all. So I kept going, and after a few more months my nipples started to hurt.

I understood that it was gyno and at that time I hopped off the drug.

After maybe 3 months it went away. But my libido never returned and my penis was often feeling cold to the touch, especially the glans.

That’s when I found out about PFS.

Its now been over a year since I quit, but some symptoms still stay with me.

-No or very little libido
-Less drive in life, but I still get on (better after discontinuing Fin)
-Penis get hard, but no or very little feeling. If I stop touching it, it goes flaccid fast.
-Trouble sleeping
-My nocturnal and spontanues erection are less frequent and of low quality.
-My Hb decreased from 150 g/L to around 120 g/L

The good parts are:

-My left nut got its size back
-My sperm was basically only water on Fin, but has slowly returned to thick white.
-Gyno faded away

Adding in Creatine 5g/day has helped my glans to become warm again. The skin around my balls also used to be tight, like when you take a cold bath. But Creatine has also mitigated this to some extent and now it hangs pretty much like normal.

I’ve read everything there is to read about Fin and I’m sure most of our issues are due to changes in neurosteroids. Going forward I’m going to start trying to manipulate this.

My first course of action will be to get blood tests on serum T, SHBG, E2, Prolactin, LH and Hb.

After this I am probably going to start off with trying the HCG 150-250 UI EoD and see what will happen. Wish me luck guys!

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#2

I thing in these days I’m the most active member here. Thank god that you don’t have muscle atrophy. Thank god for s mild pfs. Trying the Neurosteroids by yourself. Doctors so I noticed (in my pers. opinion) here try first TESTO and than pre Hormones and hCG. So they hope for hypogonadism be cured by TESTO. Because there you know are no causual treatment for pfs. Best luck for you.

2 Likes
#3

Hello and thank you.

I’ve read a few of your posts and I’m very sad what happened to you.

I have a theory why TRT is not very good option for most people here.

Although increased T can increase AR activation (good) it will decrease some active neurosteroids due to negative feedback on Progesterone. So if you’re on TRT, it will most likely be beneficial to also supplement Progesterone.

Also I’ve seen a lot of PFS users have high SHBG. This is a issue due to free T, free DHT and free E2 will be low (even if high serum levels).

Since I stopped loosing hair even after discontinuing Fin leeds me to believe I have high SHBG. I will report back after my bloodtests (in 1-2 weeks).

1 Like
#4

So I got my blood tests back and some things really is off the charts, while others are fine. Let’s start with the good parts:

Testosterone - 19 nmol/L (ref 9 - 29)
Free testosterone - 12 nmo/L (ref 4.4 - 12)
SHBG - 22 nmol/L (ref 18 - 54)
FSH - 6.3 E/L (ref 1.5 - 12)
Vit D3 - 91 nmol/l (ref 50 - 250)
Vit D12 - 340 pmol/L (ref 150 - 650)
CRP Sensitive - 0.58 mg/L (ref <3)
HB - 150 g/L (ref 134 - 170)
TSH 1.9 mE/L (ref 0.3 - 4.2)
T3 Free 4.6 pmol/L (ref 3.1 - 6.8)
T4 Free 16 pmol/L (ref 12 - 22)
Glucose 5 mmol/L (ref 4.2 - 6.0)
HDL Cholesterol 1.9 mmol/L (ref 0.8 - 2.1)
LDL Cholesterol 2.6 mmol/L (ref 1.2 - 4.3)
Cortisol 654 nmol/L (ref 135-540)

So all this is looking really good. I also got liver, kidney, heart, blood and prostate tests done and all is looking real good. But now comes to interesting part:

Prolactin - 594 mIE/L (ref 86 - 324)
Progesterone - 1.1 nmol/L (ref <0.47)
LH - 9 E/L (ref 1.7 - 8.6)
DHEAS - 13 mikromol/L (ref 4.3 - 12)

As you can see my Prolactin and Progesterone is through the roof! Most likely have a lot to do with my condition.

I am still waiting for the results for IGF1 and also Estradiol sensitive (E2). I will update when I get it, atleast the E2 will be interesting.

I’ve been using Creatine daily also for about two months now. It has increased my hairloss to pre-Fin status. But on the same time is has relieved some of my symptoms so I’m going to stay on it.

Mainly it has decreased the “cold” glans of my penis and my balls are hanging lower like they should do. Also feel like I regained some penile sensitivity, mainly in the glans. Although it’s nowhere near “normal”. I also had some increase in spontaneous erections and morning erections.

My next step is going to be to contact a Doctor and see what he will say about my Prolactin and Progesterone.

#5

I had over twice the reference value in prolactin last time I checked (which was over 6 months ago),
At the time, my urologist wanted to make sure it wasn’t caused by a hyperprolactinoma, so they made an MRI scan of my brain, but there was nothing to be seen.

Which is good of course, but in any case the increase in prolactin is probably some downstream effect caused by some other thing.

Just wanted to point that out in case you ever felt the need to get an MRI due to prolactin, it’s probably not worth the hassle unless your prolactin reaches values in excess of 10 times the reference.

#6

I doubt a have a tumor but have to do something about it either way. Will go talk to a doctor about it.

Just need to get my E2 results back first.

Also did your doctor do anything to lower your prolactin?

#7

So I finally received my E2 result and it showed 84 pmol/L. This is a pretty good value actually and I was surprised to be honest. I was thinking it would be high for sure.

So my T and E2 are both fine. For anyone American I calculated the values in the units you use over there and it’s as following.

T = 547 ng/dL
E2 = 23.4 pg/mL

Both are perfectly fine values, and the ratio is also good. Generally you want around 5% E2:T ratio and mine is 4.2%.

Now I just have to find out why my Progesterone and Prolactin is so high.

High Progesteron and Prolactin are both going to crush libido and cause erection problems in males.

But some good news is that since starting with Creatine I’ve slowly started to feel better and better.

I’ve had nocturnal erections on multiple nights and even getting some spontaneous erections during the day.

Also I used to have intermittent perenium pain but this last week it’s been absent. I started to “feel” my perenium muscles again, so I don’t have to press under the perenium after peeing to fully get all the pee out which is really nice.

Also the other day I felt kind of horny and felt the need to ejaculate. Said and done, I actually had a very hard erection. Although the glans didn’t fill up unless I used the “penis muscles” to force some blood into there. I could maintain the erection much easier than before.

Even the orgasm pleasure was way better than before. But the sperm was still looking kind of watery (gray-ish, not fully transparent).

Next step will be to contact a doctor and show him my bloodwork and tell him my story. I will keep posting here as soon as I know something more.

Edit: After I ejaculated I felt lethargic for a couple of days. I think it’s due to even further increase in Prolactin. After 2-3 days it went away and I felt normal again.

2 Likes
#8

It is good to see you are doing better

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#9

What does creatine do? Decrease Prolactin and Progesterone?

#10

No, Creatine wouldn’t have much if any effect on those things.

Mainly it’s used as a energy buffer in skeleton muscles to be used for during short, but heavy work.

However it’s stored in many tissues, including the brain where it has some positive effect as well.

In a PFS-related matter it’s main prospect might be that it’s been shown to increase 5AR enzyme activity. Basically it means more DHT being produced (and also maybe other neurosteroids).

So it’s basically the opposite of finasteride in this matter, although not nearly as “potent”.

#11

Just a quick update when I’m at it.

I felt kind of horny today again after exercising. Couldn’t resist the urge so I masturbated 3 times.

Sperm was looking solid white today. And although I didn’t get super good erections the first 2 (consecutive) times, the 3rd time I actually had a pretty nice erection where even my glans got almost completely filled with blood.

I know I’ll probably feel lethargic tomorrow, but it still was kind of nice. I’ll try to not overdo it from here on out.

I hope I’ll keep improving. Will keep posting.

Edit: It’s worth noting my glans has barely been able to erect since a few months after I took my first pill of fin. So this is big for me.

1 Like
#12

Libido and erection quality is steady climbing. Much more spontaneous erections and with a glans that is red and full of blood, rather than all white and empty before.

Not much change with sensitivity sadly, I wouldn’t be able to have sex with a woman in this state. Even if I’d get it up I wouldn’t feel a thing.

I called the doctor’s office to book an appointment to discuss my blood work. Unfortunately they didn’t had any times avaliable but they said they’ll call me when they do. Will probably have to see a GP before I get to see a specialist.

Will up the dose of Creatine to 10g as apparently some individuals see a greater effect at this dose than 5g. Will update if anything changes.

#13

Dr office told me they’ll call back Monday or Tuesday. It’s really hard to get a appointment unless it’s acute. One of the downsides to living in a socialist country unfortunately.

I’ve continued to feel horny these past week, which had led me to masturbate more than I think is healthy… Also managed to get a close to full erection so I measured my penis. Still same size as it was pre fin which is nice.

I also found this interesting read:

Doesn’t give any clear answers but I believe trying to upregulate 5AR specifically in the brain (by medium intense cardio and Creatine) seems to hold some truth to it. Atleast in my case it seems to have pretty decent effects.

I know people will say that exogenous DHT won’t work, but since DHT apparently have a hard time crossing the BBB I think the best course of action would be upregulation of 5AR.

Also in the paper they discuss how T is not sufficient to restore sexual function without DHT.

I really wished it was possible for me to test DHT levels here in Sweden but the test is not avaliable sadly. Would be fun to assess how much impact Creatine might have had.

#14

How was your doctor’s appointment, any updates?

#15

I just had one by phone last week.

We discussed it a little bit and he said high prolactin and progesteron could give my symptoms.

But he didn’t believe it was due to fin, but asked me about SSRI and anabolic steroids. Both of which I have never used. I told him about PFS and he will look into it.

So he wanted me to give him my full blood panel and he would look at it and book an appointment. Sadly it will probably take another few weeks until I’m called for.

#16

I visited the doctor today. He basically gave me a physical exam including prostate and then he heard my story.

No issues with prostate inflammation for me at least. No issues with balls or dick, apparently I don’t have a varicocele, but rather a small spermatocele.

He could not feel any plaque / peyronie’s.

Since he was a GP he couldn’t say much about my hormones, but he was going to talk to the other docs and come back to me.

Also I’ve had some recent improvement, especially when it comes to erection quality. Had a few times where my dick been super hard, and I could feel my dick pulsating.

Going to write some more what I’ve done when I have some more time, as I’m about to work right now.

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#17

Another quick update from me.

The bad: A few weeks after my appointment with my doc I became hypersexual, started to beat my meat 3+ times a day.

I think I managed to damage my penis doing this as after some time I got pain on top of it. I then noticed a slight curve and harder time sustaining an erection.

In other words I got a small Peyronie’s. I instantly purchased Ubiquinol (Q10). As it’s supposed to help against Peyronie’s. Within a few days my pain subsided and the Peyronie’s stabilized but did not go away.

I also realized I have some “visual snow”. I have had this for a while, but never knew what it was.

The good: My brain fog has cleared 100%, my head feels clear. But I do seem to be a little slower at processing information and find the right words. Not a big problem though.

My eyes are no longer dry. I don’t get a burning feeling when I close my eyes and in the morning I wake up with some of the yellow stuff in the corner of the eye. Which I believe is some kind of lubricant.

Insomnia is 100% resolved. I’m able to sleep 7-8 hours each night without issues. I’ve regained the feeling of tiredness in the evenings. Before I would never get that tired feeling even if I stayed up for days.

I can’t say for sure, but I do think what made me feel better was using Forskolin. Maybe 2 weeks after using it, the first thing I noticed was the eyes not being dry.I was using 500mg per day then.

To confirm this I stopped using it and one week later my symptoms came back. So I tried it again, not at a lower dose of 250mg. A couple of days later I again felt my eyes feeling really good. So I kept using it for a couple of weeks but then decided to stop.

To my surprise I didn’t lose my progess this time. So my eyes still not dry etc. Even my allergies seem a little better.

I tried to find why and found that the increase in cAMP (due to forskolin) will change your genotype to a more anti-inflammatory type.

My doc also ordered new tests for me, and it came back as follow:

T = 660 ng/dL (up from 550).
Cortisol = 446 nmol/L (down from 654)
LH = 5.4 IE/L (down from 9)
Progesterone = 0.6 nmol/L (down from 1.1)
Prolactin = 299 mIE/L (down from 594)

Pretty funny how my LH is sliced in half, but my T is up.

I feel the best I’ve felt since before I started fin though so that is nice.

Still very low feeling in the penis and not much sex drive through, or drive in general.

My doc referred me to a urologist next as he can’t tell what’s wrong with me. So I’m going to get an ultrasound on my penis and they’ll check for any nerve issues.

Will report back when I have new information.

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#18

A little update on my experience with Cialis daily (5mg).

So I decided to try Cialis daily to help with erection and maybe even upregulate cGMP (and thus eNOS).

Funnily enough it seems like it actually made my erections worse. The penis structure also seems to have changed. It’s not as mushy anymore, it feels more rigid but I don’t have an erection.

Maybe it’s hard flaccid but it seems more like the tunica albuginea have changed it’s structure. I would say it kind of mimics what have happened to the skin in many people here. It’s less flexible and feels kind of hard, instead of soft.

Another bad thing is that I get intense lower back pain, especially while sitting. This is a known side effect of Cialis and on the leaflet.

The positive that had come out of it is that I’ve lose some body fat, notable around my chest area.

I had gyno in my teens with some residue left for life. This flared up after ~9 months of fin but came back to baseline the months after cessation.

But I was left with some psudeo gynecomastia, which is basically when you store fat in the chest area. And this is much better now after ~2 months of daily Cialis.

We know Cialis does interact AR and the androgen/estrogen ratio.

But I think I will quit it for now and see what happens. The penile changes are concerning.

Another positive thing is I’ve been able to have some really genuine laughs the last couple of days.

Man did I miss the joy of being able to laugh, I just wish it stays with me!

Stay well everyone.

1 Like
#19

One thing I forgot to add is my semen is looking normal again, not sure if Cialis had anything to do with it.

It’s not watery or “lumpy” at all anymore but thick and white. It takes me about 2-3 days to produce a decent load though so way longer than before, but still it’s something.

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#20

Been about a week off Cialis now.

Mentally I feel good, back pain is all gone and my hands feel normal again, where I would feel pain if I put pressure on them while I used Cialis.

But the penis is only getting worse. I now have 0% sensitivity and can’t feel any pleasure at all during masturbation. Before I still had some in specific parts of the glans, although dulled.

All my sides on Cialis felt like low E2 sides, it seems like the literature supports this and my E2 was quite low on my blood test (22pg/mL).

Bottom line is I can’t recommend Cialis (at least not daily use).

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