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Where are you from (country)? Canada
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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?) Googled finesteride symptoms
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What is your current age, height, weight? 24, 5’11, 150lbs
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Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise? Cardio/resistance trainning 5-6x/wk (Do most of the workouts that are part of the P90X program)
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What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)? Hight protien/Low carb/LowFat (50% Protien, 30% Carb, 20% Fat)
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Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)? Hair loss
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For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)? 2 months (over 3 different intervals)
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How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride? Feb 22nd, 2010 (24 years old)
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How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit? Sept 10th, 2010 (24 years old)
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How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? Cold turkey
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What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic? Propecia
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What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? 1mg daily
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How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects? I had the expected side effects (erectile dysfunction, watery semen, reduced ejaculate, occasional/reduced morning, nocturnal and spontaneous erections), a week in to starting on the drug.
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What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation? Erectile dysfunction, watery semen, reduced ejaculate, occasional/weakened morning, nocturnal and spontanious erections.
Put an X beside all that apply:
Sexual
[ ] 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
[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)
[ ] 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)
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What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug? None
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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)?
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Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
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Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
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I started on FIN on Feb 22nd, 2010 and used it for 4 weeks. While on the drug, I had mild-moderate erectile dysfunction, watery semen, reduced ejaculate, occassional/weaker morning, nocturnal and spontaneous erections. I stopped after 4 weeks, as I was very concerned about potentially irreversible side effects, that have been reported on this forum. However, when I went off the drug in mid-March, my symptoms slowly resided in a few weeks and I had no symptoms.
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So,I started on the drug again in May 2010, and used it for 3 weeks. Prior to starting again, I tested my total and free T levels (I will post the results soon) to have a baseline. While on the drug, again, I had mild-moderate erectile dysfunction, watery semen, reduced ejaculate and occassional/weaker morning, nocturnal and spontaneous erections. After 3 weeks, I stopped the drug again, as I was again afraid of potential long term complications. There were numerous reports online, and I couldn’t convince myself to continue with some much uncertainty. And again, my symptoms slowly resided within a few weeks, 3-4 at max.
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From May 2010 to Sept 2010, I had done nothing to prevent my hair loss and I had lost a great deal of hair. So, I begain to panic and I had a weeks supply of FIN left. So I said, what the heck, up to this point I have always recovered from the symptoms, so why not try it again for a week and finish off the supply. I took FIN for a week, during the first week of Sept 2010, and again, after I stopped my symptoms resided within a few weeks. After stopping FIN, during the 3rd week of Sept, I also began to use topical spironolactone 5% (an anti-androgen), and applied it to my scalp twice a day (once in the evening and once at night).
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By the end of September my symptoms had fully resided again. However, during October, my symptoms progressivley started to return. I was experiencing erectile dysfunction, watery semen and reduced ejaculate, with weaker morning, nocturnal and spontaneous erections. I would approximate that this was 5-6 weeks after stopping FIN. This would probably be what has been described as the crash.
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Regardless, I continued to ignore my symptoms, and thought that it may be caused by the topical spironolactone 5%, which, despite being applied only to the scalp, has been reported by some to cause systemic side effects. So for the entire month of November I went off of spironolactone. Regardless, my symptoms continued to presist.
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At this point, I thought it was my diet. I was on a high protien/low carb/low carb diet at the time, and I thought I was not getting enough fat in my diet. Specifically, saturated fats, which stimulate T production to some extent. So, I changed my diet, trying a variety of diets (High carb, high fat, balanced etc), nonetheless, my symptoms continued.
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So here I am in December 2010, trying to figure out what I should do next. To start, I am going to complete a hormone profile and compile evidence of the post-FIN syndrome to show my doctor. One thing I don’t know for certain is whether, it was the FIN or the topical spironolactone 5% that caused me to crash (I took spironolactone for a month, a few weeks after stopping FIN). I am just troubled by the fact that after my first 2 rounds of FIN, all my symptoms were gone, but only after my third round my symptoms reappeared 5-6 weeks after stopping (and I was using spironolactone for 4 of those weeks). If anyone can shed light on this it would be great!
I am glad to have found this forum! Overall, this appears to be a very supportive community, with a great deal of information.