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)? Germany
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?) Friend who suffers from Post-Accutane-Syndrom referred me here
What is your current age, height, weight? 27, 177cm, 76kg
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 every second day
What condition was being treated with the drug? Male-pattern hair loss
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)? ~9 months
Date when you started the drug? 08/2021
Date when you quit the drug? 05/2022 (started to taper-off)
Age when you quit? 27
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? taper off
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects? In hindsight first symptoms appeared in the first weeks of taking it, but did not connect them to Finasteride until 9 months after
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
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
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[X] Loss of Morning Erections
[X] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[X] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[X] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[X] Confusion
[X] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[X] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[X] Slurring of Speech
[X] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[X] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[X] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[X] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[X] Testicular Pain
[X] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[X] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[X] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[X] Joint Pain
[X] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[X] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[X] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[X] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[X] Other (please explain)
Severe insomnia and restlessness (still on-going)
Pressure on chest and elevated heart-rate the day after exercising (still on-going)
Severe digestion issues and diarrhea with green stool in first days
Heavy morning sickness for the first month after the crash (kind of like a pregnant women)
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
Try to stay away from alcohol and try to avoid eating gluten - apart from that none, thankfully had a partial natural recovery
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)?
No tests done before or after
Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience?
Alcohol played a huge role in my crash, I suspect
PFS seems (at least in my case) definitely heavily linked to gut health
Tell us your story, in your own words, about your usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
I started to take Fin at the same time I started a very stressful internship with long working hours. So when my first symptoms (restlessness and insomnia) occurred, I attributed them to the stress of the internship. After I concluded my internship (6 months after starting Fin) my symptoms did not really improve, however. Then one night I went out for drinks (had like 2 or 3, so was far from being super drunk) and when I came home I was completely unable to fall asleep (before my insomnia was not that bad, usually I managed to get 4-6h of sleep (even though it was of low quality)). The night after it was the same, with no sleep at all, and in the morning I noticed that I was unable to get an erection. That was it for me, I immediately knew that the cause of this was Fin.
Based on that I tried to tamper off the drug and initially, it seemed to work. Started to feel much better in the weeks afterward. But then I went on vacation to a music festival for a week and forget the Fin-pills at home. So involuntarily, I quit cold turkey while drinking heavily for multiple days in a row. And that fucked my endocrine system completely, so I crashed heavily on the last day of the festival.
The next days and weeks were absolute hell. I suffered from all the symptoms mentioned above. I somehow managed to get back to the city I’m studying in and had to crash on the couch of my cousin for the first week since I was afraid I would harm myself when spending time alone.
In the first four weeks after the crash, my life was a living hell. I suffered from all the symptoms listed above while needing to finish my Master’s Thesis. So I could not even get some rest while my body was dissolving itself. After I handed in my thesis after four weeks of pure agony I was finally able to get some rest and since then some of my symptoms started to improve.
Today (4 months after the crash), the symptoms that still debilitate me the most are restlessness and insomnia, as well as my inability to cope with stress or even light physical activity without feeling like garbage the day after. Moreover, like for everyone here, this condition takes a huge toll on me mentally - not being able to start a job now after graduating from college, because I’m not able to cope with stress, and not being able to celebrate with friends light-heartedly is tough.
But even though I still feel like an empty shell of my former self, I was inspired by the latest initiative of Eric in here and I am willing to give the fight against this terrible condition everything I got. That is why I decided to sign up to this forum now and I am willing to support any initiative to find a treatment or cure py proper scientific research (for now unfortunately the only thing I can offer is my time, as soon as I am able to start a job, I will also contribute financially).
Self-reporting template - ONLY USE FOR FUTURE POSTS TO REPORT ANY TRIALS OF TREATMENTS, NOT YOUR INITIAL MEMBER STORY
-
Name of the therapy/substance:
- Dosage:
- How often you took it:
-
Status
- Still using [ ]
- Stopped with no lasting change to initial symptoms [ ]
- Stopped with persistent change to symptoms [ ]
- Duration of use: Days [ ] Months [ ] Years [ ]
-
Response when you started:
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [ ]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]
-
Current response (if you’re still using the therapy/substance) OR Response in the time before you stopped the treatment
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [ ]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]
-
Lasting changes to initial symptoms after cessation (if you have stopped for more than 3 weeks)
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [ ]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]