New Member: One Dose changed my brother (Big brother seeking support for his little brother)

NEW MEMBERS, PLEASE FILL IN THE FOLLOWING TEMPLATE. This is so that we can more easily track symptoms and hopefully find patterns in our syndrome. This will also help others understand your background and situation.

  1. Where are you from (country)? USA

  2. 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?) I found it through a friend Devolution, from the Accne.org forums specifically about Accutane and it’s side effects.

  3. What is your current age, height, weight? This is effecting my younger brother. He is 26 5 feet 8 inches and weighs around 135-140 pounds.

  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise? Prior to taking accutane (isotretinoin) we were working out together 4-5 times a week. He tries to exercise about 2-3 times a week but I think now it’s been about 1-2 times in the past two weeks.

  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)? Recently we’ve adjusted to a more healthier diet of vegetables steamed low protein and lots of water. On top of seeing a Natural path he’s taking natural supplements.

  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)? He took isotretinoin because he wanted to clear up his accne.

  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)? He only took 1 dose at 20mg in May, it’s been 3 months so far. We’re on a detox liver program suggested by two natural paths for about 2 weeks at the moment.

  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride? He is 26

  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit? He quit the same day he took it. Only one dose, but felt his body change within the day so he stopped.

  10. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? He stopped because he said he could immediately feel his face start to dry and the biggest issue was he said his eyes were constantly burning. It almost seemed like there was sand in his eyes. He noted that this feeling was from the start of taking it to right when we started the detox program it started to get a bit better, not as much burning but still irritation. He does have days when it feels “oily” . I’ll go into detail as to what I suspect.

  11. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic? Isotretinoin the US version of Accutane.

  12. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? I believe he was on the 40mg a day script, but he only took 1 dose at 20mg.

  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects? He noticed it within 8 hours or less.

  14. What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation? He was a normal guy, happy go lucky for the most part, perhaps there were underlying issues of confidence and self esteem that I did not really pick up on, but currently he feels the following that I’ve never seen or heard him speak of before: Anxiety, Depression, Suicide, Brain Fog, Joint Pain, dry skin, DRY EYES, headaches, ringing in the ears, Body temperature regulation, vision blurriness, Dry Mouth, Floaters.

Put an X beside all that apply:

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

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

Physical
[x ] 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
[x ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[x ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets” (initially, but after we started detox bowel movements have become regular)
[x ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[x ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[x ] Lowered body temperature (there was a day in the first month where he told me his body couldn’t regular it’s temperature) I’d say it was like 1-2 weeks of him taking it.

[ ] Other (please explain)

What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug? So far he’s been seeing a natural path that has him taking a variety of supplements. He was also doing acupuncture, sauna therapy, and running in attempts to detox the Vitamin A from his system.

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)? I’d have to ask if I can post his blood work, but the results were normal. NO real signs that would suggest to a general practitioner there needed additional analysis done. However, I did find someone named Lewis Rowlands who works with a world renown Dr. L Wilson and we did a hair analysis. The hair analysis suggested several things like adrenal burn out, copper toxicity, and more. Our next step is to wait for Lewis and Dr. Wilson to provide us with a treatment plan to reverse these symptoms. I feel pretty positive about it because it’s still early that there have been several signs of change in random days. i’m trying to key in on what we do that makes him feel that way.

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

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

My brother is a 26 year old normal guy who had a fixation on his accne. He sought out a dermatologist looking for answers and was recommended isotretinoin. He had several discussions with my parents and several with myself about taking this particular drug. He did the research and knew it was pretty bad, but ultimately figured he would not be in the 1% that experiences side effects.

There was one instance of us talking about this at the gym and i told him if he didn’t feel comfortable taking it just call the derm back and tell her you aren’t and its not a big deal. He felt bad that they had already ordered it and in my mind looking back we would of gone down this road at some point. On a side note, About a month into his side effect I reached out to several dermatologist asking them two questions. 1) I told them my brother has tried everything to cure his accne what would you suggest, and they all responded with Accutane. 2) I asked what happens if there are side effects and they said, it’s only 1% of the population that experience this and if they do they will dissipate. So to my point, if it wasn’t now we as a family were going to go through this, it would of been at some point. That to me is an underlying issue of self image.

Here are another set if variables that cascaded things. After taking the 1 dose of 20mg of isotretinoin, He went back to the derm and was prescribed doxycycline. I think he took doxycycline for a little bit and just got off of everything completely. We also ended up playing soccer a couple of days and i’m not sure if the exposure to sun did anything to that as well. Also, three weeks later he did end up drinking heavy.

This has taken over my families life. We were going from functioning to on the edge. We never know what kind of person we’re getting when he wakes up. Angry, Sad, Anxious, Suicidal you name it we are experiencing it. One thing that seems strange is that I tend to see him ruminate in the feelings only when it gets time for him to go to work. I’m not sure if theres a trigger there that makes him fall in to that but who knows. He also spoke with the lead pharmacist at his hospital who has spent a great a mount of time previously at UCSF. He mentioned that the half life is two to three weeks, but with a drug like accutane you’re looking at it cycling in your system for potentially a a full month and a half depending on each person.

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We were going from functioning to on the edge. We never know what kind of person we’re getting when he wakes up. Angry, Sad, Anxious, Suicidal you name it we are experiencing it. One thing that seems strange is that I tend to see him ruminate in the feelings only when it gets time for him to go to work. I’m not sure if theres a trigger there that makes him fall in to that but who knows. He also spoke with the lead pharmacist at his hospital who has spent a great a mount of time previously at UCSF. He mentioned that the half life is two to three weeks, but with a drug like accutane you’re looking at it cycling in your system for potentially a a full month and a half depending on each person.

I wanted to touch upon the fact that he has claimed its gotten better than the first month. Here are somethings I’ve noted as positives.

*He says his eyes were burning during the first month and as we started to do natural sups and detox he said it’s not burning anymore, but still irritated and dry.

*There was also one instance at work when he was dealing with a patient where he felt something had come over his eyes and brain almost like a tingling sensation that made his eyes and skin oily for about a few hours. Could that have been from adrenaline? He works in the ER so i figured he’d always be high on adrenaline…

  • The second time, I suggested to the natural path that he take some zinc only because i read that the Vitamin A reduces level of zinc and so he was on a multivitamin. The next day he said his eyes were better and that he didn’t feel as tired when he woke up. Not sure if theres a correlation, but that was a great feeling to see him energized and excited that it was getting better.

  • He recently did acupuncture at this chinese place that also does cupping. Some how in the middle of the night he woke up saying his mouth was moist and his eyes were oily.

*The final positive was that he was constipated for the first month. When we started to detox we read that the Vitamin A needs something to Bind to and we found that to be Keratin. As we started to buy more seaweed to eat he started to have frequent bowel movements. In fact he shared that he use to have watery stoles but because of this detox he was having normal bowel movements.

**Im convinced that there is way to include acupuncture/cupping, right diet, and running to rid the body of the Vitamin A. Also, I’m kind of scared to see all the people on the sub reddit of accne and acutane share their success stories hoping that it doesn’t come back to bite them in the butt with chrones or ibs. I’ve now seen several natural paths and chinese herbalist that suggest that there is a inbalance of Yin/Yang. Balancing that Yin/Yang might be the key to reverting the symptoms back.

I wanted to link several things that have kept me hopeful and what i lean on for research and I wanted to send a special thanks to Devolution whom I met at the acne.org forums and also to the admins of propeciahelp for allowing us to work together on this. I’ll need to catch up on how propecia effects the body and what else people here are going through but the cross post suggested it was the same.

One member from the acne.org post suggest that the accutane side effects could even be related to a brain injury and that oxidation tank could be a potential solution.

Thank You,

Where I met Devolution

Success Story of a guy who reverted his symptoms.

Loren Lockman, I touched base with him when I thought of fasting as a possible solution.

Lewis Rowlands site.

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There’s nothing you can do but wait and hope he gets better. Additional medication will probably just make him worse.

If he ever has trouble sleeping because of body temp read my post on Body Temperature Needs To Be Colder When Sleeping Now

I know this is isn’t advice but I just wanted to say that you sound like an absolutely fantastic brother and that this family support whilst he is going through what could be one of the most difficult times of his life is a fundamental ingredient in and of itself in his road to recovery. Some of the guys on this forum haven’t had this support and have been faced with disbelieving relatives which further impacts their suffering. I’m touched by the strength of your love for your brother. Speaking as someone who has experienced estrangement in his own family this is sadly not a given (the estrangement was nothing to do with any of this). Thanks to you and your family he has a solid base to get better. Wishing your brother and your family all the best.

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We agree that we’re looking to avoid the western medicine for now. I also think that we need to provide enough time to see results. Thank you for the link i’ll read that. Appreciate your comment and support. Yesterday I filtered by most replies and saw that there are people who have come out 100% again from the propecia side effects, I hope that motivates you to keep pushing. If i can be of help let me know :slight_smile:

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Thank you Scotsman, I think it was hard for him because we all thought he was crazy. No one wants to hear that “one pill can’t do that much damage” or “just wait and see it will go away”, you know your own body and when something changes it can be scary.

I liken it to puberty. When you are first told about it, it’s mentally prepared for and you expect it. With this you never expected it and as an adult most people aren’t receptive to change good or bad.

I thank you for your kind words, i’m doing as much as I can because I don’t want to see my family suffer and more importantly my brother. If there is anything I can do to help you please let me know. I do believe that detox is the way. It s a long a steady process to fight this situation but continue the fight and if you every feel you are alone talk to me. I wanna be there to listen.

Its easy for someone healthy to say these things, but I know you guys are all struggling and i’m looking for the answers. Thank you again Scotsman for the kind words.

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