UPDATE: i just been to a leading endocrin professor: he neglected my sympthoms, sayin its just psychic and he dont believe in PFS…im fuckd!
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Heyy everyone! I give you an update about my situation, worsen/unsolved symptoms, and some that have improved, furthermore i show you my blood tests so far with the hopes you tell me what are my outlooks according to those.
Worsen symptoms:
- muscle wasting / muscle weakness
- thinning hair, severe hair loss including body hair mainly on chest and hands
- skin pale
- sometimes burning skin on chest area
- cold intolerance / cold hands and feet (incl. decreased body temperature)
- slowed metabolism, easy to gain fat / water retention
- fatigue
- low sex drive / lack of motivation
- returning depression, anhedonia
improved symptoms:
- cognitive impairment / memory loss has been a reduced issue
- able to speak again most of time fluently
- vision less blurry
- eyes not so dry constantly anymore
- sleep is better (no insomnia, 4-5 hours of sleep at worst days)
- weight loss / fat and water retention reduction
- better sperm quality, less watery again, but erections are still lower than pre-fin
- no more headache / head pressure
So improvements are important to continue to run my company, which is really great.
I can’t go excersize these days, but I’m eager to continue since thats what i think helps physically along keto diet. I also take amino acids to help my muscles catch up again.
I really hope my worsening / not improving symptoms I’ll be able to tackle.
I have my next blood test in 10 days, really interested to find out my thyroid levels for instance, cause the hair loss I’m very anxious about.
Here are my first 2 blood tests since my crash (after 4x 1mg fin):
February 20th:
Estradiol E2: 144.8 pmol/l (ref. 0 - 146.1 pmol/l) HIGH
Total testosterone: 4.97 nmol/l (ref. 5.72 - 26.14 nmol/l) LOW
Free testosterone: 0.0686 nmol/l (ref. 0.198 - 0.619 nmol/l) LOW
Boiact testosterone: 1.86 nmol/l (ref. 4.36 - 14.3 nmol/l) LOW
Free testosterone: 1.38 % (ref. 1.53 - 2.88 %) LOW
Bioactive testosterone: 37.42 % (ref. 35.0 - 66.3 %)
March 5th:
Estradiol E2: 64,1 pmol/l (ref. 0 - 116.0 pmol/l)
Total testosterone: 16,4 nmol/l (ref. 6.1 - 27.1 nmol/l)
Free testosterone: 38.7 % (ref. 24.3 - 110.2 %)
Bioactive testosterone: 46.9 % (ref. 35.0 - 63.3 %)
Abnormal values in 2nd test only throid T4 level (15.96 pmol/l on a 15.21 scale) and DHEA-S. I’m still waiting actually for my DHT and Reverse T3 results of my 2nd blood test.
I appreciate anyone sharing his opinion about my blood results!
I had a crash on 2x 600 mg Tribulus Terrestris supplements on March 19th, blood test results after this crash:
TSH 2,420 (0,550 - 4,780)
FT4 18,62 pmol/l (11,50 - 22,7)
FT3 4,50 pmol/L (3,50 - 6,50)
FSH 6,5 IU/L (1,4 - 18,1)
LH 2,7 IU/L (1,5 - 9,3) lowish
Prolaktin 82,0 mIU/l (45,0 - 375,0)
Estrogen 142,9 pmol/l (0,0 - 146,1) HIGH
Progeszteron 3,15 nmol/l (0,89 - 3,88)
Testosterone 13,380 nmol/l (5,720 - 26,140)
Free Testosterone 1,35% (1,53 - 2,88) LOW
F ree Testosterone concentration 0,180 nmol/l (0,198 - 0,619) LOW
Bioactive testosterone conc. 5,060 nmol/l (4,360 - 14,300)
Bioactive testosterone % 37,8% (35,0 - 66,3)
SHBG 49,0 nmol/l (17,3 - 65,8)
DHEA-S 10,78 umol/l (0,94 - 15,44)
Cortisol 705,2 nmol/L (118.6 - 618.0) HIGH
Symptoms that have come or worsen after tribulus crash:
- chronic fatigue
- penile shrinkage
- testicular pain (GONE)
- no sex drive (my least worry)
- drying skin / burning skin sensation
- hair loss / thinning
- horrible digestion (slow and bad stomach, almost never have stool)
- muscle wastage
- weight gain
Stay away from tribulus terrestris if you are androgen intolerant. It has resulted me in high estrogen symptoms. Fortunately no brain fog though (yet)
Hi. I’m new, here. I’m a wife of a sufferer who is still a little in denial about what Finasteride has done to him, us, and our family. Let me start with **HUGE ** gratitude for your candor and willingness to share these very personal stories. Please don’t stop sharing and fighting.
My husband & I have been married for 19 years. He’s 46 years old in very good health, no prior issues with ED or heart issues, used low dose Finasteride for AGA over approximately 24 months. Within approx 16 mos of use, feelings of isolation & depression were steadily worsening, as were sleep disturbances & personality changes, having severe consequences to relationships and wellbeing. Also erectile disfunction, ejaculate irregularities, libido decline, and body temp irregularities were prevalent. He ceased use of Finasteride in mid-Feb. Brain fog & severe depression cleared w/in about 7 days of cessation, yet ED has steadily & rapidly worsened. On March 6th, he experienced Sudden Cardiac Death. He hired a sex worker because he was so broken & hopeless over the erectile problems. (Not to mention the completely WHACKED idea that a sex worker could help. A complete example of the demented thinking part of PFS) Took a cocktail of black market ED meds, then dropped dead in the sex worker’s hotel room.
Anyway, he was resuscitated, his heart was stabilized, yet bradycardia persisted. A Defibrillator/pace maker was necessitated & implanted because no other cause for the heart function anomalies could be ascertained. I believe the Finasteride was the cause. I think his SCD was his “crash.”
Please DO be aware that **HEART irregularities ** are a not-oft-spoken-of part of this, too. We have been so consumed with the aftermath of his SCD that we haven’t even begun to tackle the PFS. Worst of all. PFS isn’t even on the medical pro’s radar for causation. This MUST Change! Onward & UPWARD— all you gallant souls! Keep talking the talk and fighting the fight. Your ladies will love you and support you and help keep the hope alive.
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Dear Community!
I’ve just received my 2nd blood test (after 1,5 months of previous test) that I had to make because of my tribulus crash.
Results as of below:
TSH 2,420 (0,550 - 4,780)
FT4 18,33 pmol/l (11,50 - 22,7)
FT3 4,10 pmol/L (3,50 - 6,50)
FSH 5,9 IU/L (1,4 - 18,1)
LH 2,8 IU/L (1,5 - 9,3) lowish
Prolaktin 78,0 mIU/l (45,0 - 375,0)
Estrogen 134,5 pmol/l (0,0 - 146,1) HIGH
Progeszteron 1,50 nmol/l (0,89 - 3,88)
Testosterone 16,320 nmol/l (5,720 - 26,140)
Free Testosterone 1,20% (1,53 - 2,88) LOW
Free Testosterone concentration 0,196 nmol/l (0,198 - 0,619) LOW
Bioative testosterone conc. 5,310 nmol/l (4,360 - 14,300)
Bioactive testosterone % 32,5% (35,0 - 66,3) LOW
SHBG 60,0 nmol/l (17,3 - 65,8)
DHEA-S 8,65 umol/l (0,94 - 15,44)
Cortisol 566,1 nmol/L (118.6 - 618.0)
I’ve done further tests on red and white blood cells too.
Red blood cells 4,1 T/L - 4,5 5,9 LOW
White blood cells 3,6 G/L - 4,4 11,3 LOW
So compared to my previous test 1,5 months ago (see earlier posts above), major changes are:
- free T levels lowered slightly
- bioactive levels lowered slightly
- total T levels raised slightly
- E2 level lowered slightly
- SHBG levels raised
I appreciate everyones advise, what should I do?
See a doc man the reasons for low RCC and WBC should be investigated. Low RBC and WBC count could be indicative of something else going on seperate from PFS. Address that first and see how you feel, at least you have identified problems to fix from your bloods.
Hi @whathaveidone4669! Thx man, do you think thats more worrying than the endocrine low free T high e2?
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It’s complicated and hard to say. That being said you have evidence of anemia (low RBC) which can have a broad influence on stuff going on in your body. The same is true for low WBCs. It’s possible that if you can normalise these factors first (or work out the cause) that could help improve hormonal issues (this is just an educated guess, i’m no expert). Importantly in many cases, anemia can be addressed relatively easily following appropriate investigation, not as sure about leukopenia (low WBCs). Hormal issues are not quite as simple to treat.
See your GP try and get referred to a haematologist or endocrinologist 
Thanks a lot for your helpful comment! Bests to you!
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Bought an iron supplement for a quick restart of red blood count (have also lower iron level)
Hey man how are you doing now did you sort out your strange bloods?
Hey @whathaveidone4669 ! Thx for asking!
I donno yet 
I have bought an iron + B vitamins complex syrup supplement, take it daily since a month now. I havent taken blood tests since. I feel slight improvements in my chronic fatigue though, as if my energy bounced back a little bit, however I developed a new mental symptoms since , anxiety.
I take my next blood test on June 26th. I will post here where I am then.
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Heyy all,
Its been 3 months that I’ve crashed on tribulus to a more severe PFS sympthoms, and 4,5 months I had my crash on fin.
I wanted to give you an update how i am doing, what has changed for the better or worse since.
So here is what I had after tribulus crash:
- chronic fatigue
- penile and testicular shrinkage
- testicular pain
- no sex drive (my least worry)
- burning skin sensation
- hair loss / thinning
- body hair loss
- slowed and weaker beard growth
- horrible digestion (slow and bad stomach, almost never have stool)
- muscle wastage
- easy weight gain
- facial swelling, puffiness
- dry skin on hands palm
- tinnitus sensation
Now here is what has resolved, stayed the same or worsened:
- chronic fatigue (STAYED)
- depression (IMPROVED A LOT, CAN BE HAPPY SOMETIMES NOW)
- penile and testicular shrinkage (PENILE SIZE AND WEIGHT IMPROVED A LOT, HOWEVER TESTICULAR SIZE KEPT SMALLER)
- testicular pain (RESOLVED, REAPPEARS VERY RARELY NOW)
- no sex drive (IMPROVED, I GET DESIRE TIME TO TIME AGAIN)
- burning skin sensation (COMPLETELY RESOLVED)
- hair loss / thinning (STAYED THE SAME, TELOGEN EFFLUVIUM CAUSED BY CRASH DIET AND SEVERE STRESS ON PFS)
- dry hair (STAYED)
- body hair loss (SLOWED DOWN)
- slowed and weaker beard growth (IMPROVED TO ALMOST PRE-FIN)
- horrible digestion (slow and bad stomach, almost never have stool) (IMPROVED, THOUGH STILL GET STOMACH GROWLING SOMETIMES AFTER EATING)
- muscle wastage (STAYED THE SAME, YET I HAVENT GONE TO GYM SINCE FEBRUARYY DUE TO CORONAVIRUS)
- easy weight gain (I CONTROL MY WEIGHT FINE WITH KETO DIET)
- facial swelling, puffiness (GONE, BACK TO LEAN, MASCULIN FACE NOW)
- dry skin on hands palm (IMPROVED)
- tinnitus sensation (GONE, RETURNS VERY FEW TIME)
So as you see, fortunately I made a a lot of improvements within 3 months.
Energy:
My major concern keeps to be chronic fatigue. At latest from the early afternoons I get very sleepy every day, no matter what i’ve done the day before or how much I’ve slept, its just not the energy I had pre-fin. Having said that, with my low energy I have much less motivation or joy to do things.
Muscles:
Feels weaker, and despite doing cardio like 3x a week, I dont really feel muscle gain in legs. I have general muscle mass loss since my fin crash, but i also ceased going to gym due to covid since January. If I see my estrogens decline to normal, I’ll start to raise my carbs intake and with it I will return to weight lifting again.
Sexual sides:
As of the improvements though, my imrpovements of my sexual sides give me the most hope. My penile tissue and weight just seems much nicer since a month or so, not dry and flaccid anymore. My testicles kept being lost in size, but i noticed, they shrink severely before stools. Now I want to ask if anyone has it similar? But fortunately they regain their natural hanging position after, so it doesnt bother me. The biggest jackpot is, that i have sexual desire sometimes, and can get like a 60% spontaneous erection compared to pre-fin.
Digestion:
I believe my digestion improved compared to the weeks after my tribulus crash. Meaning I have regular healthy stools, and no unecessary fat deposition, no bloating after meals. Yet I cant really tell how efficient my fat burning is, because I’m on keto diet since the crash, and i can only tell it is efficient when I return to a carb unrestricted diet.
Hair:
I lost tonnes of scalp hair all over (telogen effluvium), as well as have less dense eyebrows and pubic hair now. Yet I dont worry about it anymore cause I’m sure its reversible, since I suspect the
- crash diet I made (sudden keto diet with very low daily calorie intake)
- 10 kg (I was 80 kg) muscle and general weight loss within 1 month,
- severe mental stress on the fin and trib crash
- sudden hormonal changes (high e2, low free T’s)
which my body went through. I also got very dry and brittle hair since crash. But since these seems to have stabilized by now, they might regrow within 6-12 months. My beard already kicked back to pre-fin level, which tells me my DHT functions again normally, along my improved sexual sides this may indicate it as well.
Skin:
My skin issue was visible on 2 places so far on my body: At my hand’s palms, and my penile tissue. Now penile tissues dryness has been totally gone, (while its weight increased too) and I would say my hands palms also improved like 50%, got back more moisture. So again more tissues, where I can feel DHT is restarting to work again. My hands btw tend to become dryer towards the evenings, giving me a sensation if my hands were dirty, I can see the wrinkles a little bit white, but on the next morning they always fully healthy again. So I wonder if its also caused by tonnes of hand washings due to covid.
I’ve changed a lot compared to myself in January, I became from a muscular, long dark haired energetic youthful looking stud to a skinny, short unhealthy haired, and weak looking aging guy. But having said all of my improvements i would summerize like I found hope that I’m improving from this nightmare. If you like to ask me what have I done that I’ve made so great improvements, I would say I dont know if any of my practices helped, but I’ve done the followings:
- keto diet (only with meat and cruciferous veggies)
- regular cardio excersize (30min at most / day) on empty stomach
- intermittent fasting (14-18 hours fasting every day)
- avoiding PFS forum for most of time (only looked for nutritions what to eat, or not to eat, because peoples symptoms complaints made me often depressed and started myself to have their symptoms as a placebo like tinnitus or skin burning sensation)
- trust I gained in my body after I’ve seen sexual sides improvement
- joy that my brain fully functions (no brain fog, only lack of motivation to do things and chronic fatigue)
- supplements: i take only 1 multivit pill every day withount Zinc, 1 probiotics every day, 2 digestive enzyme supps woth every meal, zero carb protein shake after cardio. I also eat half bar of dark chocolate every day, for minimal amount of resveratrol. Also i take iron supp daily cause i had low red blood count and iron in my last blood test.
Note: I followed many diet and lifestyle suggestions from @Ozeph
I had my last blood results on May 8th, see my post above in this story. I will take my next on June 26th, I will let all of you know if improved physical and mental state is reflected in anyways in my blood picture.
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keep us posted about your progress brother.
Good to hear that you’ve recovered from many of the symptoms.
Would you recommend a tribulus course, since it has helped many sufferers?
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Hey @Casual thx, I wouldnt call recovery on those symptoms rather improvements at this point
I would suggest to everyone with PFS to stay away of trib. I think it will convert into too high E2-s which might make your dick shrink and all the other horror may follow. I think honestly that that supp is dangerous on us, no matter which brand you buy. even if it helped some, we just donno why it did, why it harmed to others.
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Hey my merck-hater mates! I have my blood test results:
TSH 1,780 (0,550 - 4,780)
FT4 17,12 pmol/l (11,50 - 22,7)
FT3 4,25 pmol/L (3,50 - 6,50)
FSH 6,8 IU/L (1,4 - 18,1)
LH 3,9 IU/L (1,5 - 9,3) lowish
Estrogen 99,4 pmol/l (0,0 - 146,1)
Progeszteron 1,20 nmol/l (0,89 - 3,88)
Testosterone 20,660 nmol/l (5,720 - 26,140)
Free Testosterone 1,30% (1,53 - 2,88) LOW
Free Testosterone concentration 0,269 nmol/l (0,198 - 0,619)
Bioative testosterone conc. 7,290 nmol/l (4,360 - 14,300)
Bioactive testosterone % 35,3% (35,0 - 66,3) LOW
SHBG 54,3 nmol/l (17,3 - 65,8)
DHEA-S 8,07 umol/l (0,94 - 15,44)
Cortisol 470,6 nmol/L (118.6 - 618.0)
Vit D 56,7 nmol/l
I’ve done further tests on red and white blood cells too.
Red blood cells 4,3 T/L - 4,5 5,9 LOW
White blood cells 5,6 G/L - 4,4 11,3
So its a big relieve! I have progress on almost every value, especially by raising T and lowering estrogens. I was supplementing iron, so i managed to raise my blood count. I managed to balance my hormones resulting a better T/E2 ratio. Still, my free T’s are low, yet i managed to raised it, by lowering SHBG. Cortisol levels also lower which reflect my mental progress (posted above) as well,less depression, no stress.
I’m thankful for your thoughts on my blood results, what should i do to progress further, especially how to raise my free T’s. Thanks!
That’s a huge improvement, clap clap It is good to hear that people recover naturally, because all of our symptoms are mostly due to hormonal imbalance. It seems like your body is finding its balance pretty good.
Yes man. To my understanding after researching this forum and pfs on the web, this disease goes like 1. Hormonal imbalance fcks you 2. After your hormones settled you have to see how many of your symptoms did. If you havent improved some of your symptoms after healthy hormones balance, on those areas you suffered AR silencing or neurotransmitter malfunctions (which is a long term recovery on pfs)
Kinda like after the storm is gone you see the damage you have to deal with for long time to fix…
Hey all!
I wanted to give an update about my situation as I reached my 7th month with PFS.
I had an interesting 3-4 weeks of great improvements. I had a bit of returning libido, fuller, thicker penile size and also more pleasure at orgasms. Also nocturnal erections and morning wood returned sometimes. I felt like reborn at these few weeks,completely forgot about PFS those weeks. All I can say improvement happened just when I returned to weight lifting after 6 months of brake.
Then after a 3 night out weekend with drinking and less sleep, my penile quality, libido and orgasm pleasure declined again to my PFS baseline. So did some stress and depression return to some degree. I didn’t change anything, didn’t take any hormonal stuff that could have caused the setback, so I have no idea what did I wrong, other than perhaps alcohol and long nights out could have caused the return of the bad place.
FATIGUE:
my main concern since things have stabilized and I see what are my major symptoms is fatigue.
I cant ever feel fresh even though I sleep well. I dont experience any insomnia since my crash in february, yet I feel exhausted all the time. At worst days I need a huge motivation to leave my house to buy even food.
Only time I kind of feel more energized is when I’m drinking alcohol, its also the reason why I let myself to go out drinking once or twice a weekend.
And also around the middle of a weight lifting session I feel a bit more energized.
So for me behind all of my mental problems (lack of motivation, lack of positive emotions, stress) chronic fatigue may be behind it, because its the thing that constantly reminds me to have PFS.
Question at this point: DID FATIGUE EVER IMPROVE FOR YOU (If you had it with PFS) ? DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPPS HOW TO TACKLE CHRONIC FATIGUE?
On the positive side I still can report some improvement as posted earlier: my digestion feels to have recovered, I dont get bloated of anything, I dont gain unwanted fat. As I started weight lifting I see little bit of strenghtening muscles, but its too early to report if I manage to regain my old muscle mass which was +12 kg compared to now. (i lost 25% of my body weight, with just loosing my muscle mass within a month)
Also positive that I dont have diffuse hair shedding anymore, my hair at least started slowly to recover from this anti-hairloss drug induced hair loss. 
So I’ve seen some great weeks of partial recovery but then fell back to PFS baseline. It gives me hope at least that better days could come back. I took my last blood test in the end of june (see above) I will take my next to see which directions my system adjusted since in second half of september. I’ll post it here then.
Thanks in advance for your help about my question on fatigue!