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)?
USA
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?)
Reddit, someone mentioned PropeciaHelp on a hair loss subreddit
What is your current age, height, weight?
21, 5’8", 160
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.)?
1 mg/day (once)
What condition was being treated with the drug?
Hair loss
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
One day, one dose only
Date when you started the drug?
1/21/2024
Date when you quit the drug?
1/21/2024
Age when you quit?
21
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
Cold turkey
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects?
1 hour
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
Impotence/zero libido
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
[X] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[X] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] 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
[ ] 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
[ ] 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?
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.
I am (was?) your fairly average 21 year old college goer. About a week ago, I noticed I was shedding some hair. When I checked the top of my head in the mirror, I saw that my hair was starting to thin. I freaked out and started researching options for treatments online. I read about finasteride and decided to try it out. I saw people talking about bad side effects on reddit but dismissed them, telling myself that for any medication there is always some group of people somewhere who will tell you how bad it is, and it’s usually fine anyways. On sunday 1/21/24, I got a prescription for it from the online pharmacy GoodRx, got the medicine, and at about 5 pm, I took one dose.
Quickly, after about an hour, I felt a awful feeling of all consuming dread set in, like someone was pouring ice water onto my chest. Something just felt fundamentally wrong. My thought process became convoluted, I felt cold all over, all of my coordinated movements became weak and slow, I became extremely anxious and I developed strong depersonalization/disconnect from my surroundings and anhedonia. And of course my libido died too and my dick shriveled up. I now understand that was a crash.
At about 6pm, I had a phone call with my mom. This is right when the medication was kicking in, but I wasn’t really processing it correctly yet. I became extremely emotional during the call which must have been from the rapid change happening from the finasteride.
The anxiety started really hitting hard at around 7 pm. I’d realized all the symptoms I had at that point and was restless from worry. I shelved the idea of even trying to use my dick at that point because I could tell that I had no sexual thoughts or feelings whatsoever. I went for a long walk and tried to process what was going on. The walk helped significantly and when I got back to my apartment I was still very anxious, so I went for another walk. I was processing very intensely and feeling like I was starting to adjust. I had multiple moments of breakthrough on my walks where I felt like the doom and feeling of widespread wrongness in my body got better and stayed better. I noticed as I was walking that my confusion, anhedonia and depersonalization were all improving a lot. That whole night, I only came back to my apartment to sleep twice, once from 1 am to 2:30 am and once from 5:15 am to 6:45 am. The entire rest of the night I was out walking.
The next day, after a lot more walking I attended class at 1pm. My depersonalization was 90% gone at that point and I was able to pay attention in class decently well. After class I walked some more. My anhedonia was disappearing and the reality of what was happening and the severity of it began to set in more completely. I immediately resolved to end my life if it became clear I was definitely going to end up horribly disabled. At that point I still felt cold all over and physically weak. I went to my evening class that day at 7pm and was completely emotionally and cognitively functional. I found a strong sense of peace and strength from the pact I’d just made with myself to choose death over long term suffering if that’s what it came down to. After evening class I walked some more and then went back to my apartment. I had eaten almost nothing the entire day, so I made myself eat a sausage and some mac and cheese. I noticed I was feeling better than the day before, my depersonalization and confusion and anhedonia were all completely gone. I still had zero libido though and had been shriveled up the whole time since taking the pill. I went to bed.
To my surprise, I slept through the entire night fine. I had been kind of expecting to wake up halfway through the night with anxiety. I felt healthier and like a bit of my masculine zeal had returned overnight and to my relief I also saw that my dick had progressed from shriveled up to more healthily limp. I felt just as stressed as the day before but also like I was more energized, ready to soldier on through the day and take what life would give me, for better or for worse. I did more walking, texted my closest friends about what was happening to me, and attended my classes, which were uneventful. After class I ate a nice meal at the campus dining hall, bought groceries, and on the way back home I suddenly had another big breakthrough moment where I felt much better again. I immediately felt much more full of healthy masculine zeal, the cold and weak feeling in my body disappeared to a huge degree and I felt almost enthusiastic and joyful. I had a glorious gut feeling that I was definitely going to make it. I prolonged my walk home to extend the feeling and then upon getting home I immediately took a warm shower for an hour and a half and spent a lot of of that time staring at the bright warm colored bathroom light because it was beautiful to me while I was in that state of mind. I tried getting erect and was still only able to get about one third of the way there. I went to bed and my sleep was uneventful.
The next day, which is the most recent past day as of me writing this, went by with me in a better state than either of the previous two days. The good feeling from the day before remained in place. I just felt much better, pretty much all of the sickly feeling I’d had before was gone, all of my actions were much stronger and full of energy and much more similar to pre finasteride me. I was in an almost cheerful mood. I didn’t have any classes scheduled so I spent most of the day walking and processing. In my head, I was having something like a legal trial where I was proving to myself that I have permission to feel like I’m getting better. I told my friends about the improvement. I was even able to think about horny stuff and feel a little bit properly horny because of it.
As of now, it’s the night after that day and I’m sitting in bed. I am super thankful for having improved so quickly and I reckon that if I keep improving at this pace I will be able to use my dick again in a day or two. I can get it up to halfway hard and when I do it seems to lean about five degrees to the left. I might just be imagining things though and in any case it’s not bad enough to be a problem so as long as it doesn’t get any worse I’m fine with the way it is. All of my emotional symptoms and cognitive symptoms are fully resolved.
Self-reporting template - ONLY USE FOR FUTURE POSTS TO REPORT ANY TRIALS OF TREATMENTS, NOT YOUR INITIAL MEMBER STORY
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Name of the therapy/substance:
- Dosage:
- How often you took it:
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Status
- Still using [ ]
- Stopped with no lasting change to initial symptoms [ ]
- Stopped with persistent change to symptoms [ ]
- Duration of use: Days [ ] Months [ ] Years [ ]
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Response when you started:
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [ ]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]
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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 [ ]
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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 [ ]