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Where are you from (country)?
– Eastern Europe -
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?)
– Google search. I might have searched for a particular side effect (in combination with finasteride), such as “penile shrinkage”, something that doesn’t come up too often on other sites. -
What is your current age, height, weight?
– 38yo, 187cm, 70kg -
Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
– I don’t do any exercise any more because I have no motivation or energy to do so. I used to go to the gym regularly (all my life) before I stopped Finasteride - doing both cardio and weight lifting. I am still in good shape however, although I have lost a lot of muscle. -
What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
– I eat a diet low in simple carbs, although I do eat complex carbs as well as fruit. I also eat meat. -
Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
– To prevent hair loss. -
For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
– 8 years -
How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
– I started taking Finasteride in 2008 when I was 29 years old. -
How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
– I stopped taking Finasteride in 2016 when I was 37. -
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
– I tapered off very fast, for about a month. -
What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
– I used generic Proscar (Penester by Zentiva) and divided each 5mg pill by 4. -
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
– I took 1.25mg daily. -
How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
– For many years, at least 4 years, I didn’t notice any side effects, although I didn’t have an active sex life at the time. After a couple of years I knew it affected my libido and my erections (because I got improvements if I skipped a dose or two) but the effects weren’t too bad. The side effects kept getting worse, however. I knew the drug affected me negatively although I still wasn’t sure to what extent other factors, such as my age, were at play. At some point it got bad enough so I decided to quit. Things improved dramatically in the weeks after I quit and I was hopeful that they would keep improving in the following months. Instead, things got dramatically worse, much worse than they ever were while I was on the drug. -
What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
– The effects below are what I have now, 1.5 years after I stopped the drug. Some of them I didn’t have while I was on the drug, or they were much weaker.
Put an X beside all that apply:
Sexual
[x] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[x] Erectile Dysfunction
[x] Complete Impotence
[x] Loss of Morning Erections – Morning erections have recovered a bit, although they are quite weak.
[x] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[x] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[x] Watery Ejaculate – I had this while on the drug, not any more.
[x] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[x] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[x] Confusion
[x] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[x] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[x] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency – This is the worst side effect of all.
[x] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[x] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[x] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[x] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled) – This is quite profound and noticeable
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[x] Testicular Pain
[x] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[x] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage – I have lost muscle mass but a big factor for this has been less care about my diet (i.e. lower protein intake) + no exercise
[x] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes – I have dry skin overall and sharply increased wrinkling around the eyes though I don’t see dark circles.
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain – I occasionally feel perineum pain but I don’t know if that’s from the prostate.
[x] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[x] Increased hair loss – My hair has been decimated since I stopped Finasteride. Never had any hair loss whatsoever before or during Finasteride use.
[x] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[x] Other (please explain)
– Dry skin and reduced acne. I have always had very oily skin and I still had acne up to the point I stopped taking Finasteride, even though I was already 37. After I stopped finasteride, over the following months, my skin got progressively drier and my acne disappeared. (I stopped using Benzoyl peroxide for acne completely, something I used religiously before then).
– Frequent urination. I can’t sleep a whole night without getting up to pee, something I never had to do before, including while on the drug. Also, urination is slow and with low pressure.
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What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
– None. I took Zinc supplements for a while (for a different reason, not as an intended treatment for PFS) and I thought there was a small, temporary improvement in PFS symptoms. I have stopped taking them since then. -
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 don’t have any blood tests. -
Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
– For the first 6 months after I stopped Finasteride, things were getting gradually worse (after a couple of weeks of strong initial improvement). For the subsequent one year I have seen no improvement whatsoever. I am now at 1.5 years after I quit Finasteride and things have never been worse. I keep reading stories by people saying they are improving over time but this hasn’t been my experience so far. The only things that are better (relative to when I was on the drug) are the presence of morning weak erections and improved sperm quality but there is no positive trend in the erections; they just stay the same. -
Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
– The worst aspects of this tragedy is not the lack of sex. It is that lack of sex drive has led to a complete lack of ambition, of motivation to do anything in life, of desire to set goals for the future, to achieve, to strive for social status or recognition. It may sound a bit superficial but few people realize how important sex drive is for general motivation in life and for long-term goal setting. I know at an intellectual level that there are plenty of worthwhile things I can still do in life but I don’t feel emotionally driven to do any of them any more. I feel no desire to do anything and this has had a profound effect on my ability to function in life. It is also impossible to imagine a future where I am with a partner. I feel extremely lonely and yet dating is impossible. Even worse, I see people around me who I would normally be interested in but I am now afraid to approach, for obvious reasons. Needless to say, my self-esteem has been greatly affected which has had wide-ranging repercussions in all aspects of life. I have become listless, apathetic, meek. I hope I will have the chance to write more later.