:) Not my BEST days. 3 pills dutasteride

Member Stories
#1

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)?
Spain

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

What is your current age, height, weight?
26, 176cm, 62kg? (i was 67 1 month and half ago)

What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)?
Dutasteride

What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?

3 pills of dutasteride. 1 each 48 hours.

What condition was being treated with the drug?
Baldness

For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
3 pills 1 week

Date when you started the drug?
21/12/2022

Date when you quit the drug?
27/12/2022

Age when you quit?
26

How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
Cold turkey

How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects?
Inmmediately after third donde.

What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
Nothing

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
[ ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ X] Loss of Morning Erections
[ X] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ X] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[X ] Watery Ejaculate
[ X] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[ X] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[X ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ X] Confusion
[ Zx] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[X ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[X ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ X] 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)
[X ] Muscle Wastage
[ X] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ X] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ X] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ XX] Frequent urination
[ X] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)
-Changed metabolism. From mid/high rest heart and normal Blood pressure (120/80) to bradycardia (42 bpm) for two weeks ore more and now a little bit higher rest heart rate but low pressure (100/64).
-when asleep i wake Up gaspering for Air and almost fainting almost everyday.
-Since yesterday I watch TV and i dont understand anything. I read and i forget what i read.
-Ammonia smell in my brain

What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
I used alprazolam (0.5mg) to sleep during 1 week, then they changed me to bromazepam (2 weeks) then changed to lorazepam. Right now im quitting every benzos.

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 took first pill and i felt Heart palpitations at night, that night i couldnt sleep, but that not was the first time I experienced that, it also happened to me pre-dutas when i was anxious. So i kept taking it. When i took the third dosage few hours lster i started to feel anxious, i had panick attacks and had blurry vision and dizzyness, felt my scalp vibrating. Went to ER. Everything was “ok”. I calmed that day and i could sleep. I wake Next day almost recovered, went to the computer to play and started feeling again that blurry vision. Later, when It was time to go to sleep i couldnt, when i was about to fell sleep i had like a heart spam that didnt let me, happened every day

Since i couldnt fell asleep and i was not sleeping i went to ER after three days. Diagnosis: Extreme anxiety. Medicstion? Alprazolam

I could sleep and rest again.

After a week/2 weeks Went to Psychiatrist (i was aware thanks to this forum that i couldnt take antidepressants/antipsychotics) because i wanted to have a control and didnt want to get addicted to benzos. I told her that i couldnt concentrate during the day, that i had like a vision lag and that i couldnt concentrate reading (but i could watch TV and understand everything). She changed me to bromazepam and i had a planning to tapper off the drug.

I felt decent for the time I was under bromazepam, i could read, blurry vision was way better, etc.

Then i started to experience changes with my resting heart rate (low heart rate pulse). Also started to feel some numbness in my limbs. First in my legs. Also had again problems sleeping (bromazepam was not effective against Nocturnal panick attacks). Went to ER, they prescribed me lorazepam. Could sleep again.

As i said above, i started to experience new weird symptoms. I started to feeling numbness in my limbs. I had weakness in my right hand them in my left. Then subsided.

I thought that at lesst my cognition was recovering, but after tappering benzos i noticed that im in so bad cognition condition. Started to feel worse cognition, benzos were masking my problema .

I think i had something like a second Crash 3 days ago, while sleeping i wake Up almost fainting, thinking i was about to die. The Next day when i went to sleep felt anxious and was so scared, thinked it was my last day on earth. Told my family that i LOVE her and went to bed. Im bed Started to feel Burning sensation around my body and heart palpitations. I calmed and slept.

After that everything went worse… I can tolerate muscle wastage, even problems with heart, urination, and other physical symptoms. But since yesterday i have something that worries me.

Yesterdat, When i was watching the TV and watching series with my mother i couldnt Focus/have problems with short term memory, i was forgetting all dialogues, i didnt understand what was happening. I used to read this forum and i could read everything without problems, now i forget what i read. I see news on TV and i dont get what is happening

Now I fear waking Up and dont remember anything. I dont have problems right now with long term memory

Other symptoms that i have: i’ve had problems with my stools, they smell so chemically and were yellowish every day. I tried eating low fodmap and kéfir/yougurt without lactose

I also have big urination frequency. I drink and i inmmediately go to WC. The urine dont have smell.

I also have since my first Crash ammonia smell (phantosmia).

At least im Happy. I have the BEST family of the world and kept a lot of time with them. I Will fight. Im scared as shit but im not depressive.

Self-reporting template - ONLY USE FOR FUTURE POSTS TO REPORT ANY TRIALS OF TREATMENTS, NOT YOUR INITIAL MEMBER STORY

  1. Name of the therapy/substance:
    • Dosage:
    • How often you took it:
  2. Status
    • Still using [ ]
    • Stopped with no lasting change to initial symptoms [ ]
    • Stopped with persistent change to symptoms [ ]
  3. Duration of use: Days [ ] Months [ ] Years [ ]
  4. Response when you started:
    • Greatly improved [ ]
    • Slightly improved [ ]
    • Stayed the same [ ]
    • Slightly worsened [ ]
    • Greatly worsened [ ]
  5. 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 [ ]
  6. Lasting changes to initial symptoms after cessation (if you have stopped for more than 3 weeks)
    • Greatly improved [ ]
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    • Stayed the same [ ]
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#2

please hang in there，do not do anything drastic，it is still early， you will recover or at least get better， besides do not drink alcohol or tea or do too much sex activity，this is my experience from crashes
in my case，my sleep issue resolve itself after two months，no meds taken
i think the most important lesson from my experience is staying calm，stay touch with your family，and tell them your problems but do not scare them，and the hardest one is definitely avioding crashes

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#3

the frequent urination thing will get better also after you reach a rather stable condition,it will come

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#4

Hi xiaoxiao, thanks for your support!! I appreciate It a lot, trust me. Dont worry I Will fight, i dont have nothing to lose and i can gain everything. We just have one Life, :slight_smile:

I Hope that Frequent urination subsides!! Its a mess hehe feel like i get dehydrated.

I Hope you doing well :slight_smile:

#5

Still no improvements. My biggest issue is so bad short term memory/lack of concentration. Hope at least doesnt go worse. I cant watch TV or spend time watching series with my mom, i dont understand anything. I used to loved It . I felt Happy even when i was in bad condition because sharing time with her was the best.

If i dont post annymore is because i dont even know Who i am xd haha.

At this point i dont care anymore about my physical symptoms.

#6

I think im like this Guy

1 Like
#7

Hang in there HH, I KNOW you will recover and this will all be in the past one day.

I’m taking some time off from the forum in order to try give my mind a break from PFS, and focus on my recovery. I’ll be back in three months but feel free to PM me and we can talk on Whats App. We crashed at the same time so it’s important we go through this together.

Also — just to let you know, my frequent urination was really really bad and it has almost fully improved.

All the best my friend.

2 Likes
#8

i’ve seen two stories of guys that Lost short term memory in this forum @Rb26dett and @paximperia. The only thing in common i see with me is that we were under benzos for more than a month. I didnt take any Other suplements. I would recommend avoid them and if needed, just take It sometimes but not every day.

They both couldnt watch tv. Everything went worse when they Started to tapper off benzos as im doing.

@Rb26dett blamed tribulus, but he wasnt sure.

Just saying because benzos were considered “safe” in this forum. Maybe they’re risky for some ppl.

The other thing in common with @paximperia is that i had testosterone above limits before taking dutasteride

#9

:heart: Love you, man

#10

Today i feel anhedonia for the first time of my life. Cant cry, cant laugh, im not worried anymore. Im like @paximperia or @Rb26dett . This is the worst by far. I LOVE my family and i cant feel nothing right now.

My issues with short term memory/concentration not improving(if not worsening)

1 Like
#11

And

Bad withdrawal/just using benzos for long time I think that can downregulate gana receptors and can cause what @Rb26dett suffererded . He thought It was tribulus because he also suffered from muscle wastage and other physical conditions, but Michelle also suffered that with a bad CT and a bad benzos withdrawal. @Rb26dett went from 1.5mg clonazepam/day to 0.3 in a month if im not wrong then jumped to 0. But he said that he was already experiencing cognition problems when he was 1.5mg, maybe just prolongated consumption is what caused this.

The propeciahelp user linked above her story also had extreme problems due to regular consumption of benzos during only 10 days.

@paximperia had severe problems with alcohol and was taking benzos (i think that they both affect same receptors). He started to have bad cognition.

With this massage i want to alert this forum. Dont DRINK alcohol or take benzos at least regularly.

But i want to say that are ppl not affected. Users like @correiovip or @Ozeph used these things for long time and they didnt hace these problems.

Also remember the story of a Guy 1 week ago or 2 weeks ago that reported that his memory deteriorated in Christmas. He didnt know why but he said he drank alcohol.

I would avoid benzos/alcohol for ever.

I think that some of us are more sensible.

Ed: its difficult for me to read so maybe im wrong in some statements or miss things of the linked stories, if its the case, pardon me, i dont do It on purpose hehe

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#12

I’ve been taking clonazepam 4mg a day plus sleeping herbs and antihistamine. My main and worst symptoms before and after crashing was insomnia. After crashing it became total. I had no ability to sleep.

I don’t drink alcohol at all and I consider it a poison, even in moderation (that’s my opinion, not a fact). I don’t think taking benzos is a good idea at all. Avoid it if you can.

I took it because without it I was handicapped and useless if I didn’t sleep. I have 3 kids and a wife that depends on my income. I kicked the can down the road and decided I was going to deal with detox when the time will come.

That was 4 years and 8 months ago. Most symptoms are gone and the ones left are very mild, barely perceivable. So the time has come. I reduced benzos and anti-histamine very slowly. I’m droping the dose by 10% or less and wait a month to get used to the new dose. Reducing 80% in a month is certain to cause withdrawal symptoms from what I’ve read.

So far I managed 25% reduction of benzos and 33% of anti-histamine. I had zero withdrawal symptoms and I can still sleep good, although it’s a bit harder on the first few days after a reduction. I’m actually more alert during the day. I will slowly continue to reduce. I’ve read 10% a month is better than 15%. I also read that stopping abruptly can cause persistent symptoms and that really, it’s a very long process. I read it’s better to tapper down on 1-2 years than to do it quickly. I’m not a medical expert and I can’t say if those figures are true or not but it’s been my experience that very slow tapper did not cause me withdrawal symptoms.

Good luck and my best wishes to those stuck with benzos plus pfs. As if pfs was not enough…

But I don’t regret my choice. I’ve made it through and those who know me also know I did other things to try and get better. I’ll never know if those things helped, but they don’t seem to have made it worst.

I wish all the best to you all.

Ozeph

2 Likes
#13

Hi Ozeph thanks for your post and thanks for your time, I REALLY appreciate It. I think that you’re a Hero and that you fighted so bravery against pfs and benzos just to feed your family. I would be so proud if i were you.

On the other hand, its useful to see the two sides of the same coin. Thanks for completing my story with yours. We all know that its better to avoid drugs, but if u dont have chance do It as @ozeph is doing, please.

PFS is a hard condition, we have to fight for the future Friends that take this poison so they dont make the same mistakes.

:slight_smile:

In my case, i had to take benzos yes or yes, i had nocturnal panic attacks that consisted on stopping breathing when i was feeling asleep. I could have dealt with normal stress.

I remember trying to meditate or do EDMR and i relaxed but still had those attacks when sleeping

2 Likes
#14

Got my biome results:

Screenshot_20230503-203606-776
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High beta-gluconaridase:

Beta-glucuronidase is an enzyme produced by certain unfriendly gut bacteria. A proper balance of beta-glucuronidase is essential for good health and disease prevention.

What is Glucuronidation?

Glucuronidation is an essential detoxification proocess that inactivates and detoxifies hormones, neurotransmitters, drugs, mold toxins, and cancer-causing toxins.

I also have lack of lactobacillus, akkermansia (which are beneficial) and more things…I have to read It (more than 68 pages).

More info about beta-glucoronidase enzyme:

However, if levels of beta-glucuronidase enzyme get too high, then this creates a very undesirable situation. You will start to reabsorb hormones like estrogen and toxins that should be eliminated. This is one of the main causes behind high estrogen. Many people take DIM supplements to improve estrogen detoxification but if your phase 2 of liver detoxification is not working well then you can reabsorb them back into your body, no matter how much DIM / broccoli you eat.

If your levels get too high of beta-glucuronidase then this can interrupt the body’s natural detoxification process.

Beta-glucuronidase is produced by the intestinal epithelium and certain intestinal bacteria. Observational studies have indicated a correlation between high Beta-glucuronidase activity and certain cancers, but a definitive causal relationship has not been established. Higher levels of Beta-glucuronidase have been associated with higher circulating estrogens and lower fecal excretion of estrogens in premenopausal women. A potential dietary carcinogen derived from cooked meat and fish induces high Beta-glucuronidase activity and prolongs internal exposure to the toxin in an experimental animal model.

This enzyme needs to be present just the right amount–not too little and not too much. When beta-glucuronidase is in excess, the bonds between toxins and glucuronic acid are broken, and toxins and hormones that were meant to be excreted are then reabsorbed into the body

Also have high d-lactic production:

D-lactic acid accumulation in the blood can cause neurologic symptoms such as delirium, ataxia, and slurred speech

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#15

First of all, I would like to say that I do not believe that working on gut health is the ultimate cure for finasteride syndrome. But in my case, I think I can try to improve my diet by trying to know better what my microbiota needs.

I have not yet made any special changes to my diet because I want my practitioner to work on the bacterial composition that resulted from my study of my microbiota.

In the meantime what I have done is to read more about it.

There are biotech companies that do PCR analysis of stool that implement dietary recommendations to increase those bacteria that need to be improved and also recommendations to reduce bacteria that in abundance can be bad.

In my case I did my test with the company Microba (an Australian company that is also in Spain), but I have seen that biomesight (UK - but works all over Europe), is quite interesting. If you visit their website they have a blog with a lot of recommendations to try to improve your bacterial composition (obviously you need to have done a stool analysis before).

Another thing I have done is to upload the raw data from my study on the microbiomeprescription website (which is free). It is a website developed by a data engineer who suffered from CFS/MS. It is a very comprehensive website where many people have uploaded their samples.

As with hormones, vitamins, and many other things related to human health, there are reference values that are advisable to have…with microbiota it is the same.

This website is able to give recommendations based on the architecture of your microbiota (through statistics). As always, we must be cautious, statistics have pitfalls (it may be ignoring relationships) and even more when it is based on meeting “subjective” parameters, especially when it is sometimes based on recommendations that may have been effective in vitro in studies but it is not known if they have also been effective in their real application.

And not only recommendations, It can try to link your biome situation to particular symptoms. It has more tools, but i have still 50 IQ and im still trying to figure everything. Just wanted to bring more info to this forum

Screenshot_20230510-211722
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Indeed…my main issue is insomnia (all of this started because i couldnt fall asleep, after that all symptoms were progressive)

Screenshot_20230510-211753
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In that screenshot says low carbo diet, but It also has sections that recommend particular food, fibers, etc

Ed: btw, after seeing my last screenshot…i have figured that i started taking dutasteride because i had covid like 5 months before pfs and i had two persistent symptoms…cough and hair fall. Now Im thinking that maybe i was hit twice (by covid and then dutasteride)

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