Off finasteride Feb and looking at blood work results...

Member Stories Lab Tests
#1

50 yr old male…new to forum…reasonably fit.

Here’s my saga…
I started taking Proscar (finasteride 5mg) cut into quarters daily for hair loss in April 2006.
I believed I tolerated it reasonably although looking back, I did have some side effects.
It was easy to blame them on other issues…starting a business, divorcing, getting older…etc.
In July 2007, I injured my neck badly…2 years later, it hadn’t improved and required surgery.
November 2009, I had surgery bc the neck injury hadn’t healed and only got worse based on MRI.
Around that time, I noticed a total loss of libido, fatigue, mental fog n bouts of deep depression.
I had plenty to blame it on then too…surgery, pain, age, passing of my dog, daughter married, etc, etc.
I went to doc complaining of such and was given SSRI A/Ds which not only didn’t help, but made it worse.
I was tested multiple times for low T and the results were always in the mid 400s n he said “ur fine”…and I believed him.

Well, I started gaining wgt around the waist no matter what I did…from 218 in 2007 to 252 in 2012.
I could feel the “cycles” coming on…2 weeks of slow descent into hell w/ a few day rebound and then repeats.

I told doc in Jan 2012 I suspected finasteride and he said no, that ain’t it, no problems he’s heard of.
Well, I kept digging and came upon procepiahelp.com and all the lights came on.
After reading those threads, I KNEW that was it.
So, I go to doc to get baseline blood work before I discontinue it.
I insist on full hormonal work-up including DHT…he says OK but sez that ain’t it.
They take plenty of blood, tell him I’ll be back after I’ve been off it for 2 months.
I stop taking finasteride on Feb 21st and feel much better within a week or two…in fact a “surge” for about 6-8 weeks.
I come back to doc in early April and ask for results…
Imagine my anger/frustration when I get results and it sez they didn’t have enuff blood for do all the tests.
He blames the nurse and she blames LabCorp…I was FURIOUS.
So here’s all I had to go on:

Lipids, all within normal range
Thyroid:
TSH 1.470 (.45-4.5)
T4 6.0 (4.5-12.0)
T3 up 36% (24-39%)
Free 2.2 (1.2-4.9)

T:
Free T 11.3 (7.2-24.0)

Albumin 4.7 (3.5-5.5)

I had them draw blood again, insisting on T and DHT levels despite him saying I didn’t need it.
Go back May 4th for April 7th results (6 weeks off finasteride from Apr blood work), feeling pretty good.

Lipids, all within normal range
Thyroid:
TSH 1.220 (.45-4.5) note it went down
T4 5.3 (4.5-12.0)
T3 up 36% (24-39%)
Free 1.9 (1.2-4.9) Index

T:
Free T 10.1 (7.2-24.0) all went down although I felt much better!
Serum 422 (348-1197) that range is for ALL men, 30-100!
DHT 27 (30-85) doc n reading literature say it should be in the 40-55 range for my age.
FSH 6.1 (1.5-12.4)
Using the accepted finasteride suppression rate of 70% of DHT, I was in SINGLE DIGITS while taking it! The HORROR!
Note my TSH and T levels all went down after D/C of med…but I felt better.

Doc, almost sheepishly, says I’m right and that I should start low T treatment…I agree but only after I get my OWN baseline blood work.
I get full work up, full Male Hormone Profile, DHT, Androstanediol Glucuronide (to prove 5AR1/II receptors working) from PrivateLabsMD yesterday.
Thanks for members for posting that link…I will take charge of my own blood work now!!!

After the “surge”, the sides, although not as severe have returned.

Will post results when I get them…in the meantime, I have started 2 pumps of Androgel 1.62% TODAY.
Any comments or observations are welcome and appreciated…thanks…looking forward to getting back to “NORMAL”?!!

#2

Testosterone gels are better than injections, so stay with Androgel. It’ll mimic natural fluctuations in the testosterone level, and more testosterone will be converted to DHT - as opposed to injections which are notorious for aromatization. Don’t expect to recover by just slapping on some testosterone gel once a day. It’ll probably take a lot of work to optimize your TRT. Estrogen is an issue on TRT, and needs to be monitored carefully.

Some notes that you may find useful:

  • Estrogen dominance is where the problem with Propecia begins. Using testosterone may make the problem worse.
  • Morning erections indicates that your testosterone/estrogen ratio is optimal.
  • Increased refraction period means that your prolactin level has increased.
  • Transparent prostate fluid (it should be white) is an indicator of DHT deficiency.

I recommend that you experiment with progesterone, if you need something to deal with estrogen dominance. Try to avoid Arimidex.
Progesterone/testosterone cream for erectile dysfunction

#3

how are you going buddy>

Any estradiol test?

#4

Hey mate, put it this way i’m 21 and my levels are no better than yours. Your level’s look good for your age. Did you experience any numbness or shrinkage? how’s your sleep?

Hope you recover, best of luck.

#5

When I was on that crap, I had a lot of numbness to the point it wasn’t even pleasurable…that is gone after 4 months.
A little bit of shrinkage but nothing severe.
I had trouble sleeping all the time…and that just made everything worse.
I’m a light sleeper so I rarely sleep more than 4 hours at a stretch but it much better now.
Best of luck!

#6

I’m doing pretty good these days.
I would say that after 5 months now, almost all symptoms are gone and I consider myself blessed.
I started the TRT that day I posted and I must say that to go from the lows of Finasteride HELL to the highs of TRT are incredible.
I’m trying to fine-tune the TRT now but that is a discussion for another forum.
My DHT/E levels slowly creeped up and then exploded and so did everything else.
Changing to a TRT specialist in a couple weeks bc my reg doc doesn’t even understand the T:E relationship.
My DHT went up so high, I developed acne and oily hair like a teen and have had raging woodies.
Years and years of lost life due to that crap but thankfully, it appears my sides are not persistent.
Here are some of my blood numbers since then…wishing everyone on this forum the best.
This was place where I learned alot and actually discovered what that crap was doing to me.

This text is in regards to my baseline numbers:
Partial test results back one month after the above results and 10 weeks off finasteride.
And one day BEFORE starting AndroGel.

T: (Equilibrium Ultrafiltration method) more accurate?
Free T 448 ng/dL (348-1197)
Free 19.85 " (5.0-21.00)
% Free T 4.43% (1.5-4.2) HIGH

DHT 30 (30-85)

E: (sensitive assay)
E, Sensitive 13 pg/mL (3-70)

IGF-1 185 ng/mL (94-252)

Not sure of what to make of the huge change in free T other than the method.
Other tests, such as PSA and Thyroid came down a bit but were close to previous results.
Luckily the 3a-Diol-G test is done at a separate endo lab in California
and I should get them back soon to compare.

3a-Diol-G 407 ng/dL (190-900)

I’ve been on the gel now for 5 days and most definitely feel it…
2 and 3rd days it felt almost like too much and was considering going from 2 pumps to 1 but it has leveled out some.

This text is from last week (7/5/2012)
The answers are in…

Date Tot/Free T DHT E Pumps
5/10 448/20 30 13 0 Baseline before treatment
5/27 198/5 34 18 2 start of feeling less “good”, HPTA suppression begins
6/4 341/11 89 n/a 2 feeling ok, DHT above normal?
6/27 983/26 227 n/a(80?) 3/4 increased 3 pumps for 10 days, 4 pumps for 5 days…
7/5 1486/na n/a(300?) 227! 5/6 5/6 pumps for 3 days…LH/FSH @ 0, total HPTA suppression…too high!

Big overshoot…I thought it was lack of absorption or high E and leaned towards absorption
but it is definitely NOT absorption and is an high E issue.
Back to 2 pumps on top of feet for 1 week…

Current:
3 pumps and feeling pretty good.

#7

good. So it is only 5 days on TRT?
hope you will mantain the good effects.

#8

So exactly how long has it been on TRT?

Mostly people regress in a few weeks usually to do with E. But you may have better luck I hope you do