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)?
Australia
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 years ago
What is your current age, height, weight?
27, 175cm, 72kg
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.)?
1mg per day
What condition was being treated with the drug?
AGA
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
3 months
Date when you started the drug?
March 2020
Date when you quit the drug?
May 2020
Age when you quit?
24
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
cold turkey
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects?
3 months
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
maintenance insomnia, a slightly lower sex drive prior to the drug
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
[ 85-90% returned] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[85-90% returned ] Erectile Dysfunction
[resolved ] Complete Impotence
[resolved ] Loss of Morning Erections
[resolved] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[resolved ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[x ] Watery Ejaculate
[x ] Reduced Ejaculate
[resolved ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[resolved ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[resolved ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[resolved ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[resolved ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[resolved] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[resolved ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[resolved ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[resolved ] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[resolved ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[resolved ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[resolved ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[resolved ] Muscle Wastage
[resolved ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[resolved ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[x ] 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
[x ] Other (please explain)
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
various benzodiazepines to treat acute insomnia, agomelatine, seroquel (anti-psychotic), dextroamphetamine. Have since ceased all medications at the start of this year.
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)?
I will post my bloods if i find the results (i had a range of parameters periodically measured before during and after)
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.
Hi everyone, I am a 27 year old who has been suffering from hair loss since their late teens and like many of you, was rocked pretty hard by finasteride during and after cessation of treatment. I guess you could say I lurked these forums during the really dark times looking for an assurance everything was going to be ok. Initially I wasn’t going to post my story since I eventually left finasteride and all its problems in the rear view mirror about a year ago but I had someone recently ask me about the hardest moment in my life and what would have helped me get through it. My consciousness got the better of me and thought back to when I was going through the acute stages of PFS when all I wanted to hear was anyone who may have a contrary experience from some of the true horror stories on here. So here it is:
I started taking finasteride when I was 24, 1mg a day for around 3 months before noticing my libido drop off a cliff and my semen quality get watery. After consulting my doctor I immediately stopped. About 1-2 weeks later I had my initial crash. At the time I experienced about every side effect listed on here, most notably no libido, complete erectile dysfunction, panic attacks, night sweats, insomnia, and suicidal ideation. To anyone going through this right now I completely understand how you feel and I highly recommend you let someone know, call any suicide or lifeline helpline. I can’t stress how important this was for me. If I hadn’t stepped out of my comfort zone to do so I’m not sure I’d be here typing this.
The next part of my story spans the next 5 months or so. None of my symptoms showed any improvement during this time, I also put on a decent amount of weight and lost muscle. I felt like a complete zombie. Perhaps the most anxiety inducing experience during this time was visiting 2 endocrinologists and multiple GP’s for two of them to tell me that A. they’ve seen this before very rarely and B. there’s no guarantee or when or if I will recover based on prior cases. During these 5 months I did get regular blood tests to measure my hormone parameters. I will post these a bit later if I can find them as there was a lot of fluctuation in the first 3 months. During this time I was also admitted to a psychiatrist who put me on various medications listed above with the objective of making me cognitively functional (as I work a job which requires a high level of attention and a clear head). This helped me get through each day but by no means solved any of the real issues which plagued me such as my sex drive, erectile dysfunction and depression.
For the next 1.5 years or there wasn’t much if any improvement. To get through this, I distinctly remember writing a list of things (not too ambitious) I would do every day just to give me day some purpose. This routine did help me get back to doing some light exercise and eating healthy again.
Towards the end of this period, I started to notice my sex drive return very very slowly to the point where I’d occasionally have hints of my previous desires maybe once or twice a fortnight. It is important to note I still had ED so I decided to jump on viagra just to get some functionality back. This helped but I definitely wasn’t fully functional and was very lucky to have a partner who was understanding that I sometimes wasn’t feeling 100%. At this time I also decided to come off all the other medications I was on (tapered over 2 months), and slowly start adding things to the ‘daily list’ I mentioned earlier. Over the next few months whether by coincidence or attributable to the lifestyle changes I made, I slowly recovered all functionality to the point where the only residual symptoms I feel now are maintenance insomnia and a slight drop in my original sex drive (85-90% if I were to estimate). Erections are 80% back to normal with the occasional issue if I’m not on any PDE5 inhibitors (although I’d like to think they are slowly improving still as blood flow and ‘exercise’ restores some of the muscle tissues I may have lost during my time of impotence).
The point I am trying to make here is that for 2 years I didn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel and thought I was absolutely fucked like many people on this forum. I acknowledge a component of my recovery could be attributed to a natural return to homeostasis but I cannot deny that the reason I am still here to write this is because I stuck around and did everything I could to get through the times when I really didn’t want to exist. I know how it feels to not have any certainty if or when you will get better and to have doctors scratch their heads and think you are crazy. The best you can do is acknowledge your situation, take some personal accountability and set some achievable goals to get you through the darkest hours, and develop some mental fortitude that you will not be another statistic. This account is quite raw and I will add any necessary details as I remember them. Stay strong kings, I am rooting for anyone and everyone going through what I had to go through alone. Give it time and do what you can do to maximise your probability of recovery. I promise you life is worth living now I am out the other side.
- one of those rare success stories to give you hope x
EDIT: i’ll also add some comments on the cognitive side as this was highly correlated to other symptoms I experienced however, many of these symptoms resolved quicker than the bulk of the sexual side effects