I never filled out this template originally, so I’m doing it now (6 months in). Since my posts tend to be lengthly, I hope that this one can at least summarize everything in one place.
- How did you find this forum?
- I’ve forgotten by now. Presumably through a google search.
- What is your current age, height, weight?
- 20 y/o, 6’1, 160 pounds
- Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
- I started to several months after quitting the drug, and plan to intensify in the near future.
- What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
- I’ve revamped my diet in the time that I’ve suffered from post-Fin syndrome. It is now entirely whole foods with relatively little meat.
- Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
- Hair loss.
- For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
- Close to a year the first time around, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 or 9 months the second (fatal) time around.
- How old were you when you started Finasteride?
- Right around my 18th birthday the first time around, somewhere around 19.5 the second (fatal) time around.
- How old were you when you quit?
- Almost exactly nineteen the first time around, a little over 20 the second (fatal) time around.
- How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
- In both cases it was an involuntary cold turkey (ran out of the drug), but the second (fatal) time around I attempted to taper off.
- What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
- Propecia the first time around and finepcia, a generic from India, the second time around.
- What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
- 1mg/day the first time around, 0.5mg/day the second time around.
- How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
- Just about immediately after quitting or disrupting my dosage.
- What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
Put an X beside all that apply:
Sexual
[X] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive (Can vary greatly, but generally lower)
[X] Erectile Dysfunction (Difficulty maintaining an erection, occasional difficulty achieving)
[ ] Complete Impotence (Only experienced very briefly)
[x] Loss of Morning Erections (Eventually returned, albeit somewhat weaker and highly irregular)
[x] Loss of Spontaneous Erections (Same as above)
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections (Same as above, if not slightly better)
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[x] Reduced Ejaculate (Varies, as with sex drive)
[x] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm (Difficulty achieving orgasm)
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Depression / Melancholy
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[x] Testicular Pain (Sporadic, not a big concern)
[ ] 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
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination (Possibly worsened over time.
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
- What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
- Over the course of this summer (2009), I have been working on an intensive diet and exercise regimen that I plan on putting into full force at the start of September. Sometime between now and December, I will get in touch
- 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)?
- An initial massive drop in testosterone, followed by a massive surge in testosterone that accompanied a brief return to normalcy about 4.5 months in. Since then, conditions have fluctuated.
- Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?
- Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
I started losing my hair very early on (16), and by the time I hit 18 I was desparate to reverse the process. Right around the time of my 18th birthday, I started taking 1mg/day of Propecia through a doctor’s perscription. I was aware of the possibility of side effects, but the hair-loss message board where I gathered most of my information championed the pill like there was no tomorrow. Furthermore, I was under the impression that side effects were extremely rare and (critically) confined to your time on the drug - it was almost taken for granted that things would return to normal if you quit, or even if you persevered through sides. I had “fantastic” results with my hair and barely a hint of adverse effects, so I was largely satisfied.
After about a year, my “regrowth” stopped coming and I lost enthusiasm for the drug. Almost exactly on my 19th birthday, I somehow misplaced the bottle and forgot to take it for a few days (i.e. I de facto quit cold turkey). The result was almost immediate: the worst, most horrifying depression I have ever experienced in my life. Within about a week, I put two and two together and decided to quit Propecia permanently. It was a hell to go through, but I never doubted for a second that it would eventually go away with time off the drug. Over the course of several months, it did just that. I didn’t experience any noticeable sexual problems, and felt just about completely back to my old self by about half a year later.
Unfortunately, I then made what turned out to be one of the stupidest decisions in my life. Worried once again about my returning hair loss, I decided to get back on propecia. Furthermore, since I was strapped on cash and didn’t want to bother going through a doctor/parents, I decided to order a cheap generic from India. Understnad, since I never experienced any sexual side effects from propecia I never even considered it a possibility. I was just worried that my depression would return, and so I decided to only take 0.5mg/day and quit the moment I experienced any difficulties.
Several months into propecia, I met my current girlfriend and lost my virginity. My libido and sexual energy/abilities were through the roof. I was a completely healthy 19-year-old.
In December of 2008, I once again ran out of propecia (i.e. finepcia). This time it was because I had expected my order to come sooner than it did. I started to taper off over the course of the week just to conserve pills. Sexual side effects then hit me like a truck. I wasn’t able to achieve orgasm during sex or maintain an erection. Morning erections disappeared over night. It was then that I made my first post on this forum (see below).
Over the course of that initial month, my side effects fluctuated and even got better at times. Around 1.5 months later, I had about a week where I saw drastic improvements. A doctor I had scheduled to see was very rude and dismissive of me when I asked for blood tests, but I thought I was getting better so I didn’t care as much. Unfortunately, things soon drifted back down again and remained more or less the same over the next few months. I would have some fluctuations in symptoms (particularly regarding ME and libido), but on the whole I never felt close to “normal.”
Five months in I felt the worst I had ever felt. Absolutely no libido or morning, spontaneous or nocturnal erections. Tremendous difficulty masturbating. Huge mood swings. A more prolonged/pronounced brain fog than what I had thus far experienced. For the better part of a month, I felt the worst I have ever felt. I visited a urologist, who was also very dismissive but who allowed for a testosterone test. It came back at 216.
Then, suddenly, at the start of May I had the most wonderful experience since quittin the drug. One day, it was as if everything suddenly came back online. Shockingly, for the first time in five months, I was able to have sex and maintain an erection. I was ecstatic. A new blood test showed a testosterone level of 500, and the urologist told me that all my other sexual hormones were in range as well. I thought I had just about recovered. It’s a pity that I had to go Europe within a few days and leave my girlfriend behind.
In the month and a half since, my condition hasn’t sunk to the lows I had previously hit, but it definitely hasn’t consistently stayed on the highs either. I have days where almost everything functions close to how it once did (perhaps 1/4 or 1/3 of the time), but the rest of the time I don’t really feel that great at all. My girlfriend came over for a week in the middle of it all, and I was initially able to maintain an erection and had a high sex drive, but eventually saw this fall off over time. Brain fog appears occasionally, but it’s not crippling, and I suppose the same could be said for my increased need to urinate. Some days I feel well on the road to recovery, other days (today, for instance) I wonder if I have made any progress at all and sink into depression. Not a day goes by that I don’t wish I could go back in time and stop myself from taking propecia again. This is the absolute hardest thing I have ever had to go through… one stupid decision, stemming from teenage security, may have fucked me up for life. I don’t know if I’ll ever really get back to normal again, and I have no idea what exactly is going on or what the future holds.
As bad as things get, I at least tell myself that it’s worth a shot to try and do what you can to get better. I will embark on an intensive diet and exercise regimen the moment I return home, and I hope that it can hold some benefits for me over the course of the eight to twelf months that I inend to stay in one place. I will also try to schedule an appointment with Dr. Crisler as soon as possible. The only thing I want right now is just to one day be a healthy twenty-something again.
Hi everyone,
There seem to be a lot of really well-informed people here. If any of you can take a second to read my story and offer some help/advice, I would really appreciate it.
I used propecia for about a year between my 18th and 19th birthdays. Earlier this year (i.e. 19.5), I got back on the “big 3” after an extended pause but this time I used generic finepcia from India and cut the tablets in half. I’ve been doing this for probably close to 8 months now, with limited regrowth but no real side effects.
Unfortunately, about a week or two ago I once again ran out of the drug. I actually had about four tablets left when I re-ordered, but I soon found myself taking them every other day and now even cutting them into 1/4ths. Today I took 1/2 a tablet… I have 1/4 tablet left (probably gonna take it day after tomorrow) and the new order still hasn’t arrived.
The problem is that it seems I’ve suddenly developed some sexual side effects. For one, for the past several days I’ve had absolutely no morning erections (or, presumably, nocturnal ones either). Just as troubling, in this same time, I’ve been having real difficulty maintaining an erection and ejaculating during sex. My problems have just started recently. I’m still able to get aroused when I’m in bed with my girlfriend, but it’s practically impossible to to stay hard for a while or even to ejaculate. This definitely isn’t normal, and I really think that it has something to do with the propecia situation.
I’m pretty scared/worried and not sure what to do or where to go from here. I’m determined to quit propecia, but I don’t know whether to do it after I get back on the drug (once the new shipment arrives) or just right away. Going bald at 20 is/would be horrible, but it pales in comparison to possibly being impotent as well. I’m hoping that the sides will go away in time once I quit, but I really don’t know how to approach this or what to do. If any of you guys can help me out I’d be really grateful.
p.s. Reading other posts, I realize that this is not a forum about “hair loss” and I’m not looking for any advice about my hair. I’m determined to quit either now or very soon, and I was just hoping that some of the forum-members here would have advice on how to approach this, i.e. how best to quit, whether tests would be a good idea, what to watch out for, etc.
It was pretty frustrating and he was very condescending… ultimately he said he saw no reason to let me take blood tests and I decided not to press the issue with this guy.