I have few questions as far as time lines and severity of side effects. When I read that vast majority of individuals recover does this mean that they recover within the two week time frame that Merk states or is it over a span of a couple months? Also at least for me, it feels like every day I feel a little bit better is this due to the slow burn of rate of this drug it has only been 26 days for me and is my chance of full recovery pretty good. My only real issues are loss of libido and loss spontaneous erections I still have feeling down there and I still can get an erection with a little bit of stimulation however I have severe premature ejaculation is this normal thing and, I still have not regained my normal sleep pattern I can only sleep for 6 hrs. Any input on these situations would greatly be appreciated
Unfortunately the timeline varies for everybody, which is why some of us are still waiting to recover years later. I think you could assume that the vast majority of individuals recover within a month of discontinuing the drug. However some crash again after recovering.
Read this section of the main site for an overview of PFS if you haven’t already.
Premature ejaculation does affect many individuals suffering from Post Finasteride Syndrome. Many are also affected by irregular sleep. I made a post with some natural recommendations on your member story thread.
I know the timeline varies, but I’m trying to get an idea of the most common occurence.
It looks to me like the VAST majority of men who crash after stopping finast do so within the 3-5 week period after last dose, with week 4 probably being the most common.
Has that been your experience? Any thoughts/sharing appreciated.
I think I crashed once I came off the drug. My life has been hell from the day I stopped takin proscar, I can however say that I am makin really slow progress. My question do most people have a crash when they just stop like mine?
I don’t know Airborne - that’s why I was trying to take a quick informal Poll.
When did your crash occur? (days or weeks…?)
My eyes suddenly becaame severely dry and thus blurry vision at week 7.
For those who have had physical changes (shrinkage, twisting, curvature) did it happen quickly and suddenly? Or has it become that way slowly over many months??
I’m pretty sure that whatever damage occurs happens suddenly (NOT gradual) and is soon after quitting finasteride!! Thoughts…
Sorry to double-dip but I guess what I am asking is:
Do the penile changes happen suddenly (crash style overnight) and then that’s the way you are? Or do they happen over the course of time and get worse slowly…?
I’m wondering if at 18 weeks out I have LANDED where I am going to be as far as sides (or can it get worse…)?
For me and at least one other member I’ve spoken to, we had 50% penile shrikage OVERNIGHT.
Thanks boston - WOW, that is amazing that is even physiologically possible!!! I wonder what’s going on here, because I know for instance that it takes weeks or months to notice any sort of muscle atrophy in the human body (without some sort of blunt force tissue damage)…
So, you woke up one morning and the changes were visually unmistakeable (what did the changes LOOK like)?
My shrinkage was dramatic too although maybe not that bad. I had a sexual recovery for a few days then on the morning of the crash I had fibrosis and much more foreskin than normal when erect. It seemed about a quarter shorter but I have not really had bad shrinkage when erect given how bad my other sides are.
Blakes it is also interesting that you say it takes weeks or months to notice muscle atrophy, as for many of us we lose many pounds within a few weeks or even days. This is one of the main factors why guys who have a severe crash don’t rally around some of the more outlandish theories on here, as they don’t go any way to explaining the carnage we experienced.
Agreed. I think any solid theory should explain the PFS crash that most all of us experience.
Yes, the changes were definately “visually unmistakeable”.
How about not pursuing a single “solid” universal PFS theory able to explain every single symptom of every single “PFS” sufferer, but stay opened to the idea that “PFS” could actually represent different multi-faceted diseases with common symptoms and a common trigger (fin)? Why refuse to receive factual evidence for a “theory” when it doesnt intuitively seem to explain all of your particular symptoms? Plus ALL sufferers deserve to be looking for their cure, not solely the most severely affected ones. Im out, I can feel the “trolling” accusations coming.
EDIT: blakes, you shouldnt be worrying too much at this point, a “natural” recovery is still possible for you!
At 18 weeks out I think its extremely unlikely that any dramatic change is gonna happen (like the crash described by the people above) but it could be steadily be getting worse on the sexual front (what happened to me). The advice has probably already been given to you but you should start living as healthyly as you can and avoid any stress in excess. You may STILL recover. To keep you mind at peace you probably should get started on PDE5i (cialis vigra levitra) and enjoy sex (not in excess) with women as much as you can. You should cut out all porn-assisted masturbation though. You can get cheap effective indian generics of these meds on the web, I know the original are very expensive.
We all took Fin. We all went through various periods of androgen deprevation as a result. The side effects of androgen deprevation are well known. Negative gene regulation is a known response to androgen deprevation. Seems reasonable to suppose we all suffer a similar issue due to a genetic predisposition. I just don’t see how autoimmune or prostatitis explains the crashes alot of us went through. I respect your opinion and I know we all see PFS through the prism of our own side effects. I think some of this debate will be answered one way or the other by the genetics study.
I found this quote - “When expression is repressed, no new RNA will be made by that gene, so the level of that RNA in the cell will go down (this depends on how stable the individual RNA molecules are) and in turn the protein level will go down (this depends on the protein’s stability). RNAs and proteins that are more stable with kick around in the cell longer, so the effect of the negative gene regulation will take longer to become apparent. The more unstable a protein or RNA molecule is, the faster the effect of negative regulation will become apparent.” Could that explain the several week timeline between cessation and crash and the varience of time between cessation and crash and/or the severity of the crash or am I wildly off the mark?
EDIT- Sorry if I scared you with the penile shrinkage story. Not all guys seem to have it and I think the degree I have is a rare case.
What do you mean sexual sides could be steadily getting worse? …What WAS your experience with symptom progression (were your injuries still getting worse after 6 months)??
Porn-assisted masturbation?? Are you saying my body knows the difference in sex vs when I do it myself…?