- Where are you from (country)?
UK
- 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?)
A friend
- What is your current age, height, weight?
41, 5’,9" 90KG
- Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
Light cardio
- What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
Organic, meat eater
- Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
Hairloss
- For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
3 years (way too long!)
- How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
31
- How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
34
- How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
Cold Turkey
- What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
Propecia
- What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
I a day
- How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
1 month
- What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
Libido, overall sexuality, sexual prefference, zero seamen production
Put an X beside all that apply:
Sexual
[x ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[x ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ x] Watery Ejaculate
[ x] Reduced Ejaculate
[ x] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ x] 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
[ x] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ x] Depression / Melancholy
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
[ x] 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
[ x] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[ x] Other (please explain)
When from 100% straight to bisexual
All over body rashes/hives
Itching skin on feet and hands
Tingling sensation in fingers
loss of touch in fingertips
sharp pain in extremeties
- What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
L argenine, 5 HTP
- 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)?
Very high Estrogen levels
Bloodtests: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5865
-
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.
Started taking the drug because of changing frontal hairline, but had thick hair, after a few weeks had massive shed, I remmember thousands of thich black hairs in the bathtub. a few weeks later my erections stopped, and didn’t come back for 2 years, lost attraction to females generally, in my brain I was becomming feminized. Hairloss continued to get worse. decided to come off the drug a year later as libido had gone completely, started growing breasts!.
A year later my erections started to reappear but the side effects really started to kick in, started with intense itching on the top of my feet and hands, used to lose night after night of sleep in itching agony.
Then I found that I had pins & needles (tingling sensation) in my hands, and my fingertips were really cold all the time.
I found it difficult to hold things as I would feel intense pain in my fingers.
I tried to explian to doctors but they thought I was nuts, 6 years ago there were very few stories of side effects.
As the hand and foot pain started to subside, the rashes started, all over my body, front back, legs and arms, deep red blotches of bood about 1cm accross, decided to see an endo, everything was relatively normal except for raised levels of testosterone - they didn’t check estrogen.
They decided it was an idiopathic rash (A.K.A. its a rash but we don’t know what causes it!!)
My hair is still on my head but thin and downy and has lost all colour.
My fiance and I decided we wanted a baby a few years ago - we tried but I produce so little semen I always had my doubts, needless to say she didn’t get pregnant.
We went to doctors for help, my semen was tested and we found I am azospermatic.
Next week they are going into my testies with a needle to try to recover sperm, we’ll see what happens next but I kinda know the outcome already.
Thanks Merck for ruining my life