Stark's Story

Member Stories
#1

  1. Where are you from (country)? USA

  2. 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 for “propecia side effects”

  3. What is your current age, height, weight? 23, 6’2", 168 lbs

  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise? Weight lifting and cardio

  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)? relatively healthy

  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)? hair loss

  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)? 10 days

  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride? 23

  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit? 23

  10. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? cold turkey

  11. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic? Propecia

  12. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? 1 mg/day

  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects? About 4 days in

  14. 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
[ x] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[x ] Loss of Morning Erections
[x ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ x] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ x] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[x ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ x] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ x] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ x] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] Suicidal Thoughts

Physical
[ x] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ x] Testicular Pain
[ x] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ x] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ x] Weight Gain
[x ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[x ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[ x] Prostate pain
[ x] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ x] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ x] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ x] Increased hair loss
[ x] Frequent urination
[ x] Lowered body temperature

[ x] Other (please explain) Ridiculous sweating from groin area 100% of the time, increased fat in cheeks, facial pain.

  1. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug? Zinc, garlic supplements, vitamin d

  2. 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)?

  3. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?

  4. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.

Had some recession, started on propecia in September and got ridiculously itchy scalp, massive shed, and very oily skin after a couple of days. Got off after 10 days, but these sides continued for a month until I crashed and got all the other sides as well.
My worst side besides the sexual ones is the sweating, which causes my undergarments and groin to become soaked after sitting for about an hour. Really don’t know what to do about this.
Interestingly, my extremely oily skin, scalp itch, and increased hair loss that started when I started fin completely ceased for about a week after my crash, then started up again in full force. Any ideas as to why this is? The itch is honestly unbearable at times.

Improvements: I also had a lot of chest pain (gyno) in the month or so after my crash, but this has mostly faded. My sleep also improved, early on I would wake up every 3 hours but now I sleep through the night, thankfully. I also lost a lot of muscle tone but I’ve stopped or even slightly reversed that by lifting a lot.

I’m able to stay positive most of the time, but I have bad days where everything seems hopeless too. If anyone has any advice for me, I would appreciate it.

#2

Recent bloodwork. 4 months post-crash:

Total Testosterone: 580 (240-950)

Total Estrogens: 175 (<130)

Vitamin D: 40 (30-75) [Been supplementing 2000 iu per day for 3 months]

TSH: 1.65 (.4-5)

Can anyone comment at all on this and give me some advice? Should I attempt to bring my estrogen levels down? I don’t know what to do and my doctor is being unhelpful.

#3

Way off the charts high. You should try and bring this down. Also get a test for Estradiol (ultrasensitive assay), and possible Estrone and Estriol.

The fact your doctor doesn’t see any issue with such elevated estrogen levels in a man suggests you might find better care under another doc who does.

#4

It’s been a few months now so I thought I’d check in. I’ve improved in some areas but have seen nothing in others.

I recently got more blood tests with the following results:

Testosterone, total: 812 ng/dL (250-1100) -improved
Testosterone, free: 84.4 pg/mL (46.0-224)
Testosterone, bioavailable: 186.6 ng/dL (110-575)

Estrogen, total, serum: 73 pg/mL (<130) -improved
Cortisol, total: 15.5 mcg/dL

FSH: 2.7 mIU/mL (1.6-8.0)
LH: 2.1 mIU/mL (1.5-9.3)

Prolactin: 7.9 ng/mL (2.0-18.0)
Estradiol: 26 pg/mL (<39)

My total T seems to have improved (though this could just be a daily variance) and my estrogen is now within normal range.
Am I right in thinking that my FSH and LH are pretty low for a 23 year old, athletic male? My endo didn’t seem concerned and shrugged it off as “more or less normal.” Overall, my endo just shrugged his shoulders and offered to write me prescription for viagra. I think I’m done with doctors for now because I don’t think they can help me anymore.

In terms of my symptoms, I’ve noticed the following:

Improved:
I have more energy, feel motivated to do things more.
I don’t have difficulty focusing or feel depressed. I’ve actually been feeling pretty positive lately.
Frequent urination is no longer a problem
No more symptoms of gyno
Eyesight improved. Blurriness much reduced.
Beard no longer falling out, but much finer/thinner now, unfortunately
Joints no longer constantly crack and pop when I move.

Unchanged:
Erections and libido basically the same. Maybe a tiny improvement in terms of libido.
Orgasm and amount of ejaculate still quite variable
Still have facial pain
Occasional pain in testicals, albiet rare now
Extreme premature ejaculation

Oddly, my facial skin is still very oily and my hair still itches and sheds a lot.

What I’ve tried:
Progesterone: I’ve tried it 3 times now, applying small amounts for about 5-10 days. Within a day or two after stopping, erections and libido were greatly improved, but faded away again after a few days. Interesting, I may experiment more with this in the future.

DIM/Calcium d-glucarate: Took for a couple of months, now I take a reduced dose a few times a week. Not sure if this helped lower my estrogen, but it coincided with that improvement.

Ginkgo Biloba: Didn’t really notice much with this

5htp: Took it for about 2.5 weeks to help with premature ejaculation. Had no discernable effect. If I took it before bed, I would fall asleep immediately and then wake after about 5 hours and be unable to get back to sleep.

Anyway, that’s where I’m at. If anyone could comment on my newest labs or make a suggestion I would appreciate it.

#5

I too have tried the progesterone cream recently,5mg per day,the first few weeks I felt great then went downhill from there,it gave me side effects I didn’t previously have,my balls started to hurt constantly,sexual problems got even worse,mental problems went into overdrive,i became very jittery and my scalp started itching like crazy,then loads of my hair fell out almost overnight,its took me 3 months off it to get back to where I was before trying it,the hair loss seems to be growing back some,the stuff is pure poison,avoid it like the plague mate…

#6

that´s nuts. When people are still worried about their hair, I don´t care about their opinion. Maybe the hairloss was a good sign.

#7

yes,i was over the moon when a bald patch appeared on my head within a few weeks,i remember thinking to myself at the time,“this is definitely a good sign”… :unamused:

#8

Yeah I also noticed that my hair seemed to shed more when I used it. Sorry to hear about that; you must have built up too much in your system or something. Thanks for you input.

#9

You need to answer me this. WHyy is your free t so low in comparison to your total T?

#10

I wish I knew. When I pointed it out to the endo, he kind of shrugged it off.

#11

SHBG must be too high. The question is why?

#12

Does anyone else notice their erections improve from ejaculation? I find that if I ejaculate at night before bed I usually wake up with an erection (albeit a weak one), and that my erections are somewhat better that day.

#13

I have similar test scores - normal total T with low free T. Strange that the endo didn’t think it mattered.

#14

The same thing happens to me. If I ejaculate in the evening, I have a much higher chance of having a morning erection. Ejaculating also increases my libido. But I have found that if I masturvating everyday for many days my erections become weaker.