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)?
Poland
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
What is your current age, height, weight?
24, 172cm, 75kg down to 70kg
What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)?
Finasteride (Finapil - generic)
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
1mg/day
What condition was being treated with the drug?
MPB - mostly preventative measure
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
5 days
Date when you started the drug?
9 Feb
Date when you quit the drug?
13 Feb
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?
2-3 days after quitting
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
Sexual
[X] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[X] Erectile Dysfunction
[Resolved] Complete Impotence
[X] Loss of Morning Erections
[X] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[X] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[x] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[x] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[Mostly resolved] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[Resolved] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[X] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[Mostly resolved] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[Mostly resolved] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[x] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[X] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[x] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[Resolved] Testicular Pain
[x] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[x] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[x] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[X] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[x] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[x] Lowered body temperature
[X] Other (please explain)
-Constantly dry lips, sometimes mouth (started on fin)
-Cold genitals
-In cold temperatures genitals especially scrotum get tighter than before
-Slower beard growth, slower sebum production, weird smell from armpits when sweating
-I have lost 5kg in the first month
-Enlarged veins on penile skin and also horizontal dorsal veins that look like thrombosis/Mondor’s disease but these don’t go away (probable sign of cell death instead of concussion)
-I always wake up around 5-6 o’clock
-mostly at the beginning very bad sound sensitivity
-I cannot relax properly
-Very slight whole body internal tremor/shakiness. I can notice that when trying to relax or meditate
-[new symptom 12/05] gum loss
-decreased sensitivity over the whole body
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
ALCAR, L-arginine, probiotics, pine pollen, vitamins
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)?
10 days post cessation: low-normal T, everything else in mid range.
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 I am 25 yo male now and I have PFS for almost 3 months. I am going to go into detail here so sorry for that. I was perfectly healthy before this.
As for starters fin/min was mentioned by my friend and I did a little research an was convinced that it was safe and the worst possible real side effect would by gyno. I was also convinced that min was much more dangerous than fin. I have trusted medical staff as I had before.
I went to derm and easily obtained Rx. When I asked her about reported side effects by her patients she mentioned only men having lower libido and watery ejaculate in first month of the therapy and that it always went away after that.
I started taking finasteride and very quickly I began to be unnaturally anxious about getting gyno and constantly checking my nipples (perhaps the first side effect). Then I decided to stop after 5 days and go to Endo to check if I had any small pubertal gyno and perhaps was predisposed to it. Also while taking it I haven’t noticed any higher sex drive, but my erection was noticeably harder than normally.
I have stopped in Monday and Wednesday I started noticing weird tingling (mild pins and needles) around nipples, on the underside of arms close to armpits and in the higher part of the legs on the inside parts. Also on Wed around 5 o’clock pm my mood tanked while I was watching a movie to the point that I couldn’t finish it. Then around 9 o’clock pm the depression cleared. The depression came back again the next day.
Around Friday I got racing heart when I was trying to go to sleep (~100 BPM, maybe more) and then insomnia. Around Saturday my flaccid penis has retracted and shrunk (overnight), I was not able to get an erection and I have noticed weird foul smell coming out of it. Also I got severe diarrhea and yellow stools.
Then around week later insomnia cleared, my mood was much better and I was able to get an 70-80% erection, but my flaccid penis was still small (the shaft is harder, but the glans seem normal - so it looks like a potato in a sock and it abnormally retracts - really awful; the shaft itself is numb, glans and scrotum much less sensitive). I thought I was out of the woods for couple days then I have crashed with panic attack and anhedonia has settled in.
The first month was really hard and I was suicidal. During this one I have had I think 1-2 more panic attacks.
Second month was a little easier and third is better. During those months I was taking a lot of probiotics, sodium butyrate and lately an Rx med to relax the GI track. All this didn’t really help much, my stools are still mushy and yellowish and the digestion is still much slower. Also soon after eating most foods my stomach starts to growl.
I am still emotionally blunted, I cannot joke or relax how I used to and my confidence has vanished. I love classical and film music, but now I cannot enjoy it as before. I was interested in watches and I liked to collect them, but now I just don’t care about it anymore(the same goes for other hobbies). Before all of that every day seemed like it had purpose and I woke up motivated to tackle it, but now I just feel like gliding. No day feels different than another. Sunday feels exactly like monday. I think during those times I got like 2-3 days when I could enjoy music for few hours with the additional glimpses of libido (mostly after crashes). I have trouble reading books as it seems all pointless. I have trouble going to work and being around people as the burden of this syndrome is just too much, luckily I can work remotely so that kind of saves me now. I have moved in with my parents as I really don’t know what to do with my life now. Before this I was scared of dying, but now although I am not suicidal anymore I think about dying most of the days. And the very feeling of being suicidal didn’t feel like being suicidal if that makes sense.
I was to 1 Endo and 2 Uros after crashing and obviously all those visits were a waste of time.
Yesterday was my 25 birthday which I thought would be my best one, but it has became the worst. When I got phonecalls from my grandparents and sister with best wishes I cried every single time.
During those almost 3 months I have used ALCAR, arginine and vit D and E, but I don’t know whether ALCAR and vitamins did anything, arginine perhaps helped a little with erections, but the nocturnal erections are weak if they even still exist. I have also mentioned pine pollen earlier, but it doesn’t do anything. I think coffe does make erections a little better for short amount of time, but does nothing for energy or GI motility. Some minimal libido comes from time to time and makes it easier to get and keep erections but it is random I guess, most of the times I have 0 libido.
My thoughts after lurking here for all this time:
It seems like the neurological problems get a little better after some time, but most of the time the sexual, GI/liver/kidney or muscle stay the same or get worse. I think that is because neuroplasticity and that brain can bounce back after hormonal shock after stopping fin, but the cells in other parts of the body just shut down (epigenetic changes?) and perhaps even stay in vunrable state (so any hormone manipulation has a risk or getting things worse). (Cell shutdown as evident by the weird foul smell I mentioned in the story. I am using cell shutdown very loosely here really hoping that is can be reversed in the future.) Also it seems like anything that was tried here is either not working or getting people worse. The few oddball recoveries especially the sexual ones might have been because only the hormonal balance being pushed and then restored and/or the cells themselves were not damaged or not damaged enough.
At the time I think it is the best to accept this condition for now and support the studies, as they are the best chances for any answers, targeted treatment or even a cure (I pray for that even though being an atheist). I was thinking about pressing the authorities of my country to ban or restrict fin/5ARis for hair loss, but for now I don’t know how to approach it.
And as bad as it sounds it might not be possible to get our lives back, but it might be possible to save others by spreading awareness through YouTube or other media.
Best of wishes to everybody,
Wojciech
, but I am aware that this condition might get worse through many things like self experimentation, time or even random chance, so I will probably look into gut just to make sure the microbiota would not have a chance to make me worse. And while doing this I would probably stay away from antibiotics just to be safe.