Superman is dead

Member Stories
#1

COPY AND PASTE THE FOLLOWING INTO YOUR OWN POST, then answer the questions.

  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?) Long time lurker, google I think.

  3. What is your current age, height, weight?
    36, 6 feet, 185

  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    I used to, but stopped after crashing due to depression.

  5. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
    No fast food, try to eat organic.

  6. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
    hair loss but I still have a pretty full head of hair.

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

  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    I started April 2013 I was 35.

  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    I stopped January 2014, 11 months ago, I was 36

  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?
    generic

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

  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    5 months.

  14. What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
    A little bit of ED which I thought was from stress in the relationship.

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
[ ] 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 ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[x ] Suicidal Thoughts

Physical
[x ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] 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
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)

  1. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?

  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)?
    I had high estrogen on my first blood test after stopping. Then everything tested normal. I do not have copies of the results to 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.

Sex was probably my favorite thing in the world before propecia. Most of my girlfriends told me I was the horniest guy they had ever met. My main issue now and for the last 11 months is almost a complete loss of psychogenic erections. I cannot get completely turned on from visuals alone. Porn induced erections take a lot of time, touching and concentration and were in the beginning were only possible about 30 percent of the time. With a live woman things turned out to be much easier. Thank God for that as I was suicidal for months thinking I would not be able to have sex. I never realized that being with an actual woman was more stimulating than looking at a screen, before propecia it was all the same I was super turned on very easily but things are nothing like they were before stopping propecia. I used to be the type of guy who couldn’t fall asleep without taking care of things. Now getting an erection is just a very slow process and sometime impossible. I am a firm believer that this pill has damaged some receptor in the brain or androgen that effects the brain. My blood flow seems to be fine in the right situation. I feel lucky that I haven’t needed viagra like I thought I would with an actual woman but I don’t feel like the same man. Honestly sex was always my main carrot in life. Without that strong craving anymore I am learning to adjust.

It’s been 11 months since I stopped these are my only signs of improvement.
-Estrogen right after was very high, went down on it’s own. Current labs show everything as normal T is between 320 to 450 depending on the day.
-Acne I have had all my life disappeared for 2 weeks and now is almost fully back.
Morning erections are still weak but the strangest thing is I can "think’ an erection when I first wake up. I cannot do this the rest of the day. Before stopping propecia I had to push them down to pee in the morning.
-Depression has got better since I somehow worked up the courage to date and find a girlfriend fearing that nothing would work.

I would love to get back to my old self the way some people seem like they have been able to. I have tried just about every supplement but considering taking clomid or progesterone and Deprenyl. Open to any ideas. Does anyone else have trouble with masturbation but not as much trouble when kissing and touching an actual woman?

#2

Forgot to mention my upper back and shoulders after crashing became constantly inflamated. If I sleep on my sides as I have my whole life I will wake up with my shoulder feeling like it is on fire, my upper spine and shoulder blades sometimes will go into full spasms which are excruciating. The only solution I have found is sleeping on my stomach.

#3

I am sorry to hear about your difficulties…Based on what you have written I would think you are a good candidate for recovery (based on other individuals accounts). Your hormone profile is good and your body is still functioning reasonably well although obviously nowhere near how it previously functioned. . In my opinion I think you should stay away from medications. We don’t know what has caused these problems and these medications have been tried many times without success. I was in the exact same situation as you when I first discontinued the finasteride and I am a lot worse now. I believe that if I had stayed away from these meds I would be in a better place now. The medications are further disrupting our endocrine system and may be causing more damage. Stick with the natural recovery model adopted by people like cdnuts and Bizzbee. This is just my opinion but I was in the same place as you originally and now I am worse. I will not take any medications again until we know what is actually causing these problems. Have you considered participating in the Baylor study…

#4

Hi Mamoo,
Which meds did you try? that scares me that you got worse. cdnuts did androhard not sure what bizbee did.

#5

Hi Mamoo,
What did you try that you think made it worse? I definitelya don’t want to do that but I also don’t think I am improving. I know cdnuts wasn’t very natural he took androhard. I will look into what bizbee did.

#6

Hi 11hope, my history is the same of yours. I find very similar points to what happened to me. viewtopic.php?t=5812

mamoo, i found your private message, but I can not reply, I guess because I was too long out of the forum.
Anyway, with time I am going better but I never came back at my 27yrs level. Now I am 41, I dont know if it is normal how I am now, but I think it is acceptable. If i really like a woman then everything works fine, but it is hard for me to have sex frequently like before, when I had it daily (even more than 1 time/day) without even thinking about.
I’ll be happy to keep talking to you or everyone else wants to share esperience about this topic.

#7

Hi Fallen,
Yes I think private messages are just broken on this forum and I hope someone will look into this.

One question, would you say you haven’t got any worse? Would you say you are a little better?

I am 36 and it would be nice to know I will probably at least still have the function I am left with until I am 41. Manual stimulation and the excitement of a real woman enables me to function sexually about 95% of the time which is the only thing that has saved me from the super depression I was stuck in for months. I didn’t think that would happen.

Low labido definitely still causes me to have depression. I don’t feel the need for sex which was probably the main driver of my life. Everyday is struggle to try stay happy and try to find something to fell the void of my former high labido. I am always tempted to try trt.

#8

Mamoo I did try Selegiline about 2mg a day and got scared and stopped. I think it helped a little with mood and maybe a little with labido but I got scared and stopped and crashed for two days. I am currently not on anything and back to where I was.

I am thinking of trying Huanarpo
inkanatural.com/en/arti.asp? … narpo-male

“Herbalists and practitioners in Peru believe that huanarpo macho can block alpha-adrenoreceptors which reduce the effect of hormones that cause vasoconstriction of blood vessels in penile tissues and augment the production of norepinephrine which is essential in maintaining erectile function. Based on the chemistry of the plant, there is some support for that type of mechanism of action.”

#9

I started on clomid 12.5mg daily! I will let everyone know how it goes. So far (4 days) I feel a slight increase in labido/drive and mood. Going to stay at this dosage for a few weeks and see what happens and keep raising. Pills scare me these days but I want to try something so I am going to go up slow and try not to miss a sweet spot.

I decided to take it after I met a PFS sufferer offline through my trainer who is not on this forum and who has recovered by clomid 50 mg everyday. He was severely crashed for four years and had lost hope. He has now been on clomid for two years. he really had it bad for a longtime, all the typical symptoms but a really bad case. He says he has all his manhood back from clomid alone. I redid my bloodwork to get a solid baseline. I was too scared for over a year to mess with another pill. Maybe it will help me like it did him. Maybe it won’t. But it’s time to try.