Terrible side-effects hit suddenly

Member Stories
#1

  1. Where are you from (country)?
    UK

  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

  3. What is your current age, height, weight?
    31 Age, 180cm height, 62kg weight

  4. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    Not too much right now, too weak

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

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

  7. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    1 year 4 months

  8. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    I was 30, 1/June/2016

  9. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    I am 31, 6/Sept/2017

  10. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
    Tried tapering after 7 days off, with 0.25MG EOD, sideeffects got worse, so now I will never take again

  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.)?
    0.5MG EOD

  13. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    Some light ones during this year, but full-blown blow-out while travelling, last few weeks.

  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
[ ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

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

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
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[X ] Muscle Wastage
[X ] Muscle Weakness
[X ] 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
[ ] 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?
    Started 5HTP, Multivitamin (Solgar VM2000), fish oil, and probiotics, plus some wheatgrass I juice.

  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)?
    Not yet.

  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.

After 1 y 4m of taking 0.5MG EOD propecia, while travelling the world, I began to experience horrible side-effects.
Firstly, my immune system seemed very weak - I caught 3 infections in 3 weeks, when I took antibiotics prescribed in Thailand, I got terrible panic attacks, and weird sensations.

Lastly after the 3rd infection (ear), and fever, I started to suspect Propecia. I cut it off last week but then tried one more dose to taper yesterday at 0.25MG, which worsened symptoms, so I will quit forever now.

My symptoms are, in order of disturbance are: Terrible mental and physical fatigue, Fever’ish feeling in the body many times per day, very difficult to eat - constantly feel hungry but unable to eat much, lost significant weight (also caught dysentry while in India, that didn’t help), blurred vision, feeling weird when out and about, more anger and depression due to symptoms, unable to spend fun quality time with people due to all this.

I know I am at the very beginning of recovery and it could pass relatively quickly without PFS, but what are the odds?
What would you recommend to someone in the beginning of recovery?
I am going to see the doctor who prescribed me this shit in 2 days, and will do a full series of tests. Any recommendations?

Thank you all!

1 Like
#2

That sounds like fun

#3

How are you feeling now? It has been about 3 weeks since your initial post? To me, it sounds like you just got sick on your travels and do not have PFS.

If you had PFS and the “crash” you would know trust me.

Anyways. How are you feeling?

Thanks

P_Stashio

#4

Yes, dysentry wasn’t fun, but easier to deal with than the after-math of Propecia.

So my update is that about a week or so after quitting, I started to feel much better - started taking Digestive Enzymes that seemed to really help.

Then I started acting normal and crashed again - since then I’ve had a lot of panic attacks, feelings like I’m going to die, heart attack, head pressure, jaw tension, heart / chest pains, etc.

Sometimes it seems like my heart has a hard time pumping blood and my veins on hands start swelling up.

This isn’t fun - going to an Andro doctor next week, got my GP to refer me, hopefully the Andro won’t treat me like a crazy person as the GP did, hoping to get all hormones tested,
and ordered some DHEA, Vitamin D supplements to see if that helps.

The worst symptoms for me are the panic attacks being unsure if I’m going crazy or really having a heart attack.
Others are stomach issues which seem directly related to all other manifestations.

At this point I’m about 1 month off Propecia after taking it for 1 year and 5 months. Praying that this will pass!!

#5

I wish, but the PFS symptoms were starting for me while I was still on Propecia - muscle twitches, anxiety, weird mental phenomena and other sensations.

I am now around 1 month off and I get ups and downs.
I can have great moments and real down moments, still hoping my body is recovering slowly and that I wont have persistent issues.
Past few days have been harder.
Thing that scares me most now is the heart / chest pains / veins swelling up.

#6

Update here:

  1. Stomach definitely tied deeply to my symptoms - avoiding processed sugar and meat, while still eating salmon, anything else.
  2. Worst symptoms are general weakness mental dullness, dizziness, headpressure and jaw tension, can feel how my body and heart strains. This makes social situations harder as I’m less sharp, but many hours training in meditation in the past help me deal with this.
  3. Panic attacks subsided for now - need to avoid Weed at all costs - this immediately creates a panic attack.
#7

Feeling much better since I stopped vaping weed a few days ago. It would bring about a panic attack extremely quickly.

Yesterday was my best day, eating healthy and not too late and doing sports helps alot.

#8

At least you don’t have the sexual sides dude. Those are the worst ones.

1 Like
#9

I think I do, but I don’t have a partner right now (split up with this girl recently as I wasn’t into it and she wanted to be exclusive), so loss of libido and erections isn’t that much of a problem for me at this present time.

Went to see an Andro DR, I went in and he said “I can’t help you” even before I spoke. I was able to be nice and agreeable and he allowed me to have T3 tests and Cortisol as well as TSH, but no comprehensive hormonal tests unfortunately.
I’ll see if I’m interested in pursuing more tests as it seems like knowing your test results isn’t that helpful to recovery if you go via natural route.

I feel both improvements and setbacks - I am now approx 1.5 months out of propecia and still suffering from:

  1. Hypertension and Varicose veins in my arms - I can see my veins popping out on my hands, this was never like this. Blood pressure is slightly higher. Ordered L-Arganine and L-Citrulline to see if it helps. I have a feeling that this thing with circulation and blood pressure affects my brain as well which can be the cause of the mental side effects.

  2. ED and loss of libido

  3. Brain fog and dizziness - this is mostly persistent and can be worse (slow response times)

  4. Jaw tension

  5. More anxiety and panic attacks - Usually brought about if I take care less of my diet, eat late, get high, etc.

I am currently taking: Digestive enzymes+probiotics, 5HTP 100mg twice a day, coq10, vitamin d 5k iu, L Theanine and GABA before bed, Fish oil.

#10

Updating here as I need to better follow my ups and downs which I don’t really:

Its been almost two months since I quit Propecia and still suffering side-effects.
Sexual side-effects were completely gone during my use of Propecia, but are now surfacing: loss of libido and some ED, but I dont have any women in my life right now so it makes testing this harder.

For a few days I had some libido resurface and random erections during the day but not many, still it seems like the body is able to produce these so hopefully will improve in time as this is early days.

Panic attacks mostly subsided but still extremely noisy and people-filled situations are less tolerable.

Worst side-effects for me are mostly physical - heart / blood issues - my heart strains more, and my veins are popping out in my hands, also can see how circulation has suffered - when I put my hands up or do a handstand my limbs lose colour. Hoping that doing more yoga and inversions will help the body recover better.

I have purchased a shitload of supplements and trying them, l-Theanine helps keep me calmer when I need to, digestive enzymes for stomach issues, Vitamin D 5k or 10k per day, DIM plus, some Fish oil, 5HTP.

Ordered Vinpocetine, Quercetin, Pycogenol, Rhodiola, Ashwagandha to see if any of these could help me recover or manage my symptoms better.

I really suffer from head pressure, brain fog and feelings of bizzare types of dizziness, slow vision. If the body’s circulation is fucked it makes sense that this would affect the brain. Lucky I can actually still function, and have still beautiful moments of connection, love, excitement, etc, so I hope that in time I can recover my old self by taking good care of my body.

My daily routine now includes a morning smoothie of a ton of baby spinach, some superfruits and stuff which definitely helps.

It is hard to determine what days will be good days - on those good days its hard to fuck it up no matter what I eat, but eating very heavy foods, sugar, or smoking any weed or doing any drug definitely makes my state worse.

Fingers crossed that the body slowly gets out of this mess, and I’ll be doing by T3 /TSH / Cortisol tests soon.

#11

Day with more anxiety, it seems like I cycle - good day, bad day, good day, bad day.

The bad ones are getting better though - libido is coming back more often.
Avoiding sugar seems paramount as I can really feel how it stresses my body - however doing this is hard as the entire world is basically trying to sell you sugar-filled shit all the bloody time.

Fatigue also still as issue, and throat pressure + heart pain from time to time, discolored hands /feet and swollen veins in hands.

This is me totally speculating but my scalp itch (which some people seem to associate with DHT coming back), seems to be in full force + libido in days where I feel better (little to no bodily anxiety and fatigue).

I still have joy and enjoy friendship connection and beautiful moments - its just harder on the days where my system seems overloaded and I need to rest or not expose myself to a lot of stimuli.

I’m doing a daily yoga sesh now as I feel like all the twists and headstands are helping.

#12

Ups and downs still - but I have found some help in:

  1. Rhodiola, Ashwagandha, Vinpocetine - These 3 seem to help, either on their own or combined. Won’t be over-using to not lose the effect.
  2. Pycnogenol for circulation - seems to help with circulation to hands / feet but only been taking for a few days this far.
  3. Avoiding Gluten (and sugar, junk) like the plague - as soon as it starts getting digested I start feeling an overall heaviness in my throat, chest, and heart.
  4. Intense yoga every day.
  5. Meditating more consistently every day
  6. I dont masturbate to climax at all (edge sometimes), and no girl now, so I haven’t cum in probably a month now. I have been into this practice before PFS, but seems more important these days.

I’ll start looking into this carb-backloading business and see if it helps.

Overall I’m almost at the 2 month mark, the following side-effects have improved greatly:

  1. Head pressure - Gone most of the time
  2. Full-blown panic attacks
  3. Intense cant-move fatigue
  4. Migraines / Malaise

Following side-effects are still there but improving:

  1. Libido - comes back and goes away more often
  2. Morning erections sometimes come back full-force

Following side-effects are still present and I’m battling them on a daily or every-other-day basis:

  1. Anxiety on a more bodily-level
  2. Digestion - have to be really careful what I eat and when
  3. Brain-fog / cognitive / mental sides - when I’m down, less keen to communicate, do anything, get out of the house as this makes side-effects worse. This is by far the worst side-effect for me, I love socialising.
  4. Depression - obviously when sides hit hard, its depressing.
  5. Jaw tension - seems like the muscles of my jaw next to my ear have become weaker due to propecia (just my interpretation) - it comes in and out. resting helps with this, as well as talking less.

Also started doing weekly Accupuncture (very cheap through my medical insurance) once sesh thus far - will see how this goes, Naturapath and natural doctors give people like us a respectful approach compared to the disrespect by regular doctors, just that in itself is nice.

Overall since I only quit the drug 2 months ago, I am hopeful that the body will return to balance over time relatively quickly as I am 32 at this point.

It is hard for me to take advice from people like cdnuts on a more specific level, as the problem for me has not been gaining fat as I’ve always been skinny - I actually lost more weight due to this PFS thing, so at this time doing a water-fast of more than 24hours is a complete nono as I have nothing to lose on the fat department.
Any advice appreciated

#13

Good few days since cutting out all gluten, sugar, etc, and taking supplements - crashes when they occur aren’t so bad.

However, crashed after eating too much plain brown rice tonight (wtf?).

Ugh.

#14

Ups and downs still, however:

  • My libido is definitely back sometimes in full force, and ED doesn’t seem to be a big issue.

The mental side effects of dizziness, stress and anxiety are the worst sideeffects.
I manage these by avoiding sugar completely, even too much fruit can trigger this. Also Paleo helps a lot - wheat, grains and brown rice are horrible for me (white rice is fine)
Supplements help, and daily exercise and meditation.

All in all I’m hopeful and with more time (its only been 2 months for me) my body will heal and all will be well.
Trying to get off this forum for a while to think about it less.

#15

Great impropvements on all fronts:

  1. Libido coming back
  2. Morning erections and general erections back
  3. Mental sides vanishing over time, particularly Anxiety coming down well.

The way I have been treating myself:

  1. Gluten-free, Paleo-type diet. Meat + high fat cheeses + veggies but no Bread, Grains (even Rice - brown or whiteseems real gut-irritating). Absolutely no coffee, no alcohol, no sugar, not too much fruit either.
  2. Green smoothies every day with a lot of good stuff, a ton of spinach.
  3. Excercise, in particular swimming + sauna seems to really pushed my recovery forward last week. Anything that gets the bloodflow running.

Supplements:

Magnesium Glycinate 400mg
Pycnogenol 100mg (circulation + bloodflow)
Quercetin + Bromelain
Vitamin D3 5000 per day
Fish oil liquid daily
Multi type probiotics
Ashwagandha from time to time to help with Anxiety, seems to help well.

The better I feel, the less I open this website and the less I obsess about my health. Seems like most people who feel better simply stop coming - take this as a sign of improvement and optimism!

Overall took me around 2.5 months to get feeling really much better, could have happened quicker if I figured out the diet thing earlier but better now!

1 Like
#16

Pretty much almost cured.

I don’t masterbate as I like practicing semen retention from before this, sticking with diet and regular yoga

Libido very strong, random erections all day

I introduced dark 90% very low sugar chocolate, and can take a cup of coffee from time to time but still rather avoid.

Stick with it and you’ll feel much better. It’s been 3 months since I quit

1 Like
#17

Yoga can really help with detoxing and even if folks can’t manage a full yoga session a few poses can help to improve a persons overall health. I believe that it’s this detox affect which helps to promote longevity and good health in those who have been practicing yoga for many years.

chopra.com/articles/7-yoga-pose … 1jr3q8i33n

shape.com/blogs/working-it- … -naturally

Detox Yoga | 20 Minute Yoga Flow for Detox and Digestion
youtube.com/watch?v=cBPP_izKKSs

#18

Yeah,

Yoga really helps I find since it is a good physical exercise, and helps a lot of bloodflow with all the varying postures.

my current diet is exlcuding gluten, sugar, coffee, and eating quite a bit of meat and high fat cheese.

#19

Great improvements overtime, by side-effect:

  1. Anxiety has lessened, however I can still feel it is more elevated than usual.
  2. Muscle Twitches - Much less often, but still present sometimes in weak and intermittent form.
  3. Brain fog - almost gone.
  4. Stomach issues - mostly good by taking probiotics, avoiding sugar, caffeine, gluten and most grains.
  5. Head pressure - mostly gone.
  6. Libido - very horny at times.
  7. Erections - very strong at times.
  8. Circulation / blood-flow - Suffer more from cold hands / feet and notice circulation is not as good, excercise (yoga / swimming / sauna) help a lot, and Pycnogenol is meant to help with that also.

It has been around 4.5 months since I quit cold turkey, I hope and expect more improvements over time, as it is relatively early.

#20

Oh, I see. The next upcoming recovery story is going on there! UNBELIEVABLE… :sunglasses: