The 1% per month recovery theory

General Discussion
#1

When I come to think of it, several people noticed that recovery (or at least partial recovery) was made somewhere between 5 and 7 years off Propecia (some people even a little longer). The other important detail is that nobody has made sustainable significant gains in a much shorter time span. So another way to look at it would be that it actually comes down to a 1% - 1.5% recovery per month ! When you start off at 0%, no wonder people want to kill themselves after a few months off…

And when you reach about 35 years old, libido decreases by about 1-2% per year. So to me, in this age bracket, anyone making an 80% recovery within 7-10 years is entirely cured.

The 1% recovery would also explain how come so few people come back to claim their recovery, as well as how come so many users come back regularly to this website (even after 5, 7 or 10 years). It’s really hard to actually feel cured when it happens in such a long timespan. It’s not something that happens overnight, and we kind of tend to forget how we once felt. And really, how can you tell if you are 70%, 60%, 80%? It’s good enough that some people come back stating that they “have been well for a long time and feel almost normal”.

In other words, if I’m 20% recovered today, I could only hope to be at 26% in 6 months. Ouch. Pretty hard emotionnaly for a condition that most of us tend to monitor by the hour !!

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#2

I understand that there is not much to back up this theory … but given the time it takes for people who recover, it may not be that farfetched. If so, it basically means that we only recover 0,1% every 3 days. It’s kind of like watching a turtle climb Mt. Everest. No wonder so many people are going crazy. And no wonder so few people claim they are recovered. It’s not like taking antibiotics and feeling better the next day. Moreover, people probably don’t want to jinx it.

I also understand that some seem to take a lot more time, and some never really recover, so like everything else around PFS, nothing is for sure.

Anyways, just trying to keep positive in this whole mess. This just can’t be the end.

#3

Almost 30 months in … It’s really day-by-day fluction, and so many symptoms that it’s hard to give a global percentage on how we are feeling, but if I had to put a number, it would be around 30-40% recevory at this time.

I keep doing everything I can to improve (eating healthy, exercice, etc.), and I can just dearly hope that my body will keep healing.

#4

In my second year of PFS, I was feeling like there was enough progress to get me healed in two more years. But after a few unfortunate setbacks, I lost that sense of progress, and the time horizon got massively expanded…

#5

Its more like neuro adaptation not recovery.

The brain is very plastic and can learn to work well with a different hormone balance.

It is only a recovery if your hair starts falling out again, skin gets oily and you feel like an alpha male.

The crash came in 24 hours. So id expect it to go away in that time frame too. Which is seen in the lucky recoveries from tribulus where they crashed and bounced back with a new baseline.

#6

I am aware that post-Accutane sufferers often experience the sudden onset of problems only years after discontinuation of the drug. So, for example, while someone on Accutane might have decreased libido while taking the drug and then after, they will often only discover years later a completely loss of libido and erectile function.

Is Finasteride different? Do sufferers usually experience the negative effects already almost immediately after discontinuing the drug?

I ask because this thread seems to imply a linear relationship between symptoms and time off the drug. But I was under the impression that symptoms might not fully appear until quite some time later.

#7

My erections have gotten much worse 5 years after quitting the drug. The first 5 years I could get great erections with low dose viagra, now, I can’t have sex even with max dose. I did use nizoral for eczema though, which may have made things worse. Interestingly, my eczema got completely healed after I did 9 days water fast about a year ago. I never had neurological symptoms or loss of libido, I’m very attracted to women and I’m flirty, I often masturbate several times a day, unfortunately my dick is like jelly. Also, I still have pain in my left testicle and low abdomen which comes and goes.

#8

I’m starting to wonder if there is some truth in this theory. Anyone got any thoughts?. The trouble is that you feel that your improving,but it’s not linear as you can then have set backs. I definitely feel like I have made some gains and it’s coming up to 3 years. It’s hard to monitor improvements because you forget exactly how you felt as time moves on. How do other people monitor their progress?

#9

I’m 8 years post fin, some things are better like skin, immune function, sleep, brain fog… other things are much worse, libido, erections, estrogen dominance

but I’m also at an age now 51, where my sex hormones would have naturally declined, problem is I can’t handle testosterone, even though it’s at the bottom range…

Progesterone helps some I get sparks of libido but overall baseline is down another notch

#10

Hello,

We all are different and improve different. For some it can be 0,5 or 2 % and so on. Like Ukguy82 said it is hard to monitor progress.

Last year I started to put numbers to spreadsheet how I feel. When I crashed 2011 and half year after that I was worst. This was base point and got number 0. When I feel like prefin number 10 represent this. Every day I write number on the basis of how I feel about the previous one. Then I move numbers to a line graph to see how hole year went. There is also easy to add trend line and it show actual progress during that year.

It is still challenging to decide are you feeling better or not and choice “right” number but this practise have give me hope.

example from last year:

graph
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-Dark

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#11

That’s a good idea, and you can see on the graph that the average has increased slowly over the year.

#12

I don’t think so, it’s harder to recover with time not easier. If I had done the right things I could have recovered 90% in the first two years. My body became older and more prone to injury and depression and less able to rebound. That’s hardly a gradual recovery. As time goes on you might give up and lower your standards to a new low.

Well said. You get reminders of former health and happiness from time to time. And you can compare yourself to your peers.

#13

What do you think those things are?

#14

I’m currently at that phase with my brother. It’s been almost 3 months and he has seen slight improvements initially. We actually weren’t giving it a super long run way to test out before switching to another natural path, but now we’re on a plan to clean out the liver and gut.

Here is a rough time line of the first natural path: In a 2 week time period he was taking things like taurine, zetox, berburine, multi-vitamin, and more. Was also doing, massage therapy, acupuncture, and sauna therapy. We were treating the entire system and the goal was to rid the body of the Vitamin A, via supplements and sweat.
Positives: In that 2 week window, there was 1 instance at work where he says he felt something coming over his eyes almost like starting from his head like a “hoodie” where his eyes felt “normal aka pre acutane” for about a few hours he said he felt great. This didn’t happen again though within this time period. There was also an instance after adding the multivitamin the next day he said his eyes weren’t as dry and his skin seemed oily. The skin oilyness seems to be random, but his eyes and mouth are still dry.

New plan:

Basically it starts with clean diet and nautral sups. It’s a very strict diet, but we’re using the stool and digestion as a baseline. My brother’s biggest issue is the internal dryness he feels. Its mainly his eyes he says.

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#15

@Fusamaku it’s been 4 months since the new plan. Can you give us an update? :slight_smile:

#16

Chart from 2018. Similar compared to the previous one. This is not the absolute because you can forgot starting point when time goes by. For myself its been over 7 years. What should I say. Hopefully progress is made like this and not at least going backwards.

2018
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