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)? Australia
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?) I found it searching PFS stories on youtube
What is your current age, height, weight? 27, 6’1, ~80kg (although could be lower now)
What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)? Finasteride
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? 1mg a day
What condition was being treated with the drug? Hair loss
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)? 7 days
How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start the drug? 27, I started in late january 2021
How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit? 27, early February
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? Cold turkey
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects? About 4 or 5 days
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation? Fatigue, destroyed libido, brain fog, vision problems, memory imparement, muscle wastage, etc.
Check the boxes that apply. You can save your post first, then interactively check/uncheck the boxes by clicking on them. If your symptoms change, please update your list.
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
[X ] Watery Ejaculate
[X ] Reduced Ejaculate
[X ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[X ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[X ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[X ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[X ] Confusion
[X ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[X ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[X ] Slurring of Speech
[X ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[X ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[X ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[X ] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[X ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[X ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ X] Weight Gain
[ X] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[X ] Muscle Wastage
[ X] Muscle Weakness
[X ] Joint Pain
[X ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[X ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[X ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[X ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[X ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[X ] Increased hair loss
[X ] Frequent urination
[X ] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug? I saw a naturopath and was put on some natural hormone restorers for the first few weeks. I’ve stopped taking them though.
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)? I have
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 everyone. I’m Maxim. I’m a 27 year old Australian male and I’ve been suffering PFS since February this year.
This has been the worst experience of my life bar none. I have dealt with anxiety and depression before but all of those things I could get through. Even when I was sad or anxious in the past at least I had my health and energy to get me through the day and find things to look forward to. Now, though, I find it hard to get up in the mornings and constantly think about ending my life.
I started experiencing hair loss last year in 2020 and it freaked me out. At first I tried to ignore it but the more time went on the more it bothered me, so I started looking into hairloss treatments online, as I’m sure many of you have. Around November last year I decided to see a GP and get a Finasteride prescription because I heard what it could do to stop hair loss. However, I still had a bad feeling about it and didn’t want to take it immediately, since I thought I might just be able to get used to having a bald head and wouldn’t need to mess with my health.
Anyway, around mid January I was still feeling pretty bad about my hair loss so I took 1 tablet of it and felt pretty nauseas, so I stopped taking it and said “that’s that.” My body was still healthy and I recovered after one dose so I was still in the clear.
However, a few weeks later I looked in the mirror and could really see my scalp starting to poke through my hair line and I just lost it. I freaked out and, against my better judgement, said I’d take this drug even though it probably wasn’t good for me. I knew about some “lower libido” but I had no idea PFS could get this bad. After just seven days on the tablet by entire body shut down and I haven’t been the same since. I’ve barely left my bedroom since then and right now I’m completely dependent on my parents for basically everything.
Not a day goes by when I wish I couldn’t take back what I did and just live life with a fresh start. I suppose I have learnt a lot of acceptance and humility from this experience but the destruction it has done to my body and the rest of my life isn’t worth it. Before all this I was in perfect health, very sexually virile, I used to love meeting girls, I was super confident, had lots of energy, had lots of passion and motivation and plans and all that. Now I feel like an old man and don’t know what I’m going to do most days. I feel so different and I hate every part of it. I don’t know if you guys here are believers or not but I get angry at God most days for letting this happen to me.
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from all this and that I want other young men to take away from this, is that the REAL solution to hairloss is simply acceptance. You can spend all the money in the world on treatments and spend all your time and effort trying to keep your perfect “youthful” hair but in the end the best treatment is simply accepting it. Every girl I’ve spoken to about hair loss has said that girls really don’t give a fuck, and that losing your hair is a sign of masculinity and maturity. Social media and Hollywood make it seem like if you don’t have a full head of hair your life is over, but this is bullshit and there’s many super successful men without hair who are still babe magnets (The Rock, Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, Patrick Stewart, etc.) The entire hair loss industry to me is one big con and they play off men’s insecurities to sell a drug they know is dangerous in order to make a quick buck.
If I had seen images of handsome bald men when researching hairloss and hearing stories about guys feeling good about going bald instead of stupid discussions on this devil drug that messes with key hormone functions, odds are I wouldn’t have taken it and I’d still be living the life I wanted to live right now. It’s such a minor issue in the grand scheme of things and for a drug such as this to be out there on the market is just wrong in my opinion. I suffer through this every day but if some good can come of my experience its that it’ll stop other young men from making the mistake I did and to hopefully help get this awful drug off the market.
Anyway, peace guys. I hate our situation but you all are soldiers. I’m still having a hard time making sense of this but I keep going anyway. Peace.