5th of April 2008
I am a 31 years old male.
First of all, english is not my native langguage so sorry for any grammer
or misspelling error. Unlike all of you who try Finasteride, i never used
it however i used Saw Palmetto standardized extract.
I was 25 years old in 2002 and in my best physical shape. I trained 3 X
a week in the gym and was having the time of my life. I am 178 cm
i weighted 76 kg at that time and was sexually active with no problem
and also i have no gynecomastia what so ever.
Problem at that time i was seeing my girlfriend who is now have
become my wife. She really like the way my hair feels and look.However
i started to noticed that i was having hair loss problem, not much
but enough to caused thining in the front area (above forehead).
So i begin to research on ways to solved this hair fall problem, i found
that there is a drug called Propecia that have been approved by FDA in
USA that is used in treating this problem. I do read the statement that
in can cause breast tenderness and loss of lidibo ect in 2 % of user so
i was afraid and decided i am not going to try this product. Later on my
attention was focused on Saw Palmetto extract which many claim it does
what Finasteride does however with no side effect, hell they even used
it in some formula to increase libido so naturally i think hey this is a
safe thing, it is natural so it causes less side effect.
I WAS DEAD WRONG. I took Saw Palmetto standardized extract 320 mg from GNC (which contain 85% fatty acids and 0.2 % sterols) in beginning
of 2002. At first i took one soft gel once a day in the morning and waited
two months to see the results. nothing happened my hair fall rate remain
the same, no problem what so ever i am still in good shape.
So now i increase the dose to two soft gel per day, one in the morning and one in the evening.
After four months i notice that the hair fall has been reduce, however i started to feel a little bit tired and less focus, not like my usual self
but i thought hey itās ok maybe i am just under stress from my worked.
At the end of 2002 however i started to experience loss of libido and
occasionally erectile dysfunction. I thought this is funny i never have this
problem before but i am still not concern and life goes on. In mid 2003
after 1.5 years on Saw Palmetto (2 x a day) it is where all the problems emerged one at the time namely:
- Loss of libido (very bad)
- Erectile dysfunction (very bad)
- Sleep problem ( i feel as if i am not sleeping)
- Eye problem ( sensitive to light, difficult in reading)
- Gynecomastia
- Very bad case of stomach ulcer
- lack of concentration (very bad)
- start having episodes of stress
- Dark cirlcle under my eyes (i aged very fast until it shocked my mother)
- mucle twiching (uncontrolable movement in various mucles in the body)
- loss of weight ( in two months i lost 4 kg, very scarry)
- Testis size is reduce (become smaller)
This freak me out, my girlfreind and my family, i immediately stooped everthing that i took namely the saw palmetto, multivitamins, protein shakes. However the problems persist for months. I visit our family doctor who suspect that i may have liver or kidney problem (because i lost 4 kg in such a short period of time ) and order a complete blood
test of liver, kidney, red blood cell count, etc and also ultrasound for both
the organ. All come back fine, so she was puzzle and refer me to see
an urologist.
The urologist order a different blood test to check my hormones,
testosterone, LH, FSH, Prolactin, T3, T4 and THs. All the resilt are normal
except for Testosterone, LH and FSH which was on the low end range. So the doctor simply tells me its ok you are just stress and he suggest me to try excercised and prescribe me slepping pill and antidepresant tablets (zoloft). I was not happy neither is my family so we went
to se another urologist who thinks that the problem may lay in the brain and reference me to see a specialist in Andrology (male related issues).
I was happy finally a specialised doctor who understand male problems. He order me to do sperm analysis as well as another blood test for my hormones. i told him i have no libido and that
my penis can not stand for erection and he told me just try no matter
what. All the test comes back just like before, testosterone, LH, FSH, are in low range area. Regarding the sperm i manage to get it out eventhough it is very difficult (it took me about an hour) to get it out
and my penis in only slighly erect when that happened. It turn out that
my sperm volume is slightly below average (1.8 ml, i can swear that before all of this i have a big load and my wife will swear to that) where normal is between 2 - 10 ml. So he told me that everything seems to be in order and that maybe it is my mind (stress) is the main cause.
I was upset and show him my gynecomastia and to my horror he said
ohā¦ you can get a good plastic surgeon to fix the problem. I was
upset and angry. To short the story my family thinks that it is only
stress related problem. in beginning 2004, my girl friend who is a very
lovely girl and who except me, be it in good or bad health suggest that
we should get married because she was so worry of my condition. I told
her i am very sick i dont think i can satisfied her (both mentaly and physically) nd she said its ok
you will get better and still persist that i should married her. I told my
family and they are happy since they think it is a stress related disease
and marrying my girlfriend could be the solution for my problem. So
withing two months we schedule the timing etc and we were married.
So so far my treatment consist only by sleping pill and zoloft, they help me to get some sleep but still no morning erection untill one day i develop resistant and they no longer worked on me. It was mid 2004 that i was introduced by my family doctor with XANX (0.5 mg) and to my
surprised it severly reduced the MUSCLE TWITCHING and the EYE problem, i also have a much better sleep and in the morning i got a
soft erection. I was puzzled but it is the best thing that ever happaned
to me in along time of coursed i am happy. There is an increase in libido
but only slighly and now i can get an erection but still only 50% of what
i used to have. Sex is like once a month (that is the best i can do, really).
At the end of 2004 i am felling much better, sexual activity can increased
to 2 x a month and also i am having regular morning erection eventhough
it was still soft (50% of what i used to have for morning erection) however
i did not have night erection (untill today i do not know why?).
2005 was the best year for me, had a sperm check again, volume is still
below average but quality of sperm are good (they are moving actively
and very few abnormal sperm present). We decided to try to have baby
and withing three months of trying my wife was pregnant and deliver
a health baby boy.
2006 there is a new problem my gynecomastia become much bigger
so people can noticed it, even my mom notice it (i was wearing thick clothing). Up until now my medication is only XANAX 0.5 MG (i took
every other day) the systoms that still exist:
- Lack of Libido
- Soft Penis erection (50 % recover)
- lack of concentration
- Bad case Gynecomastia
- Bad stomach Ulcer
- Dark circle under my eyes
- testis size in still small (not yet normal)
Remember up until now i still do not know what causing this problems.
2007 i injured my self while carrying my son, i had terrible back pain
and abdomen hernia. in late 2007 i had my hernia oparated. The dotor
who perform the operation was surprised because the stomach muscle
was very very weak that he was afraid by stiching them up would not
be able to hold the intestine so he placed a nylon plastic to help strengthen the muscle and stich them up together. He only told me about
the nylon untill after the operation which upset me because i do not
want to have any foreign object in my body but he insist that it is for
my benefit since my stomach muscle is really weak (like old man).
Confused about why am i so weak ann felt so old, make me want to research my condition. I first focus my research on gynecomastia
and found gynecomastia org. It is here that i first found alot of information
and realised that i may be hypogonadism and have problem with my
estrogen. Hypo-is-here provide many information useful in there (for that i would like to thank you). From there on i joined hypogonadism group at yahoo (Phil georgian has alot of information) and in one of the threads i read about propecia induced hypogonadism which then lead me to this forum. know i finally understood that it was the Saw Palmetto extract
that did this to me just like finasteride did to all of you.
2008 my symtom that still with me untill today:
- lack of libido (sex is 2 - 3 times A MONTH)
- Soft penis erection ( morning erection, no night time erection)
- lack of concentration
- bad gynecomastia
- bad stomach ulcer
- small testis size
- i am 31 years old that look like a 45 years old.
sysmtoms that cease to exist:
- Eye problems
- muscle twiching
- lost weight ( i have recover 3 kg from my loss but mostly become
fat in the stomach)
To those of you who may want to try Saw Palmetto Extract BE CAREFULL
it works and it can induce the same problems like Finasteride to sensitive
person like us.
, i think Saw Palmetto products should be banned