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)?
Germany
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 search (PFS):
What is your current age, height, weight?
Age:28 heigt 1,75m weight 75 kg .
What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)?
1mg finasteride
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
1mg every day for 20 days
What condition was being treated with the drug?
Hair loss
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
for 20 days
Date when you started the drug?
Year 2019
Date when you quit the drug?
Year 2019
Age when you quit?
25
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
cold turkey
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects?
I had no side effects while taking it. 1-2 days after stopping the crash come
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
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
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ x] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ x] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ x] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[ x] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[x] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ x] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ x] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[x ] 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
[x ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[x ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[x ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[x ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ x] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ x] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] 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’ve been to many doctors who couldn’t help me. I took some supplements that didn’t help either. (creatine, taurine, magnesium…)
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 will be adding my doctor reports in the next few days
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.
Hello everyone,
I’m 27 years old and I’m from Germany. I’ve had PFS for about 3 years.
I’ve been around this forum for a while but still haven’t posted any member. I actually wanted to post the member story for a long time, but always put it off.
I hope you can read it to some extent because my English is not so good.
My PFS story started about 3 years ago. I was still a student at the time and lived in a dorm near my university. At that time I took 1 mg finasteride for hair loss. After taking it for 2 months, the school holidays started. I drove to my parents and forgot to take my finasteride tablets with me.
After 2-3 days in which I no longer took finasteride, the crash began. This one was Pretty Bad.
Penis was completely numb, I couldn’t feel anything anymore, I couldn’t get an erection anymore, extreme testicle pain, pain when urinating, muscle twitching, jaw pain, digestive problems with a crazy stomach growling on the lower right side of the abdomen, panic attacks, dark stools etc…
I also wanted to mention that I went to the gym at the time and took creatine until my crash. I don’t know if this was making my PFS worse because creatine also increases DHT.
Some of these symptoms improved about 1-2 months after stopping. My penis sensation came back (about 85% like before finasteride), I could get an erection again (about 80% like before finasteride), no more pain when urinating.
I still have the following symptoms:
Dark stools, muscle twitching, Muscle aches ,digestive problems with a weird growling on the lower right side of the stomach, slight erection problem, right testicle pain, Tinnitus, brain fog, headache.
Unfortunately, some of the above symptoms worsen over time. I’ll describe my worst symptoms, in a little more detail, in a moment.
Like almost everyone here, I’ve been to many doctors who couldn’t help me. Since I’ve had Pfs, I’ve also lost my life energy. Things that used to be fun for me, such as meeting friends or going to the gym, I don’t do anymore and I don’t feel like it either.
One of my worst symptoms at the moment is the crazy belly growling on the lower right side of my stomach, slightly above groin level.
In addition, my bowel movements are almost always black.
The symptoms mentioned above occurred immediately after stopped finasteride. In the last 3 months it has gotten progressively worse.
This stomach growling sometimes lasts for hours. It doesn’t matter if I ate something or not. In addition, I have had some stabbing pains in this area for a short time, but they only last a few seconds. I also often have flatulence.
My somewhat older blood test showed that my bilirubin value is increased. In addition, I have noticed for a long time that my tongue has a thick white coating. I recently found out that this could indicate a gastrointestinal upset.
Do any of you have these symptoms too? Stomach growling just above the right groin or the dark stool?
What do you think is the cause? intestines, stomach; kidney etc? Do you have any tips for me?
Another bad symptom I have is tinnitus… Every day after I wake up I have a headache and an extremely loud tinnitus in both ears. Also, I often get brain fog especially when I need to concentrate.I feel like I drank a lot of alcohol the day before. As the day progresses, the headache gets better and the tinnitus gets quieter. This happens every day.
I also noticed that the tinnitus after I did sports (e.g. jogging) is louder. It then takes about 1-3 hours until it is quieter again.
The wierd thing is that this tinnitus only appeared about 3-4 months after stopping finasteride.
At that time, I tried not to eat anything for a week, only to drink water in the hope that this would alleviate my symptoms. During this time the tinnitus appeared. I’ve had this every day since then.
Do any of you have this type of tinnitus? Does anyone have an idea what could be causing this. It’s strange that this is so strong in the morning and then gets weaker. I think the reason for this must be something in my body that is different in the morning than in the evening. For example, testosterone is higher in the morning than in the evening. But I don’t think it’s that… Maybe it has something to do with the bowel because it only occurred after water fasting.
Something very bad happened to me a few days ago. I suddenly got dizzy and my head felt weird for a few minutes.
I noticed that it was very difficult for me to concentrate over the next few days. Yesterday I was sitting in front of the PC and noticed that I couldn’t read the writing on the PC with one eye. That was a bit strange because I only bought new glasses 3 months ago and everything was fine at the time.
However, it was also a little relieved because I thought the symptoms came from the blurred glasses.
Today I sat down again in front of the PC and suddenly I could see again with the eye where yesterday everything was blurred.
I will try to get an appointment with the doctor tomorrow.
What could have caused this problem. Have any of you experienced something like this? Is this related to PFS?
Finally, I wanted to say that I recently finished my studies as ingeneur and I started working. But I am not sure if and how long I will be able to endure this because of my symptoms. However, I am finally able to participate in the monthly donations. Furthermore, I have decided to participate more actively in the forum😊
Cheer up friends. I believe that all finasteride side effects will disappear completely and hopefully the cure from PFS will be relatively easy. If Finally the cause of this will be found.