Pseudo-update:
nothing has significantly changed for me since original post, but I am becoming increasingly worried about possibility of permanent penile and scrotal shrinkage. Penis is probably half an inch shorter and feels significantly thinner, and testicles are usually quite small, rarely as low-hanging and large as they used to be (barely ever, in fact) and sometimes get scarily shrunken and rough. Does anyone have any advice or reports about this issue remedying itself?
Just chill dude.
Looking at your symptoms, you have a very good chance of making a complete recovery. Usually, the mental and penis issues are the ones that improve over time. My penis used to look very shrunken and small when flaccid, but that has resolved itself for the most part. It took 2.5 months for it to recover this much, but at the 2 month mark, it was shriveled up.
Three month update:
About two and a half months after cessation (a couple weeks ago) I met with a doctor, who told me that everything was hormonal and that gradually my body would readjust to pre-fin state and I would completely recover. Of course, PFS is a very little understood condition by the majority of the medical profession, but the doctor did tell me that he talks to “probably one bloke a day” who is interested in finasteride, and that he had lots of experience of people deciding to come off it, and then recovering after a few months. This made me feel a little better, especially because at that time I had had a sudden improvement in symptoms; one day perhaps two and a half weeks ago, I had absolutely pure clear-headedness, sexual symptoms evaporated, and I felt really great. I remember it was a very hot and sunny day, and I went for a walk and just felt great. I definitely think that hot, sunny weather is important in recovering; I have even started taking a vitamin D tablet once a day because things have been so dour here in England for a couple weeks, cold and cloudy, with the cold especially exacerbating my testicular atrophy, and I just really want to recapture that great feeling of pre-PFS that I had two weeks ago, which I just have a strong feeling must have been somewhat tied to getting lots of sun and vitamin D for that one day.
Unfortunately, since that uptick, I have reverted back to PFS a little, though my erections are now stronger, perhaps 90% of the way back, and my brain fog manifests mainly in slight lack of acuity in vision and memory, rather than, at its worst, an active sense of headache and fatigue. I would say that overall I am 90% recovered from the absolute worst, and I am hoping that what I have will gradually clear up and I will constantly have the state of mind and body that I had for that one sunny day when everything felt great. Probably the most concerning thing I have is that my testicles are still atrophied most of the time, and can shrink massively before I go the toilet; I’m not sure what to make of those symptoms. If things haven’t improved in another couple weeks, I will call the doctor and ask him to schedule a hormone test at the hospital, though I know that would be months away.
The fact that I have some symptoms at this point does technically set me out for having PFS, but again, I’m hopeful things will improve, and I have been resting a lot of hope on what @CO1314 said to me a while ago about how the recovery is constantly two steps forward, one step back, and I hope that I am indeed one of the lucky people who simply get bad side effects but who do eventually completely recover. Best of wishes to everyone.
Hey man, I have this very same symptom, really ennoying
Yes, this is very irritating.
Have you had any hormone tests?
Yes, you find my last results (and the ones earlier that were worse) here:
Thanks, good to see things improved somewhat for you. Is there anything a doctor can prescribe to increase free testosterone? Would that help you with your remaining symptoms? @andras33
I wouldnt take any hormonal supplement or drugs at all anymore. I believe in natural healing.
End result could be lowering shbg and raising free T in the long term, which definately will further improve symptoms.
I’ve seen various reports of this happening and it going back to pretty much normal over a period of time and healthy lifestyle. Of course, nobody knows for sure what’s going on or how to fix it, or if it can be fixed in everyone.
4 month update:
Well, it’s not particularly good news, but not totally demoralising either.
As things stand, I’d say that I have recovered to this extent:
Brain fog - 90-95%, lingering vision issues and tiny residual memory/sharpness of mind issues.
ED - 90%, have gotten decent erections in the last couple days, takes a bit of effort, and libido is still basically absent, but the length is back and god willing I’ll get my girth back too, just a little off at the moment.
Testicular atrophy - varies, sometimes settles for hours at what I assume is basically 100%, with my testicles saggy and large, but when I go to the toilet they rise and shrink, sometimes absurdly, to like 20% of what they should be. I have a weird suspicion that shrunken prostate might be to do with this so I might make another thread on that topic. Majority the time they are at around 80%, you could say. I never really noticed how big they were before, or how much they sagged/were round, so am having to estimate a little with this.
That list of sypmtoms isn’t too much improved from when I first posted, sadly, though there have been some definite improvements. I don’t feel fatigued and hungover all the time, forgetfulness has decreased I’m pretty sure, erections definitely have gotten stronger, and my testicles base size has shifted up perhaps 20%, to be optimistic, since the worst. My penis also is no longer extremely shrivelled when flaccid, at all, which was a symptom I had up until about a month and a half. And it wouldn’t be absurd to think that some people – those less hypochondriac than I – would put brain fog and ED at 100% recovered.
However – these are my big issues – my eyesight and libido simply aren’t where I’d like them to be. I mentioned earlier that at two and a half months I went for a walk in the sun and has several hours of total recovery, which I thought meant I would eventually stabilise at that level. The biggest differences were that my eyes no longer became easily unfocused, my libido returned, and I had a sense of deep comfort and relaxation that I desperately wish I could regain – I feel like the drug has doomed me to live the rest of my life slightly on edge, never really at ease. It was like a warm feeling deep in my torso, I cannot explain it. I have sunbathed when possible to try and recapture the feeling, but it has only ever been fleeting – at one point I even had my eyesight massively improve, being able to read without glasses! Just from sunlight! Very strange and annoying that I can’t permanently get that feeling back.
I have kind of gotten used to the testicular issues, I now just really want my eyesight and libido to settle into how they should be. It’s so frustrating never being able to actually let my eyes settle on objects, they are always flickering in their point of focus. Ideally I’d take the fact that I did very temporarily recover as a good sign that I may still totally recover, but I think there are a lot of people on here who have temporary recoveries that never become permanent. I am fortunate to be doing better than many others, but to be so close, yet so far away, is agonising.
I suppose I will start getting more exercise to see if that can have a positive effect. I think that in another month, I will do a write-up, and have to accept that my condition at that stage, if not improved from where I am currently, is likely the one that I am stuck with. All I want is my normal vision and libido back! Here’s hoping.
Six months and ten days update.
It’s early, and I happen to be up, and am feeling like just writing this up even though I don’t want to.
Firstly, I’ll say that shortly after my previous post, I quit drinking for about a week, and immediately the better sleep improved my brain fog, making it completely disappear. Then I had five days or so where I just felt great. My erections were 100% pre-fin, my mind and vision were back to normal, and my testicular atrophy went away. The only issues I had were low libido and watery semen, but honestly I’d do anything to have that back now. For that brief period (and a good couple weeks after) my whole state of mind was changed, I was creative, looking forward to my life.
Stupidly I did drink again, and since then the weather here in England has been rainy and cloudy; I’m getting barely any vitamin D. For the last two months I’ve been hoping that my body would oscillate again and I’d have another really good recovery, but it hasn’t happened. I’ve had a couple blood tests but nothing out of the ordinary. This must be something fucked up with me at the receptor level.
I’m going to supplement vit D when I can next meet with a doctor. I really believe that every recovery period I’ve had has been mainly due to vit D, and maybe I just need to supplement it at a fairly high level during the winter.
What can I say overall? There has been improvement from my absolute worst. Every symptom I have has at some point been 100% recovered, and even now they are all between, say, 70% and 95% recovered. I just felt so sure when I had that spike of feeling great two months ago that it was a sign that I would eventually be out of the woods, that my recovery just had a zig-zag, very shallow gradient, but that it was a positive trajectory. Who knows – I feel like I’m constantly just one good month of improvement away from a complete recovery. I sometimes have very strong erections that feel great, with spikes of good libido, clear mind, good testicles, all of it. I just want all those things to recover together again, and to stay that way. Just seems unbelievable that I can have only taken 4 bloody pills and have my receptors get fucked like this. Especially upsetting because I am back at uni and want to meet girls, but really can’t due to erectile dysfunction issues.
This hasn’t been a very clear post, but the tl;dr is:
Improved to 100% almost, two months ago, and have since slid back to where I was. Ongoing symptom variation. Will supplement vit D to see if that helps. Hoping my recovery can return. Wishing best of luck to you all.
Hey maybe, similar story to yours mate… penis shrinkage and sexual sides are my main issues. Loss of spontaneous erections and lowered libido is a killer too. Thankfully i’ve avoided some of the other side effects so far though. I took 21 pills in total, this was 7 months ago. Have you tried any other supplements? Did your doctor give you a blood tests
I’ve had a couple blood tests – nothing out of the ordinary, the issues seem to be with the androgen receptors, not messed up hormones. Sorry to hear you’re also going through this – have you had any improvements or temporary recoveries? The fact that I have undeniably had some improvements (including some significant ones) and that I had this period of basically total recovery two and a half months ago is what keeps my spirits up. I’m hoping that supplementing a decent amount of vitamin D and getting some exercise over the next couple of months could push me over the finish line.
Yh i had improvements earlier on and thought things were getting better but that all stopped a few months back and gradually seemed to get worse again. I had some bloods done last week which showed a few abnormalities but nothing groundbreaking.
High prolactin
High E
Low dht
I’m sorry to hear this. I wish I had my blood test results to hand but I can say for sure that I did not have the out-of-range numbers that you have in certain places; all I had was slightly above normal TSH in my thyroid, which you don’t have at all. If your hormones are currently slightly fucked then I suppose that raises the possibility that over time your body will reset itself to how it should be.
How good and how long was your temporary recovery?
I dont think i really had a full 100% recovery at any point tbh. Things were gradually improving and then i just seemed to hit a wall and now its gotten gradually worse again. What was your temporary recovery like? Can you pinpoint anything that helped ?
@Gord The only thing that I can point to that helped me is direct sunlight – I had one several-hour recovery that came about just from walking about in the sun for the first time in a while, and then my several-day recovery came from being out in the sun for a while during the hot patch we had in late July to early August. Ever since then with the cold miserable weather I have felt worse; I am pretty sure that vitamin D is a big part of recovering and I am going to soon start supplementing at 2000-4000 IU per day.
My recovery was just like, my head cleared up and I had that relaxed feeling when brain fog is gone, my erections were extremely fast, absolutely as hard as pre-fin, my testicular shrinkage disappeared as well. Oh, another thing is that I was sober for this period. I think sobriety, good sleep, fasting and staying away from sugars and starches, alongside vitamin D, are the keys to getting better.
What is the best you’ve recovered? Do you, like me, have variation in symptoms, such that at different times of the day you might have each one individually go back to normal and then get worse later on? And when did things start getting worse again? Was it when the sunny days stopped happening?
I didnt think of that but yeh, definitely my better days do coincide with the summer months and spending days out in the sun. Not full recoveries mind but yh at least at that point i seem to remember thinking i was on the right road to recovery.
Unfortunately in terms of the initial few months i didnt take it all too seriously (wish i’d found this forum a bit earlier) so many nights over the summer were spent with friends and family drinking alchol, junkfood the occasional cigarettes. I wish i’d known more then and given myself more chance to heal cleanly.
I’ll start supplementing vitamin D and see how i feel
Also i’ve managed to book some time off work soon so looking to do a few water fasts
And yh my symptoms can fluctuate and vary day to day. Ball size and shape and feel of penis all seem to change a lot throughout the days and weeks.
Craziest symptom i have right now is the new hair on the receding part of my head… i actually stood in front of the mirror last night shook my head and thought well there you go you idiot, got what you wanted. Both me and the misses were in agreement how much thicker it looked … how the frig can it do that after 3 weeks of pills and 7 months of cessation!? Crazy stuff !
You’re not alone.
I’m almost positive that finasteride is making some hair regrow for me.
The joint and back pain, on the other hand, make it not worth it.
