Took fin 2 days, trying to recover

Member Stories
#1
  1. Where are you from (country)?

USA

  1. 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 on finasteride and libido loss

  1. What is your current age, height, weight?

23, 5’ 10", 177 lbs roughly

  1. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?

Exercise about 3x week, weightlifting and cardio

  1. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?

I eat mostly healthy, stick to chicken little beef/pork, maybe a little more pasta than I should, but I’m a grad student!

  1. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?

hair loss

  1. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?

Only 2 days!

  1. How old were you when you started Finasteride?

23

  1. How old were you when you quit?

23

  1. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?

cold turkey

  1. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?

propecia

  1. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?

1mg/day

  1. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?

First day

  1. What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?

Put an X beside all that apply:

Sexual
[X] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[X] Loss of Morning Erections
[X] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[X] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[X] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Depression / Melancholy

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
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)

  1. What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?

Just taking ZMA (zinc, magnesium, aspartate- also has some valerian root)

  1. If you have pre or post-Finasteride bloodtests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug (pls post your test results in the “Blood Tests” section and link to them in your post)?

Not had a blood test yet

  1. Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience with Finasteride?

  2. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.

I started taking propecia after getting my thyroid tested to see if it was responsible for my hair loss. My TSH was normal so the doctor prescribed propecia 1mg/day. Met a new girlfriend a few weeks back, long distance thing. Haven’t had sex yet (it was her period when I was there unfortunately). Thus I’ve been unbelievably horny waiting for her to come visit (this coming Thursday).

On the first day of taking fin, I could notice a small drop in libido. It was easy to tell because I was seriously horny almost all the time waiting for her to visit. I decided to give it another day, and had I seen this website before I would never have taken this horrible medicine. Second day rolls around and I realize I have lost almost all libido.

With my former libido in mind, I was still “motivated” to try to masturbate to see if I could. I did not feel turned on at all like normal though I could get a normal erection after a much longer period of time. Furthermore, it felt sore like I was not horny at all too. Ejaculation was pretty normal, orgasm sub-par.

I started taking the pills on dec. 3rd, its now dec. 6th (day two off). My libido feels about the same, maybe a tiny bit easier to get an erection while watching porn, but I still have no horniness. I was tossing and turning last night thinking about how horrible this is and what if it persists till next week. I’m a little more optimistic considering how short I have been off the poison and how short a period I was on it. I will update this as I go…

#2

As it’s only been 2 days off, most likely everything should return to normal in the coming weeks. Try not to worry about it in the meantime.

#3

Ok, its now day 4. I wanted to post this to give hope to those who were luckily on this drug for a very short time and also to thank the people on this forum. This website definitely helped me decide to quit taking propecia and gave me an idea of what to expect, so thank you for that!

So day 4: I feel substantially better. I have little or no spontaneous erections or morning erections, but I feel more like myself and my penis no longer feels “detached.” I believe on the present course I may be almost if not completely better in a week or so. The only thing I’m really missing is my usually substantial libido and the spontaneous erections/morning erections.

I’m currently in a PhD program for neuroscience, and I was wondering if anyone has looked into hormone receptor degradation caused by finasteride. I see a lot of posts on hormone levels, but the level of hormone doesn’t mean very much if you’re lacking a normal level of the receptor that senses these chemicals. This is all speculation, I haven’t done any research on receptor degradation caused by finasteride, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it had some effect.

#4

You’ll be fine. You were on finasteride a day shorter than myself and everything was back to normal in a couple of weeks. Good call on ridding yourself of this junk.

#5

VERY INTERESTING. I too feel that on a neurological level it is less to do with the steroids and actual receptor sites. I’m not sure much research has been done on receptor damage, especially that of D2 and D3 receptors which are essential for libido… This could be your dissertation topic :slight_smile: