Took one pill 5 days ago and I have extreme sides, what now?

Member Stories
#1

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)?
Canada

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

What is your current age, height, weight?
23, 5’8, 150lbs

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

What condition was being treated with the drug?
Baldness

For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
1 day

How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start the drug?
23, December 5th

How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
23, December 5th

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

How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects?
10 hours after consumption

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
[x] Complete Impotence
[x] Loss of Morning Erections
[x] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[x] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[x] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] 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
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[x] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[x] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[x] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[x] Suicidal Thoughts

Physical
[x] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[x] Testicular Pain
[ ] 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
[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?
Nothing

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)?

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,

I really hope I can find some hope on here, because the last few days have been the worst of my life, and I have truly contemplated suicide for the first three.

I took a 1mg pill of Finasteride on Saturday.

10 hours after, I had a ringing sound in my ear. I am not sure if it’s tinnitus (I already had tinnitus in my left ear) but it looks like increased hearing (every small sound bothers me, and obviously it makes me much more conscious of my tinnitus). Obviously anxiety doesn’t help with that.

2 hours later, I noticed I had no libido, and my penis was lifeless. I remember I lived something similar two years ago: my penis would either be limp/lifeless or shriveled up. However, unlike now, I still had libido and could masturbate. When I noticed this lifeless penis on Saturday night, I tried masturbating: it was really tough to get hard, but I managed and then I came.

Eversince I woke up on Sunday, things have been horrible: lifelesspenis/no connection/no libido, testicular pain, ringing in the ears (pretty sure it’s increased sensibility to sounds), pellet stools, anhedonia, no motivation, major anxiety.Everyday has been a nightmare. I am a know hypochondriac, so this anxiety of this being permanent makes it 10x worse.

Yesterday I felt like I was doing progress: I managed to get hard watching porn (which I was previously unable to do for the last 4 days), and I actually had sexual desire (although much lower than usual). However when I came it wasn’t as pleasurable as usual. After coming, I had a down of energy and I think (not sure) my testicules were achings more than usual. However overall, just knowing I could get hard (although it was numbed a little) brought me great joy.

I went to see my doctor and I did a general bloodtest + testosterone level test, I will have the results tomorrow.

I read in the FAQ that things can get better in two weeks, and that the majority of people gets better in 2weeks/3 months.

Can it still be the case even with severe symptoms like me? Please let me know, I am willing to hold on to any piece of hope.

Thanks,

1 Like
#2

Hi,

Nobody bothered to reply, but I will update my situation in hope that it could eventually help someone in the same situation. I am aware the typical recovery could take 2weeks/3 months, but given the severity of my symptoms, I don’t know if I will recover 100%. It has now been 2 weeks.

In the last few days, my mental sides have really improved:
- suicidal thoughts (gone)
- anxiety (a little bit in the morning, and then fades in the afternoon)
- brainfog (a little bit in the morning, and then fades in the afternoon)
- anhedonia (mostly gone)
- tinnitus (80% gone)

Sexual sides that have improved:
- able to manually get hard everyday, and to keep the erection without constant vigorous
stimulation (I was 100% impotent the first 4 days)
- semen texture/color is normal
- ejaculation doesn’t hurt
- I got 2 spontaneaous ‘‘partial’’ erections last week
- slight improvement in the penis/mind connection (managed a 80% boner just by thinking about
sex)
- testicules are now hanging (used to be turtled up in the first week)
- flaccid penis is looser (doesn’t feel hard like rubber anymore)

Sexual sides that remain:
- really low libido (no urge to masturbate, but the desire is there when I do)
- still need a lot more time to reach an erection (compared to prefin)
- orgasm doesn’t feel as good
- penis skin is really elastic/rubber feeling
- scrotum seems to have excess skin

Other symptoms that improved
- bowel improved a lot (no longer pellets)
- appetite came back (I don’t ‘‘like’’ eating like before, but I still feel the need to)

Other symptoms that remain
- weird sleep (wake once after 5hours, and then after 1h30/lots of dream, no deep sleep?)
- weird skin texture (really elastic and smooth, no oil)
- more wrinkles in my face and pockets under eyes when I wake up
- soft muscles (I can still be sore after a workout, but can’t get a pump and I can push down on
them a little bit even when flexing)

Considering how low of a place I reached during the first week, I am super grateful to have my head back. I get brainfog and a bit of anxiety in the morning but it’s manageable, and losing the tinnitus brought my sanity back.

The second thing I would like to fix is my sleep: do you guys have any advice on how to reach the deep sleep? I don’t want to get meds or anything, I’d like to go the natural route. Fixing sleep could really help me better tolerate brainfog and anxiety.

Sexual sides and weird skin are super scary, but they are at the bottom of my priorities right now: mental + sleep are my priorities.

Overall, I would advise any guy in the same situation to try to wheather the storm of the first week, and that it can get better by the end of the second week. I thought all my symptoms were permanent but I was wrong, and this gives me hope: if I improved a lot between week 1 and 2, I have to keep my head up.

Is this recovery typical?

As for my recovery, I have been sleeping at midnight everynight, drinking a lot of water, taking Vitamin D, lifting weights (moderately), running 25min, and eating a mostly plants/meat diet.

What would you guys do differently/add for my recovery?

Happy holidays and keep your head high guys

#3

Hey there,
I’m sorry to hear about all your symptoms.
I’ve done the same mistake and took saw palmetto (400 mg) for 4 days between 27th and 30th November this year. So Im right now on my third week of recovery and my symptoms are almost same to yours. The first week of December was horrible for me but now I have already my head back and hope to recover from the insomnia (3-5 hour of sleep every night), the low libido and erectile dysfunction and also from my digestion problems.
The good thing is that for us it’s still early and we still have time to recover.
I hope that all will be good and that we will recover completely during the next months.

#4

I’m in the 1 pill club. Kinda got better over time but shit still sucks.

2 Likes
#5

Sorry to hear that. I’m also already tired and hope to see improvements the next weeks and months.
When you took the pill and what kind of symptoms you still have?

#6

You think there’s still hope for us?

#7

I don’t know to be honest, but I read and heard that this kind of side effects are very common and that a lot of people recovered after a few weeks/month.
So why it should not happen to us?

#8

I thought 2 weeks/3 months was common for sexual sides, but what about the other symptoms (anxiety, brainfog, elastic skin, bad sleep? Can this also be reversed in the upcoming months?

#9

I think yes, I also had just during the first days a brain frog and suicidal thinking and since the second week my head is fine and I just have a low libido/ED and insomnia.
Maybe the body need more time to adjust to this symptoms.

#10

And after I read your story I felt like this way of recovery was similar to mine, so why it should be not a normal way.

#11

Pretty much all of them, you can read my post history

#12

Oh damn, I see. You just took 1 pill and already fighting a couple of years with this symptoms.

#13

Hey Dennis and pleasehelpme, your story is really similar to mine, and I was lurking back on the site to give some insight about it. I also took one pill of finasteride, and let me tell you the first week was horrible. I had the same symptoms as you, but mine took 3 weeks to start to go away. Your improvements within two weeks is an amazing sign, and the brainfog in the morning really sounds like it’s linked to anxiety. For me, I always felt I had a ton of symptoms and felt horrible, but once I left the forum for good, I realised most of it was in my head. I also had tons of anxiety, and once I learned to calm myself down and got it treated with therapy, everything felt immensly better. Alot of what I was feeling was linked to that, and realising it was the first big step to my recovery. I’m 6 months out now and i’ve never felt better, completely back to normal and my recovery after 2 weeks wasn’t nearly as good as yours.

Without a doubt you’ll be back to normal in no time. Also, the other symptoms like elastic skin and bad sleep completely went away after two months, as they’re not really symptoms that persist.

Anyhow, I hope you’ll keep up with the great progress and honestly, as weird as it sounds, leaving the forum was the best treatment I could ever ask for!

Happy holidays everyone

2 Likes
#14

@pleasehelpme and @97Octopus, the sockpuppet account he made to share details of his own recovery with himself, have been permanently banned.

Neither of them had PFS by the “side effects persisting for at least 3 months after cessation” definition used here.

These actions are very disrespectful to the members who tried to offer support.

Dishonesty won’t be tolerated.

Happy Holidays.

5 Likes