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)?
USA
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?)
What is your current age, height, weight?
21 yrs old, 5’7, 140 pounds
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.)?
1 mg daily oral
What condition was being treated with the drug?
Male Pattern Baldness
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
4 months exactly
Date when you started the drug?
Oct 14, 2024
Date when you quit the drug?
Feb 14, 2025
Age when you quit?
21 yrs old
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
Cold turkey
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects?
Approximately 2 months
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
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[X] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[X] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[X] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[X] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[X] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[X] Slurring of Speech
[X] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[X] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[X] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[X] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[X] Muscle Wastage
[X] Muscle Weakness
[X] Joint Pain
[ ] 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
[X] Increased hair loss
[X] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[X] Other (please explain)
Psychological/Cognitive Symptoms:
-apathy and anhedonia,
-difficulty understanding instructions,
Neurological/Physical Symptoms:
-Light Sensitivity,
-Muscle twitching across body,
-Visual snow, seeing imprints of lights, double vision, floaters, seeing random lines and colors, seeing objects move/vibrate, inability to focus eye, blurry vision.,
-Very dry eyes and mouth; chapped lips,
-Extreme weakness and exhaustion,
-squishy jelly muscles/no pump,
-soft wrinkly skin on forehead,
-beard and body hair falling out,
-skin on hands getting red and scaly in the sun,
-yellow pale undigested stools,
Sexual Symptoms:
-loss of color in genitals,
-lack of circulation resulting in cold unresponsive genitals,
-soft mushy genitals,
-anorgasmia
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
I am on Testosterone Therapy by default as a transgender man, which I suppose counts. Other than that, all my lifestyle changes have been holistic. I have prioritized optimizing my health in every possible way, including diet, exercise, socialization, and spirituality.
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)?
Elevated Hematocrit and low MCHC.
Low Vitamin D.
Never an issue prior to PFS crash.
Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience?
My original symptom list post-crash was much worse than this, and about twice as long. Thankfully I’ve seen positive changes with time across most symptoms, although some appear to be getting worse and some are new.
Tell us your story, in your own words, about your usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
I wanted to introduce myself and share my story, my on-drug side effects, and my symptoms leading up to my crash.
First some context. I wanna be open and honest about my health and lifestyle. I am 21 years old, 5’7, 140 ish pounds. I’m a transgender man, meaning I was born female; I began medically transitioning at age 17 when I started taking testosterone (injectable). In case anyone is curious, a female body on testosterone therapy will effectively be considered “male” on a hormonal level after 6 months of testosterone therapy. I am way past that threshold, so my body is masculine; I have a beard, thick body hair, masculine shape, I had a double mastectomy to remove my breasts, and am essentially male in all aspects except having a penis (though even then after so many years of Testo my genitals behave in a more “male” than female way). I also had very consistently normal testosterone levels for a biological man across my blood work for years. This means my body metabolizes things in a “male” way and therefore made me a candidate for finasteride; a hair loss medication more commonly used by biological men frequently taken by trans people as well. I have personally met and spoken to other trans men (and trans women) that have recommended me finasteride for my male pattern balding issue as they’ve been on it for years and experienced no adverse side effects.
So, after doing minoxidil topical treatments for a year, using hair oil religiously before washing my hair (with rosemary oil and other ingredients) and losing more hair, I got finasteride (1 mg daily - oral) prescribed by my primary care physician for my hair loss. I asked my doctor if there were any side effects and she told me that they were “so uncommon they’re not worth worrying about”. I also did a small amount of research on the subject, learning about “reversible” side effects, and told myself that if I ever had any sexual issues I would quit the drug. It seemed safe. After all, I trusted my doctor, and I knew people personally who were on finasteride without an issue, or had all of their side effects go away after quitting the drug.
So I was on finasteride for about 4 months (Oct 14, 2024 - Feb 14, 2025) and took a total of approximately 120 pills throughout this duration.
I developed several sides while on finasteride that got worse and worse with time. I did not notice, nor did I attribute these changes to finasteride, because none of them were related to my sexual function. My libido was sky-high, I was having awesome sex with my then-partner several times a day, everything seemed to be fine in that front.
What I did get was this incessant, annoying twitch in my eyelid that would hurt like hell and intensify in times of stress. Weird; I never had that before. After I completed my finals it went away, mostly because I was less stressed. This was month 2 of finasteride.
My vision also got a bit worse. I found myself squinting a lot when typing or reading. My night vision also decreased. Thought I needed a new prescription. Also, I would get weirdly tired, bloated, and sore post-orgasm; a strange and painful feeling that would only get worse and worse with time. I didn’t connect the dots yet. This was month 3 of finasteride.
Month 4 was when things went to shit. I was tired, I was in so much pain and discomfort I spent most of my time laying in bed, I was having daily diarrhea whereas usually my bowels were healthy, I was in an uncharacteristically shitty mood, and most alarmingly, I started having urinary issues. Pissing became painful and difficult; I started to piss out bits of pus. I thought I had a urinary tract infection and ended up going to the ER. They gave me an antibiotic I took for a week. Symptoms lessened while I was on the antibiotic, then they came back and got WORSE. I was terrified of this persistent “urinary tract infection” that wasn’t going away, especially because of the growing amount of white blood cells in my urine tests, and the fact that I was no longer just pissing out pus but also little bloody, fleshy chunks.
So I went back to the ER, fucking terrified, and was prescribed ANOTHER antibiotic to take for a week, and this time I got serious about it working so I cut out EVERYTHING to let it do its job. I stopped drinking coffee, I stopped having any sugar, and I also temporarily suspended all of my supplements and medications (which included finasteride).
Finally, my urinary symptoms went away and I could piss normally. I felt relief, and was ready to resume my medications after about a week.
Started taking finasteride again, and whaddya know. Day 2 of resuming, urinary symptoms came back. That’s when I finally realized that the finasteride was in fact causing me these damn urinary issues. Needless to say I stopped taking that shit immediately and threw it away. Symptoms went away instantly. I thought I was in the clear. I was wrong.
At that point, it was March 25, 2025, about a month and a half passed after I quit finasteride; a month of patting myself on the back and feeling good about dodging a bullet and making the right call, and suddenly, I wake up and see blood. On my torso. Dripping in a thick continuous line from my right nipple. My nipple bled in my sleep, and a tiny fleshy hole appeared where the blood stream came out of.
Needless to say, this was deeply unsettling. I tried to brush it off, but over the next days, more changes kept happening. I noticed a change in my vision; weird, staticky, flickering; annoying, like looking at an old TV. I got floaters. I started seeing imprints of light sources and lamps when I’d move my head. It wouldn’t go away. It only got worse. I couldn’t unsee it.
On March 26th, 2025, I went to the ER again, had my eyes looked at; doctor found no abnormalities. Said my eyes were fine. A day later I started developing a vicious headache.
First I felt it in my sinuses, then it moved to the back of my eyes and intensified day by day, until it became an intense, never ending pain in my skull, like a tight rubber band pressing down on my temples, sinuses, eyes, forehead, and upper neck.
Then my heartbeat started beating really hard, even when I would do basic things like change position or stand up. I would feel tired and winded; I’d need to sit down and breathe, and I’d feel my heart pounding so intensely that I’d see my hairs move from where my pulse was throbbing in my temples.
And finally, the anxiety started; a terrible, impending feeling of doom that I wanted to physically run away from. I could not escape it. It was a primal and animalistic fear that would follow me around no matter what. I didn’t know why it appeared. I didn’t know how to get rid of it.
Suddenly I had a thought. I got to googling “can finasteride cause vision problems?” The answer was yes. Second search “can finasteride side effects appear a month after stopping the medication?” The answer, as you all painfully know, was yes.
That was how I learned about PFS. I found out about the PFS network and this community (as well as the PFS subreddit which is where I made this post first, by the way) and I read all of your stories, which were terrifying and devastating. The stress of this discovery pushed me over the edge, and finally, on March 30-31st, 2025, I crashed.
All of my symptoms immediately multiplied in intensity, and I developed a quadrillion more symptoms. I got completely fucking destroyed; absolutely butchered by this so called “medication”. I was struck with severe psychological, physical, and sexual symptoms across the board. (That I will absolutely go into great detail in my future posts, but in a more organized way for the sake of clarity and order; long story short it is was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life and I was completely and utterly incapacitated to the point of being crippled).
My mom had to drive my hysterical ass to the ER and I had to be given Benzos just so I could calm the fuck down because I could not stop hyperventilating. I was holding back screams of fear for a week. I had to drop out of the term and take a step back from university and kiss my employment search goodbye. I became terrified of the dark as well as my own room to the point where I slept in my mom’s bed at 21 fucking years old. I was too scared to go the bathroom by myself and keep the door closed. All of my dreams, hobbies, and comforts became inaccessible to me. I couldn’t even look at my damn phone or listen to a YouTube video; I genuinely thought I was going to die in my sleep or be bedbound for the rest of my life. I thought I was going to be like this forever; I decided my only option was to kill myself, to throw myself out the window and plummet onto the pavement below. I didn’t, though; partially because I physically could not get up from the couch as I didn’t have the strength to hold a damn spoon- forget walking across the room. Partially because I didn’t want to do this to my mom. I honestly don’t know how I survived any of this. The indomitable human spirit, I guess.
Since then, most symptoms have gotten much better. Some have gotten worse. Some are completely new. So far, the general trend appears to be positive, and I’m going to attribute it to luck, time, and the extreme and immediate lifestyle changes I undertook whilst crashing to make sure I don’t make myself worse. I currently live like a monk; I’m completely sober, I’m on a very strict diet that completely excludes all processed foods and all added sugar. I drink exclusively water. I threw away all my shampoos and skincare and bought a soap bar I can trust to wash my entire body with. It’s not fun to live like this, but I’ll do what I have to do to give my body the tools it needs to start healing itself and maximize my chances of recovery.
I don’t know what the future is going to look like for me. I don’t know if I’ll recover. What I do know is that I’m going to do my best to catalogue my experience in detail and contribute to the body of knowledge that is this forum. From now on, I’m posting everything about my experiences in case someone finds this information useful. I know for a fact I am not the only trans person affected by PFS, even though I originally feared I was a unique case. Though being openly trans on this forum is scary to me seeing as I am highly secretive about it in my real life, I think that adding my experience is important.
Let’s all do our best to uplift each other. We all may have had vastly different lives up to this point but this forum is a point of contact with people that empathize with us and can comprehend the physical and emotional pain that this debilitating syndrome causes. I look forward to getting to know all of you as we work on rebuilding our lives and recovering together. If anyone has any questions about my medical history and biology, being trans, or finasteride use in the trans community please feel free to ask.
I decided to make a copy of my post on there to track my symptoms and keep everything organized but I don’t plan on using this account frequently except for posting updates and doing research.