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)?
Russia
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?)
Too hard to find it in Google. Search terms: “brain fog”, “5 alpha reductase inhibitors brain fog”, “dutasteride brain fog”, “dutasteride collagen loss” doesn’t work. Maybe I found it in Reddit.
What is your current age, height, weight?
25 y.o., 165 cm, 51 kilograms
What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)?
Dutasteride
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
0,5 mg/day, then 2 mg and 2,5 mg in last 3-4 days
What condition was being treated with the drug?
Alopecia
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
2 weeks
Date when you started the drug?
October, 5 2020
Date when you quit the drug?
October 20, 2020
Age when you quit?
23 y.o.
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
Cold turkey
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects?
After two days
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
Facial collagen loss, headache, gallbladder disease
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
[ ] 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
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[x] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] 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
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[x] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[x] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[x] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[x] Other (please explain)
Incomplete urination (diagnosed by my urologist as: increased echogenicity of the prostate)
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
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.
I took dutasteride for only 2 weeks with a dosage increase in the last 3-4 days after the onset of overt brain fog. Silly decision. I did this because I believed a dude on one of the forums who told me that fog is due to the increase in DHT and that you need to increase the dosage, that this is the body’s resistance. Trying to find information on Google about brain fog while taking 5a inhibitors in Russian, I then found nothing. I began to doubt whether to continue or stop taking the drug immediately. By the end of the second week, I quit as I could no longer tolerate the brain fog that I had 3 hours after taking dutasteride each time. I had ED, but only for a few days. All side effects disappeared in 1-2 weeks. But after 3 months others came. Very severe loss of facial collagen, dyscholia of the gallbladder, gums began to bleed, and the front teeth cracked, I feel some leakage after urination. What is very strange, my FSH and LH border on infertility (1 mIU, 2 mIU / ml), although the penis has a great erection and no testicular atrophy is observed. The loss of collagen in my face peaked six months after I quit dutasteride. I began to observe the loss of eyebrows and eyelashes in a year. I also began to sweat more (although I didn’t sweat much before PFS). This is probably due to the fact that the short duration of dutasteride was not enough to kill my sebaceous glands, and, on the contrary, they increased, in an attempt to compensate for the suppression of their secretion. I am almost 25 years old, before taking dutasteride I was 23 and I looked like 16 years old, many people thought that I was a teenager when they met me. Now I look like a 32 year old heroin addict. This is not easy to accept, especially when everyone in your family genetically looks younger than their years, and now you are no longer one of them. And not even among those who look their age. All my life I had a very narrow social circle, I was lonely, there was almost no sex in my life (5 times, 4 of which with a prostitute). I could not be in communication for a long time, because of this I could not maintain communication with people for a long time, to some extent I am a sociophobe. I have trouble concentrating. I didn’t feel joy in life. Creative activity (music and graffiti) and my outer youth is what made me feel unique, because otherwise I am inferior to others. All my life I dreamed of becoming a musician. Now I feel like my life has come to an end. Please do not write to me that I may have used dutasteride in vain in my situation. I know it.