What would you do?

Member Stories
#1

0)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
  2. What is your current age, height, weight?
    22, 5’9, 185
  3. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    light running and occasional weight training
  4. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
    meat eater. Generally try to watch what I eat.
  5. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
    hair loss
  6. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    4 years, 3 months
  7. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    18 and around April of 2009
  8. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    22, July 1st 2013
  9. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
    cold turkey
  10. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
    Propecia for 4 years, generic finasteride for 3 months
  11. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    about 1mg everday, sometimes 1 every other day
  12. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    Only in the last three months
  13. 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
[X ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ X] Loss of Morning Erections
[ X] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ X] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[X ] Watery Ejaculate
[X ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

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

Physical
[X ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[X ] Testicular Pain
[X ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[X ] 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
[X ] 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?
    I am about to begin a strict regimen of exercise and healthy eating. Considering doing the water fast.

  2. 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)?
    I went to my GP on the 19th and he has taken blood tests to test my testosterone level. I asked him about other tests and he said they weren’t necessary.

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

  4. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
    I began taking Propecia 1mg when I was 18 years old to battle hair loss. I have a rather aggressive form of hairloss so I thought it would help. It did help, I kept my hair and it stopped it from falling out while I was in college. I took Propecia for 4 years with almost no side effects (or none that I could tell). I would occasionally skip doses on accident but nothing was ever really affected from that. I had plenty of libido, had great sex, and no problem having errections. My doctor then proscribed me generic finasteride. I figured he knew what he was doing and that the medications would be the same. I took that for about 3 months before I noticed that I wasn’t getting morning errections or spontaneous errections anymore and had lost some feeling in my member. I stop taking it cold turkey about 20 days ago. I felt great about the first, second and even third week but almost overnight I started feeling terrible. I have lost all interest in sex and I am no longer horny. My penis feels numb and unresponsive. My testicles ache and the top of my head feels like it is on fire. I have recently become highly unmotivated, very tired and I am having difficulty concentrating. I have lost my appetite for sex and food. I believe my crash might be from stopping cold turkey after having taken it for so long. I will keep you updated with how I am progressing but I appreciate any help or words of advice you can give.

#2

For those of you that went off cold turkey, its been 3 weeks and i think I have crashed. Would you go back on with the intent of weaning off over a couple months, or just stay off and hope for a normal recovery?

#3

I’m sorry to hear about what you’re going through. I know it may seem that your side effects appeared due to the fact that you changed to a generic version, but believe me when I say this is probably a coincidence. Many guys here never took generic versions, i.e. (always took Propecia) and still they have side effects.

However, I’d say a word of advice to you right now. Keep a safe distance from this forum for a while, maybe 3 or 4 months, and come back if your sides don’t go away. You’re still in your early days and you’re most likely going to be fine in the next few weeks.

#4

Thank you gmmoura. Are there any supplements or suggestions that you would recommend? I know that I didn’t ween off, would starting fin again with the intention of weening off be a bad idea? Thanks

#5

Hmm. Since you are not confirmed yet, you could do the following:

*Try to eat healthier foods now. Means way more vegetables (mostly cooked but some raw, watch if this causes reaction), fruits, berries, good protein intake in case of working out and omega 3’s like fish oil. I know I’m being lacking with the recommendations but in general avoid canned preserved vegetable oil food, prefer whole foods.

*Do not masturbate. Really. You ain’t gonna lose it for not using it for awhile, it’s gonna take quite a while before any changes occus. I think I know this stuff pretty well/predictably. You can try getting into sex if you want but try to avoid porn and masturbation (or other sexual imaginery).

*When you do see improvement in sexuality and feel the urges again to PMO… hold out because VERY often dudes here relapse and have several masturbations in row, resulting into crash. Think that you are just wasting your energy on it that could be well spent on other activities and recovering. There is a whole lot of studies about effects of PMO (Your brain on porn - website) and I think it’s safe to say about mb experiences in lot of us that it doesn’t help and makes us crash or induce depression. In my experience, when I feel better sexually (by avoiding PMO) and have clearer cognition as a result, women ironically sudendly pay attention to me (it’s not in my mind, i get cohesive results with this).

*You could keep a look on what foods cause you a reaction now, if anything does. By reaction it could be brainfog, listnessness/apathy, hypoglycemic swings, fatigue, depression, etc. If grains or milk or eggs cause you an reaction, try dropping them out for good and see how much better you fare. Add them back after months to see if you still keep having a reaction.

*Vitamin D helps. Try to stay in the sun if you can besides this.

*get plenty of sleep and try to sleep from 10pm to 6:30/8:00 am, whatever seems to suit you the best.

*Do NOT stress or become fatalistic over this current state of affairs, your stress response might be shot to hell for awhile now. In general, avoid stress and focus on good stress control.

*Work out a positive mind and believe in yourself and that things will work out in the end (this sounds bull but enough recovered people have had this part of their lifestyle that it can’t be really ignored).

*Start hitting the gym BUT be careful! Light to moderate Anabolic (mass building) training with good flexing and right foods to induce growth and to avoid big stress response to working out.

That’s it i think. The key here is not to obsess or stress over this and become healthier and more conscious in general, to support natural recovery. You have all the time in the world to explore recovery protocols and other options when you are totally sure that your recovery flatlines/your possible PFS is stable.
You’ll see in the following months if you improve. Remember to be lax over this tho: it’s common to follow a Zig-Zag pattern (Improvement that might even seem like recovery, crash again, improvement, crash, etc) so you never know - it’s more sensible to let things run their course. Usually this zig-zag pattern slowly improves (in a sense that crashes become shorter, improvements start from a new better flatline/zero point) which also means that depressin’ over the issues is pointless.

#6

It’s been a while since you’ve posted a lot of information this is very good this is exactly what I’ve been trying to do you have any update on your condition thank you

#7

0)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
  2. What is your current age, height, weight?
    22, 5’9, 185
  3. Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?
    light running and occasional weight training
  4. What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)?
    meat eater. Generally try to watch what I eat.
  5. Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?
    hair loss
  6. For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?
    4 years, 3 months
  7. How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride?
    18 and around April of 2009
  8. How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit?
    22, July 1st 2013
  9. How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
    cold turkey
  10. What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?
    Propecia for 4 years, generic finasteride for 3 months
  11. What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
    about 1mg everday, sometimes 1 every other day
  12. How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?
    Only in the last three months
  13. 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
[X ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ X] Loss of Morning Erections
[ X] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ X] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[X ] Watery Ejaculate
[X ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

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

Physical
[X ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[X ] Testicular Pain
[X ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[X ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[X ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[X ] 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?
    I am about to begin a strict regimen of exercise and healthy eating. Considering doing the water fast.

  2. 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)?
    I went to my GP on the 19th and he has taken blood tests to test my testosterone level. I asked him about other tests and he said they weren’t necessary.

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

  4. Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
    I began taking Propecia 1mg when I was 18 years old to battle hair loss. I have a rather aggressive form of hairloss so I thought it would help. It did help, I kept my hair and it stopped it from falling out while I was in college. I took Propecia for 4 years with almost no side effects (or none that I could tell). I would occasionally skip doses on accident but nothing was ever really affected from that. I had plenty of libido, had great sex, and no problem having erections. My doctor then proscribed me generic finasteride. I figured he knew what he was doing and that the medications would be the same. I took that for about 3 months before I noticed that I wasn’t getting morning erections or spontaneous erections anymore and had lost some feeling in my member. Now that i think about it, I believe that I had been suffering from side effects for longer than a month. I soon stopped taking finasteride completely. I felt great about the first, second and halfway through the third week but almost overnight I started feeling terrible. I believe that this was exacerbated by a night of drinking. I had lost all interest in sex and was no longer horny. My penis felt numb and unresponsive. My testicles ached and the top of my head felt like it was on fire. I had become highly unmotivated, very tired and I was having difficulty concentrating and sleeping through the night. I lost 8lbs over the course of a week. My testicles and penis shrank almost overnight. Morning wood/spontaneous erections no longer happened at all. I am almost certain that I have experienced the “crash” that other members have described. I have been off of the drug for about a month now and have seen some improvements. The severe fatigue, fogginess and most other mental issues have resolved. However, I do not feel as sharp as I was before Fin or the crash and I am still having difficulty remembering things. I have a family history of depression and everything happening so suddenly may have ignited my depression and compounded the post-fin mental side effects. After a month off and about a week and a half since my crash, I still have no libido/sexual desire, no spontaneous erections, occasional morning wood and muscle wastage. I am still able to achieve an erection through manual stimulation but it is not as hard or as pleasurable as pre-fin and pre-crash state and the ejaculate is watery. Also, premature ejaculation was never an issue for me before or on Fin but I have noticed that it has become one now. I went to the doctor about a week ago (3-4 days after this hell started) and basically forced him to do almost all of the tests on “the short list”. He diagnosed me with clinical hypogonadism (my testicles had shrank by about 50% and their size fluctuates daily). I will post my blood test results below but I am still waiting on the results for DHT and one other test. I have started the paleo diet and I have been working out every day as it seems like these are two of the best ways to beat this thing. I have been taking zinc, vit. D, fish oil, and Korean gensing. I believe I will stop taking 50mg zinc as I think it may be doing more harm than good for me right now. I know that I am still in the early stages of this but I want to contribute as much to this site as I can. It seems like stories and blood test results are one way to help try to piece together what has actually happened in our bodies. Please take a look at my blood tests and tell me what your opinion’s are. I plan on getting another test done in about a month to see what has actually changed.

#8

I decided it was time to post an update.

My mental sides have gone away for the most part. I still don’t sleep as well as I did before the crash but at least the brain fog is gone. I am still left with some terrible sexual side effects. I rarely have AM erections and spontaneous erections. I still have no libido and my motivation to do anything in general is pretty low. I can have sex but I now suffer from really bad premature ejaculation and my erections are poor compared to what they were before my crash. My urologist prescribed me clomid 50 mg (split in half) every day for 3 weeks but he didnt even test my estradiol to see where I sat before prescribing it (went from 3ng/ml to 30ng/ml in about a month) so I decided to not take it because I have read that it works but them eventually stops working for some.

I got drunk yesterday. I had a sexual dream (havent been dreaming) and woke up this morning with the most powerful AM erection I have had since this whole mess started. I am considering trying the alloprenganlone spray that I have seen posted on here to see if it has an positive effects. I am also considering trying HOT PLANTS FOR HIM as Manhood has said that it has really helped with his libido and other sexual issues. If these dont work, I am considering trying a Tamoxifen cycle to see if I can restart my HPTA (or reactivate my AR signals) as Notcrashedyet was able to do with his only 3 months after crashing.

Any insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

#9

After a PM from Notcrashedyet (thank you for responding back btw), I have decided to take my first tamoxifen 20mg tablet to see I have similar results and to see if I can restore some sexual function and libido. It’s been about 3 1/2 months since my crash. I took it about 40 mins ago and can tell that something is happening either good or bad. If I dont see any positive results I am unsure if I should continue it for a week or stop all together. If this dosent work then I am probably going to go the route of natural herbs, a complete revamp of my lifestyle, and a good water fast (I.E. following CDsNuts protocol). I am a relatively new sufferer but I am hopeful that the PFSfoundation and the studies will be able to help us get better. I will report back on how I feel after this day or week.

#10

Well the Tamoxifen didnt really do what I had expected it to. I took 20mg EOD for about a week and didnt really see anything positive or negative. I recently started taking Tongat Ali 200:1 and Hot Plants for HIM as mentioned by Manhood. I can definitely notice an increase in testosterone: deeper voice, better quality erections, increase in body hair and increase in hair loss after only taking them for about a week. I have begun a heavy lifting regimen coupled with Darren Sprole’s high intensity interval treadmill running. I feel like crap after I lift and run but it goes away after a couple of hours. I have had AM erections the past two mornings, so I think something is really helping and I think it may be the combination of the sups. and training. Libido is still crap but I am hopeful that it will improve over time.

I recently shaved my head and I have to say that I think I like this look on me. Screw Merck and screw society for creating the stigma that baldness is a disease that needs to be treated. I look like a badass now and should never have touched this poison for as long as i did. My new goal is to get shredded and play the hand that I have been delt to the fullest extent while working towards my recovery. If i dont notice a huge difference in how I am feeling after a couple of months I think i am going to try Dangerous1’s PCT regimen that he recency said has been working well for him.

Keep fighting guys. I think 2014 is going to be a great year for this community.

#11

I’ve been off of this site for a long time. I just wanted to give an update that as of today I am around 90% recovered. Most of my side effects where sexual and I feel that they have almost all gone away. I still don’t feel like my libido is what it was before Fin but I do feel like my desire has increased and the penile shrinkage I experienced has reversed over the last 3 years. I would say that time is the biggest factor in my recovery. I would also like to mention that I spent two weeks this summer in Micronesia in a very low stress environment (my work is stressfull) with full days spent in the sun and scuba diving. During this time I made a jump from about 75% recovered to my 90% today. Every morning after Scuba and spending time in the sun I had great morning erections and I felt my libido surge. I started dreaming again and really felt like I did before fin and I felt the zest for life that I had been missing. My theory is that Scuba naturally increases your body’s nitrogen level and this helped to jump start my neurotramsitters into acting like they did before Fin. Add in low stress and constant sunlight and it made me feel 100% again. While I’m not scuba diving currently I do feel that I was able to retain my gains most of my gains and I have noticed an increase in hair loss (DHT returning?) and I now have an Adams Apple (didn’t suddenly appear, I think this is from years of being off). I also noticed that it feels like my prostate tissue has grown back some. Directly after coming off fin I tried to feel my prostate within my body under my balls, it wasn’t there. Today I can feel more volume and it feels like it has grown.

I was in a really bad place several years ago but I have made leaps and bounds. I am interested to see what findings the studies show, but based on my experiences nitrogen, sunlight and time are the best. To everyone suffering, especially the new young guys, stay strong. It’s a slow process but I believe that the researchers are on the cusp of solving this mystery.

1 Like
#12

Congratulations. Recovery is possible.

#13

Great news.

#14

since you are 90% recovered, what are the areas you are lacking in that contribute to the 10% that you are not recovered?

#15

Great man, congratulations. Its people like you who managed to get out of this hell that give me hope.

#16

Good to read this!! Keep us udated, history like yours helpme very much!

#17

Hello Everyone. It’s been a few years but still doing well here. I believe I am 100% recovered now. I go to the gym almost daily and I feel that has helped me. I recently got married and we are trying to have a child. I really hope that fin didn’t nuke my testes, but we will see. I wish everyone the best in their journey with this terrible syndrome. Know that recovery is possible.

Mack

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