PROPECIAHELP: Persistent Finasteride Propecia Proscar side effects info & discussion forum

This has not returned to normal yet. However, it has improved very slightly. Still, at the end, it is probably 30% of previous sensitivity for me also. At times, the remaining shaft feels good to hold again. This is a recent improvement. In all honesty, i think i can feel it enough now, at my worst i could not feel it.

Thanks for the response! Well... here's to more improvement.

In the next month or so I'm about to embark on a serious mission to get my total health at peak levels. I have a theory/suspicion that my sides cannot live alongside extremely low body-fat levels, increased muscle mass, optimal diet, improved testosterone and hormonal profile, a calm mind etc...

I'm in decent shape now but taking I have a feeling that taking these steps will improve my sexual sides considerably. Will post this in my own thread rather than cluttering up your soon enough haha. ;P

Good luck to all of us!

No worries. I'm happy for you to clutter up my thread, it's good to discuss and contribute on whichever thread really. Whatever makes you feel good!

Quick Update 06/10/2011

I've no idea what happen to me yesterday morning upon waking up. It felt like my HPTA just fired up again, literally overnight. Of course, i have been experiencing and documenting slow improvement in all areas for a period of time now, but it just felt like a light switched on yesterday, similar to the switch that i felt got switched off after my crashes.

I think it will take some time for things like sensitivity to fully return, but I am starting to taste full recovery. Had great unassisted sex last night and this morning; feel great too, clear mind etc. etc. - ABSOLUTELY NORMAL!!! Only thing that doesn't feel back to normal at the moment is my penis does not feel great to touch when flaccid, still a bit rubbery, but I think this can return back to normal too. It all can, i'm so certain of it now

I continue to embark on what is a pretty simple and easy protocol of healthy living, that is not taxing in anyway whatsoever. Just involves a bit of consistency, and not even that feels so necessary now. I'm so happy to see glimpses of my former self you would not believe

Glad to hear about this Chi :), very happy for you, hopefully the 100% comes soon!.

Awesome! That's great man.... I wish you continued success.

Cannot agree more based on my observations. I'd definitely put emphasis on the calm mind / happy living aspect, also less on stressing about what you eat and more about regular and specific exercise routines. When i was doing the raw food for a while, it was good for a bit, but after a while i just wanted to go back to being normal, including eating normal too. Although i would say my eating habits have always been on the healthier side, 75% fish 25% meat, plenty of fresh fruit juice

I do not know what happened to my body upon waking up on 05/10/2011 but it appears I have gone through some form of anti crash and have been recovering rapidly ever since. Today I am 100% pre-fin in all areas, only slightly pulled up testicles remains. I am simply amazed and extremely overwhelmed/relieved. Ill post further more detailed update soon

Great news Chi...

are you taking any supps or vitamins?

For 3 months i took the following every morning after breakfast and with my broccoli shake (which contained a teaspoon of MACA powder, the same one from Greg Emerson's website, i think it was Loving Earth brand):

- 2 triple strenght 1200mg fish oil (holland & barrett)
- 1 triple strenght garlic (company called healthspan)
- 1 men's multivit (tesco)

Occassionally i took vit C, but not often. I was cycling 5HTP and melatonin to force myself to sleep each night, which only resulted in unrefreshing/crap sleep for almost 9 months!! I'm only taking the men's multivit now and do not need sleeping tablets anymore, all since last tuesday. By the way, my body just feels awesome when i lay on a bed and i am waking up totally refreshed now (despite waking once a night to pee, but the end of this is around the corner i am sure). I cannot begin to describe how good it feels to lay on a bed and feel really relaxed, chilled and happy. Before tuesday, my breathing was not smooth. It was like my heart skipped a beat or something when i breathed out each time, my whole body kinda reverberated when this happened (every few seconds) making falling to sleep really difficult. My girlfriend also used to say she could feel the vibration of my heart and blood pumping through my body and i could too. This is now gone.

sps & all, the supps alone won't fix this though, they are only an aid. It's the exercise, you need to trust me. You need to upregulate your whole body and you can ONLY do this through a regular, consistent and strict exercise regime (every day, no exceptions, not ever). No pharmaceutical or supplement can act in the same way as exercise, and all sorts of it. Believe me it fucking sucks, going out in the morning at 7am; when its raining or grey and you haven't slept a wink, or going to a yoga class where you can't properly see yourself in the mirror because you're vision is all messed up. Now though, i'm currently at work feeling relaxed, relieved and engaged. Still adjusting to this new state I'm looking forward to going to a yoga class where i can actually see myself clearly !

Chi, how does exercise make you feel afterwards?

I went for a long jog last night, which i thoroughly enjoyed. However, the after effect has been nothing short of horrific. I went to bed before 11 PM only to wake up an hour later with racing suicidal thoughts, complete lack of empathy, extreme fatigue, immense brain fog, all the sexual side effects (obviously). This morning i am completely lost, i do not know what to do with myself because i feel so terrible.

This sort of thing happens to me every time i do hard cardiovascular exercise. Surely, given this typical reaction it would be a terrible idea for me to keep putting my body through it. What do you think? if you battled through the same reactions i will give it a go.

Solonjk pushed himself too far with exercise and ended up bed ridden for two years. How does a person even go about life when they are bed ridden for years feeling like this? how does that work?

Hi mate,

Yes i am aware of these guys that had some form of adrenal crash from doing exercise. I do not know about this, i really can't comment as i do not know these people, nor what exercising they were doing. I can only report to you what i did and what worked for me. I will say that sometimes (although rarely) the exercise did make me feel worse, but it was random and not consistently. On the whole it made me feel better. Really tucked up testicles would always (and still does) accompany the aftermath of any exercise i do though. I haven't worked this side out yet, but i am hoping what has happened will resolve it in time.

If you want to avoid any serious harm, i'd stick to short intense routines, maximum 30 minutes, but 15 - 20 minutes is what i did. Keep it REALLY simple. 10 hill sprints (2 different inclines, 5 on each), the running burst should be no more than like 10-20 seconds. When you come down the incline, jog, apart from one where you give yourself a break and walk, let your body catch it's breath. I was VERY out of breath for first 1-2 month, so i needed this. Keep the routine EXACTLY the same each time. Don't increase it, don't reduce it, just keep it consistent. Keep nudging your body. Someday's you will feel better than others, but all the time you keep reminding your body this is where i want to go; better health, better fitness, better stress response - Normality.

After the sprints, 15 situps, pressups, squats. Same each time, followed by 5 minutes boxer style skipping, hopping from leg to leg. Keep it going, try to concentrate. Then finish off by drinking a bit of fresh spring water (i got mine from a local spring water fountain). Go home, eat a simple breakfast, brown toast a little bit of healthy cereal with maybe some cow's milk (don't deprive your body of what it needs and was used to in your previous life, this was my ethos in the end). In the beginning milk made me feel worse but after a while i realised it was OK again. Have some fresh not from concentrate orange juice with your breakfast, then follow it up with the broccoli shake (which is also using the fresh spring water by the way). Same every morning, don't change the formula. Then broccoli shake at lunch and in the evening. For the first 1 month i did the same exercise routine in the evening too, so twice a day. However, i then started seeing a girl and my evenings were pre-occupied with her. This was good, because it meant i could start to try having sex, plus it brought some small strand of happiness to my life (although my mind was elsewhere and my emotions were blunted). I was having alot of L-Arginine and Zinc to have sex in the beginning + having plenty of broccoli shake beforehand to assist. Now i don't need them.

15 - 20 minutes seems short hey, but try committing to that twice each day for even 1 week. There are too many things in our lives which stop us, distract us, make us miss it etc. Even though i had brain fog i tried to think clearly about how i could do it, re-organise my lifestyle. I planned it all, on paper. Drew up a grid and ticked everything off each day. Well that diligence paid off, something clicked back in my body last Tuesday, i can't explain it very well, i just woke up and i was laying there and i actually felt refreshed, awake and my vision was clear. It took me a day or 2 to believe it and i am still adjusting now. I actually woke up at 6am the second day and was laying there screaming with happiness in my head for feeling so normal. I really could not believe it. Other things i did to support everything is introduce more ad-hoc exercises and be less strict on yourself if you miss them: yoga, swimming, squash (this is a biggy, very intense). However, every now and then try to stress your body some more, sporadically push it harder, do 2 sessions of the daily routine + squash or yoga. Mostly when i'd try this it made me feel worse, my body didn't like it and i was out of action for almost a day, restless and uneasy in my room wondering what to do to bring me some form of normaility. It was no problem pre-fin and I am back to handling this no problem.

I think i'm going to take a break from the forum now. I've said my bit and i think you all know where i am coming from. I really want you all to recover, you do not understand how bad the suffering is until you feel normal again (and i know some guys suffered worse than me). The only thing left for me is some minor ED, less sensitivity at the end and tucked up testicles. I will add that my penis feels soft and squishy now, warm too. Even my erection is becoming straight and meaty again. I think it is only a matter of time before i return and post in the recoveries section. Whatever happens i won't forget you guys and i won't forget the final post. Plus i vowed to get the Belgravia Centre in London shut down, i will stand by this, even if it means selling my story to a national paper and releasing my name (apparently this is what they want to make it a credible story).

Stay positive!

Cheers

Chi

Brilliant! Just brilliant. I am so happy for you man.... I really love your approach and I've taken to this thread because I just feel intuitively that massive lifestyle change holds the key to recovery. I feel it in my bones.

I hope to join you soon in posting my own improvements..... when I get a chance this weekend I'll start my own thread and begin regular updates.

Thanks for sharing and good luck moving forward dude.

You've got to believe in yourself to get through this though, trust me. I remember reading a post on the forum from a guy that suffered the usual 1 month then went back to normal. He did an awful lot of exercise and ate lot's of nuts/seeds and all things healthy (like i do). Granted he may have naturally gone back to normal in the usual time frame, good for him, but i clung on to one phrase he said in his post all this time and fully believed in it. He said 'there is always a solution in nature if you look hard enough'. What that guy said stuck with me right from the beginning and i held on to this, now finally i've proved it to myself. Sorry for being a bit philosophical, but i've not felt these type of emotions for approximately 9 months. Just to add, no need to do hill sprints this morning; body is warm, it's like homeostasis is firing on all cylinders. Penis soft, warm, squishy, normal and woke up at 6.45am this morning with a solid boner. Not seen that for months. I really need to leave the forum now though, because i need to try and get over the mental trauma aspect. After suffering 9 months and now that my body feels normal i need to clear my head. I hope you understand.

Cheers

Chi

No need to explain dude... I totally understand. This site is a great resource for support and research but I look forward to the day that I stop posting/lurking here. Hopefully this chapter will be a bad memory soon enough.

Take time to enjoy your newfound freedom and please take time to update us if anything interesting happens along the way.

I'm going to ante up and start my own thread this weekend. I won't be able to tackle my recovery in earnest for another few weeks due to some other pressing responsibilities but I *will* be exercising daily.

Kind regards, stay well man.

Hi chi, i'm glad your improving. I'm trying to emulate u and blunted in terms of workout regime. I'll admit, its not easy being in this state. And i used to love working out.

I wanted to ask you about one side effect that bothers me the most. Did you have that "dead" feeling of your penis, testicles, and perineum area after you crashed? like the whole area feels empty and weak?

Has that come back? And if it did, when was it?

Regarding your question dgreene, i am starting to get throbbing erections again, that come from beneath, within the perinium. Now that this is returning i realise i did lose some girth here. I had the dead feeling, my shaft and balls went dark grey, almost black, immediately after my first crash. It is much more alive now, in fact it is 90% normal, i.e. it feels great to hold or have my gf hold, just sensitivity at the end is lacking, but this is improving each day (it started to become more alive around 2 months into the regime, and i have only experienced the buzzing feeling in my balls again since last week). To be honest, the way my body has reacted since last week is just a miracle, it's like my body is on a tangent back to where it was before. My testicles have swelled up, round and full, soft (although still too retracted). My ball sack is trying to return to it's fullness, but it seems to be switching on and off, i think things like this may take some time.

I am trying to leave the forum because it is clear to me that i have a very deep emotional scar from this experience. Easier said than done however when you have visited the same site daily for 9 months, we are creatures of habit.

I am happy for you my friend...may all the suffers find some help!
There is so much of pessimism here, it feels good to read things like this

mark

Quick Update 23/10/2011

Slipped back a bit in all areas, but not too badly. I think i set a new improved baseline. Erections are very hard, almost feel like they are bursting at times. Still numb though, it's hard to tell whether this is improving. The few areas i now consider to be the most troubling are:

- Constant testicular retraction, saggyness, smaller testicles
- Low libido
- Joint popping/clicking

These symptoms haven't really improved while i've seen a marked improvement in others. I will continue to give it time. I am about to embark on a 6 month stint of the regime with weights thrown in. I think this period might be what i need to put an end to everything. We'll see how it goes.

Chi can you quickly summarize your current regimen (be it diet, exercise, supplements)?