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

0) Where are you from (country)? United Kingdon

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?) Had sides so looked for help

2) What is your current age, height, weight? 19, 5'9, 80KG

3) Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise? 2-3 Days a week, jogging

4) What type of diet do you eat (vegetarian, meat eater, raw, fast-food/organic healthy)? Everything

5) Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)? Hair loss, (which turned out to be TE telogen effluvium, Double wammy!)

6) For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)? 4 months at only 0.5mg

7) How old were you, and WHEN (date) did you start Finasteride? september 2011

8) How old were you when you quit, and WHEN (date) did you quit? january 2012.

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.

11) What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? 0.5mg.

12) How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects? only side was reduced ejaculate which started 3 months in, then recovered completely after stopping

13) What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation? frequent! f**king! Urination! God! Help! Me!

Put an X beside all that apply:

Sexual
[x] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[x] Loss of Morning Erections (only morning, still get nocturnal)
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

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

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
[ ] 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
[ xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Others, Can't put on weight no matter what I eat, very weird for me, I used to be able to put weight eating fruit.....


14) What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
none.
15) 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)? PSA 0.4 (apperently healthy range for my age)

16) Anything not listed in the above questions you'd like to share about your experience with Finasteride?

17) Tell us your story, in your own words, about your Finasteride usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.

Whilst on finasteride for my short 4 months stint at 0.5mg, I noticed an increased in sex drive and a slightly reduced ejaculate which resolved after quitting (did takes a couple of months though). One morning I woke up with this irritating urge to urinate, came all of a sudden so i suspected a bacterial infection caused by propecia so i quit immediately.

Once i quit I had "the crash" for 2 days, I know Im very lucky having heard what happened to ther guys on here that still haven't recovered after like 5 years. The crash involved ejaculating whilst near flaccid, libido below the floor, extremely difficult getting an erection, and all the other awfull stuff, but completely recovered within a week, stuck to a fruit, veg, nut, zinc, exercise diet and regimen. Although completely recovering sides, the dreaded frequent urination continued to haunt me, feeling the need to go to the toilet once every hour, awful feeling. some days better than other but still bad. Doctor found I had an infection and gave me cipro which cleared up primarily and then returned, can anyone help?? with frequent urination?? If i can just sort this out i will be recovered

This seems to get better with most over time. After about 8 months this got better for me. Better, but not perfect

The only thing I am aware of that can help is the broccoli treatment. This seemed to take away that annoying tickle feeling(if you know what Im talking about). You must follow it 100% to get the best benefit out of it.

http://www.chronicprostatitis.com/broccoli.html

Finasteride atrophies and involutes the prostate (amongst other things), enabling urine to pass through easier.

It will likely take some time for the organ to adapt to not being deprived of androgen and hopefully, recover to former size and function.

_________________
PROPECIAHELP - PERSISTENT FINASTERIDE SIDE EFFECTS
Forum: http://www.propeciahelp.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/propeciahelp
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/propeciahelp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/propeciahelp

I'll try the broccoli treatment for a month following it religiously and keep you'll updated. It's good to hear there is some light at the end of the tunnel regarding frequent urination, I do count my self one of the lucky ones to have escaped the poison with my stiffy still intact, however my libido is still not up to scratch, is there any advice on improving libido, thanks in advance.

Havent found anything to help on the other side effect. This has fluctuated a little over the years for me, but no long term improvement

2 days into the broccoli treatment, no improvement as of yet. Is there anything else I can add to the broccoli treatment that will help with my urinary urgency and frequency problems, thanks in advance.

I havent really found anything other than the broccoli treatment that helps much. But I avoid drinking anything a couple hours before bed, and sometimes eat something with salt before bed. Stay on the broccoli, hope it helps!

That and time

Day 3 - I can feel the broccoli treatment start to work it's magic, not sure how long this partially recovery will last for but feeling good right now. Weirdly libido has risen from 70% to 80%. Would you consider I add some more exercise into my regimen or would that hinder progress by aggrevating the prostate, thanks in advance

wild guess
you had some infection prior to finasteride (like probably 90% of the men out there)
you used finasteride
your immune and hormonal system down there got fucked up, in plain words prostate involuted (meaning amongst other important structures, much less proteins produced which are needed for proper cellular/humoral immunity down there)
infection didnt die from finasteride, on the contrary with a lessened immune system it probably got out of whack
inflammation developed along with pro-inflammatory dht signals returning and now pumping your prostate growth back into line, or actually into a wrong line
inflammation affected proper neurotransmitter production
end result you have more or less some form of prostatic inflammation (hence the frequent urination pretty common condition)


you can have a transrectal ultrasound to check for it to be sure

don't use anything however it may get better with time

as a matter of fact you can use low dose SSRI's they can withhold frequent urination but talk to a urologist first of all

exercise is good by the way and yes you should incorporate

Day 4 - Going O.K, Recently been told by my doctor i've got a bacterial infection of the prostate caused by e.coli. I've had antibiotic treatment before because of this issue of which it has cleared up only to come back. The doctor told me he will prescribe the correct antibiotic for the bacteria for a longer duration.

I believe I may have had a bacterial infection prior to taking propecia as i noticed I would have to get up atleast once during the night to go to the toilet also having general discomfort, maybe propecia supressed symptoms of bacterial prostatitis or exacerbated the problem, who knows?

The only sexual side effect I had was a slightly lowered libido of which is being restored gradually day by day on the broccoli treatment.

I havn't noticed any decline as of yet, only improvements

Day 5 - Frequent urination is stabilising

Can anybody explain what might be causing this: My libido is restored to 100% when i'm dreaming (my usual sexual thoughts) whilst asleep. I just can't get the libido going when I wake.

My frequent urination also ceases during sleeping hours 21:00 - 06:00.

2 months - Still using the brocolli treatment, working well.

I've also been using milk vetch (Astragalus), my cousin whom is a herbalist advised me on taking this for stimulating the pituitary gland. It has nearly restored my libido and have seen improvements every day, however quite slow. does anyone else use milk vetch? if so have you seen improvements?

what is that°??? milk vetch (Astragalus)

Not sure how to start, but my problems were: Urge to urinate every 20-60 minutes, very low ejaculate volume, very low libido.

I will discuss what methods I took to cure my problems.

September 2011 - December 2011 (Propecia Use)

I took propecia within this period for around 3-4 months at 0.5mg. I didn't noticed any negative side effects until november when I noticed I was shooting semi-blanks, this didn't phase me to begin with due to me having an increased libido!
Late december I woke up at night needing the toilet as usual (used to drink alot of fluids before bedtime), I went back to bed and almost instantaneously needed the toilet again. Little did I know this urgent need to urinate would be with me for the next 10 months! Anyhow the following morning I quit propecia, enough was enough. I went to the doctor that day and found I had a urine infection (E.coli), was treated with 10 Days of Cipro which workerd only for the urgent need to urinate to come back the next following days. I wasn't sure what was happening so I asked for a PSA test, the results came back the following week at 0.5, the doctor reassured me this was perfectly normal for my age (19) so I carried on looking for an answer for my urgent to urinate problems.....

January 2012 - August 2012 (The aftermath)

After seeing the doctor I was on my own. Nobody wanted to help me, the doctor thought it was all in my head and my university ambitions were slipping away rapidly. I couldn't deal with the urge to urinate as it was taking my life from me, I had to plan ahead of where every nearest toilet was to my destined location, this was a serious head f**k. I had been offered a place at brunel university to study automotive engineering which became out of grasp. I never experienced a "crash" but a gradual decline of libido, I would look at a girls ass and think nothing of it, that is what seriously got to me. My ejaculate volume slowly improved but oozed out instead of the usual firing away. I didn't experience any erectile dysfunction but sometimes wondered how I could get it so hard with no libido whatsoever. i tried many different herbs and vitamins all of which came to no avail.

September 2012 - October 2012 (The recovery)

I couldn't go on with no ambition for life, my biggest side effect. So I began my road to recovery, the key of which came from the determination to be myself again and the belief I would RECOVER. I hunkered down a strict regime in the beggining of september of only eating fruit, vegetables, nuts, lean meat, 10mg of Zinc, Astragalus herbs, magnesium , Vitamin C, Vitamin D and fish oil supplements. I began jogging 3 miles every day putting my body through the paces, I was totalling 18 miles a week. Within the first week I started to fill the strain, I hadn't improved but still battled on believing I would. On the second week (mid - september) my break through came.... from a very extremely unlikely source. I prefusely read on the internet on how to control urination issues until I stumbled on pelvic - lower abdomen dysfunction, I looked into this deeper and discovered this could be my problem. I always felt conjestion in this area so I started stretching. One of my first stretches was with my ass against the wall with my legs in the air, I opened my legs out as far as I could stretching the pelvic floor, I also laid on the floor lifting my chest in the air to stretch my lower abdomen. Withing a week my symptoms %50 dissapeared, I was feeling the need to urinate at 90 minutes, then 2 hours, then 3 hours. I also encompassed squatting whilst I pooped and not straining. I started to fill normal again and my libido returned, my ejaculation was shooting everywhere and hitting the target! Dare I say even better than Pre-fin. I couldn't believe something as trivial as a bit of exercise, a few stretches and squatting to have a **** could make me recover. It has been 6 weeks since my recovery and I feel just like my old self again.

My theory to as what went wrong lies in the conjestion of the prostate region. Most notably the pudenal nerve I believe played a big roll. Stretches helped me too loosen up and allowed my brain to communicate with my prostate again.

I have been through the worst days of my life but wouldn't describe it as being to hell and back having seen some of the stories on this forum, I wish you'll luck with your recoveries and to a happy future.

alser

Good stuff! Can you go into more detail on the stretching?


Check out these threads as they also dig into the pelvic muscles and pudendal nerve...

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=5341
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7187

Does anyone know if the prostate/muscle atrophy continues and continues and it will stay there?