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

0) Where are you from (country)?

Canada

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 search on "Propecia side-effects".

2) What is your current age, height, weight?

24. 6' 0", 175lbs.

3) Do you excercise regularly? If so, what type of excercise?

15 min. cardio and weight-lifting at gym 4 days a week, weekly hockey/basketball.

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

I follow Canada's food guide for eating from each of the four food groups. That means I eat a variety of foods, including lots of fruits and vegetables. Whole grains, omega-rich foods, I don't eat a lot of meat. I almost never eat sugary/junk/fast food.

5) Why did you take Finasteride (hair loss, BPH, other)?

Immaturity -> hair loss.

6) For how long did you take Finasteride (weeks/months/years)?

2 years.

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

21, Fall of 2007, I have to ask my pharmacist of the exact date because I can't remember.

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

I've been weening off it for months now. Today is the last day I will take it.

9) How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?

Taper off to half-pills for a few months. Then quarter pills for 3 months. Then 1/8 pills. Now I quit.

10) What type of Finasteride did you use – Propecia, Proscar, Fincar or other generic?

Propecia for most of the period, then I switch to generic when it came out in Canada 4 1/2 months ago.

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

I took 1 mg/day until summer of 2010 when I began weening off.

12) How long into your use of Finasteride did you notice the onset of side effects?

In about 1 year.

13) What side effects did you experience while on the drug that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?

Loss of libido, trouble maintaining erection is the main issue I notice. Since I'm still in the process of quiting, I've still yet to see if it will resolve.

Put an X beside all that apply:

Sexual
[X] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[X] Loss of Morning Erections
[X] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[X] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[X] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[X] Confusion
[X] Memory Loss / Forgetfullness
[X] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[X] Slurring of Speech
[X] 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
[X] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[X] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[X] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / "Poo Pellets"
[X] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature

[ ] Other (please explain)


14) What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?

Just live an active, healthy lifestyle. I take protein shakes for my weight training programs, supposedly it helps libido but it does little.

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)?

I've taken a basic blood test from my doctor after complaining of low libido. It consisted of thyroid hormones and testosterone (can't remember if it was free tst). Everything showed up as "normal".

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

Although I did some weight training the past 2 years. Mind you I sometimes only go twice a week to the gym when I'm bogged down with work, or not at all when I'm injured or not feeling well. But I've been particularly diligent the past 5 months, and I've seen almost no gain in muscle mass. I change my training every 2-4 weeks to avoid plateau, I follow a body building book, and I get help from personal trainers. But I hardly see any gain, whereas when I was a teenager it was relatively easy to gain muscle from simple workouts, improper diet and technique. I wonder if it is another side-effect of the drug.

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

I realized just how much libido plays a role in the mating game. I need it to make me feel good flirting with women, and gives me the motivation to go and talk to interesting women. It also gave me a zest for life, a reason to jump out of bed in the morning, whereas now everything is boring. Now that I've lost that, it's hard to get a girlfriend, not that I could satisfy one without any libido.

i feel ya on the weight training my routine is sick good as well as diet but i just lose mass. i just made a thread on stuff that would help so hopefully someone has a clue. and you CAN satisfy a woman! it takes technique and possibly some junior high methods! you just cant satisfy yourself... =/

Went to GP, took a long time to get an appointment. Anyways, I took some studies with me and the GP shot it down. GP was trying to see if "depression" was a cause. And was also told even if the drug caused it to just "wait it out" since there's nothing that can be done. F'n frustrating. Got blown off for more useless bloodwork, check a few things here and there. No amount of depression is going to kill your penis and your sex drive and your genital sensitivity and your enjoyment of sex and wreck your hormones and give you breasts at the same time. What a nightmare.

BK_ I am pretty sure that there have been a few guys on here that have managed to find good doctors, have a look around the website and I am sure you will find one. You may want to go over to Dr. Crisler's forum, the guys on there know a lot of good doctors, especially in Canada I imagine.

The problem is that I need a referral from my doctor.

I don't know if this is related to fin or to stress and fatigue, which could be indirectly due to fin. I've been stressed about trying to get help for PFS. I've been stressed about a whole lot of things, pretty much everything in my life. I've also been fatigued post fin, I can't run myself down like I used to.

Case in point: I had my third wet dream post fin two days ago. I'm mentally not there for the rest of the day. Always after masturbation/wet dreams while I was on fin and especially afterwards my mind goes down the drain, the energy/focus/concentration/memory all disappears for 24 hrs. That day I got into the worst bike accident of my life. I got the biggest wound I ever had, I think even a soldier would call it a wound, along with cuts and scrapes. Then today, I bike again and get into yet another accident. Wreck my pants, my bike, and scraped my knee. Sigh.

I've been injuring myself a lot lately, not just from biking, and far worse and more often than I have during the entire of my life. And it all started post fin, I got my first shitty injury at the beginning of May. Is it just coincidence!? A doctor at the clinic I normally go to after accidents saw my rap sheet and asked if I had balance issues.

I don't know what the hell is going on with me, it's like I'm not in my head, rather I'm a kid playing a video game of me with a joystick.

I'm just complaining on this board. It might be PFS, or it just might be stress. Is it because my ridiculously high post-fin testosterone is making me more reckless and aggressive in sports? Or is it just me being stupid? Am I fatigued and don't realize it?

Any stories or opinions?

I can be very clumsy since finasteride fucked me up. I used to find myself feeling all weak and stumbling about a little bit in the day, or nearly walking into a doorway or something.

It probably has a big connection with Cortisol - but who know's what the true cause it, i believe prostatitis is causing havoc in my whole body.

bk:

Your story is quite interesting in that you did a long, slow ween off the stuff, as many of us wish we had, and still got seemingly long-term sides. Did you experience anything resembling a crash, as in worsening symptoms when you came off? As well as taking a lower dosage, did you space out days you were taking it? I'm coming to the conclusion that a ween will not necessarily save you from this condition, but perhaps may avoid shocking the system and making symptoms a whole lot worse.

_________________
Donate to the PFS Foundation or remain a eunuch for forty years, choice is yours.

http://www.pfsfoundation.org/donate/

Hi Luckfax, the problem with the ween I believe is inconsistent dosage. I'm worried that cutting pills into crumbs of 1/4, 1/8, and especially 1/16 meant I was never getting a consistent dose and my body was always thrown off. I asked the pharmacist if the drug is evenly distributed in the pill so that one half has the same dosage as the other. He didn't know but was curious enough to go off to do some research. He came back to me saying the drug was not evenly distributed in the pills. He also said dissolving it in water is not a good idea since it also doesn't dissolve uniformly. I do believe the ween prevents shock. I was already having the side effects before I began the ween. I found this site on google doing a search on low libido.

I really took my time to let my body adapt until I felt I was ready to reduce dosage. I was getting lots of sleep and working out at the same time. Funny thing was everytime I cut the dosage, my libido came back. I was a bit horny, I was getting erections, and jerking off to sweet women. Then it would subside after a couple weeks, but I still had some semblance of libido. Each time I cut the dosage I stayed with it for at least a couple months. Once I hit 1/16 pills, what was left of my libido was dying. The last great libido moment I had was when I went to a one week conference in March. For 3-4 days I had erections galore, I couldn't stop thinking about sex. Then I had a wet dream and my libido died. Actually, I have something strange to say. Since on Fin I've travelled 3 times, each time I was horny as hell. It makes no sense to me. Maybe complete change of diet and weather? Maybe seeing all the attractive women just made my libido naturally spike?


I didn't have any of the kinds of crashes people here were describing where they felt absolutely horrible for months on end. It depends what you mean by crash. If you mean zero libido with some brain fog at the beginning, then yes I'm in a crash and have been for a weeks or months at a time. If you mean total fatigue and zombie state crash, then no.

Back in fall 2009 I was suffering from fatigue. Then at the beginning of 2010 as I started drinking tea and taking caffeine I started noticing brain fog that got progressively worse followed by fatigue. I complained to my doctor (I was too embarrassed to mention my drop in libido though) and she said it might have been the lingering effects of a virus. Little did I know! Now I remember less from the brain fog year then the year before.

I was getting "crashes" after every heavy gym workout, wet dream or everytime I jerked off when my libido was low, even before the ween. Each crash would last 24 hours where I would be soo fatigued and couldn't think, focus, concentrate, feel, laugh, or do anything. It would take 3 days to recover to "normal".

When I fixed my sleep habits, banished caffeine, and went on a no-processed foods diet the fatigue went away. After the ween, the crashes happened anytime I jerked-off or had a wet dream (I've only had three wet dreams in 5 months, I used to have at least one every week pre-fin) since my libido was almost never around. There have been a couple odd days during the months where sex will enter my mind and I would have erections during the day, sometimes spontaneous. But those are far and few between. I had a really good day after I starting the paleo diet, but I couldn't do it strictly for long because I become so hungry and exhausted, lol. I kept a journal back then but as things stayed shitty for so long it got depressing so I stopped keeping a journal. I stopped going to the gym since the ween because it was taking too much of my energy, my body really needed to relax. But I did a lot of biking up until my accidents.

I may still have brain fog, but not as severe as it used to be where I couldn't remember what I did 5 minutes ago, the name of a colleague I'd known for 2 years, simple basic facts, etc. Diet makes a big difference.

Sorry, my thoughts are all a jumbled mess right now and I'm hardly processing information properly at the moment as I'm tired, I hope this answers your questions.

Ah, two weeks of abstinence. I got a nice wet dream. Then I decide I might be good enough to masturbate. Am I going to feel a nice orgasm this time? Nope, just a numb penis and watery ejaculate. Hahahahahaha!

Maybe in another 3 months I'll be able to ejaculate again!

HAHAHAHAHA!

I'm on day 27 of no ejaculation. No wet dream yet, but I am getting some nocturnal/morning wood.

I really think you should get a 24 hour urinary cortisol test. Many of the symptoms you are having sound just like me. I am now on hydrocortisone and feel pretty damn good regarding energy (comparative of coarse).

I stayed from sex for 2 weeks and no change in my pencils and small balls but on 14th day I woke up with severe burning in my right chest. it was tender. I was panicked thought I am getting gyno. had sex and next day I felt my balls are better and penis looked a lot bigger and fuller. So I thing if you stay away more testosterone converts to Estradiol.

i hate when my pencils dont change