I Asked My Urologist If He's Seen Post-finasteride Syndrome

[Afro_Vacancy]

He said that he's seen "tons" of cases, he sees it all the time. People get permanent sexual side effects and he now aggressively counsels people against taking 5ar blockers.

He also told me that he's presenting research at an upcoming conference on finasteride and dutasteride and the global, aggregate, across-the-board reductions in male fertility.

He said it's interesting that there are resemblances with post-SSRI syndrome.

 

[IdealForehead]

Wow that's a bummer.

 

[hopeforhappiness]

Never would've guessed I'd become a part of this "2%" or whatever

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

Never would've guessed I'd become a part of this "2%" or whatever

How long has it been, and has there been any improvement for you?

 

[hopeforhappiness]

How long has it been, and has there been any improvement for you?

7 days 1mg finasteride in mid December resulted in 0 - low libido and weakened erections until February. 2 weeks micro dosing finasteride in alchohol in mid Feb results in limp to no erections untill this present day. My diet is free of gluten and dairy and I monitor my meat intake. I don't smoke or drink. I run 6 miles a week with weight training once or twice a week and I consume plenty of dark greens and antioxidants. No improvement.

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

7 days 1mg finasteride in mid December resulted in 0 - low libido and weakened erections until February. 2 weeks micro dosing finasteride in alchohol in mid Feb results in limp to no erections untill this present day. My diet is free of gluten and dairy and I monitor my meat intake. I don't smoke or drink. I run 6 miles a week with weight training once or twice a week and I consume plenty of dark greens and antioxidants. No improvement.

What do you plan to try next?

RhinestoneHLT was posting here a while back, he used to flame people who claimed that finasteride gave sides, then he got severe sides. It took him ~7 months to recover, he switched to RU+minoxidil.

 

[diseasedrat]

He said that he's seen "tons" of cases, he sees it all the time..

weird because hair transplant doctors and dermatologists say the opposite.

 

[DoctorHouse]

weird because hair transplant doctors and dermatologists say the opposite.

That's because he gets all the 2 percent( or whatever percent it is) filtering into his office. I really believe the percent is alot higher but some people will value hair over certain side effects like watery semen or low ejaculate volume.

 

[hopeforhappiness]

What do you plan to try next?

RhinestoneHLT was posting here a while back, he used to flame people who claimed that finasteride gave sides, then he got severe sides. It took him ~7 months to recover, he switched to RU+minoxidil.

Its not my intention to scare anyone. If anyone is reading this and hasn't started treatment these drugs could work very well for you and there are decent odds you will have very minor to no side effects at all. They are worth considering if you care about losing your hair.

I'm thinking RU is the next logical step but unfortunately I let my hair go too far in the last 6 months so it may be necessary to take a more drastic approach. Before October I had good density and never recognized my recession to be aggressive. Flash forward to now and my right temple is obliterated and I'm completely diffused. After being misdiagnosed by 2 derms the 3rd gave me finasteride and after failing due to sides I've been on minoxidil and some other things for a month. I'm a touring musician and this last year has been the first opportunity I've had to make any sort of substantial amount of money. 2 weeks of travel and work = 2 months (cheap) rent and food + 25 dollar per diem. I work side jobs for anything extra. However my recent hair loss has me too stressed to function. With my look fading I fear this is no longer sustainable which is especially disappointing since I have been dreaming/working toward this since I was 16 (for 10 years) I need regrowth and I'm starting to think that I'd be willing to sacrifice more than I thought I'd ever have to. Especially if finasteride has already permanently affected the sexual function of my endocrine system.

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

weird because hair transplant doctors and dermatologists say the opposite.

He is a specialist in ED so it makes sense that he sees a lot of the worst cases.

He actually told me that he gets sent a lot of "Zebras", a term for patients that other doctors could not help.

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

Its not my intention to scare anyone. If anyone is reading this and hasn't started treatment these drugs could work very well for you and there are decent odds you will have very minor to no side effects at all. They are worth considering if you care about losing your hair.

I'm thinking RU is the next logical step but unfortunately I let my hair go too far in the last 6 months so it may be necessary to take a more drastic approach. Before October I had good density and never recognized my recession to be aggressive. Flash forward to now and my right temple is obliterated and I'm completely diffused. After being misdiagnosed by 2 derms the 3rd gave me finasteride and after failing due to sides I've been on minoxidil and some other things for a month. I'm a touring musician and this last year has been the first opportunity I've had to make any sort of substantial amount of money. 2 weeks of travel and work = 2 months (cheap) rent and food + 25 dollar per diem. I work side jobs for anything extra. However my recent hair loss has me too stressed to function. With my look fading I fear this is no longer sustainable which is especially disappointing since I have been dreaming/working toward this since I was 16 (for 10 years) I need regrowth and I'm starting to think that I'd be willing to sacrifice more than I thought I'd ever have to. Especially if finasteride has already permanently affected the sexual function of my endocrine system.

Kirkland minoxidil and derma rolling are both cheap and should give you regrowth on a timescale of months.
If you go back on finasteride, you can save money and plausibly reduce the side effects by titrating the dosage down to ~0.10 mg/day or 0.20 mg/day. You do not need more. One option is to crush some pills and dissolve them into your Kirkland minoxidil. Alternatively, RU should may give you fewer side effects as it has a different mechanism of action.

Regardless of your looks, if you have brain fog then you will not succeed.

Lastly, many people have recovered from the effects of finasteride, they need not be permanent, though the recovery is difficult.

 

[hopeforhappiness]

Kirkland minoxidil and derma rolling are both cheap and should give you regrowth on a timescale of months.
If you go back on finasteride, you can save money and plausibly reduce the side effects by titrating the dosage down to ~0.10 mg/day or 0.20 mg/day. You do not need more. One option is to crush some pills and dissolve them into your Kirkland minoxidil. Alternatively, RU should may give you fewer side effects as it has a different mechanism of action.

Regardless of your looks, if you have brain fog then you will not succeed.

Lastly, many people have recovered from the effects of finasteride, they need not be permanent, though the recovery is difficult.

I'm on minoxidil and I've been dermarolling. Ceterizine are the only pills going into my minoxidil currently but I would also add RU. I've already tried microdosing finasteride and after two weeks I had a big ed crash and a month later it has still been persistent. Can I ask if you know what my treatment options are for this particular matter? And if there's anyway I can tell what exactly is causing my ed without going to a doctor ?

 

[Susanoo]

I used to get pretty bad brain fog from it. Now I take it every day before bed and I wake up normal and can work efficiently.

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

I'm on minoxidil and I've been dermarolling. Ceterizine are the only pills going into my minoxidil currently but I would also add RU. I've already tried microdosing finasteride and after two weeks I had a big ed crash and a month later it has still been persistent. Can I ask if you know what my treatment options are for this particular matter? And if there's anyway I can tell what exactly is causing my ed without going to a doctor ?

I thought that cetirizine was unstable in solution?

What dose of finasteride did you try? You could try going down to ~0.10 mg/day.

For the treatment options, the most successful that I'm aware of is the CDnuts protocol. Have you googled it? I think that he has a website now. The steps are:

1) Long, water-only fast (tea is allowed), at least 14 days. The reports I've seen are that this step helps a lot with mental sides, but not sexual sides.
2) Period of very clean eating, a lot of probiotics, no gluten, no added sugar, a lot of high-intensity exercises and heavy weight training.
3) Prohormones meant to stimulate 5ar activity, I forget what he used.
4) Cycle supplements.
5) Repeat steps 1-4 as necessary.

 

[hopeforhappiness]

I thought that cetirizine was unstable in solution?

What dose of finasteride did you try? You could try going down to ~0.10 mg/day.

For the treatment options, the most successful that I'm aware of is the CDnuts protocol. Have you googled it? I think that he has a website now. The steps are:

1) Long, water-only fast (tea is allowed), at least 14 days. The reports I've seen are that this step helps a lot with mental sides, but not sexual sides.
2) Period of very clean eating, a lot of probiotics, no gluten, no added sugar, a lot of high-intensity exercises and heavy weight training.
3) Prohormones meant to stimulate 5ar activity, I forget what he used.
4) Cycle supplements.
5) Repeat steps 1-4 as necessary.

Doses of finasteride were at below 0.10 mg a day and the build up over two weeks is what caused me to 'crash' again. Cetirizine is going into my measured 1.5 ml minoxidil dose every morning, fresh. Theoretically wouldn't a water fast, 5ar prohormones, and heavy weight training be really bad for my hair ? Would there be any harm in just using cialis until I (assuming I do) recover naturally ??

 

[Saulus]

He said it's interesting that there are resemblances with post-SSRI syndrome.

Why isnt there more research on how finasteride affects the neurosteroids and the receptors? It should be obvious by now that thats the reason for most sides except fertility and b**ch tits

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

Why isnt there more research on how finasteride affects the neurosteroids and the receptors? It should be obvious by now that thats the reason for most sides except fertility and b**ch tits

I don't know, it might be harder to measure, more expensive to measure, or it might be counterintuitive. The default is to look at blood tests, for example the original trials talked about serum levels of T, E, and DHT.

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

Doses of finasteride were at below 0.10 mg a day and the build up over two weeks is what caused me to 'crash' again. Cetirizine is going into my measured 1.5 ml minoxidil dose every morning, fresh. Theoretically wouldn't a water fast, 5ar prohormones, and heavy weight training be really bad for my hair ? Would there be any harm in just using cialis until I (assuming I do) recover naturally ??

OK, that's interesting. There was another poster here, I forget his name, who got side effects at ~0.03 mg/day. I wish that we had more data at low doses.

Now as for your questions:

1) The effect of long-term water-only fasting on hair growth are unknown. It might help because it will raise SHBG levels (correlated with healthier hair) and increase brown fat at the expense of white fat. A recent study showed that fasting has this effect by increasing production of VEGF, which is one of the ingredients in Histogen's formulation. However, fasting has many other effects so there could be other effects going on. I have done many fasts of 1 to 7 days in the past two years and my hair is now healthier.

2) 5ar prohormones will likely be bad for hair. You will need to choose if you're ok being a vegetable with good hair, particularly since there are now many alternatives to finasteride, with more on the way. You might also omit this from your regimen, at which point you might be fully healed or you might only be 50% healed, which is still something worth striving for.

3) The effects of weight training on hair are unknown. It might help because it will improve your blood circulation. It might hurt because it could raise testosterone. Note however that non-balding men have the same testosterone and DHT levels in the blood as balding men. What changes are the number of testosterone receptors in the scalp. That is a different variable. That said, we have the full spectrum of posters here who either work out or don't, and no correlation is obvious among those posters. Many have beach bodies with six packs and good hair. We have had bald toothpicks, bald fat men, and bald athletes. We have the full spectrum.

However, what is known is that weight training is good for your body, your heart, and your mind.

4) Cialis is fine, I'm on cialis too. But it's one step forward and one step back. You're not actually solving the underlying problem which may be severe and be an indicator of other issues. Erectile dysfunction is the canary in the coal mine, it's often among the first things to go wrong if you have underlying health problems.

 

[hopeforhappiness]

1) The effect of long-term water-only fasting on hair growth are unknown. It might help because it will raise SHBG levels (correlated with healthier hair) and increase brown fat at the expense of white fat. A recent study showed that fasting has this effect by increasing production of VEGF, which is one of the ingredients in Histogen's formulation. However, fasting has many other effects so there could be other effects going on. I have done many fasts of 1 to 7 days in the past two years and my hair is now healthier.

This is good information ! Since you have experience water-only fasting I wonder if I might be able to ask you some questions ? What are the effects of fasting on over all muscle mass ? How well were you able to mentally function ? How well did you sleep ? And also what steps did you take to ease back into your normal diet ?

4) Cialis is fine, I'm on cialis too. But it's one step forward and one step back. You're not actually solving the underlying problem which may be severe and be an indicator of other issues. Erectile dysfunction is the canary in the coal mine, it's often among the first things to go wrong if you have underlying health problems.

This is a bit concerning. What kinds of issues might ed be symptomatic of ? I have never once experienced this before trying Finasteride.

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

This is good information ! Since you have experience water-only fasting I wonder if I might be able to ask you some questions ? What are the effects of fasting on over all muscle mass ? How well were you able to mentally function ? How well did you sleep ? And also what steps did you take to ease back into your normal diet ?

Fasting spares lean mass. It preferentially targets organ/visceral fat rather than subcutaneous fat as well.

Mental function is slower on the first day, I'm more irritable, after that it levels off and even improves. For some it takes an additional day. The transition can be made easier by eating high-fat / low-carb meals prior to fasting. The transition is conversely much harder if you're a type-II diabetic. One recommendation to make it easier is to have some coconut oil dissolved in green tea.

My sleep is not affected.

Transitioning back to a normal diet should ideally be done gradually, with easy to digest foods.

This is a bit concerning. What kinds of issues might ed be symptomatic of ? I have never once experienced this before trying Finasteride.

Atherosclerosis, dopamine imbalance, etc.