So, update on my situation.
Currently I'm off finasteride for more than a month now after being on it for a year, because of the problems that started developing. finasteride I believe caused ZERO regrowth for me, and also the hair started thinning even further since 8th month I believe, and the hair didn't come back even until now, so I guess it might be the case that finasteride just didn't work for me. I wanted to give it 2 years, but the side effects became annoying lately.
Since early months into finasteride:
- I had periods when I always felt like I had full bladder and always needed to piss
- Weird feeling in the prostate
Since 8th month:
- I had weird period that lasted around 3 months when I wasn't sick, but constantly feeling tired and cold. Also my body temperature was low all the time. I never had something like that.
- I started having annoying acne breakouts on forehead ONLY that just didn't want to go away. When one pimple went away, immediately the next one (or two) was growing. Plus the skin on my forehead became dry and the pimples were leaving red marks. I'm sure it's from finasteride because I dropped finasteride around a month ago and my forehead nearly cleared up already and I don't have new breakouts.
- It seems my stomach became tired of finasteride because I developed very acidic stomach to the point I have reflux and yellow tongue. I checked my liver and it's totally fine, It's just a problem with stomach. I never had something like that so I also think it's safe to say finasteride caused this.
- My eyebrows were thinning at the ends despite my thyroid being OK (I had it checked thoroughly). Eyebrows also stablised and became thicker since off finasteride.
- I developed a lot of stretch marks on my thighs. However I'm not sure if it's finasteride that caused it, because I gained some weight. Might be because I'm lazy.
What's important is my free/bioavailable Testosterone decreased by nearly 50%!! Yes, I'm not joking. Before, my free T levels were in the middle of the range, and when I checked it few months ago, it was near the lower end of the range.
Additionally I had significantly lowered sex drive. I didn't really had a problem to get my ding-dong hard, however I wasn't turned on easily at all, and erections weren't so firm. I also had no spontaneous erections at all and it was hard to even think about sex, like it didn't interest me most of the time. Semen was very watery and there wasn't very much of it.
Also I believe I was experiencing infamous "brain-fog" to some degree. I was forgetting what I wanted to say very often, and also had difficulty finding the right words.
Luckily all of these things (except stomach acidity) seem to be resolving now, and I generally feel quite a lot better after only around a month off the drug. I started having spontaneous erections again, semen is of normal sticky consistency and there's more of it, forehead acne went away nearly completely, I have clearer mind, and also I don't have constant feeling of full bladder or weird prostate feelings. I think maximum few months more and I'll be just like before the finasteride again.
I don't think I'll return to finasteride again, especially because I was taking it for a year and it didn't seem to be working because I continued to lose ground. Also I admit that the longer term sides concern me. Now I think I'll be looking into minoxidil to see what it will do for me because I'm curious.
I also believe now that finasteride sides are very real, however luckily they weren't too serious for me, but I definitely felt them.
PS I'm not some anti-Finasteride troll and what I wrote here was 100% honest.
Cheers
