Hi,
so a little about myself first: i am 34 years old and have used Finasteride multiple times for short periods in the last 1.5 year. The only other medication i take and have taken for quite some time is low dose tramadol for a bad back which works great and really offers me a benefit in terms of quality of life, i am also a smoker.
I always came off Finasteride because of the horrilbe feeling and side effects, especially mentally, this medication gave me. The first two times i recovered within 1 or 2 weeks. Well, the third time after i actually took it for 3 months in combination with anastrazole (to minimize the freaking feminine fat gains) was a charm i guess, i had the so-called crash Christmas 2020 and while some things have improved, other stuff gets worse day by day.
The severe depression with daily suicidal ideation got a lot better, my sleep that used to be absolutely dreadful and resistant to any sort of pill including strong benzos or behaviour (at some point i used to wake up after 2 hours of sleep and coulndāt for the life of me return to sleep while having having anxiety) got a lot better, i still wake up in the middle of the night but manage to get back to sleep, averaging 6-7 hours of unrestful sleep. I also was experiencing nightsweats which i sometimes still do. I was also constantly feeling cold no matter how warm it was, that also got better.
When i was feeling like this in the past months i didnāt really care about my dick or my body/looks. My dick still worked when it had to with so-so erections but certainly enough to have sex, still had morning and sporadic spontaneous erections, also still had some urge/libido.
Well, that changed in the last 2 months, my dick is like dead, no erections what-so-ever, while flaccid itās cold and rubbery. I can get just like 25% hard only with manual stimulation and climax in no time, orgasms also feel like nothing, Viagra/Cialis help only a little. I donāt really have any libido, i just check once per week how the little man is doing. I kind of feel that my balls also shrunk but iām not sure, but my loads are tiny, even after abstaining for a week or more.
My hands are also severely dry that they get bloody and my palms shed every week or so, my hair is also like straw.
Before doing Fin i used to be 75Kg at 1.83m, BF 12%, lifting 3xweek, could eat whatever the fuck i wanted and also drink moderate amounts of alcohol every night and still mantain a tight, hard midsection and sixpack, hard muscles, not overly pumped up, from only doing low volume high intensity workouts and a veiny dry look even without working out for months after injuries/surgeries. Now i am at 70Kg but my body composition changed profoundly, midsection sucks and i think i have a mini-dad-bod.
I have actually got a basic hormone panel befor starting fin the first time, also at the end of may this year when i was feeling the worst i have ever felt in my life and got a really detailed one last week. Will write down the values below:
01/2020:
Total test: 7.57ng/dl (2.59-8.16)
Free test: 28.29 pg/ml (1.0-28.20) slightly raised
Estradiol: 37.01pg/ml (<34.0) slightly raised probably because of daily beer/wine
DHT: 614pg/dl (112-955)
Progesterone: 1.02ng/ml (1.98-6.97)
SHGB: 66nmol/dl (10-57) slightlý raised, prob the boozeā¦
03/2021:
Total test: 6.19ng/dl (2.59-8.16)
Free test: 17.74 pg/ml (1.0-28.20) reduction of whooping 40%, could also be the lack of sleep
Estradiol: 29.33pg/ml (<34.0)
DHT: 588pg/dl (112-955)
Progesterone: 0.89ng/ml (1.98-6.97)
SHGB: 47.2nmol/dl (10-57)
DHEAS: 431µg/dL (80-560)
LH: 6.15mUI/ml (1.24-8.62)
FSH: 14.75mUI/ml (1.60-12.9) sky high
Prolactin: 13.52ng/ml (2.64-13.13) slightly high
05/2021: (different lab than the first two)
Total test: 6.34ng/dl (2.30-8.50)
Free test: 18.2 pg/ml (7.00-22.7)
Estradiol: 54.9pg/ml (<39.8) !!!wtf!!!
DHT: 589pg/dl (300-850)
Progesterone: 0.68ng/ml (0.28-1.22)
SHGB: 61.2nmol/dl (14.5-94.6)
DHEAS: 4.07mg/L (0.35-5.69)
LH: unfortunately missing
FSH: 12.5mUI/ml (1.50-12.4) still high
Prolactin: 5.05ng/ml (2.10-17.17)
Also, after reading some stuff about androgen markers, there is this recomandation i saw that stated that instead of measuring Serum DHT, a better marker for intracelular Androgen metabolism would be 3Alpha-Androstandiol-Glucuronide, meaning how much test and DHT is actually used by the cells of the body, metabolizing into this end-produc of the pathway.
Well, my value is 23.9ng/dl (168-3530) which is clearly fucked up, so despite having enough androgens it seems like my body has forgotten how to use them.
So, i donāt know if replacement therapy test or DHT derivatives, even with supraphysiological levels which i could easily get will do anything in case.
I donāt want to go to Propeciahelp page, that place is depressingā¦everybody just say do nothing, take nothing and after that they whine arround after 5 years of PFS.
Like i said before, the suicide thoughts have actually passed, but from a rational viewpoint now, i donā want to live like a asexual zombie.
Has someone with PFS recovered in the past with normal androgens on labs with HRT in supraphysiological levels? Or other means? I would love to hear your experiences/adviceā¦