Extreme Fatigue

[Wuffer]

Hey all,

I feel like an idiot for posting this, since I was one of the people who kept saying side effects were in peoples minds and all that, but here I am..

I've been on 1.25MG finasteride for just over 2 months now. Other than a testicle ache that lasted 2-3 days, it has been pretty uneventful.

Over the last couple weeks, I have noticed fatigue.. Nothing more than I have experienced before, except for in the last couple days. Starting yesterday in the morning, I experienced such extreme fatigue/drowzyness, I was barely able to make it into work. While at work, I was next to useless, barely able to get any work done. This continued into the evening. Even after about 10 hours of sleep last night (which I woke up in the middle of about a dozen times) I am feeling even worse today. I was going to call in sick so I could just catch up on sleep, but I had to come into work today.

I have also been feeling this strange drunk-like feeling, dizziness, loss of balance and a general disconnected feeling. I have really not felt anything like this before, and can't think of anything else that would cause this. Over the weekend, I got 10 hours of sleep on friday and saturday, so i'm pretty sure that isn't it. This has also affected my sexual desire/function, since I have been craving sleep way more than sex.

This 'drunk' feeling has been completely constant the last couple days. Even waking up in the middle of the night, I still feel it. Seriously, it feels like i've been roofied or something.

I'm posting to ask if anyone else has experienced these symptoms. From what i've seen, finasteride doesn't cause any symptoms like this, so i'm confused that I am feeling this way.

What do you guys recommend? My options are:

1. Cutting my dosage to .625MG/day to see if symptoms go away

2. Stopping finasteride for a week or two to see if the symptoms subside. Then try going on again to see if they start again; maybe just go back on .625MG/day

3. Start on a multivitamin and Zinc supplements and hope the symptoms eventually go away.



Even after 2 months, my hair is looking and feeling great. I really don't want to quit this stuff unless I absolutely have to. Thanks for any suggestions you can offer!

 

[MrBastard]

Stop it and use RU58841 instead. It is obiously not healty for you.
Imagine being on a high speed road or similar where concentration is needed and getting a drunk-like feeling, dizziness, loss of balance and a general disconnected feeling?

 

[Mew]

Get off the drug.

You are inhibiting neurosteroid metabolism in the brain. I experienced same issues as you, as have others. Cutting dosage doesn't make any diff due to near flat dose response rate (1mg inhibits nearly same amount of DHT as 0.2mg).

If you want to continue feeling like crap, continue taking it. If not, and for the sake of your overall health and cognitive function, get off. Choice is simple. Also, multivitamins/zinc aren't going to do jack when you are chemically castrating yourself via androgen ablation therapy, which is what you are doing via Finasteride.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[Wuffer]

It's strange, I did a TON of research on finasteride before I started and didn't see sides like this listed anywhere.. I would figure that if people are experiencing this that it would be listed in some medical literature, or seen during the finasteride trials? This wasn't even a listed side effect of 5MG finasteride, which is strange. I am a man of science, and I believe in scientific data and conclusive evidence supported by studies. But I can't argue about how i'm feeling!

I really don't want to quit finasteride since it's working so well on my hair, but there is no way I could possibly go on feeling like this.

Taking into account that I just got over a rather nasty cold last week, I think there may be a chance that this could just be pre/post illness fatigue (which I have experienced before, but not to this degree). I also called my doctor this morning and he said this could be the case, and shouldn't be cause for concern. He also mentioned that none of his other propecia patients had reported this, and since it is not a documented side of the drug, that it is unlikely (but not impossible) He wants me to make an appointment next week if i'm still feeling shitty. He also mentioned something called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome seems to fit the symptoms, but is generally very rare.. I'm gonna look that one up!

So taking my doctors advice, i'm going to wait until Sunday. If I still feel like hell, i'll go see him and weigh out my options.. But I think going through a full week feeling like this is enough for me to quit the stuff; hair or no hair.

 

[Joe-1991]

Just do yourself a favor and get off the drug man, it's not even a secret how bad the drug is now, have you seen all the stuff that has came out over the last 3 months?

 

[Wuffer]

Oy.. so I forced myself to the gym after work, and after doing some interval training and weightlifting, I feel 100% better.. I don't know what the f*** is going on, but i'm pretty sure finasteride is causing me to feel off in one way or another. I am still pretty much done with this stuff.

What is the consensus on CB-03-01? Are you guys buying some? This sh*t seems like the real deal, but I would be very weary of letting something like that obsorb into my skin without knowing more or less what the sides would be.. I'm not currently a fan of finasteride, but how confident are you guys that this stuff is relatively safe?

 

[Timi]

Take You minoxidil?

Timi

 

[Wuffer]

Hmm, that stuff looks good. I would like to get in on trying it out, but I don't have any cash at the moment. After you guys give it a try and see any results, I would be into going in on a batch with you.

Timi, no i've never used minoxidil.. It's hard to find up here in Canada, but I would consider starting on it if I get off finasteride.

 

[Wuffer]

Okay, I am *officially* done with finasteride. I've gone the last 2-3 weeks trying to convince myself that this stuff is in my head, but this is getting rediculous.. I've had the exact same brain fog feeling all day, and as I posted in another thread, what I had feared was gyno is absolutely gyno.. I've felt a lump directly under my right nipple is starting to grow (it was the size of maybe a grain of rice, but is now the size of a pea), and i've been lately waking up at night with burning/itching in my nipples like crazy. I've wanted so bad for this stuff to work, but I now know that I just can't tolerate it. This stuff was great on my hair, but I just cant put up with this constant foggy feeling anymore; nor the gyno pains.

I'm stopping it as of today (I only took 1/8th finasteride tab today) and will see if my sides go away over the next week.. One side that I know couldn't be in my head are the lumps in my right breast, after checking, it looks like I have 3 or 4 of them now. It's strange I never really got any sexual sides though.. Finding all these lumps is what really caused me to snap!

I guess my plan now is to start on minoxidil foam, and possibly CB-03-01 when it's more readily available. However, i've really taken this all as a type of therapy; hair is nice, but really not worth any significant stress.. I guess it took taking finasteride to realize that!

I'm going to hit the gym hard, focus on my immediate life goals, and put hairloss on the backburner.

Do you guys recommend I wean myself off, or just quit cold turkey?

 

[TheGrayMan2001]

I don't think it makes a difference. I'd quit cold turkey.

 

[monoid]

Exactly the same side effects as yours after 3 weeks on 0.5g finasteride per day. I dropped it.

 

[pendo747]

Monoid, i quit after a month. Similar things. Woke up with depressed after 2.5 weeks with depressed feeling in brain, penis was cold. Then cut to .5mg for 1.5 weeks,but felt very fatigued. Then quit...took two weeks to feel pretty normal. Perhaps slight gyno,but hoping that will subside. Been off it 3 weeks now. How long until u felt normal again? Did your gyno subside too?

 

[Ramchops]

Had the exact same drunken feeling to the point where I couldn't function through daily activities. I as well stopped and it took me about just over a week to come back to feeling normal in the head again. Best of luck man.

 

[pendo747]

I feel pretty good now. Was very scary wondering if hormones would recover. Makes u thankful for what u have...health. i think paranoia has stepped in a bit after taking a bit to recover. Had a cloudy head for like 2 weeks after being off it. Had read up on pfs during that time and had me freaked.

 

[monoid]

I just quit about 3 days ago. Exactly, depressed feeling in brain started 2.5 weeks after on finasteride 0.5mg/day. However, my sexual sides are not that severe: just the frequency of morning erections dropped to about half the days. I have not experienced gyno.

Starting today (the 3rd day after quitting finasteride) I feel much better but it has not yet restored to my baseline.

Monoid, i quit after a month. Similar things. Woke up with depressed after 2.5 weeks with depressed feeling in brain, penis was cold. Then cut to .5mg for 1.5 weeks,but felt very fatigued. Then quit...took two weeks to feel pretty normal. Perhaps slight gyno,but hoping that will subside. Been off it 3 weeks now. How long until u felt normal again? Did your gyno subside too?

 

[Mattb]

Get off the drug.

You are inhibiting neurosteroid metabolism in the brain. I experienced same issues as you, as have others. Cutting dosage doesn't make any diff due to near flat dose response rate (1mg inhibits nearly same amount of DHT as 0.2mg).

If you want to continue feeling like crap, continue taking it. If not, and for the sake of your overall health and cognitive function, get off. Choice is simple. Also, multivitamins/zinc aren't going to do jack when you are chemically castrating yourself via androgen ablation therapy, which is what you are doing via Finasteride.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Did getting off remove the brain fog?

 

[Mattb]

Exactly the same side effects as yours after 3 weeks on 0.5g finasteride per day. I dropped it.

Did the mental effects go away?