finasteride Destroyed My Hormones... Test Results 3 Months Off.

[RhinestoneHLT]

See this thread for backstory. https://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/threads/rhinestone-epididymitis-finasteride-update.99941/

Test results of estrogen levels before and after finasteride.

My sexual function is still not normal and my hair is amazing due to the excess estrogen.

Before; Estrogens Total Calculation. 28.4 Reference Range 19.0 - 69.0
After: 98.3

Testosterone before: 701

Testosterone after: 201

My doctors summary;

"These abnormal values are unexpected, may be due to use of finasteride.
The hormonal effect of finasteride may have cause some or all of your genital/urinary symptoms. One option would be to see an endocrinologist. I tried calling 9/7/2016 about this."

Lawrence Richmond, MD

 

[buckthorn]

Jesus!! it lowered your testosterone and raised your estrogen that much? what the hell? how is this even possible?? Sorry man. if it makes your hair great, that f*cking sucks you can't take it. Only other option is an extremely small microdose in ethanol/

 

[RhinestoneHLT]

3 months since my last finasteride pill, this sh*t is ridiculous. Playing with hormones is a risky business. I wonder if my hormones will ever recover.

 

[diffuse_thinner]

I'm surprised it lowered your testosterone by that much! I thought if anything finasteride should raise it. It makes me worried as my T levels are already really low before starting. Will definitely only take small doses of the stuff.

 

[RhinestoneHLT]

I'm surprised it lowered your testosterone by that much! I thought if anything finasteride should raise it. It makes me worried as my T levels are already really low before starting. Will definitely only take small doses of the stuff.

My advice is if you get sides DONT power through and think they will get better, get off it asap. I stayed on during low libido and testicle pain, this is what happened.

 

[buckthorn]

I feel you, same for me. Libido and erections are now a distant memory, too.

have you attempted micro dosing?

 

[buckthorn]

No. At this point, it would be useless I fear. I use the generic version, it's already difficult to cut a pill in 4 without pulverizing it...

I understand. I am dissolving half a pill (2.5mg) into 10ml of ethanol and taking half a mL a day = .125mg / day. May even go every other day. Who knows. we will see. What other f*cking options do we have?

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

3 months since my last finasteride pill, this sh*t is ridiculous. Playing with hormones is a risky business. I wonder if my hormones will ever recover.

Would you like some suggestions on raising testosterone and lowering estrogen or are you fed up with hearing it from people?

And ... is your weight the same as it used to be?

 

[RhinestoneHLT]

I'm the same weight yeah.

As for suggestions I'll be seeing an endocrinologist soon.

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

I'm the same weight yeah.

As for suggestions I'll be seeing an endocrinologist soon.

Are you going to tell your endocrinologist about RU? I've never told any doctor about my RU use.

Endocrnologists come in various shapes and sizes in terms of attitude. A friend of mine showed up with a testosterone of 12 and because the limit is 11, she refused to put him on a moderate TRT dose. He also asks for Clomid and she said no. He did research (I have not checked) that clomid can be useful to restart the body's natural hormonal production, and that a lot of bodybuilders use it for PCT. It's the sort of thing @shookwun and @Swoop might know about it.

Other endocrinologists however might be very enthusiastic about helping you. Not to be a downer, but with a testosterone of 201 you are in the critical range, from what I've seen for men in their 30s, 240 is the lower bound of the healthy range reported on blood tests.

A likely outcome for you is that they'll just order another round of tests to be sure.

For raising your body's testosterone naturally:
1) Cut body fat, fat cells convert testosterone into estrogen.
2) Eliminate snacks, if total calories are fixed, have larger meals, as low testosterone is linked to insulin resistance. It's also known that fasting increases human growth homone and autophagy, an ~8-hour eating window is probably enough.
3) Sleep is sacred. Do anything you can to improve your sleep. Get better sheets. Install blackout curtains. Have a fan going on for white noise. Try and keep a consistent schedule. Eat no calories in the two hours before bed. Don't have caffeeine in the mid-to-late afternoon.
4) For food, monounsaturated fats (nuts, olive oil, fish, avocado, etc) and saturated fats (meat, dairy, cocoa butter, coconut oil, etc) are king. There are studies showing that either too few carbs or too few fats are both bad. Sugar and white flour are the enemy. If you have them, don't have them throughout the day. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and brussel sprouts are supposedly good but I never tracked that one down.
5) For exercise, heavy compound lifts are great (bench press, squat, leg press, military press, deadlift) and HIIT. Don't do excessive jogging.
6) If you want supplements, the fish oils are the most proven, ZMA might be good too.
7) Get some sun during the day. Vitamin D deficiency is linked to low testosterone.

 

[horunger]

Hope you post back with the endocrinological results. More people should see an endocrinologist before starting hair treatment, many guys with hairloss has treated the symptom and not the cause, endocrine tests could have found the reason for the hairloss and quite possibly treated it with other meds.

 

[g.i joey]

Sad to hear man, I really thought you would have went back to normal ... Aside from the sex drive, can you say your general well being has made a drastic change?

 

[g.i joey]

And I think your hormones will recover.. Even some of the worst cases of pfs have made a recovery.. I mean I don't wanna be the guy who suggests this, but if yournsex drive is still low you should attempt cialis and see if it gives it that kickstart back to life...

Every time I quit finasteride due to sex sides as in change in libido, it usually takes one session where I'm rock hard about 2 weeks after the drug and from then on out everything goes back to normal... Encouraging ur libido to be active might actually help your situation.

 

[Admin]

@RhinestoneHLT - it took me from 780 to 295.

I've been there for 15 years.

Note, I should add: I took it for 3.5 years and ignored all the (sometimes painful) symptoms out of fear of losing my hair. So I am not a guy who took it for a week, had no side effects, and then had some massive drop in hormone levels 3 weeks after quitting. I still don't know how that could happen. In my case it was absolutely an issue of ignoring ongoing damage that was being inflicted, and being too afraid to quit. In such a setting, I blame only myself for my outcome. I have numerous friends who take it (one has for 15 years now) and have had zero problems whatsoever. So I have to balance my opinion with that reality as well.

Never continued losing hair after I stopped. But I also have endured very little desire or motivation. In fact a big part of why HairLossTalk.com went stagnant for 6 years is because I lost motivation to do most things. Testosterone powers that, in men. Without it...

I have great hair though. Nobody believes I ever experienced hair loss. I just smile and say "Propecia works!"

Ultimately both T, estrogen, and DHT all tanked to very low numbers.

I know how you can get things going again. There are ways.

It's cute (pathetic) that the doctor seems so confused and surprised. Incredible that these guys are responsible for managing our health, yet they know less than we do about most things. If it doesn't fit into their tiny little worldview, it simply doesn't exist.

 

[horunger]

Sad to hear man, I really thought you would have went back to normal ... Aside from the sex drive, can you say your general well being has made a drastic change?

Read his other thread, he has good erections and no problem with sex anymore, the only problem is his hormones. The guy who have no erections is Dante92 but from the looks of it he is still on Fina. These alleged people with PERMANENT erectile dysfunction after quitting Fina doesnt seem to exist or have other reasons for their problem.

 

[g.i joey]

Nah, being a propecia user with very minimal sides (penis still works, lower doses than 1mg don't seem to effect me negatively but hariloss has all but stopped) I am still very aware at the risk some people take when taking finasteride and enduring sides. Permanent sides may not be proven, but propecia does something to the body that changed some people, whether it's the culprit or just something that offsets it, the risk is obviously there.

 

[buckthorn]

It's cute (pathetic) that the doctor seems so confused and surprised. Incredible that these guys are responsible for managing our health, yet they know less than we do about most things. If it doesn't fit into their tiny little worldview, it simply doesn't exist.

Pathetic is the word. My derm: "the only possibly side effect is a slight loss of libido initially, which will go away". At that point, I had interacted with so many forum members and read so many accounts of side effects on the internet. I said, "well, that's bullsh*t" and walked out. I still tried it for a year anyways.

Why is it that the ONLY thing people are concerned with is libido? You and Rhinestone alone just gave us records of your serum T levels dropping like FIVE HUNDRED points. Testosterone is a HUGE part of who we are! When mine was increased just over a hundred points on finasteride, I experienced insomnia, and DRASTIC f*cking mood swings. The worst part was the anxiety and feeling of helplessness. I don't even know why I felt this, but I did.

and... I am attempting it again. No matter what anyone says, it is definitely pretty f*cked up that this is our only option.

 

[Aldrich]

The worst part was the anxiety and feeling of helplessness.

This is my biggest fear when it comes to ANY KIND OF MEDICATION. Those feelings are worse than loss of libido. That I could/can live with, but anxiety and helplessness is f*****g cancer.

 

[Admin]

I should have added: I took it for 3.5 years and ignored all the (sometimes painful) symptoms out of fear of losing my hair. So I am not a guy who took it for a month, had no side effects, and then had some massive drop in hormone levels 3 weeks after quitting. I still don't know how that could possibly happen. In my case it was absolutely an issue of ignoring ongoing damage that was being inflicted, and being too afraid to quit. In such a setting, I blame only myself for my outcome. I have numerous friends who take it (one has for 15 years now) and have had zero problems whatsoever. So I have to balance my opinion with that reality as well.

I will edit my previous post to include the above.

 

[Rakoczi]

I just went to a doctor to try finasteride. She didn't seem to know what she was doing. (actually thought miniaturized hair was regrowth lol)

I wanted to get a blood test so I knew my chemical levels and stuff before getting on finasteride, and so I could track it. But she refused to allow me to get a blood test.

Reading it seems, as if almost all users of finasteride get some side effects, and these apparently permanent losses of certain biological compounds or whatever, makes me fear getting on finasteride at all.

Should I only get on finasteride if I have a blood test before hand? How do I even get one, if she refused me?