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Hey comrades
Intro:
I am your average balding guy. 30, hair loss started in very early 20’s. It was pointed out to me that I am going bald, I was so young that I considered temple receding to be just a fact of growing up. Luckily for me it had been fairly steady up until a couple years ago (around 28) when it became bad, and I finally decided to get a hair transplant last year 2018 in May. Since then been using Saw palmetto, its affects had started to wear off. I decided to slightly increase the dosage. Didn’t quite help. Finally a week ago got a prescription for finesteride. And decided to tapper off the saw palmetto. By taking one pill of saw palmetto every other day, while I started finestride by taking 0.5mg every other day as well (this works out to around 0.25mg a day). I am in trouble. Erectile dysfunction, ball ache, body ache, weak ejaculation... etc
My story:
Around 22-24, I loved getting a hair cut, some how it made my baldness less obvious. 24 onwards I adopted a very specific style of hair, trying to cover up my receding temples. That’s also when I started looking up on it online. Decided not to take finestride or saw palmetto. Instead found some information regarding using niacin, Vit B complex, biotin formula. Emu oil massage every night (mine had menthol in it so the whole room stank), coconut oil, olive oil, you name it. Special shampoo etc etc. Up until 1 year ago (So for 4-5), I continued my treatment like that. But my haifall became bad, basically all over I was heading for NW5/6. I decided to have a hair transplant. Got my temples worked up and also the frontal hairline. The wait was excrutiating, but the results were amazing. I had experimented earlier with a GNC multivitamin that contained saw palmetto a few years prior to my hair transplant. I liked the results. So a couple week prior to my hair transplant I decided to start using a proper NOW sawpalmetto/pumpkin oil pill. I started in May of 2018, but in November of 2018 its affects had started to wear off. I increased the dosage but experienced residual urine after peeing (weird) and watery discharge, so I went back to a lower dose. This was probably not a very smart thing to do, but I went back down to lower dose and the sides went away. But the hair fall got worse, so much so that I decided to take the plunge and got my self a prescription of finesteride, a week ago. That’s when the problems began. (Note: I waited from essentially Sep/Oct of 2018 to Feb 2019 to see if my shedding would stop, it didn’t) Also my hair loss was from the crown area mostly. The transplanted hair were fine.
Current problem:
I didn’t want to take both SP and finasteride at the same time (obviously), here is what I did:
Since I did not want to stop taking saw palmetto cold turkey, I decided to lower my dosage. I was taking 1.5 pills every day. I lowered that to 1 pill every other day (=0.5 pill and day). And introduced finesteride at 0.5mg also every other day. So on EVEN days I started taking 1 pill saw palmetto, and on ODD days I was taking 0.5 finestride. (Starting all this one week ago)
****Warning****explicit****
After a couple days on this new regimen, I jacked off. But right away I noticed a difference. It wasn’t as pleasurable, and the ejaculate just sort of spurted out softly, no normal explosiveness. I was shocked. I didn’t think people were supposed to have side effects that fast from finasteride. But at least my dick was still hard as ever.
A few days pass by and I had another go, this time it was even worse. The libido was there, dick got hard, but just a couple mins into p**rn, it began to loose its strength. I soldiered on anyways and orgasmed. But it was weak. And not pleasure able. Imagine, you become limp right before ejaculating, you can imagine that you wouldn’t be able to ejactulate with strength, that’s how it feels. This troubled me so much. I thought maybe it was psychological, so I thought lets do it again, and use lube this time to make it more fun. I thought maybe I wasn’t stimulating enough. But the same thing happened. And what’s worse, I started to experience pain in my right testicle (it felt like how you would if you got flicked in the nuts). Also had muscle pain, and lethargy.
At this point I had gone through only 2 finesteride pills. 0.5 on odd days. I decided to cut this down to 0.25 on odd days. That was day before yesterday. Yesterday I experimented again. And this time the erection was even weaker.
**********warning********end*********
So I have decided to continue for a couple more days before I experiment again, to see if this new dosage of 0.25 makes a difference and also wait a few days to give it a good rest.
The dilemma:
The problem is I am not sure what is causing this side effect. Is it the decreased amount of saw palmetto or is it the introduction of finasteride. Most likely its the combination of both.
In support of symptoms attributable to decreased saw palmetto:
- I had certainly noticed earlier, an increased libido when on saw palmetto. In fact a few years ago when I was using GNC multivitamin with small amounts of SP, there was an increased libido. And when I stopped using it the libido dropped for a couple weeks before bouncing back up.
It’s possible that the increased libido that’s attributable to saw palmetto use, is not there now, at least not as much as it would be with 1.5 pills a day. Basically I have reduced the dosage to 1/3rd of what I had been using for the last 3 months. Prior to that I was taking 1 pill a day (since May 2018)
In support of finestride as the culprit:
We all know that people have these symptoms when on it for a couple weeks to a couple months. Mine are just here earlier. And they are exactly how they describe it.
Some symptoms specific to finesteride (i think)
Ball ache
Weak ejaculate
Weak erection
And the fact that ball ache is reduced since I have started using 0.25 on odd days instead of 0.5. But its also possible that my body just got used to it (low chance since its only been a couple days, people say ball ache goes away after several weeks)
Hair fall has reduced down to barely anything, and hair feel more energetic and stand up with strength (so finasteride works for me like magic even on such a tinny dose)
Conclusion:
My conclusion is that its probably a mix of both. But its so disturbing to experience this. Even knowing that sometimes people experience the symptoms for first couple months of finesteride use and then the symptoms go away is not consoling me.
My problem is that I can’t say for certain what is causing this. So here is what I have decided to do. Wait a couple days and experiment again, and judge how I perform. It could be one of the following two:
1: If its getting worse than I will hold off on finesteride for now. And first deal with just tappering off of saw palmetto first. Once off and in good health then I will introduce finesteride. (I will probably loose a lot of hair going through this but for me that will be acceptable.)
2: If its getting better, than I will give this regimen perhaps another week. And experiment again and see where I stand.
Your thoughts:
So I have poured it all out. I am sure there are veterans out there who have braved it all. I would love to hear what you have to say about this. Should I stop finasteride now and go back to 1.5 pills of SP a day (rather than the current 0.5pills a day) and start the tapper. OR. Should I continue with my experiment outlined above.
And above all guys wish me luck!
Data for you:
Here has been my experience with the products I used and what worked for me and what didn’t
- Vitamins (nothing much there)
- Massage with olive oil/ pumpkin oil. I noticed that hair would be more energetic the next day after overnight oiling.
- Emu oil complex with all the other tea tree, gingo etc etc, maybe a 1-5% reduction at best. I always used to oil massage my head with emu complex and olive and leave over night. Hair would feel thicker and stronger but that’s about it
- Saw palmetto: my over all experience has been that there is an initial improvment, but after about 5-8 months it plateau. And hair fall starts again where it left off. Did notice that the hair already on top did become thicker, untill 8 months later when they begin to fall out.
- Finesteride: works, no hair fall, but limp penis and ball ache is hard to digest even with only 1/4 pill a day dosage (its half life is 6 hours and tissue binding takes 4-5 days)
THANK YOU for reading my story and sticking through to the very end. Any questions? Or suggestions would be appreciated.
Cheers
Keep fighting
Intro:
I am your average balding guy. 30, hair loss started in very early 20’s. It was pointed out to me that I am going bald, I was so young that I considered temple receding to be just a fact of growing up. Luckily for me it had been fairly steady up until a couple years ago (around 28) when it became bad, and I finally decided to get a hair transplant last year 2018 in May. Since then been using Saw palmetto, its affects had started to wear off. I decided to slightly increase the dosage. Didn’t quite help. Finally a week ago got a prescription for finesteride. And decided to tapper off the saw palmetto. By taking one pill of saw palmetto every other day, while I started finestride by taking 0.5mg every other day as well (this works out to around 0.25mg a day). I am in trouble. Erectile dysfunction, ball ache, body ache, weak ejaculation... etc
My story:
Around 22-24, I loved getting a hair cut, some how it made my baldness less obvious. 24 onwards I adopted a very specific style of hair, trying to cover up my receding temples. That’s also when I started looking up on it online. Decided not to take finestride or saw palmetto. Instead found some information regarding using niacin, Vit B complex, biotin formula. Emu oil massage every night (mine had menthol in it so the whole room stank), coconut oil, olive oil, you name it. Special shampoo etc etc. Up until 1 year ago (So for 4-5), I continued my treatment like that. But my haifall became bad, basically all over I was heading for NW5/6. I decided to have a hair transplant. Got my temples worked up and also the frontal hairline. The wait was excrutiating, but the results were amazing. I had experimented earlier with a GNC multivitamin that contained saw palmetto a few years prior to my hair transplant. I liked the results. So a couple week prior to my hair transplant I decided to start using a proper NOW sawpalmetto/pumpkin oil pill. I started in May of 2018, but in November of 2018 its affects had started to wear off. I increased the dosage but experienced residual urine after peeing (weird) and watery discharge, so I went back to a lower dose. This was probably not a very smart thing to do, but I went back down to lower dose and the sides went away. But the hair fall got worse, so much so that I decided to take the plunge and got my self a prescription of finesteride, a week ago. That’s when the problems began. (Note: I waited from essentially Sep/Oct of 2018 to Feb 2019 to see if my shedding would stop, it didn’t) Also my hair loss was from the crown area mostly. The transplanted hair were fine.
Current problem:
I didn’t want to take both SP and finasteride at the same time (obviously), here is what I did:
Since I did not want to stop taking saw palmetto cold turkey, I decided to lower my dosage. I was taking 1.5 pills every day. I lowered that to 1 pill every other day (=0.5 pill and day). And introduced finesteride at 0.5mg also every other day. So on EVEN days I started taking 1 pill saw palmetto, and on ODD days I was taking 0.5 finestride. (Starting all this one week ago)
****Warning****explicit****
After a couple days on this new regimen, I jacked off. But right away I noticed a difference. It wasn’t as pleasurable, and the ejaculate just sort of spurted out softly, no normal explosiveness. I was shocked. I didn’t think people were supposed to have side effects that fast from finasteride. But at least my dick was still hard as ever.
A few days pass by and I had another go, this time it was even worse. The libido was there, dick got hard, but just a couple mins into p**rn, it began to loose its strength. I soldiered on anyways and orgasmed. But it was weak. And not pleasure able. Imagine, you become limp right before ejaculating, you can imagine that you wouldn’t be able to ejactulate with strength, that’s how it feels. This troubled me so much. I thought maybe it was psychological, so I thought lets do it again, and use lube this time to make it more fun. I thought maybe I wasn’t stimulating enough. But the same thing happened. And what’s worse, I started to experience pain in my right testicle (it felt like how you would if you got flicked in the nuts). Also had muscle pain, and lethargy.
At this point I had gone through only 2 finesteride pills. 0.5 on odd days. I decided to cut this down to 0.25 on odd days. That was day before yesterday. Yesterday I experimented again. And this time the erection was even weaker.
**********warning********end*********
So I have decided to continue for a couple more days before I experiment again, to see if this new dosage of 0.25 makes a difference and also wait a few days to give it a good rest.
The dilemma:
The problem is I am not sure what is causing this side effect. Is it the decreased amount of saw palmetto or is it the introduction of finasteride. Most likely its the combination of both.
In support of symptoms attributable to decreased saw palmetto:
- I had certainly noticed earlier, an increased libido when on saw palmetto. In fact a few years ago when I was using GNC multivitamin with small amounts of SP, there was an increased libido. And when I stopped using it the libido dropped for a couple weeks before bouncing back up.
It’s possible that the increased libido that’s attributable to saw palmetto use, is not there now, at least not as much as it would be with 1.5 pills a day. Basically I have reduced the dosage to 1/3rd of what I had been using for the last 3 months. Prior to that I was taking 1 pill a day (since May 2018)
In support of finestride as the culprit:
We all know that people have these symptoms when on it for a couple weeks to a couple months. Mine are just here earlier. And they are exactly how they describe it.
Some symptoms specific to finesteride (i think)
Ball ache
Weak ejaculate
Weak erection
And the fact that ball ache is reduced since I have started using 0.25 on odd days instead of 0.5. But its also possible that my body just got used to it (low chance since its only been a couple days, people say ball ache goes away after several weeks)
Hair fall has reduced down to barely anything, and hair feel more energetic and stand up with strength (so finasteride works for me like magic even on such a tinny dose)
Conclusion:
My conclusion is that its probably a mix of both. But its so disturbing to experience this. Even knowing that sometimes people experience the symptoms for first couple months of finesteride use and then the symptoms go away is not consoling me.
My problem is that I can’t say for certain what is causing this. So here is what I have decided to do. Wait a couple days and experiment again, and judge how I perform. It could be one of the following two:
1: If its getting worse than I will hold off on finesteride for now. And first deal with just tappering off of saw palmetto first. Once off and in good health then I will introduce finesteride. (I will probably loose a lot of hair going through this but for me that will be acceptable.)
2: If its getting better, than I will give this regimen perhaps another week. And experiment again and see where I stand.
Your thoughts:
So I have poured it all out. I am sure there are veterans out there who have braved it all. I would love to hear what you have to say about this. Should I stop finasteride now and go back to 1.5 pills of SP a day (rather than the current 0.5pills a day) and start the tapper. OR. Should I continue with my experiment outlined above.
And above all guys wish me luck!
Data for you:
Here has been my experience with the products I used and what worked for me and what didn’t
- Vitamins (nothing much there)
- Massage with olive oil/ pumpkin oil. I noticed that hair would be more energetic the next day after overnight oiling.
- Emu oil complex with all the other tea tree, gingo etc etc, maybe a 1-5% reduction at best. I always used to oil massage my head with emu complex and olive and leave over night. Hair would feel thicker and stronger but that’s about it
- Saw palmetto: my over all experience has been that there is an initial improvment, but after about 5-8 months it plateau. And hair fall starts again where it left off. Did notice that the hair already on top did become thicker, untill 8 months later when they begin to fall out.
- Finesteride: works, no hair fall, but limp penis and ball ache is hard to digest even with only 1/4 pill a day dosage (its half life is 6 hours and tissue binding takes 4-5 days)
THANK YOU for reading my story and sticking through to the very end. Any questions? Or suggestions would be appreciated.
Cheers
Keep fighting