multiplier

Sorry in advance for the personal and NSFW nature of this post. It's kind of complicated and I hope some of you guys might have some insight. ----- Profile: I'm a 36 year old male who has been on finasteride for 12 years. By nature I am very high-stress and high-anxiety, but have always had a strong sex drive. This past year, my personal life began to come apart and I began to experience symptoms commonly associated with finasteride use. No one, including me or my various doctors, can determine if the cause is psychological or because of meds, but the problems have persisted on and off for the last 10 months. History: I began taking finasteride in 1998 at age 23 after noticing some genetic hairloss. For the next decade, it helped retain my hair so I stayed on it. I have experienced zero side effects from finasteride. My sex drive and erections have been as strong as they were in my college days. Doctors' exams and bloodwork have always shown me to be in perfect health. In 2009 I got married to someone I loved very much on an emotional level, but we did not have an active sexual relationship. I never cheated on her, but was always strongly sexually attracted to other women, which I felt guilty about. Soon after we got married, we moved to NYC so she could pursue grad school. I worked 7 days a week at a high-stress job in Manhattan to support us. My anxieties skyrocketed. Our relationship became strained. I was in a huge city of beautiful women. I began to fixate on other women, sexually, as an escape from stress. After 4 months in NYC, my wife's father died unexpectedly, sending her into a terrible depression for the better part of a year in which we were hardly intimate. We spent a lot of time separately. Meanwhile my fixation on sex and other women became more intense and I felt terribly guilty. I slept only 4-5 hours a night. I would go to bed and wake up thinking about sex. I masturbated 2-3 times a day when possible. Everything changed around Christmas last year. I'd been noticing more hairloss, possibly from increased stress, so a doctor recommended increasing my finasteride from 1mg/day to 1.5mg/day. After a week on this new dosage, I woke up for the first time in many years without a morning erection. For a few days, I noticed even with masturbation my body just felt strangely numb. My penis felt weak. It was like my body had collapsed from the stress. I didn't take it very seriously. But for the first time ever, I also questioned the meds. I immediately backed my dose down to 1mg, assuming things would return to normal. Weeks later, the symptoms persisted. To make things worse, I did some internet research and stumbled on sites with horror stories like PropeciaHelp.com. I panicked and began fixating on the idea I'd damaged my body. For about a week, I didn't sleep and had testicular ache and numbness below the waist — both supposed side-effects of the meds, but also both commonly associated with extreme stress and anxiety. Right after Christmas my wife and I agreed to a trial separation. She moved out. Within a month, I realized it was a terrible mistake. I feel into a deeper depression. Not only did I feel guilty for how things ended, my libido had disappeared and I began to fixate on the idea that finasteride had done it. There was tremendous buildup to the idea of having sex with other women after separation -- which was now impossible. So I stopped the drug altogether and consulted a top internist and a top urologist in Manhattan. Both took one look at my situation and said it was all stress-related and highly unlikely that side-effects would surface about 12 years of taking a drug, or that upping my dose by .5mg would tip the balance. They said it was not abnormal for someone my age experiencing so many stressors and life changes. They were worried about my mental state. Prostate exams, bloodwork for testosterone, prolactin, thyroid, DHT levels etc, returned totally baseline normal results. I was prescribed Viagra and Klonopin, but neither addressed the issue. This spring was miserable. On stressful days, my penis either felt like it was being "squeezed" and sore, or just numb. Every day I fixated on the idea of finasteride damaging me, but I was also in limbo with my wife. One day she wanted to work things out, the other day she wanted to date other people. Meanwhile I was still holding down a very stressful job. I was barely making it through the day. Occasionally my wife and I would have dinner. We'd hug goodbye and that was the only spontaneous beginnings of an erection I'd have. One night on my birthday, my wife came over for drinks and she ended up spending the night. That night I had zero problem with ED. I had a good, maintained erection and libido the entire time. The only other time my problems subsided was when I decided to escape NYC and come down to Virginia for a 3-week vacation. I stayed in a friend's empty house and had my first good night's sleep in months. That next morning, I had my first morning erection. My body felt relaxed. It stayed that way for 3 weeks. I noticed women again. I masturbated regularly. During that time, my wife would call and suggest she wanted to work things out. But then I went back to NYC and began low-dose finasteride again because I worried about more hairloss. But then the problems came back. I really should not have combined those 2 things, because once again, I couldn't tell whether it was the stress/environment or the meds. On Sept 1, I realized I could not deal with limbo with my wife any longer. I bailed on NYC and moved back down to Virginia to try and sort my life out. I stopped the finasteride again. Within the first few days here, I felt relaxed and thought I felt my libido returning. I got morning erections. The stress of the city was gone. But within a few weeks, I realized my libido simply wasn't what it was a year ago. I don't fantasize when I go to bed, or wake up in the morning. My penis either feels numb or "strained" some days, like a overstressed muscle. I also thought I noticed a slight feeling of inflammation in the prostate area, so I saw another urologist who did yet another unpleasant prostate exam which turned up nothing. He gave me antibiotics which have done nothing. I have used a High Island massager for the past week, but don't feel any differently. I also saw an internal medicine doc here. She said it's highly unlikely to have zero side-effects from a drug for 12 years only to have them surface one day and last for 10 months. She agreed that upping the dose by .5mg for 1 week would cause a difference. She said the limbo of my marriage and other stressors have caused my body to "close up" a bit to protect itself. She did another bloodwork panel. Everything from testosterone to DHT to prolactin to thyroid was 100% normal. Currently: So that's where I am now. Especially since I got an HT in late September, I worry about not going back on finasteride to preserve my native hair. But I worry going back on it might exacerbate the symptoms I'm having. I don't notice pretty women much now, not like I did a year ago. I don't look forward to seeing porn. If I masturbate, it's compulsory. Only half the time are my erections strong. I have noticed when I sit in a hot bath and my body is relaxed, it's easier to feel aroused or get a "normal" erection. But overall, I do feel depressed and am not exercising or socializing much. I hesitate to go on sites like PropeciaHelp because so much of what they're describing either seems alarmist or unrelated to Propecia altogether. I do believe there is a psychological effect where people's worries spiral and began to manifest in psychosomatic ways. I don't want to read a bunch of horror stories and subconsciously convince my body it's broken. So I'm in limbo with the wife and limbo with my libido. My wife will move back down here in a month or so and we may try to work things out. I'm wondering if anyone has experienced anything like this, or if you have any encouraging words.

Strongly agree about the concealer. Although after yesterday's massacre, his hair is the least of his problems!

Well long story short, I'm off the meds and have been off most of this year. But apart from that it has also been the most stressful year of my life. And I know that high stress increases the production of DHT and the combination of those things can cause things like non-bacterial Prostatitis which is something I might possibly have, according to the doc, although it's a vague diagnosis. So I'm on antibiotics and prostate massage and warm baths for awhile to see what difference it makes. Also trying to exercise and do a bit of meditation.

Hmm. I took finasteride for 10 years with zero side effects, 1mg/daily. Then last January, I upped my dose to 1.5mg/daily. Within a week I noticed lack of morning erections and generally weaker erections. I briefly thought I had some sensations in my testicles as well. But, I don't know how much of that was psychosomatic because of the horror stories I'd read online and the fear it caused. So I stopped the drug but the symptoms persisted this Spring. More than one urologist said I was fine and it was just stress. After all, I'd moved to NYC, had a parent die and then separated from my wife during which there was a lot of sexual tension and frustration - all this was in the course of a very stressful year. And it was like one day my body broke. But it also coincided with the same time I upped my finasteride dose. So was it meds or stress? It's now been 10 months and the symptoms persist. There was a period in May when I got out of NYC for 3 weeks and really relaxed. During that time I had a libido again. I was masturbating 3 times a day. I even hooked up with my wife one night and had strong erections. But then I returned to NYC, and the symptoms came back. More than one doctor has said it would be impossible to be on a drug for 10 years with no side effects and then suddenly get them from upping a dose by .5mg. Is that true? I don't know. But 3-4 docs & urologists seem to think finasteride is not the problem, it's stress, anxiety and depression. I want to keep monitoring this issue and post more on it soon. But I am interested to hear you had a similar experience as me, regarding change of dose. It just seems strange. I am having my testosterone, DHT and prolactin checked in about a week, but so far all the tests I've gotten have been completely normal. I am also (slightly embarrassed) about to try prostate massages with a device I got from High Island since I feel a very slight inflammation in my prostate, although my doc says the prostate looks normal.

I'm confused. "Painful stem cell" sessions? Of what sort? And only then were you asked to take finasteride 5x/week? Most people take it daily. What sort of regimen were you on for the previous 10 years? And what do the stem cell sessions have to do with the side effects?

Hmm, scratch that. That URL just redirects here for some reason. Might want to ask the administrator. I have to admit, I've found creating the various Website vs. Blog pages on this site pretty unintuitive.

I think the url in your signature is not quite right. It should look something like that, but obviously change the ID number on the end of it - Hair Restoration Site for multiplier

I got my sutures removed from a little doc-in-a-box urgent care place here in my town in VA after getting surgery all the way in MN, and it went fine. Removing sutures isn't difficult for doctors and nurses.

I still can't help but believe in the use of concealers in Rooney's case, though. It just looks unrealistically thick when I see him playing on the field, especially considering it was FUE and was only 6 months ago. Anyone know how many grafts he got?

I was wondering the same thing about post-op Nioxin. Aside: what are the general feelings on the forum about Nioxin? I've been using it about 2 years and haven't noticed a difference one way or the other. If anything, I feel like my hair has looked a little worse since then May have nothing to do with that though.

I'm not speaking of the donor area, I'm talking about the crown, where no work was done.

That's a relief to hear about the scar. Just wondering how it looked the first few weeks. Right now the back of my hair is probably 3/4" but if I move my hand through it, the scar is very evident, both because it's fresh and because the hair around it was shaved, and on top of that, there might be minor shockloss. Did you experience this the first few weeks?

Here's what I posted in another thread - I'm wondering why shockloss would occur in a non-recipient region unless it's from the scalp being pulled during surgery or from the numbing injections. In any case, I could hold off another week on the Rogaine.

Thanks orlhair, that's good to hear. One of my biggest worries about getting another surgery was the degree of shockloss and whether there would be a net gain. Transplant doctors always tell you, "you might shed hair you were going to lose anyway"... but that might refer to hair that might've taken another year or two to shed. Whereas with surgery, it sheds immediately and might not come back. I guess like anyone, I'm hoping to end up with more than before the surgery, not the same amount (or less).

Looks great. It's interesting that he's considered above average, density-wise, but you'd never guess it from looking at the sides of his head, especially when the hair is wet.

Looking great. Do you remember how long it took for the shaved hair along the donor area to grow back? I can feel tiny little cut hairs back there, but anxious for them to grow back in to cover the scar area better. Also wonder if there wasn't some shockloss around the scar, but assuming that will come back in due time.

I've been using Rogaine for 5-6 years, although I stopped for the last 2 weeks because of the surgery, and started up again today.

I am 2 weeks out from a procedure at Shapiro Medical and so far everything is healing well. Virtually no visible redness or scabbing in the recipient area. One thing I noticed, though, is when I apply Rogaine foam to the very back of my head, quite a few hairs come off in my hand, noticeably moreso than before the surgery. But, all of my grafts were at the front hairline. Anyone know why I'd be experiencing shockloss outside the recipient area?

I'm speaking of something the community could edit which gets much deeper into the details of getting a transplant, what to expect, post-op care, and so forth. It's less than ideal, though. It requires blind searching for keywords or scrolling around a page. Let's say someone has questions about pitting in the scalp. They would have to slog through a bunch of search results or other irrelevant topics to find what they need. The whole advantage of a wiki is that every concept (ex: "pitting") has its own unique page and unique URL. So the next time a newbie asks, you could just point them here, for example - hairrestorationnetwork.com/wiki/pitting It would make HRN a much more easily searched and indexed resource of information. Plus, a lot of the terminology would be clearer and all hyperlinked to each other. An app like MediaWiki is fairly easy to set up, too.

Second surgery made all the difference, very nice. It would be good to see some top-down photos too.

Good to hear, buddy. I'm 2 weeks out and the pain is definitely gone, but the donor is "tender" and slightly numb in places. I'm expecting this to last awhile longer, but no worries. Once sutures are out, how have you guys dealt with the scabbiness and skin crustiness that are around the scar? Do you scratch it off, or put aloe on it? It's definitely making the scar more visible, especially since a thin line was shaved above and below it. I don't expect that hair to grow back for awhile.

Maybe someone else can chime in because my previous surgery was 11 years ago I do remember there being some pain and tenderness for longer than the doctor had said. It probably was tender and painful to touch for close to a month, but must've gradually gone away. I assume your staples/sutures are already out? Did the pain get better?

I'm currently on Day 8 of my surgery with Shapiro. It still hurts to sleep and there are two patches near my donor which are still numb, but none of this is concerning to me right now, all seems pretty normal. Again with my previous surgery, it lasted for months, but it went away so gradually, I almost didn't notice. That's the way healing is sometimes, it hurts and it hurts.... and one day you realize it's gone.

A lot of the same questions get asked by newbies over and over on the forums. It sure would be nice to point them to specific text that answers their questions, especially a document we could all edit and fact-check. Does a comprehensive, quintessential wiki exist for hair loss and HT surgery? Could one be set up on the hairrestorationnetwork domain? I believe the entire hair loss community could benefit from this - patients, doctors, everyone.

Alternated between Advil and Vicodin mostly, depending on the pain.