Hey guys sorry I havent been given an update in a while. I'm just trying to avoid the forums while I go through the protocol and live my life. But last week was my 1 year anniversary of starting the protocol 100%, so I figured now's a good time to give an update.
Just to clarify, I've been doing the protocol for a year now, but I've had PFS for 13 years. Urghh I get so mad at myself for waiting so long before putting in the work, but no point in dwelling on the past. Sooooo a year into the protocol. Am I recovered completely? No not yet. But am I doing better than I was before I started? Hell yes.
My last update was in March, and since then I've had a few ups and downs. The entire month of April was pretty great, it felt like all my symptoms were close to resolved except for my low libido. Then May brought a nasty downswing. But now for the last 2 weeks I've been feeling pretty fantastic.
I don't visit the forums often anymore cuz there's nothing left to learn, I'm just riding the waves as my body figures itself out. Just read the threads of users who've recovered if you're looking for some reassurance. It's comforting to see recovery stories where they spent like 2 years on the protocol, and seeing that they also saw the ups and downs before getting that permanent baseline.

I did learn two big things in the last month that I think have really helped me get back on track. First, DONT NEGLECT YOUR GUT HEALTH. Seriously, take your probiotic daily, eat your kimchi, drink your kefir, take an ACV shot in the mornings etc. I notice that when I start neglecting these things my progress gets a little hindered. The second thing I learned is that daily pine pollen is just not for me lol. I'm so jealous, because the way people talk it sounds like a miracle herb. I've been taking it as part of my 14 herb rotation, but whenever I try to take it daily, or even semi daily, even at a low dose, I get these awful side effects. If you've read my thread from the beginning you probably saw me talk about this last year. This was my fourth attempt at incorporating it daily and I get the same nasty reaction, even when I load up on potassium as suggested. Oh well, still seeing great progress regardless.

So while I'm not fully recovered yet, there are a lot of symptoms that I believe are 100% gone. Hourglass dick, poor sleep, infrequent bowel movements, lack of energy....all of those symptoms have been completely gone for months. I wake up with morning wood 80% of the time, my libido has definitely increased over the year, that numb feeling has occurred only a handful of days in the last 6 months but only during those bad downswings, and even then it's not as bad as it used to be. I also don't get that jittery anxiety attack from coffee anymore. If I really think about it I'm sure there's other minor symptoms that have resolved themselves, but I don't wanna waste too much time rambling. At the risk of jinxing myself I think the only two things I have left to achieve are stronger erections and higher libido. All my sleep, digestive, energy, memory etc. symptoms are fine now.

For anyone wondering these are the 14 herbs I cycle: Horny Goat Weed, Mucuna, Catuaba Bark, Schisandra, Pine Pollen Powder, Ashwaganda, Black Ant, Tonkat Ali, Goji Berry, Cistanche, Shilajit, Tribulus, Cordyceps and Rhodiola.
I also take a multi vitamin and Vitamin D daily, Fish Oil on days I don't eat fish, probiotic pill daily, L Citruline and L Glutamine on gym days, vitamin c powder daily, glycine and magnesium occasionally for sleep, and l theanine occasionally with my coffee.
Use the bathmate 3-4 times a week, try to meditate for 10 minutes halfway through my workday, eat paleo and carb backload, workout 5 days a week, and take a couple of cold showers a week.
Pretty sure I'm done with tweaking my regime. MAYBE in a couple more months if I'm looking to modify some more I may add Royal Jelly and He Shou Wu to my herb rotation. HSW seems to be a staple in most guy's rotation, not sure why I never picked that one!

Sorry for such a long post! I just figured if I'm not gonna post as often anymore I should word vomit as much as I could lol