Hi everyone,
I've been lurking since May and wanted to introduce myself. I'm 24 and crashed in late February of this year from .25mg of finasteride (tried it for a week in July of 2021 and experienced ED + watery semen, which should've been enough to keep me away but, alas, here we are). After crashing, it took about a month of hell to convince me that some form of protocol was necessary to get my life back. I adopted Chi's method (excluding the 5k runs) and slowly transitioned into a paleo diet, lifting 3x per week, HIIT, and cold showers. I began a probiotic (Seed) in May, which helped restore my emotions, as it did for one PH poster (haven't been on the site since). The rest of my symptoms have slowly but surely been easing up.
In the beginning I had:
Severe Anhedonia
Emotional Blunting
Intense Brainfog
Slurred speech
No libido
Blurred vision
Anxiety
Insomnia
Testicle shrinkage
ED
Skin aging/dry skin
Extreme Fatigue
Rubbery dick/cold and numb genitals
Horrible digestion (my shit resembled a cloud of dust)
Muscle wastage and twitching + bone pain
Body & facial hair thinning
Watery semen
Head pressure
Every sort of memory and cognitive loss that comes with PFS type brainfog
My symptoms today, 6 months in:
Mild to Moderate Anhedonia
Some remaining head pressure/brainfog
Blurred vision
(^all three of these have improved every month^)
Low libido
Thinning body hair
Depression (feels like a given)
Occasional rubbery/numb/cold genitals
Low motivation & lack of creativity (least favorite symptoms atm)
Erection quality fluctuates between 50 and 100%
I'm still in the thick of it, but my life is very different from the beginning of this and has become livable again. A good chunk of my personality came back and I've been enjoying music, art, video games etc. more and more each month. The worst thing is this sort of hormonal apathy/dulling of the senses that a lot of people here have experienced, which makes me want to keep fighting until it's completely gone. I've yet to have a downswing that hasn't made me suicidal, but honestly I'll take weeping in my car over sitting in silence with my eyes glazed over, wishing I could feel something like in the early days.
I just started rotating herbs this week and plan to do a prohormone cycle early next year. The recovery stories here are amazing to read, and I'm seriously rooting for everyone who is currently digging their way out of this shit. If anyone needs a person to vent their frustrations to or whatever, my PMs are open. It's truly exhausting trying to explain this situation to friends and family who (thankfully) don't understand the sort of torment it entails.
Anyways, thank you CD for making this forum a reality and compiling your information on TMO, it's a fantastic resource, and thanks to guys who have recovered and still check in.
I plan on updating this thread every couple of months or so to keep track of my progress.
Best of luck boys