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  1. #1
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    Let’s Go - My Journey to 100%

    Hey everyone.

    I took finasteride from 2009 to 2012, and had gradually worsening sides that I didn’t connect to the drug. I took zoloft from 2001 to 2009. I’m 35 and a half now.

    The finasteride sides were: no morning wood, 1/10 orgasm quality, reduced libido (80% to 90% lower), some brain fog, vastly reduced sensitivity (very little to no pleasure from stimulation), and it was nearly impossible to orgasm when with a partner (as I would feel almost nothing, even after weeks of not fapping.) However, my erection quality was excellent the entire time, which allowed me to delude myself into thinking this was not PFS.

    Several therapists, and my family, convinced me repeatedly over the years that this couldn’t be PFS (which they didn’t seem to firmly believe in), and so I spent years not getting better. However, I do not believe in worrying about the past.

    In February I got all the herbs, did a juice feast, and then started rotating the herbs, and lifting weights 3 days per week (although a couple of weeks it was only 2 workouts per week because I overdid it and didn’t want to train while I had neck muscle soreness. I strained my neck muscles by lifting too heavy sometimes.)

    I am making some strength gains, but not much in the way of muscle mass gains so far - I’ll need to eat more. I’ll do monthly tape measurings and fat measurements with calipers, and maybe start weighing myself every day to make sure I keep my weight up. If I’m going to work out, I might as well make some muscle gains, too.

    Within just a few days of starting the herbal rotation and workouts, my libido was improving a lot. About 2.5 weeks in, I was able to climax in a reasonable amount of time during sex, but the climaxing pleasure was maybe 1.25/10, up from 1/10.

    I hope that my sensitivity and orgasm quality improve over time - we’ll see how that goes. It might take significantly longer for that to start returning.

    I get strong morning wood about 3/7 of days now, up from about 1/120 of days (aka about 3 days per year) before, (though I would get weak morning wood once or twice per two weeks.) I get weak morning wood maybe 2/7, and no morning wood about 2/7. I’m so glad that I’m getting morning wood again, even if it’s not every day.

    I also feel a bit less foggy, but I’m not 100% at all, and things still feel off a lot of the time.

    This will be controversial for some, but I have kept a plant-based (vegan) diet since 2015. It’s been working well for me; my blood markers improved vastly, and I will keep doing it. Your mileage may vary, I’m not telling anyone else to switch their diets. I’m also NOT here to debate veganism, and I’m only (very reluctantly) mentioning this in case a vegan PFS lurker reads this and wants to know if a whole foods plant based diet can be subbed in instead of a paleo diet. I am the first person to ever attempt it, and I’m making progress.

    I will post more updates here and there, but not all of my short-term ups and downs need to be mentioned.

  2. #2
    Moderator Feedback Score 0 Cdsnuts's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LetsGo View Post
    Hey everyone.

    I took finasteride from 2009 to 2012, and had gradually worsening sides that I didn’t connect to the drug. I took zoloft from 2001 to 2009. I’m 35 and a half now.

    The finasteride sides were: no morning wood, 1/10 orgasm quality, reduced libido (80% to 90% lower), some brain fog, vastly reduced sensitivity (very little to no pleasure from stimulation), and it was nearly impossible to orgasm when with a partner (as I would feel almost nothing, even after weeks of not fapping.) However, my erection quality was excellent the entire time, which allowed me to delude myself into thinking this was not PFS.

    Several therapists, and my family, convinced me repeatedly over the years that this couldn’t be PFS (which they didn’t seem to firmly believe in), and so I spent years not getting better. However, I do not believe in worrying about the past.

    In February I got all the herbs, did a juice feast, and then started rotating the herbs, and lifting weights 3 days per week (although a couple of weeks it was only 2 workouts per week because I overdid it and didn’t want to train while I had neck muscle soreness. I strained my neck muscles by lifting too heavy sometimes.)

    I am making some strength gains, but not much in the way of muscle mass gains so far - I’ll need to eat more. I’ll do monthly tape measurings and fat measurements with calipers, and maybe start weighing myself every day to make sure I keep my weight up. If I’m going to work out, I might as well make some muscle gains, too.

    Within just a few days of starting the herbal rotation and workouts, my libido was improving a lot. About 2.5 weeks in, I was able to climax in a reasonable amount of time during sex, but the climaxing pleasure was maybe 1.25/10, up from 1/10.

    I hope that my sensitivity and orgasm quality improve over time - we’ll see how that goes. It might take significantly longer for that to start returning.

    I get strong morning wood about 3/7 of days now, up from about 1/120 of days (aka about 3 days per year) before, (though I would get weak morning wood once or twice per two weeks.) I get weak morning wood maybe 2/7, and no morning wood about 2/7. I’m so glad that I’m getting morning wood again, even if it’s not every day.

    I also feel a bit less foggy, but I’m not 100% at all, and things still feel off a lot of the time.

    This will be controversial for some, but I have kept a plant-based (vegan) diet since 2015. It’s been working well for me; my blood markers improved vastly, and I will keep doing it. Your mileage may vary, I’m not telling anyone else to switch their diets. I’m also NOT here to debate veganism, and I’m only (very reluctantly) mentioning this in case a vegan PFS lurker reads this and wants to know if a whole foods plant based diet can be subbed in instead of a paleo diet. I am the first person to ever attempt it, and I’m making progress.

    I will post more updates here and there, but not all of my short-term ups and downs need to be mentioned.
    I had long stretches of doing raw vegan 80/10/10 style. Muscle mass was impossible to build. Non-raw vegan it was a little bit better because of the massive amount of carbs I had to live on. it's not recommended for a reason. I've been there, done that. Just my fyi and then we'll leave it alone....if you're gonna put all the time and money into the program, you may as well go 100% to get the most bang for your buck. You're looking at an easy year or two recovery time. Maybe put aside any thoughts you have in regards to veganism on hold right now. I mean, as it is, your already not living the way you want, so you may add one more thing to get you back to that place to be whole, then you can always switch back to being Vegan.

    Just my two cents. Good luck to you either way.
    Total Male Optimization "People who say it can't be done shouldn't interrupt those that are doing it"

  3. #3
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    Mid-April Update: 2 months

    It’s been about 2 months since I started this journey, and I have made further improvements.

    My rotation has 17 of the herbs in it, and I cycle the pine pollen and pine pollen tincture so that they are about 8 days apart.

    My libido is up very significantly.

    And wow, WOW, my orgasm quality is WAY up. Earlier I said it was 1.5 out of ten, but in retrospect that was 0.25 out of 10. Now it’s easily 6 out of 10. I’d forgotten that it’s that enjoyable, and I have a feeling that this isn’t even close to a full recovery. This is very exciting to me, because I had felt really bad about not being able to enjoy sex, the women would enjoy it immensely (except for not being able to please me, and they’d feel guilty and bad about themselves despite my reassurances) and I’d feel “meh” and generally not be able to come, and if I did, well... I’ve had sneezes that were more deeply satisfying than my PFS orgasms. Literally.

    I feel less foggy, but I’m still not 100% on that front. Maybe 65% better?

    I’ve gained half an inch on my arm circumference, up to 12.5” flexed (no pump), so I am gaining muscle. I need to make sure I train 3 times per week, I often end up letting other things get in the way and end up with just 2 workouts. My arm size gains are indirect, from bench pressing and other exercises - I will incorporate direct arm training this week.

    My shoulders are broader, and my shirt collars are getting less roomy - my neck is getting thicker. Personally, I don’t prefer for my neck to get bigger, but whatever. It’s unavoidable when you lift. If this keeps up I’ll just have to get new collared shirts with 0.5 inch wider necks.

    I will start using my Joovv every day in the morning, and that may help me make more progress faster. (It will also make me feel like I got my ~$1,000 worth.) I wasn’t doing it daily in part due to not waking up early enough, and partly because I wanted to see what my progress would be without it. To know if it was progress from he Joovv, or from the other stuff.

    I know it’s normal for there to be ups and plateaus in this process, and I did have a plateau for several weeks. I was using a prescription anti-allergy nasal inhaler at night sometimes, but I got suspicious and used breathe rite nasal strips instead, and I’m not sure if the inhaler was interfering with my progress somehow. I’m going to get better pillows and covers to reduce the dust mites since I am allergic to them (all pillows and blankets have millions of mites, no matter how clean you are.)

    Overall, I feel significantly better and I’m really looking forward to making further gains. If this is how good I am in 2 months, I wonder what it’ll be like at the 12 month mark? I am sure it won’t take me 2 years to recover fully. Even when I recover, I will do another full order of all the herbs (about 1.5 years worth) just to be sure. And then I’ll still use the herbs that I like the most.

    I am grateful that CD put this information out there, instead of keeping it to himself. It’s like when Batman got out of the cave in The Dark Knight Rises - he sends a rope down so everyone else can climb up, because that’s the right thing to do. Sadly though, there are guys down in the PFS cave saying “ignore the rope, scientists are actively researching why we are down in this cave. Someday they will carry us out.” Or... just climb out.

    CD, you’re changing lives, including mine. Although I would not have killed myself, I’m sure that you have literally saved lives as well. My quality of life is increasing dramatically month by month, and I’m very excited about the future. Thank you for that.

    More updates to come...

  4. #4
    SwoleSource Member Feedback Score 0 DefRecover's Avatar
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    Awesome work, LetsGo!

    Seriously, CD, MaxOut, JackNap, Rick, English, Chi, LetsGo etc - you guys are all rockstars!

    Thanks for proving that the protocol works and giving us all hope. Really grateful to have found this place and to (finally) be able to contribute.

    Hopefully I will be able to add to the success stories in due course.

  5. #5
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    Awesome story. Very inspiring, thanks for posting!

  6. #6
    Moderator Feedback Score 0 Cdsnuts's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LetsGo View Post
    Mid-April Update: 2 months

    It’s been about 2 months since I started this journey, and I have made further improvements.

    My rotation has 17 of the herbs in it, and I cycle the pine pollen and pine pollen tincture so that they are about 8 days apart.

    My libido is up very significantly.

    And wow, WOW, my orgasm quality is WAY up. Earlier I said it was 1.5 out of ten, but in retrospect that was 0.25 out of 10. Now it’s easily 6 out of 10. I’d forgotten that it’s that enjoyable, and I have a feeling that this isn’t even close to a full recovery. This is very exciting to me, because I had felt really bad about not being able to enjoy sex, the women would enjoy it immensely (except for not being able to please me, and they’d feel guilty and bad about themselves despite my reassurances) and I’d feel “meh” and generally not be able to come, and if I did, well... I’ve had sneezes that were more deeply satisfying than my PFS orgasms. Literally.

    I feel less foggy, but I’m still not 100% on that front. Maybe 65% better?

    I’ve gained half an inch on my arm circumference, up to 12.5” flexed (no pump), so I am gaining muscle. I need to make sure I train 3 times per week, I often end up letting other things get in the way and end up with just 2 workouts. My arm size gains are indirect, from bench pressing and other exercises - I will incorporate direct arm training this week.

    My shoulders are broader, and my shirt collars are getting less roomy - my neck is getting thicker. Personally, I don’t prefer for my neck to get bigger, but whatever. It’s unavoidable when you lift. If this keeps up I’ll just have to get new collared shirts with 0.5 inch wider necks.

    I will start using my Joovv every day in the morning, and that may help me make more progress faster. (It will also make me feel like I got my ~$1,000 worth.) I wasn’t doing it daily in part due to not waking up early enough, and partly because I wanted to see what my progress would be without it. To know if it was progress from he Joovv, or from the other stuff.

    I know it’s normal for there to be ups and plateaus in this process, and I did have a plateau for several weeks. I was using a prescription anti-allergy nasal inhaler at night sometimes, but I got suspicious and used breathe rite nasal strips instead, and I’m not sure if the inhaler was interfering with my progress somehow. I’m going to get better pillows and covers to reduce the dust mites since I am allergic to them (all pillows and blankets have millions of mites, no matter how clean you are.)

    Overall, I feel significantly better and I’m really looking forward to making further gains. If this is how good I am in 2 months, I wonder what it’ll be like at the 12 month mark? I am sure it won’t take me 2 years to recover fully. Even when I recover, I will do another full order of all the herbs (about 1.5 years worth) just to be sure. And then I’ll still use the herbs that I like the most.

    I am grateful that CD put this information out there, instead of keeping it to himself. It’s like when Batman got out of the cave in The Dark Knight Rises - he sends a rope down so everyone else can climb up, because that’s the right thing to do. Sadly though, there are guys down in the PFS cave saying “ignore the rope, scientists are actively researching why we are down in this cave. Someday they will carry us out.” Or... just climb out.

    CD, you’re changing lives, including mine. Although I would not have killed myself, I’m sure that you have literally saved lives as well. My quality of life is increasing dramatically month by month, and I’m very excited about the future. Thank you for that.

    More updates to come...
    Good intuition on the nasal spray. Don't use ANY of it. When your bodies sick, you're not sick in the "normal" sense of the word. That is the body in cleansing mode when internal factors become to unstable due to a MYRIAD of reasons. The worst thing you can do in that situation is to surpress the symptoms. You will just end up building and adding to internal toxicity that will grow and eventually turn into a variety of cancers.

    Again, the usual remedy is whole body care.

    You're going to fly through this. I'm very excited for you because you are going to change in ways that will leave you awe inspired and very satisfied with your self. No better feeling then liking the person you are.

    Keep up the good work and definitely keep updating your post. You're going to end up indirectly helping other guys coming in behind you. That is the best gift to give back to the forum.
    Total Male Optimization "People who say it can't be done shouldn't interrupt those that are doing it"

  7. #7
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    It’s been a month, and another update is in order.

    A month before I started everything, I had an ultrasound of my balls (I was hoping my issues were from a varicocele, not pfs, but I had no varicocele,) and they wanted a follow up for about 4 months later because I have a mysterious 1mm shard in one of my balls. It has been there since at least 2012 and has not increased in size, so it’s not cancer, but I wanted to take the follow up appointment to see if my balls had grown.

    They did!

    My right ball went from 4.6 x 2.0 x 3.0 cm to 4.6 x 2.3 x 3.1 cm, and my smaller left ball went from 4.3 x 2.6 x 1.9 to 4.3 x 2.2 x 3.2 cm. You calculate the volume by multiplying the 3 numbers times 0.72; (you can’t just multiply them, because your balls are not rectangular. The 0.72 accounts for their rounded shape.)

    My balls were previously within the normal range, but are now moving towards the high end of the range. My doctors don’t care about this, the ball size was just a side note, but for me it was very interesting. They grew about 25% and 15%!

    My epididymis (the sperm producing areas at the top of the balls) has just about DOUBLED in size in each of my testicles. My sperm count must have skyrocketed. I’ll bet my testosterone is back in the normal range now, too. (I did not get it tested.)

    This is just 3 months, guys. It’s pretty amazing that my balls are so much bigger. I wouldn’t have noticed any difference just looking at or feeling them, but they’re definitely bigger! So, no wonder I’m feeling so much better now.

    I’m getting more and better morning wood. Also, my libido is way, way up. Not just sporadic spikes, it’s more consistently high. I am making an effort to restrain myself though, and to save it for actual sex. I expect that to happen soonish, since I’m starting to date more now.

    My sensitivity is continuing to improve as well. It feels way better now. My orgasm quality is not consistently amazing, but it’s consistently good. Every time.

    Mood-wise, I am not getting multi day bouts of strong anxiety every few weeks. This is very nice.

    My arms are now up to 13.25 inches, up from 12 in February, and my bench (8 reps, 5 sets) is up from 65 to 105 today. I do 10 other sets of other chest exercises on chest day, but that’s just a nice barometer since the bench press is my favorite exercise. My maximum arm size is probably about 16.5 inches. I’m hoping to reach 14.5 by the end of this year. The key is to make myself eat enough, otherwise I seem to stop gaining size.

    My shirts are tighter, but not in the gut area (my waist is the same size, or slightly smaller). The necks of my shirts are becoming even more tight and annoying, and I’ve added 0.5 inches to my neck. I’d rather not have a big neck, but it’s inevitable.

    I train my legs much less intensely, because my dad has a horrible history of permanent back pain from lifting. It has massively lowered his quality of life, so I’m afraid to squat heavy or deadlift. I don’t want to wind up like him - he wasn’t even lifting crazy heavy weights, his spine just wore down and all his discs were bulging. I share his genetics, so I will let his suffering be my warning.

    My legs are thick and muscular just lifting at higher volumes. I only weigh 154 lbs and my thighs rub together; if I add 10 lbs to my legs, the chafing will be insane. My legs are for endurance, not maximum muscle. Of course, I don’t want to have “chicken leg syndrome” with a big upper body and toothpick legs, but I have naturally muscular legs so this will not happen.

    IMO, it looks better to have a big chest, shoulders, arms, and back, be thin enough for visible abs (I am 10 to 15 lbs away from this) and have muscular but not big legs.

    My shoulders are noticeably wider (I have naturally wide shoulders,) and I’m interested to see how I look by December. At a certain point, I’ll also go on a cut so I can have six pack abs. It’s easier to diet down when you have more muscle; dropping from 143 to 123 was brutal because I had to live on 1300 calories per day. Dropping from 165 (with muscle) to 150 or whatnot will be fine, because I’ll be able to eat reasonable amounts of food while cutting.

    I want to wake up earlier and use my $900 Joovv every day, I haven’t touched it in like 10 - 12 weeks. Maybe it could kick my progress into high gear (although, I’m already progressing at a rate that I’m very happy with.)

    So that’s my update! I feel almost reborn, and it’s exciting. I have to put more effort into my business so I can break away from needing a day job. That, plus this stuff, will be absolutely life-transforming

  8. #8
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    It’s time for June’s monthly update.

    I’ve had a setback, or a plateau, or something. Although I don’t feel like I did before I started doing all this, I don’t feel great - just okay. It’s been like this for a solid 2 weeks at least.

    As I think of it, there are a couple of things that I did that might have caused this:
    1) I started slacking off with my training - not going as hard as before, and only training once or twice per week instead of three times per week.
    2) I had two beers on a date, about 1 week ago.
    3) I was routinely fapping.

    I think the downturn may have hit harder when I had those two beers, but it seems weird that that could cause a setback. I hadn’t had any alcohol (except what’s in the drops of pine pollen tincture, etc) since February, when I started this. If I need to keep not drinking, that’s fine, although it will be somewhat annoying when it comes to dates.

    I have okay libido, but it’s not as robust as before. Also, sensation is not as great as it was 3 - 4 weeks ago. I need to NoFap again, and just wait until I have another girlfriend.

    I think it’s important to keep tracking my ups and downs. I’m hoping that within a few weeks I will have another upswing. It’s very bit de-motivating, but I know there have been guys who made barely any progress for months, whereas I made strong progress right out of the gate and figured I’d be fully done in 6 months. This is the 5 month mark, so I’m guessing it will likely take at least 12 months to be fully healed.

    I also moved the goji berry powder from the rotation, to a smoothie additive. And I got black maca powder, though I haven’t used it yet.

    I’m not sure whether this is a “natural” setback, or if it’s due to me having those two beers… or what’s going on.

    That’s all for this update. I’ll aim to check in around mid-July.

    Edit: I forgot to add this - my muscle gains have slowed down because I’ve started losing weight on purpose. I had gained 10 lbs since starting this, and a good chunk of that is muscle (my waistline did not get much bigger, maybe 1 inch), but I hate seeing the scale go up. I could probably have visible abs if I lost another 20 lbs, maybe 30 lbs? I don’t look fat at all, but even “normal” weight people have A LOT more fat than they realize. If you don’t have visible abs, you have a bunch of body fat.

    Anyway, around the time of this plateaue, I had started cutting my calories, and since then I've lost about 5 lbs, so I'm down to 152 lbs. I have not lost any muscle size, because I’m still working out - but I’m also not really gaining any muscle. I was 147 lbs when I started, and I wanted to get back to that, or even 142 lbs, and then bulk again. I’m wondering if the healing only happens when I’m adding muscle? Maybe I should try slowly bulking, at a rate where hopefully I *only* gain muscle, and not fat, and see if that ends the plateau. Then once I’m fully recovered, I can do a cut, lean out, and have visible abs with decent muscles.

    If gaining muscle breaks me out of this blah period, that may suggest that my theory may be correct (at least for my body.)
    Last edited by LetsGo; 06-16-2019 at 10:24 PM.

  9. #9
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    I’m feeling pretty depressed now. I don’t know why the progress I had made initially over several months seems to have mostly disappeared.

    My libido is way down; I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I’ll try not fapping, which is going to be incredibly easy.

    I was prepared for some ups and downs, but this down period has lasted well over a month. I will keep doing what I’m doing but I don’t feel at all motivated or hopeful anymore.

  10. #10
    Moderator Feedback Score 0 Cdsnuts's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LetsGo View Post
    I’m feeling pretty depressed now. I don’t know why the progress I had made initially over several months seems to have mostly disappeared.

    My libido is way down; I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I’ll try not fapping, which is going to be incredibly easy.

    I was prepared for some ups and downs, but this down period has lasted well over a month. I will keep doing what I’m doing but I don’t feel at all motivated or hopeful anymore.
    Always darkest before the dawn. You may be mustering up for a nice upswing. This is typically the pattern I've noticed. Some downswings are so bad and they bring you to the brink.....this is where alot of guys get nervous and sabotage themselves where if they would have just held on a bit longer, they would have been rewarded with a shiny new level of being.

    Keep at it.
    Total Male Optimization "People who say it can't be done shouldn't interrupt those that are doing it"

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