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.