Hey gents,

First off, I have to say a sincere thank you to everyone who has detailed their journeys here and a special thanks to those of you who have stuck around post-recovery. The mental and physical resilience documented here is truly something to behold.

My Story:

My case of PFS seems to be somewhat atypical. I’m now 30 and took the drug for the first time last year for about three months (March-June 2020). I stopped a month or so in when I got sharp shooting pains in my penis but continued when three doctors asserted that this wasn’t from the finasteride. I started up again and the pain came back, even with less frequent doses, so I eventually quit altogether because I also developed what looked like a rash on my glans. I’ve been off for 9 months now and am still dealing with symptoms.

My symptoms:

1.      Pain - Penile pain (and erectile pain at times) and general pain in the pelvic area – shooting pains, stabbing, burning sensations, a sense of pressure in the penis and perineum etc. The pain fluctuates throughout the day, everyday, with remarkable consistency and stability (I get the same shooting pain everyday at 9:30 am, for example, and other pain sensations throughout the rest of the day)
2.      Glans appearance – Inflamed glans (red on top and around the urethra opening); the “ridges” on my glans are also more pronounced now (i.e., it’s not smooth like it used to be); glans appearance also changes throughout the day; it can look purplish at times and very red at other times, and sometimes it doesn't look too bad.
3.      Hypersensitive glans – glans is painful to touch; just brushing against the seam in my boxers is incredibly painful
4.      Scrotum - Inflamed/red scrotum and vascular abnormalities in the scrotum (“spider veins”), including a varicolcele on the left side and maybe one on the right side; I think these developed a few months after stopping the drug.
5.      Post-Ejaculation Pain – I get pain in the prostate? area shortly after ejaculation and my genital pain is worse in general for the rest of the day.

It seems like my case is a bit unusual, so I have a few questions.

Questions:

1. Do you think these symptoms are in fact finasteride-related?  
2. Has anyone else experienced (and recovered) from these symptoms, in particular?
2. Any thoughts on what my underlying issue might be? (My symptoms seem to overlap, at least to some degree, with pudendal neuralgia symptoms and I know that finasteride has been linked to pudendal neurapthy in at least one study.)

Any feedback would be much appreciated. I am just about to start the protocol now and look forward to watching and encouraging others along their journeys.

Thanks in advance!

P.J.