u/QuizzyP21

Hey all; to get right to the point the insomnia is destroying my life. I couldn’t tell you the last time I slept a legit 8 solid hours; I have the craziest eye bags and my eyes are always bloodshot nowadays, horrible exercise intolerance, horrible cognition, etc.

The only things I’ve noticed unquestionably makes it worse is eating a lot of carbs anywhere remotely close to bedtime (I’m talking many hours beforehand) and any type of exercise at all; it’s to the point where getting my 10000 steps, which I’ve done for years now, seems to raise cortisol enough that I am HORRIBLY restless that night.

Completely at a loss on what to do right now; being inactive ALSO leaves me with excess energy / restlessness and not eating any carbs for 5+ hours before bed puts me into a stress state. Seeing a doctor on the 13th but don’t really expect to get anything out of it.

Hey everyone, 26M just looking for similar experiences, especially from anyone who can relate and either fixed it or experienced it naturally dissipate over time.

To be clear, I’m very unsure whether this is even PFS, and that’s because towards the end of treatment (last pill around the start of January) and for about 3 months afterwards, I experienced lasting side effects that were VERY clearly Finasteride-induced; these mainly included severe depression and suicidal ideation (never experienced before in my life) and sexual sides such as lower libido, weaker erections/orgasms, watery semen, seemingly smaller penis (maybe placebo?), etc. These issues completely and truly 100% resolved around 3 months afterwards, sometime around April, leaving me wondering if my current issues really are Finasteride-induced given that the very clear-cut Finasteride sides disappeared.

A few issues have either remained or popped up suddenly (hard to even remember at this point whether they’ve been around since January). The most debilitating of which is severe insomnia (at one point could only sleep maybe 3 hours a night, now sleeping closer to the full 8 but waking up every hour, still extremely sleep deprived), but also includes severe physical activity intolerance (as someone who used to be an exercise junkie) to the point that even walking seems to spike that cortisol feeling, with actual exercise like weight lifting or running completely destroying me within the first few sets / 10 minutes. With this, my hair loss, which ironically was pretty minimal before Finasteride, has accelerated at at an unfathomable rate.

All I can ask is, can anybody relate to these particular issues? Anyone solve them? My leading theory at this point is Finasteride gave me some degree of fatty liver despite being very lean (my fat distribution is basically nothing in the arms/legs/neck and a clear little but significant pooch at the bottom of my abs); I’ve also seemingly been having issues digesting fat and sugar which would make sense.

Just starting to really get frustrated by it all and feel defeated. There was so much I had planned for this summer and so much I have planned for after I graduate in August… again, I feel like my brain is back and I absolutely feel pleasure and desire… and I’m just stuck watching those plans all die because I can’t physically function. Really crushing to deal with.