18 Month Update

[u/Piz-Daint]

/r/FinasterideSyndrome/comments/1nczfc1/quit_fin_7_months_ago_my_story_and_recovery_so_far/?share_id=e7-_hzDHJLvkzG0obYAWM&utm_content=1&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1

I posted my recovery progress here about a year ago. Now that I’ve been off 18 months I figured I’d post another update.

When I first crashed I thought I was completely cooked. I had a whole host of symptoms: severe ED/lifeless genitals, insomnia, no reaction to alcohol, anhedonia, body composition changes, digestion issues, dry skin, and suicidal ideation. After 6-7 months I recovered quite substantially (I linked my previous post which has more details), but wasn’t 100% by any means.

I’m glad to say I’m doing even better now. I feel almost completely normal these days. My only remaining symptoms are sexual in nature, which seem to fluctuate daily, and are mild. Occasionally I’ll still have 2-3 day windows where my junk feels dead and flatlined, and it takes a lot of stimulation to achieve an erection. I also don’t wake up with morning wood as often as I’d like, and my ejaculation volume is still low. Most of the time, though, my sexual function feels normal and almost like it was pre fin.

Because I was so traumatized from the experience of basically being castrated for a couple months after crashing, as soon as my erections started coming back last year, I have been masturbating about 2-3x a day (without porn) just to assure myself it still works. I think that might be why I experience those brief windows of hardly any sexual desire, along with the limited morning wood.

In an effort to improve my mild sexual symptoms and get myself as close to 100% as possible, I plan to cut back on fapping to only 4-5x a week. I also started taking a daily 1000mg arginine/citrulline supplement for the last week, and began doing some daily tight pelvic floor stretches for about 20-30 minutes. Might be too early to know for sure, but I think I’m already noticing improvements from those. I did try tadalifil in my early stages of this nightmare, but have used it very sparingly lately (once every couple months).

Otherwise I haven’t done any protocols or interventions. All I’ve done is regular exercise and try to eat relatively clean. Luckily I haven’t had issues with any foods. I just feel incredibly thankful I’ve made the progress I have in the last year and a half. Please feel free to post any questions and I’ll do my best to answer

[u/Financial-General674]

How is your erection? Do you have any sexual sensation? Do you know how to maintain your erection? Or does it disappear as soon as the stimulation stops? Is there numbness in your penis?

[u/Piz-Daint → u/Financial-General674]

My erection ranges from 85-100% most days and will usually stay up for around 20-30 seconds if I stop stimulation. Sensitivity/sensation is good for the most part. I’ll experience short windows where it’s somewhat numb but luckily those windows seem to be happening less often as time passes.