After 1 year on RU (45 mg night) my body has crashed (very serious)

[melanopsin]

Im actually shocked to be writing this. I have been using RU for about a year now with great results, maintaining my hair with thickening/regrowth on the hairline/crown. I would get sexual sides when I used too much like harder to obtain erections etc but these always went away if I took a day off. If I took a day off RU the next day my erections were like steel. I was never afraid of RU and always thought this was a safe drug because you could just get off it and side effects would disappear rapidly.

Everything was fine till 11 days ago when I realized I felt like a zombie all day. First time I ever experienced mental side effects on Ru or ever in my life. Before this, for about 10 months I got no mental side effects and graduated near the top of my faculty in University with an A+ average.

Suddenly On Friday Dec 11th, I felt a cloudy hazy feeling in my mind and an inability to do any complex tasks like manipulate numbers or perform abstract mental manipulations. I could sit there and watch netflix or movies and feel fine, but as soon as I try to read, write or study I feel like complete crap. I have been studying for the last 2 months for my medical school admission test so before is quite a stark contrast to suddenly having the inability to perform any critical thinking. Considering I have been doing this everyday for the last 2 months, I know for a fact this is not in my head because I was fine for so long.

And heres the kicker, despite these mental side effects starting 11 days ago I was able to obtain rock hard erections. Now this morning I felt very horny and I wanted to masterbate. I had the strong urge and desire to do this but physically my penis remained limp. This has never happened to me before even when I was using RU for a year (up to 100mg). This is also not in my head because I was concerned about mental side effects and had no worries about sexual function till this morning. 2 days ago I had the hardest erection ever and I masterbated twice in 8 hours, and 24 hours ago I woke up with a morning erection. Despite that, I am limp as a noodle now despite the strong desire to have sex.

I got a new batch from Kane in November, do you think it is related to that or do you think this drug has shut my body down? I am heading to a doctor very soon. What blood tests should I get done? Please if anybody has any experience or advice let me know. I very worried about my future and this is a HUGE wake up call for me. Guys I love my hair and it means a lot to me but when you lose your mind for over a week and your penis for a day, it really puts things into perspective. This will probably be the last time I mess with hairloss drugs if I am fortunate enough to recover.

Thanks

[sdsurfin]

Don't freak out. Your symptoms are very unspecific and there's no way you'll be permanently damaged. just get off the RU and let your body get better. anxiety can cause all of these symptoms, Ive had all of them without taking anti androgens or anything else. I do believe that anti androgens are dangerous for your brain and sexual functioning though, and RU is not clinically approved. There are better drugs coming in the near future, for now just use minoxidil and forget about your hair.

[melanopsin]

Thank you sdsurfin, I am actually very calm despite these symptoms. I realize that I caused this myself and chances are that I will improve over time (hopefully otherwise RIP to me). I have been off RU for 48 hours and I think I will stay off for good. But I want to make it clear that I am not anxious or paranoid, these side effects are real and you guys are REALLY playing roulette with Chinese experimentals. At the biochemical level, what could be happening if RU was blocking the receptor for so long? Has my body stopped making more androgen receptors? Hence why I feel very horny but can not get an erection? I forgot to mention that my flaccid penis size also feels a lot smaller and tighter to the scrotum.

[melanopsin]

sdsurfin, thanks for your reassurance, I will only continue with minox and I am done with RU.

[allTheGoodNamesAreTaken]

Don't worry about your dick too much, I mean, if the worst comes to the worst you're just on viagra a few years before you should be. The mental agility stuff though... that is much more concerning. There's no pill for that.

[Soonbald]

hmm.... I used up to 200-250mg of RU EOD for 3 months once..no side effects but now I use 200mg a day for 2 weeks and counting...I dermaroll my scalp until I bleed and spray the RU onto my scalp "everywhere" and rubb it in very hard..never have I had sides from it...I want to give RU a shot for a few monhts Before I throw in the towel.. your post dont really scare me...it sounds just like a typicall finasteride side effect...RU isnt more dangerous than finasteride..BOTH are anti-androgens... and there are plenty of people getting screwed over MORE WORSE THAN YOU by only taking 1mg of finasteride for one day... or weeks/months.. keep in mind RU is a "topicall" not much actually enters the "bloodstream" you cant compare it to "finasteride" which you "INGEST" and block 70% of DHT and destroy DHT receptors everywhere in the body...

[melanopsin]

I forgot to mention something here, on my right chin, I developed 3 random, small circle patches where no hair grows. These are smooth as a baby's bum. Just discovered these yesterday. I have a THICK THICK beard with nice facial hair development and I always keep a nicely trimmed number 1 beard. Could these random patches that just developed be related to the RU and the sudden side effects I am feeling?

Also could it be that one of the toxic metabolites of RU has accumulated in body for a long time considering I have been using RU for 1 year? Or has my body down regulated Androgen Receptors after they have been blocked for so long? It has been 72 hours since my last RU dose and I will update here if I improve or not.

Cheers

[Mpbman]

Could be that you're just burned out from all the studying. Maybe take a brake for a day or two and see how things develop.

[joshuk]

hope you get better i was using RU for 4 years and crashed like you... no brain function coudnt even sleep, no erections no sex drive nothing.

been off a year and about 50% better can sleep more have some secual thoughts but erections are still crap, i belive its to do with adrogen receptors aswell and heres why!!

i have tried the following to boost test:

1000mg of pharma grade test a WEEK (trt does is 100mg so thats 10x normal)
clomid
tamoxifen
armosain
armidex
hcg
viagra
and every OTC test booster known to man

im fighting to get an endo appointment but its hard to in the uk but i believe its to do with adrogen recptors or something other than usual test/estrogen becasue injecting that amount of test should work but if its not binding to the AR its obselete doesnt work at all, i dont have gyno nor any PFS symptoms. so unless anyone could think what is happening or any theories as to why my test levels are so low please let me know.

melanopsin i would just stay off and hope for the best symptoms do get better but i was using it 4X as long and was stupid and not listening to my body i think youve got a better chance than i do at fixing yourself

would adrenal fatigue casue low test?? i have just had a full blood count + thyroid which i should get back tommorow, they would not even entertain the idea of an endo unless i do these test first

[Hemo]

Look on the bright side - erectile dysfunction research seems to progress exponentially faster than hair loss research, so you can rely on that and hope for better treatments in the future.

[melanopsin]

I honestly just want my cognitive function restored. The good news is that I THINK my mental functions are starting to improve. I am manipulating numbers better in my head and processing faster (i.e like 55+42=97) but I have not gone back to studying because I just want to take like a week off to let my body readjust. I was not burned out from studying because I took multiple days off and the brain fog persisted and I felt like a zombie while working at the hospital. This work was mindless but I still felt like shit, zoning out, a step behind mentally. Really weird feeling to be honest. I know many of you are reading this and prob thinking I'm full of shit since I just created an account. However, I am a long time member of the hairloss community, I started over on hairloss help and you can check my post history "melanopsin" since 2012. I have interacted with el dut and received advice from him before starting RU. I am also a member of private hairloss forums so I am not just some random poster who appeared to scare people off.

If you want to use RU go right ahead, you know the risk, everybody has different bodies both biochemically and physiologically. I am not here to scare people, I am here to start a conversation with those who could perhaps provide some insight into my particular case. I loved RU, using it was therapeutic for me because it was such a sense of relief knowing my hair was getting stronger and that I was not going bald. I was never paranoid about the drug and never thought once that I was harming myself. Anyway I have 2 threads one here and one on hairloss help so I will update everyone if/ when I get better. I am hoping that I return to full cognitive function asap. I am cautiously optimistic and I am in a good mental state right now very relaxed.

[Duke]

I hope you get better soon!

What I would like to know is the following: are these sides caused because ru works as intended (blocking androgens) or because you just got ru from a bad batch...we buy this stuff from an chinese underground lab after all.

When I took RU I got severe pain in the chest so I stopped immediately

[melanopsin]

I hope you get better soon!

What I would like to know is the following: are these sides caused because ru works as intended (blocking androgens) or because you just got ru from a bad batch...we buy this stuff from an chinese underground lab after all.

When I took RU I got severe pain in the chest so I stopped immediately

Ya Duke that is the million dollar question. It could be due to RU doing its job properly for so long such that the body just crashes after awhile. I talked to another member and he said the same thing with RU, eventually the cognitive impairment and sexual side effects creep up on him the longer he stays on the drug. Obviously nobody knows the long term consequences of using a powerful androgen blocker, especially with RU since there is no clinical data on long term use. All I can say is that in the short term RU was a miracle drug for me but it seems that its not going to work for my body long term. Even El dut switched to CB, there has to be a reason for that. If you look at his post history you can see that he lowered his dose throughout the years too.

I think there is a slight chance that the RU had impurities that caused this but it seems improbable. It seems that Kanes lab probably can make RU in its sleep now. They probably have it down pretty good. I also had another batch that I bought from another hairloss member and I switched between the two batches a couple times and the sides did not go away. That leads me to believe that it is most likely due to blocking the androgen receptor long term. I might give CB a shot next.

[halcyon]

I think there is a slight chance that the RU had impurities that caused this but it seems improbable.

Agreed- I can't imagine how anything but a super potent anti-androgen could be causing systemic sides from a topical application. If ~2mg of 'impurities' could actually have such powerful hormonal effects, maybe we should start using them instead.

Interesting that you said you wanted to have sex but couldn't- in most cases of RU sides it seems that ED is accompanied by or the product of diminished libido.

What vehicle were you using, by chance? K&B?

[deuce]

This kind of stuff worries me. I'm on 1mg of fin and this stuff worries me constantly. Crazy thing is I take the risk over baldness.