My experience with Propecia - must read for young worried candidates

[22able]

You've only been on Propecia 5 months, that is nothing.

I had the same start as you and thought it was acceptable.

You will kid yourself that 'hey my willy is only marginally softer and I'm still pretty horny', before saying to yourself 'man I'm tired. I must be getting old / working too hard'.

In a few years you might still feel like this.

Eventually your dick will stop working, your muscles will fade away, you won't need to shave, your nails won't grow, you will be sick all the time, anxious, depressed and totally uninterested in life. If you are willing to risk all of that for some hair on your head then be my guest, but don't say you weren't warned.

It's a slow burn and the side effects will muller you eventually.

Don't take the risk.

Nope. 5 months is more than long enough to know if I will have side effects or not. My doctors opinion > fearing mongering on a forum. I plan to review my progress after a year anyway.

[StayThick]

You've only been on Propecia 5 months, that is nothing.

I had the same start as you and thought it was acceptable.

You will kid yourself that 'hey my willy is only marginally softer and I'm still pretty horny', before saying to yourself 'man I'm tired. I must be getting old / working too hard'.

In a few years you might still feel like this.

Eventually your dick will stop working, your muscles will fade away, you won't need to shave, your nails won't grow, you will be sick all the time, anxious, depressed and totally uninterested in life. If you are willing to risk all of that for some hair on your head then be my guest, but don't say you weren't warned.

It's a slow burn and the side effects will muller you eventually.

Don't take the risk.

+1. Guy just nailed it. Nuff' said.

[25 going on 65]

Eventually your dick will stop working, your muscles will fade away, you won't need to shave, your nails won't grow, you will be sick all the time, anxious, depressed and totally uninterested in life. If you are willing to risk all of that for some hair on your head then be my guest, but don't say you weren't warned.

Nice of you to give him the worst case scenario
People who treat DHT inhibs as a last resort have it backwards. Your hair = your face. Giving up your face should be the last resort, saving it should not be.
When a guy avoids DHT inhibs & goes NW6, I hope he has fun celebrating the firmness of his erections by himself, because women are not going to celebrate it with him

Good luck to you OP

[Jcm800]

Nice of you to give him the worst case scenario
People who treat DHT inhibs as a last resort have it backwards. Your hair = your face. Giving up your face should be the last resort, saving it should not be.
When a guy avoids DHT inhibs & goes NW6, I hope he has fun celebrating the firmness of his erections by himself, because women are not going to celebrate it with him

Good luck to you OP

Thing is everyday when im out in the world, I see bald guys , walking tall with fit girls doting on them, I assume if not for their looks they're rocking big hard dicks to keep the girls interested?!

[UK_]

The drug has been available for well over a decade now. If it was that bad it would have been banned in at least some countries. I'm really quite annoyed at how you've chimed in and spoiled this post as I intended to really clear up a lot of the misunderstandings of the side effects but I guess it's to be expected. For anyone still reading this after the comments, you can rest assured that i'm the regular guy who is paranoid over these issues and always has bad luck. Thus far i've had only minor problems. If I go off the drug it will be slowly the same way I came on it. I don't want to shoot myself in the foot but i'm sure that if I have no side effects by 5 months i'm in the clear zone. Despite having only recently started the full dosage, the potency of this drug is not linear and the half pill I was taking was just as strong as the full dose.

It has been banned in some countries, do your research.

[25 going on 65]

Thing is everyday when im out in the world, I see bald guys , walking tall with fit girls doting on them, I assume if not for their looks they're rocking big hard dicks to keep the girls interested?!

Commitment, money, security, stability, exclusivity allow men to get women "out of their league"....this is not ideal for a male but it is the best you can do if you look bad. Become a provider or go to professionals. So yes I was exaggerating somewhat
Just do not fall on hard times (lose your income, get a serious illness etc) because her interest in the relationship will plummet

[22able]

Haha it's hilarious to see the lengths people will go to in order to try and lower someone elses optimism. I don't have dick problems. My hair loss has stopped. I'm not growing an extra limb. If you have these problems it sucks to be you. I can't believe people would actually spend a large amount of time on these forums other than to gather information or make the occasional post. You must be having just as much fun as Propecia sufferers with your 'firm dicks' if you spend all of your time on here. I won't reply until I have my update in a year. Good luck to anybody else reading this.

[Jcm800]

Commitment, money, security, stability, exclusivity allow men to get women "out of their league"....this is not ideal for a male but it is the best you can do if you look bad. Become a provider or go to professionals. So yes I was exaggerating somewhat
Just do not fall on hard times (lose your income, get a serious illness etc) because her interest in the relationship will plummet

Yeah there's lots of variables. I know I'd have better luck with birds if I had my pre loss look, pretty sure of that. That said I do see many bald guys doing alright, but like you say there could be money, great prospects or whatever lending them a helping hand. .

[ccmethinning]

Commitment, money, security, stability, exclusivity allow men to get women "out of their league"....this is not ideal for a male but it is the best you can do if you look bad. Become a provider or go to professionals. So yes I was exaggerating somewhat
Just do not fall on hard times (lose your income, get a serious illness etc) because her interest in the relationship will plummet

Why is a woman being interested in man because of his looks somehow more noble or pure than being interested in him because of the other factors?

[25 going on 65]

Why is a woman being interested in man because of his looks somehow more noble or pure than being interested in him because of the other factors?

It is not. It just is far more validating, gives you more options, frees you from having to commit just to be with a decent looking girl & just improves your daily life in general

[MrJangles]

I'm new to these forums for the most part. I will say, I don't know why either people for or against Propecia use can't be equally heard. I have no inclination to engage in such a debate, but hoping that this is a solid forum that is open to expression, I will share my views.

Does Propecia work? Yes, it works very well, even better if you're young.

Does it have sides? Do you have allergies? I don't, maybe you do. That's how propecia is, no clear I'm right and you're wrong. For me, I started seeing watery semen around 3-5 months. The rest of the more ugly ones started in near the 10 month mark and they were ugly.At which point the regrowth was phenomenal.

Bottom line, this is a drug that blocks the conversion of DHT, in some individuals blocking DHT has the ability to alter androgen receptors and hormone levels. In some of those individuals they will see more intense side effects. Other people can be on it forever and not notice a thing. It seems no more fair then it is for us people suffering from hair loss vs those that don't. I do believe full recovery within a year of stopping usage (if you happen to get the very bad sides). I think the major reports of never ending sides are a very vocal minority. The body is strong and adaptable and you will recover fine. Really, it's like anything else, you need to do a cost to benefit analysis and see what you come up with.

Good luck with your treatment, looks like you have some solid growth coming in!

[Notcoolanymore]

I agree that everybody should be able to have a voice. Some people go over board spreading fear across this forum. Don't take my word for it. Read every thread of someone getting on fin. There will definitely be talk of sides in their opening post. Where does this fear of sides start? On forums like these. Sides are already on their mind before they start the drug. Some of these guys will obsess about the potential of sides and get them.

If people just want to give their negative experience while taking propecia, that's fine. But all the guys constantly coming here and talking about their ED, performance issues and inability to please women, is just getting old. Probably has nothing to do with propecia. Being unable to please women would be frustrating and I would be pissed also, but you cant blame all of your health issues on propecia.

[MrJangles]

I agree that everybody should be able to have a voice. Some people go over board spreading fear across this forum. Don't take my word for it. Read every thread of someone getting on fin. There will definitely be talk of sides in their opening post. Where does this fear of sides start? On forums like these. Sides are already on their mind before they start the drug. Some of these guys will obsess about the potential of sides and get them.

If people just want to give their negative experience while taking propecia, that's fine. But all the guys constantly coming here and talking about their ED, performance issues and inability to please women, is just getting old. Probably has nothing to do with propecia. Being unable to please women would be frustrating and I would be pissed also, but you cant blame all of your health issues on propecia.

I hear ya, like you said, I think part of the problem is a placebo like effect. People almost have an expectation of sides before they even try the medication at this point, which in itself produces higher rates of sides. When the sides are most associated with sexual effects it compounds things further. Once things get in your head sexually, can I perform? etc, etc....well good luck, it probably won't go well.

That said, I also think it goes past just those issues. Fairly recently the FDA started forcing additional warning labels on Fin. Fin has been around a long time, especially if you include it's previous usage for prostate cancer. At the same time, it was never intended on being an every day, rest of your life medication, nor do doctors have anyway to test the long term ramifications of that proposition over a very large sample (such is a problem with plenty of medications on the market). I think initial reports did not put the sexual sides into proper context, I do feel they occur at a much higher % vs what Merck initially reported. Why is this? I don't have a clear answer. I don't trust Pharmaceutical companies to put my well being before profits. Sexual sides are very scary to hear for men, they could have framed the initial study in a way that was accurate for the conditions and sample, but not accurate when the conditions and sample grew to the size it is now or over the time in which people have now been on it. Sexual sides often go under reported by men which is a very common occurrence in the pharm industry. Again I don't have the answer, nor do I try to pretend I do. Just opinion, which people can feel free to agree or disagree with.

One thing I will say that is not opinion, some of the sexual sides remove any potential for inaccuracy based on placebo or mental state. For example, with what I feel is the most prevalent side, watery semen. People are perfectly capable of screwing up a hard on by over thinking, however I don't know how over thinking produces semen that looks completely different then it did previously. That symptom is important to me because it shows a physical change in the body. ED is very difficult to gauge with accuracy. Is it medication, is it physical, is it mental? Watery semen removes the mental completely which is the one the skews the most data related to ED.

I know I must sound like I'm anti propecia, but I'm actually not. It does work, in fact so well, that I'm giving it a second try as we speak at a lower dose with great results thus far. The fact is a lot of us are really looking for help because we know what hair loss is making us feel like and we know if we do nothing that feeling is guaranteed. With propecia, we have a chance to get better, feel better. Taking that step does come with some risks, but not taking that step means never knowing. I suggest people take the step and see what happens. If it's not working out because of sides, what did you lose from trying? I wouldn't be overly concerned with reports of things not getting better after stopping. IF you turn out to get a lot of sides, it can take a bit for things to get better, but they will get better. For people that seem to never recover, if indeed it's medically proven that it was from propecia, well, they make up a % that is small enough in which the pro's outweigh the cons and I still feel it's worth trying.

[Notcoolanymore]

I hear ya, like you said, I think part of the problem is a placebo like effect. People almost have an expectation of sides before they even try the medication at this point, which in itself produces higher rates of sides. When the sides are most associated with sexual effects it compounds things further. Once things get in your head sexually, can I perform? etc, etc....well good luck, it probably won't go well.

That said, I also think it goes past just those issues. Fairly recently the FDA started forcing additional warning labels on Fin. Fin has been around a long time, especially if you include it's previous usage for prostate cancer. At the same time, it was never intended on being an every day, rest of your life medication, nor do doctors have anyway to test the long term ramifications of that proposition over a very large sample (such is a problem with plenty of medications on the market). I think initial reports did not put the sexual sides into proper context, I do feel they occur at a much higher % vs what Merck initially reported. Why is this? I don't have a clear answer. I don't trust Pharmaceutical companies to put my well being before profits. Sexual sides are very scary to hear for men, they could have framed the initial study in a way that was accurate for the conditions and sample, but not accurate when the conditions and sample grew to the size it is now or over the time in which people have now been on it. Sexual sides often go under reported by men which is a very common occurrence in the pharm industry. Again I don't have the answer, nor do I try to pretend I do. Just opinion, which people can feel free to agree or disagree with.

One thing I will say that is not opinion, some of the sexual sides remove any potential for inaccuracy based on placebo or mental state. For example, with what I feel is the most prevalent side, watery semen. People are perfectly capable of screwing up a hard on by over thinking, however I don't know how over thinking produces semen that looks completely different then it did previously. That symptom is important to me because it shows a physical change in the body. ED is very difficult to gauge with accuracy. Is it medication, is it physical, is it mental? Watery semen removes the mental completely which is the one the skews the most data related to ED.

I know I must sound like I'm anti propecia, but I'm actually not. It does work, in fact so well, that I'm giving it a second try as we speak at a lower dose with great results thus far. The fact is a lot of us are really looking for help because we know what hair loss is making us feel like and we know if we do nothing that feeling is guaranteed. With propecia, we have a chance to get better, feel better. Taking that step does come with some risks, but not taking that step means never knowing. I suggest people take the step and see what happens. If it's not working out because of sides, what did you lose from trying? I wouldn't be overly concerned with reports of things not getting better after stopping. IF you turn out to get a lot of sides, it can take a bit for things to get better, but they will get better. For people that seem to never recover, if indeed it's medically proven that it was from propecia, well, they make up a % that is small enough in which the pro's outweigh the cons and I still feel it's worth trying.

Actually you don't sound anti propecia. I have absolutely no problem with your post. There is a huge difference between what you wrote and the stuff written by a selected few around here.

[MrJangles]

Actually you don't sound anti propecia. I have absolutely no problem with your post. There is a huge difference between what you wrote and the stuff written by a selected few around here.

Notcoolanymore is cool, I hear ya, you tend to find a few of those types of people everywhere. I haven't been here long at all, I'm sure you have a barometer for it much better vs mine. In fact a little while after your post I did some searching on threads and ya, it's pretty ridiculous.