How 'dangerous' is Finasteride?

[Itstricky22]

Hi, so i'm at a point where i'm seriously considering starting Finasteride or Propecia (idk what's the difference?)
I'm gradually losing hair and my hair is tinning a lot. I can just see how much hair i lost this year, and it sucks.

I feel like i can't just sit and see my hair dissapear, if i could keep it how it is now that would be pretty great..
I was wondering, what are the odds of permanent damage (erectile dissfunction i heard?) after taking finasteride, even after quitting.

I'm not really worried about negative side effects that go away after stopping fin, i just wonder what the odds are of doing permanent damage? Is it worth the risk, and how big is the risk? I was thinking of using just 0.25mg, would that lower the risk??

Thanks

[walrus]

Any answer that people here can give you will be less objective and well researched than the following peer-reviewed paper: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4064044/

[burtandernie]

Even with that paper the odds of getting those types of issues is very low. There is always risk taking a drug and no one can really quantify what those are because no one knows. Medicine is a pretty inexact science really I mean even the paper says they have no idea what causes prostate cancer but things besides 5 ar are involved. They have no idea.
Some of the things in the paper like higher grade prostate cancer being linked to propecia are kind of reaching IMO. They dont have a lot of evidence that is the case because BPH happens even with low androgen levels primarily in older men who has lower androgen levels already. So its more them making guesses why that might be than proving anything
You can keep in mind in another few years there will be safer alternatives so taking propecia is not a must if its going slow.

[Artista]

NOT dangerous

[topt]

I wonder why did the FDA reject fin as a prevention treatment for prostate enlargement. I mean this is also a drug for prevention of hair loss. In both cases it works. Its just strange for such a "safe" drug

[GNX]

toxic shiit imo. buddy took it for 3 months. took him a year and a half to get his libido back. works for many but not for others. I wudnt even think of takn the crap again. I took it for a month and I had limp diick and was shooting dribbles. my girlfriend was like WTF! I didn't tell her I was on it but wen ur GF says WTF to u its kinda a sign that u shud steer clear of it.....

[Soonbald]

its quite funny how this guy "artista" was scared shitless Before about starting finasteride...and then he tried it himself and saw that he didnt experience any side effects and now he goes around telling people to take finasteride like its a "vitamin" and now say that finasteride is NOT dangerous wow this guys a chill for Merck for sure

[burtandernie]

This kind of thing has been argued and debated so much there is no point doing it again. One treatment revolutionized the treatment of MPB and has been used for what 20-30 years? Its the only thing that currently works and men are going continue trying and using it until a new better concrete product is on the market to replace it. The facts about it speak for themselves many studies on it and incidence of sides. If you dont like the risk or had issues dont use it. Pretty simple.

[gDavid]

NOT dangerous

I read that fin in the long run can mask prostate cancer. How can you say its not dangerous.

[chongmet]

Any drug strong enough to help you is strong enough to hurt you. It is important to do your research(the pubmed ncbi citation above is a good start) and way the risk/benefit odds.

So you advise patients not to take Finasteride?