23 Year Old Terrified to use Proscar (Finasteride)

[ryan555]

That is your personal opinion. For me, balding is not significant and my entirely family does fine without a full head of hair. Personally, I took the drug because I was balding early (around 21) and wanted to postpone the process a little bit. However, the Merck safety profile has blatant lies in it and I was misled into making a decision I would not have otherwise.

The OP poster can decide for himself whether the prospect of attempting to keep his hair is worth the minute risk of lifelong sexual dysfunction and other potential cognitive/mood issues.

I pretty much agree with you. If hair loss does not really bother you much, then definitely don't take any drugs. But if you're one of these guys who eats, sleeps, and breathes their hair loss then by all means take the tiny risk and do something about it. Most of the hysteria about this drug is originating from a small number of people who have had real problems and from people who have never even taken the drug. And while it is important to know that there are a few unlucky men like yourself who have been harmed by the drug, it's also important to hear from the majority cases like me who did not have any bad side effects and who benefited a great deal from the drug.

As far as merck goes, if it is proven that they covered up definitive evidence of long term effects, then I certainly hope they get what is coming to them.

[PatientlyWaiting]

If you're gonna stay scared then you're gonna stay balding.

Don't listen to every negative comment about Finasteride. Give it a try first. then immediately discontinue it once you think you have sides.

[HairyHair]

If you're gonna stay scared then you're gonna stay balding.

Don't listen to every negative comment about Finasteride. Give it a try first. then immediately discontinue it once you think you have sides.

Agreed on that! There is lots of negativity floating on those forums. make up your own mind and always consider risk/cost/value.
personally i don't take finasteride anymore. it didn't do much for me and it can give some serious hell side-effects (and I'm not talking about decreased libido)...the last 2 years some much more dramatic sides have been investigated..my healthy instinct is skip it

[Follicle Death Row]

Yeah it's tough to sift through a lot of the internet back and forth on finasteride because you have the propecia help guys infiltrating all the sites and maybe skewing numbers a bit but damn if it ****ed them up then they're bloody right to warn us.

I noticed side effects after 2 weeks. I was terrified of getting gyno and my nipple was beginning to get tender so I had to get off it. I had a small issue when I hit puberty and had a testosterone dump and alot of it must have aromatised to estradiol. Got it on one nipple only and was hardly noticeable and disappeared in about 3 or 4 weeks when I assume DHT levels rocketed up. Maybe that makes me more susceptible. Incidentally it was the same nipple that was feeling a bit sore.

I know there's a human model for little to no DHT but they were born that way whereas our systems are not accustomed to inhibiting it. It would be nice to have an unbiased poll of all finasteride users on the site as to whether they have experienced side effects or not to see how accurate Merck's numbers are.

C'mon RNA interference and gene therapy. Barring that, Histogen and Aderans.

[hunter84]

The only way to know for sure is to try it!

I use 1.0mg dutasteride + 5mg finasteride (split 2.5mg every 12 hours) daily, adex 0.5 mg twice a week - with no sides at all, my libido is always high, boners like steel, remember that dht plays an important role in oestrogen suppression within the body, so if your dht levels are suppressed your oestrogen levels will raise, what does increased oestrogen do....Look it up for yourself....loss of libido - check, possible impotence - check, water retention and fatty deposits - check, gynocomastia - check, hair loss - check...

Oestrogen and dht BOTH play a role in hair loss, when both are high, your hairline will suffer, both are low, you can slow this process, even halt, even regrow lost hair.

Make damned sure you use an aromatise inhibitor like adex for oestrogen management while on dut/fin.

But don't take my word for it...research and make a decision.

[VictimOfDHT]

around 13 years on Fin, 1 1/2 on Dut with 0 (zero) side effects. However, they barely do anything for my hair loss. Maybe slowing it down a bit.

How does the saying go ? Believe only half what you see and non of what you hear. Or something like that. There are a group of people who are trying to make Fin look as if it were the worst drug ever, when it is NOT.

[Follicle Death Row]

That's some serious 5AR inhibition Hunter84. Good to hear you're side effect free. I'd agree on the aromatase inhibitor. Maybe blood work every 4 months or so would be a good idea for some I suppose.

[Notbaldyet]

advice

ok, here is what a urologist said to me. i had been in denial like so many others up to this point:

"propecia reverses your testosterone/estrogen ratio and over time will cause damage. basically you're estrogenizing yourself when you take this medicine. people need to be told that before they take the medicine."

then i went to look at the medical literature and found that if you look at all the articles on propecia, there are a few from the late/mid 90s from Merck, which all say that there are minimal to no side effects. then, starting around 1999, there are multiple articles by other independent groups showing the reverse, both in terms of erectile dysfunction, infertility, and both in humans and in animals.

the 2% erectile dysfunction side effect number that Merck initially claimed has NEVER been duplicated. the real numbers are between 15 and 33% in multiple studies since then. the infertility issues that Merck said were non -existent? tons of case reports and animal studies show decreased sperm numbers, dna damage, and structural changes associated with sperm production. drug company lies about data to get drug approved? shocker.

[PatientlyWaiting]

around 13 years on Fin, 1 1/2 on Dut with 0 (zero) side effects. However, they barely do anything for my hair loss. Maybe slowing it down a bit.

How does the saying go ? Believe only half what you see and non of what you hear. Or something like that. There are a group of people who are trying to make Fin look as if it were the worst drug ever, when it is NOT.

You reminded me of this George Bush speech with this post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1adc0A

[PropeciaVictim]

the infertility issues that Merck said were non -existent? tons of case reports and animal studies show decreased sperm numbers, dna damage, and structural changes associated with sperm production. shocker.

I don't believe Merck has ever said that Propecia does not cause fertility issues, but rather lied about it via omission. If you look at the actually data from their clinical trials (accessible from the FDA) you will see Propecia users typically have a 50% drop in their sperm count. Of course, this finding was entirely omitted in their product warning labels and they neglect to mention male fertility while on the drug.

[VictimOfDHT]

50% drop in sperm count ! Shit. I was hoping for 100%.

[Havok]

I realize that the negative publicity probably gets a lot more attention than the positive, but has anyone else gone through this situation? What did/do you plan on doing? Any advice is welcomed.

Thanks!

what do you mean by 'has anyone gone through this situation?'

there are a lot of men who suffer from MPB. there are a lot of men who take finasteride fully aware of potential side effect. there are also a lot of men who'd rather go bald than risk potential side effects.

you will lose hair if you're genetically programmed to lose hair. nobody can tell you how aggressive your hair loss will be in the future. there are no proven medication that is as effective as finasteride. and most importantly, you don't even know whether finasteride will prevent or even slow down your hair loss LOL!

bald guy isn't in a position to give finasteride a chance. it's finasteride that is giving the bald guy a chance to keep his hair.

i'm only saying this since i haven't experienced any sides from taking the medication for a year. i'm sure i'll change my tune as soon as i'm experiencing the elusive side effect. but i made the decision to take that risk and it's nobody's fault but my own if anything happens.

no matter how many people you talk to, the potential side effect (if it's even real) won't go away. it's still there. so stop wasting your time and just make the decision. nobody can make that decision for you. nobody can take the blame for you once you make that decision.

[Havok]

50% drop in sperm count ! Shit. I was hoping for 100%.

me too. maybe that's the 'miracle cure' we've all been waiting for. if bald guys can't have kids then we can rid of this genetic defect for good

[VictimOfDHT]

me too. maybe that's the 'miracle cure' we've all been waiting for. if bald guys can't have kids then we can rid of this genetic defect for good

If a man in his right mind stopped for a second and thought about what having children would ultimately lead to, he'd be praying for a drug that would make his sperm count drop to zero.
Fools rush in, where wise men never go.....

But hey, let these guys who are too concerned with their sperm count find out the hard way

[abusername]

As a 20 year old who has tried the drug..

I say that you should give it a shot. I feel that i experienced the worst of it (sexual sides a week in) and they are slowly going away. But honestly now that i'm getting over it i'm just happy that i actually did something to try and save my hair.

It also taught me that hair is really nothing in the grand scheme of things and that my hair is really just a small part of what makes me so awesome :-D