My Finasteride Story so far...

[Jcm800]

Hey JCM

Go to your local Pharmacy and ask for a tablet cutter...look at the range and get the more expensive one. Trust me...it's worth every dollar...(it should be around $6-$7)

Also, ask them for a little 10mL amber bottle to store your tablets once you cut them...

Always only cut up 1 tablet into 4 quarters and keep those 4 pieces in the bottle...don't do the whole pack in one go! It might lose its efficacy...

Hope that helps

Thanks kindly Desmond.

I've been advised by a supplier that 1mg finpecia won't cut up that small, that's why I'm asking. Don't really want to spend £70 for a load of pills I won't use if i can't cut them into smaller doses.

Maybe I'll just have to order and see, thanks for the reply, appreciated. :-)

[Desmond84]

Thanks for sharing your story Des! I've been on fin for little more than 2 months and started at 0,5mg daily and changed to 1mg daily for about 2 weeks ago.

My libido is way lower than it was a year ago. I've pretty bad MPB and my hair loss accelerated the last year and I went into an deep depression for the last couple of months. That made me start with finasteride.

I had already low libido even before I started with fin. What do you think, shall I lower my dose before I notice any further sides? The thing is that I'm afraid that a lower dose will increase my hair loss.

It feels like I'm in the middle of an vicious circle.

Henkeh, I don't know if you were following our discussions late last year but the amount of DHT decreased by 0.25mg is almost identical to 1mg...furthermore, the effects of 1 tablet last for about 3.5 days! If sides are bothering you reducing the dose will not have a dramatic effect on your hair! I personally think ppl should not take 1mg daily until they tapered up the dose over 12 months!

With regards to libido...the product information claims everything should go back to normal by the 12th month although there has been exceptions...

I almost kept my libido in check by dropping fin for a given period of time (2 weeks for example) to make sure my libido returns if it did I knew that the effects are reversible in my case...you can do something similar

[Desmond84]

Thanks kindly Desmond.

I've been advised by a supplier that 1mg finpecia won't cut up that small, that's why I'm asking. Don't really want to spend £70 for a load of pills I won't use if i can't cut them into smaller doses.

Maybe I'll just have to order and see, thanks for the reply, appreciated. :-)

It is true that they are not scored, hence they may crumble when cut!

BUT, as long as you purchase PROPECIA and use a tablet cutter, you will have no problems! Some brands use cheaper fillers that disintegrate much easier...that is not the case with the Merck brand...you can take my word for it lol

[Desmond84]

Oh, I just realised you're getting Finpecia...I haven't used that brand before BUT as rule of thumb tablet cutters are very effective at cutting pills...I wouldn't be too worried

[Jcm800]

Oh, I just realised you're getting Finpecia...I haven't used that brand before BUT as rule of thumb tablet cutters are very effective at cutting pills...I wouldn't be too worried

Thanks Desmond, tbh if I start the treatment I think I'd like to try Propecia initially, then continue with Finpecia perhaps at a later date if I tolerate it.

How are you doing yourself on it?

Thanks.

[BudskiiHD]

Thanks for sharing Desmond.

Can I ask, what NW you were before starting ( you said temples getting thinner, so i guess NW1? ), also did you get any regrowth? Apart from your temples, has your hairline improved? Did you experience any minaturized hair on your hairline grow back thicker & terminal ( not completely minaturized hair, but the 0 - 0.5cm thin hairs ) ?

I guess age plays a big role in the questions asked above, so could you give me a rough idea of how old you are ?

Lastly, how are you feeling now? Is your mood still same as pre fin ( if not better ) ?

[Desmond84]

Thanks for sharing Desmond.

Can I ask, what NW you were before starting ( you said temples getting thinner, so i guess NW1? ), also did you get any regrowth? Apart from your temples, has your hairline improved? Did you experience any minaturized hair on your hairline grow back thicker & terminal ( not completely minaturized hair, but the 0 - 0.5cm thin hairs ) ?

I guess age plays a big role in the questions asked above, so could you give me a rough idea of how old you are ?

Lastly, how are you feeling now? Is your mood still same as pre fin ( if not better ) ?

Hey Budskii

I caught my hairloss pretty early! My temples were see-through when I started fin so you could say beginning of NW2. Under bright light they looked really bad actually!

It's now 10 months since I started fin and tbh I'm blown away! My hair's probably back to how it looked 6-8 months before I started Propecia. Temples are much thicker and I probably look NW1 to an untrained eye! My hairline hasn't moved since I started fin and the vellus hairs on my hairline have become terminal again.

My hair's still improving every month, which is surprising.

Side effects wise, I'm tolerating fin much better. The first 6 months, on the days I took Fin, I had this uncomfortable feeling down there...this dull pain at the tip of my pe$$$ (Just on the days I took fin, it would disappear the day after). Now, I don't have any of those sides...

Libido's improving but still not the same as pre-fin! Actually, libido is the only side that I'm suffering from at this point! I would say my libido's back to 80% of what it used to be pre-fin!

Mentally I feel so much better! I sleep well, I'm not as depressed about my hair anymore! I hit the gym and worry about my hair much less!

I'm 29 btw Catching your hairloss early is the key until hair multiplication becomes a reality.

When I first wanted to try 0.25mg TWICE A WEEK, there wasn't much anecdotal reports about how effective it would be...I went down this route bcause I was terrified of sides and I experienced a whole bunch of them. And I can assure you that 0.25mg TWICE A WEEK is more than enough. If Fin is going to work for you, you can be sure such dosing is sufficient! I'm not going to increase the dosage either! This is it for me till something better comes along!

Hope this info is helpful and everyone can overcome their fears somehow. It's not easy though...believe me I know.

[Jcm800]

Thanks Desmond, you're really reassuring me with your post's, I respect your input. I'm currently trying Keratene myself, but feel it's worthless, so before long I'm going to try your regime, would Tues and Fri be an ok schedule do you think?

Thanks mate and I wish you continued good luck.

[BudskiiHD]

Hey Budskii

I caught my hairloss pretty early! My temples were see-through when I started fin so you could say beginning of NW2. Under bright light they looked really bad actually!

It's now 10 months since I started fin and tbh I'm blown away! My hair's probably back to how it looked 6-8 months before I started Propecia. Temples are much thicker and I probably look NW1 to an untrained eye! My hairline hasn't moved since I started fin and the vellus hairs on my hairline have become terminal again.

My hair's still improving every month, which is surprising.

Side effects wise, I'm tolerating fin much better. The first 6 months, on the days I took Fin, I had this uncomfortable feeling down there...this dull pain at the tip of my pe$$$ (Just on the days I took fin, it would disappear the day after). Now, I don't have any of those sides...

Libido's improving but still not the same as pre-fin! Actually, libido is the only side that I'm suffering from at this point! I would say my libido's back to 80% of what it used to be pre-fin!

Mentally I feel so much better! I sleep well, I'm not as depressed about my hair anymore! I hit the gym and worry about my hair much less!

I'm 29 btw Catching your hairloss early is the key until hair multiplication becomes a reality.

When I first wanted to try 0.25mg TWICE A WEEK, there wasn't much anecdotal reports about how effective it would be...I went down this route bcause I was terrified of sides and I experienced a whole bunch of them. And I can assure you that 0.25mg TWICE A WEEK is more than enough. If Fin is going to work for you, you can be sure such dosing is sufficient! I'm not going to increase the dosage either! This is it for me till something better comes along!

Hope this info is helpful and everyone can overcome their fears somehow. It's not easy though...believe me I know.

Thanks for taking time to write a long, and very very helpful post, much appreciated.

I was going to start with 0.25mg every other day, but as you suggest i will start with 0.25mg twice a week to taper on, and reach 0.25mg EOD or 0.5mg EOD.

But yeh, me too, I want to use it until something like CB 03 01 gets released

[Desmond84]

Thanks Desmond, you're really reassuring me with your post's, I respect your input. I'm currently trying Keratene myself, but feel it's worthless, so before long I'm going to try your regime, would Tues and Fri be an ok schedule do you think?

Thanks mate and I wish you continued good luck.

Thanks for taking time to write a long, and very very helpful post, much appreciated.

I was going to start with 0.25mg every other day, but as you suggest i will start with 0.25mg twice a week to taper on, and reach 0.25mg EOD or 0.5mg EOD.

But yeh, me too, I want to use it until something like CB 03 01 gets released

It's a pleasure to help you guys out

Let me know if anything else is in your minds...and keep me posted if you start Propecia...

Good luck

[Dan26]

Hey Desmond I know there is not much anecdotal evidence for 0.05mg/day finasteride, and no clinical evidence either (in terms of hair count, as opposed to 0.2mg which was included in clinical trials), but did you ever consider it? Scalp DHT is decreased by almost he same amount, and serum DHT 20% higher on it, according to this study,. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10495374

A bit counter intuitive, and doesn't really make sense to me tbh...but that's what the study claims!

[FearTheLoss]

Desmond, with the seemingly depressing Aderans news, I've decided to try propecia one more time after experiencing terrible sides the first time around 6 months ago.

I too had that dull pain in the tip of my penis at low doses (.25mg eod)

Now I have started taking about .1mg-.2mg every other day to every 3 days depending on how my body is feeling..hopefully I can do this for awhile and let my body get used to the drug.

I'm also going to have PRP + Acell done in the next month. I'll keep you guys updated on my sides and hair with lose dose propecia as well as the PRP + Acell.

[FearTheLoss]

Also Desmond, I know you are upset about the study of the topical finasteride..because the serum dht was dropped by the same amount so their would be side effects, but the scalp dht was dropped my roughly 20% more...so it could be very interesting to experiment with topical fin at lower levels...it would make sense that you could find a level that you have no sides but yet your hair is saved...because even with low oral fin dosages we can find this level...just a thought.

[Desmond84]

Hey Desmond I know there is not much anecdotal evidence for 0.05mg/day finasteride, and no clinical evidence either (in terms of hair count, as opposed to 0.2mg which was included in clinical trials), but did you ever consider it? Scalp DHT is decreased by almost he same amount, and serum DHT 20% higher on it, according to this study,. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10495374

A bit counter intuitive, and doesn't really make sense to me tbh...but that's what the study claims!

Actually I tried the 0.05mg/day very early on! The trouble is Finasteride is NOT water-soluble and you have to dissolve it in Ethanol! I started getting the sides immediately which meant that it was working but the ethanol in it was also giving me indigestion and I've never suffered from indigestion before albeit I'm not a heavy drinker!

So yeah, I guess you can try it! 0.05mg every 3 days should still save your hair guaranteed and those studies you posted definitely confirm it! I used the same studies to come up with 0.25mg TWICE A WEEK

Let me know if you need help calculating the dose and amount of ethanol.

Good luck!

Desmond, with the seemingly depressing Aderans news, I've decided to try propecia one more time after experiencing terrible sides the first time around 6 months ago.

I too had that dull pain in the tip of my penis at low doses (.25mg eod)

Now I have started taking about .1mg-.2mg every other day to every 3 days depending on how my body is feeling..hopefully I can do this for awhile and let my body get used to the drug.

I'm also going to have PRP + Acell done in the next month. I'll keep you guys updated on my sides and hair with lose dose propecia as well as the PRP + Acell.

Hey FTL

Yeah man...that's exactly how I started, the first few months I was taking 0.25mg/week at some points and hairs still OK! Don't rush it! All this pain is from your prostate slightly shrinking in size...the slower you proceed with Fin dosing the less the sides!

Take it easy with dosing and increase slowly!

Also Desmond, I know you are upset about the study of the topical finasteride..because the serum dht was dropped by the same amount so their would be side effects, but the scalp dht was dropped by roughly 20% more...so it could be very interesting to experiment with topical fin at lower levels...it would make sense that you could find a level that you have no sides but yet your hair is saved...because even with low oral fin dosages we can find this level...just a thought.

Yeah I noticed that! But I don't know if you realised but if you use 2mL on your scalp you just applied 5mg of Finasteride! It's very high strength, hence the rapid drop in plasma DHT and massive drop in scalp DHT!

If you suffer from sides, the topical formula might even give you worse sides! I think just start by taking 0.25mg ONCE A WEEK orally for 1 month...see how you feel, then slowly increase! This is what I learned the hard way

And how horrible is this news about Aderans!!! I'm still in disbelief...I'm pretty sure they wont be releasing any public statements either...they'll try and kill their ARI program quietly without anyone noticing! No one wants to advertise spending $100 million for 11 years and completely failing to produce anything worthwhile! It just wont look good both for their image and the stock market <SIGH>

[KO1]

Keep in mind, serum DHT is dropping because Scalp DHT is dropping. Serum DHT is spillover DHT from the organs, so even if you have a local inhibitor of DHT, there should still be declines in serum as less is going into bloodstream.

You should try out topical fin in ethanol, don't just judge it by serum DHT levels. Try out a little bit and see what happens I guess.