Why do so many people seem to have side effect on Finasteride?

[tercex11]

I have read on the internet that less than 5% of people that take Finasteride have side affects, but from reading these forums it seems to me that almost every person that has or is taking it has had side effect. Am I missing something or are the people with no side effects just not posting?

For anyone taking Finasteride, can you tell me how much regrowth you have gotten while being on Fin?

Also, for anyone that has been on it and stopped taking it, did it increase the amount of hair you were losing? I know you may lose any hair you may have gained, but will you lose even more hair as a reaction to stopping it?

I am thinking of going on it, but am worried that if I get bad sides and stop I will be worse than where I started.

Thanks,

[Buster]

Most people who have a bad experience with something will tell others about it, while those who have a good exprerience with something won't say anything, they'll just go on living their lives.

In regards to my expereince with Fin, I haven't expereinced any side effects, but I feel as though it isn't working too well for me because my hair looks worse than it did when I started (about two years ago). And as I said above, the reason that I came to this forum was because of my experience with the drug.

[bigentries]

I had a similar issue with Lasik surgery as I had with propecia

The day before I got Lasik surgery I made the error of looking for info on the internet and got extremely anxious at the experiences of many patients. There are equivalents of propeciahelp for lasik on the internet

The surgery went fine, and while I have presented complications over the years, it hasn't been even close to what I read back then

People that had problems with something tend to be more vocal about it. Whether is a drug, a surgery, a book. I don't think that I have booked a hotel in my adult life that according to reviews wasn't infested by rats, wasn't run by luggage thieves and didn't guaranteed I would be waking up alive

[Jotronic]

Buster is correct. In fact, statistically speaking ( and this is a statistic I learned about 15 years ago) if someone has a positive experience with something they might tell two people. If someone has a bad experience with something, they'll tell ten people.

In our clinic we've written prescriptions for at least 50K patients over the years and we rarely hear of side effects. I've been on it for twelve years and it has worked very well for me. Same for both docs and many of my friends.

[Thinning@30]

I think the official figures vastly understate the number of men with side effects from finasteride for a number of reasons.

1. Men tend to notice MPB in middle age. If they take finasteride and experience sexual side effects they may wrongly attribute them to the normal decline in libido that occurs in old age or late middle age.
2. Other than MPB, finasteride is prescribed for prostate conditions. Most men don't develop prostate problems until well into old age. By this point in their lives, these men are likely to have other age-related health problems (other cancers, heart disease, dementia, diabetes, arthritis/loss of mobility) that influence sexual health and make it difficult to tease the effects of finasteride.
3. Men have a complicated relationship with their sexuality. Most men have trouble admitting even to themselves that they are experiencing ED or a decline in sexual appetite or performance, let alone to some stranger in a lab coat.

It is much easier to discuss these things anonymously on the internet. In my case I simply stopped taking finasteride after 9+ months of being on it and experiencing side effects but not noticing any benefit. The doctor who prescribed it never followed up with me to see if I experienced any sides or even if I am still on the drug. For all I know, the drug developer counts me among the 98% of men who didn't experience side effects.

[Jazz1]

It's weird one my work friends use finesteride 2 years ago he gave up after a year expecting growth, no sides or no further loss. He was silly to give up, fast forward 2 years later he decides try fin again because I told him it haltes hairloss. Few weeks into it he gets major sides and stops altogether.

[Dan26]

I was paranoid about side effects from fin dut...

Id only been on fin about 5 months then swithched to dut 2 months ago

from before i took anything, till now, nothing has changed as far as my sexual function goes...which is pretty damn surprising to me. Even though many dont experiance sides, i was still expecting my sexual function and appetite to not quite be the same, but i can still have sex easily 5+ times a day, and been with the same girl since before i started on fin until now

unfortunately not much has changed on the hair front yet....if someone can have great success and zero sides, they are LUCKY. However, i havn't been on it long enough to make a good judgemnt, majority just stay close to baseline over years time whereas if they were not on it they would be well below..so u can only really know its effects over years times

[drybone]

4% of men experience lasting side effects.

You probably are just hearing about those and the people who are happy dont write about it because they have nothing to complain about.

[Notcoolanymore]

Most people having success on finasteride usually don't drop by to tell us about it. They most likely are not thinking about hair loss and have no reason to visit these types of forums. Most of the people that post here, like myself, are in an ongoing battle with hair loss.

[akai]

Know five people who take it irl, two were former co-workers who have been on it since the 90s and have families. Other people I know who have been on it for a few years (one of them is the guy who recommended it to me) didn't report any sexual sides as well.

You also have a few longitudinal studies as with one from Duke University that after seven years concluded: The effect of finasteride on sexual functioning is minimal for most men and should not impact the decision to prescribe or take finasteride.

I think it's that people who don't get sides typically aren't going to post on forums. They're going to move on with their life. I got sexual sides from a SSRI I took years ago and browsed forums looking for information. One thing I noticed: people with success stories didn't post that often.

That being said I think the percent that people who get sexual sides is probably a little bit higher than 5% or whatever number Merck published. Let's say it is as low as 5%. You have millions of people who have taken finasteride (let's arbitrarily throw out 5 million), if 5% get sides that's 250,000 pissed off people. A quick check shows that propeciahelp has a little over 3000 members since it was created in 2003 (not that many members all things considered). As with any drug that millions of people have tried there are going to be risks of side effects. If you get them, cease using the drug. I did it with the SSRI I took, and if it ever happened to me with finasteride I would do the same.

Hopefully when a non-systemic drug like CB-03-01 is available to the public we all can finally move on from having to use present day anti-androgens.

[burtandernie]

Personally I would worry a lot more about all the far more subtle and long term changes or alterations that could happen from lowering DHT. I would tell you what they are, but I am talking about the multitude of things DHT could be involved with that we simply dont know about yet or show up decades later from many complex interactions in that endocrine system. Possible nothing at all happens too, but it could. That is the risk your taking by using any internal drug whether its shown safe so far or not

[Notcoolanymore]

Personally I would worry a lot more about all the far more subtle and long term changes or alterations that could happen from lowering DHT. I would tell you what they are, but I am talking about the multitude of things DHT could be involved with that we simply dont know about yet or show up decades later from many complex interactions in that endocrine system. Possible nothing at all happens too, but it could. That is the risk your taking by using any internal drug whether its shown safe so far or not

I agree with this. Hopefully an effective treatment is available soon so that I could drop fin and not have to worry about what will happen decades in the future.

[capitan]

Most people having success on finasteride usually don't drop by to tell us about it. They most likely are not thinking about hair loss and have no reason to visit these types of forums. Most of the people that post here, like myself, are in an ongoing battle with hair loss.

This is very true.

Before going on Finasteride and for the first month I was on it, I would post on here every single day over 20 times.

In the last 5 months, my hair has stopped looking worse and some days looks even better, and I find that I visit this website every couple months when I used to basically live on it.

Finally, just my experience, I've had no side-effects on Finasteride. I read all the horror stories but I chose to believe the facts.