Propecia/Fin SHould be scrapped for good

[Mentalist]

This should be scrapped with all the side affects it should've never had FDA Approval in my opinion. I can understand why people to a certain extent obviously try and halt their hair loss but in the long term it's really stupid that people are taking this as it doesn't halt hair loss forever while you keep taking it or not as hair loss is not just down to DHT and stuff it's down to genetics too and I don't think anybody should be taking it with the serious side effects. It shouldn't even be on the shelves. I'll never really get my head around why people take these pills.

[25 going on 65]

Very simple reasons:

1...It's the only effective MPB prevention treatment on the market besides dutasteride, which uses the same mechanism of action plus an extra one. Most men can stay above baseline with it for at least 5-6 years; many others for 9-10 or more. (And it continues working after that, most people just won't be above baseline anymore.) Those of us who want to live with our hair intact do not want others deciding for us whether we get to or not.
2....It's an effective prostate medication.
3....Most men don't notice any sides effects, most men who notice them see them resolve while on the drug, and most men who don't see them resolve while on the drug see them resolve within a month or two after quitting (often less).

Men who choose to go bald shouldn't be forced to take fin, and men who choose to take fin shouldn't be forced to go bald.

[Mentalist]

I don't think men who refuse to take fin choose to go bald if I was going bald I would not take fin not with the side effects and if they do come which could happen it could be permanant then you need to stop the pills and hope the side effects goes away and if it does they might go back on the pills again then it might happen again and permanantly this time if you're only getting 5 - 6 years out it and a big risk of getting the permanant side effects it's not worth it especially if the pills alone treats hair loss only for the short term and 6 years is short term if you loseyour hair because of genetics the pills are out of the question and it would be a waste of time taking them I understand where your coming from but really it's just not worth it in my opinion.

[Kirby_]

Have to admit, the five year time limit is the most terrifying part of fin. I know I've got less than 4 and a half years left on the clock, awful as I've mentioned already here how much hair Propecia has caused me to shed with no sign of regrowth.

[gmonasco]

Calm Down: Propecia Probably Isn't Causing Your Erectile Dysfunction

Last night's news was all about sexual dysfunction caused by the widely used hair loss drug, but the evidence is actually very thin. The small number of research subjects were recruited from a forum for people experiencing side effects.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/07/calm-down-propecia-probably-isnt-causing-your-erectile-dysfunction/259803/

[25 going on 65]

I don't think men who refuse to take fin choose to go bald if I was going bald I would not take fin not with the side effects and if they do come which could happen it could be permanant then you need to stop the pills and hope the side effects goes away and if it does they might go back on the pills again then it might happen again and permanantly this time if you're only getting 5 - 6 years out it and a big risk of getting the permanant side effects it's not worth it especially if the pills alone treats hair loss only for the short term and 6 years is short term if you loseyour hair because of genetics the pills are out of the question and it would be a waste of time taking them I understand where your coming from but really it's just not worth it in my opinion.

You're entitled to decide it's not worth it, it is completely fine for you not to take fin. To me it's absolutely worth it. I'm in my 20s and solely because of fin I have quite a good head of hair, much better than I expected to have at this point when I first noticed hair loss at 22-23. It's not what it once was before MPB, but at least I can go out, socialize, have sex, etc. without people noticing/commenting on my hair loss. I still get depressed about not having my full teenage mane (actually I am vulnerable to depression in general), but despite that, fin is one of the best decisions I've ever made. And it doesn't only work for 5-6 years, that's just when most men start dipping back to baseline--Spencer has used fin for 17 years and is only a NW3v despite that he started going bald like 2 and a half decades ago. Personally I will move to dutasteride whenever I start losing ground again (maybe even before that), which will buy me more years of hair.
A lto of guys don't care about MPB, but to me its a dead serious issue. If I was bald at this age I wouldn't probably be here. You only live once, you cant get the years back that you spend going bald. I would never choose to sit around through my young adulthood praying every day for a new treatment for this disfiguring condition of the scalp.

I totally understand why some men feel the risk of fin isn't worth it, and I respect that. But to me, and many others here, it was a no brainer. There literally is nothing else at this time besides dut/fin that will safely prevent hair loss in most users, which is why foregoing those treatments at this time is choosing to go bald regardless of how long it may take. I don't regret my choice, and even if I quit DHT suppressants at 40+ and get long-term sides, you know what? It will be still be worth it to me. Because I didn't have to lose my youth in my 20s.

[Mentalist]

Would you not be better just going for a hair transplant or do you need to take fin for that aswell?

[25 going on 65]

I've considered a transplant but I'm basically using meds in the hopes of avoiding surgery. You don't technically have to use fin/dut after a transplant but if you don't, you keep losing hair at the same rate as before, and will need more transplants sooner. It becomes a lifelong commitment since guys with transplants who lose their native hair and don't follow up, usually end up looking odd and unnatural.
Something else that worries me besides being a lot more expensive, there just isn't enough hair in the donor region to maintain a natural, dense head of hair for anyone who goes beyond a certain level of baldness (which I would with my lucky genes).
Another thing is that I'm mostly a diffuse thinner, and most diffuse thinners aren't nearly as good candidates for transplants compared to guys who develop slick bald areas. We're more prone to losing native hair around the implanted grafts, which I believe is called "shock loss." But we diffuse guys do usually respond well to meds, which was part of my decision process also.
Other concerns I have with surgery are scarring, poor recipient growth (even with a skilled surgeon the results are never fully predictable, sometimes it's out of the doctor's hands), and also there are new treatments being developed--some of them will be available within 5-10 years and no one is sure yet whether a transplant might interfere with the scalp's ability to receive these treatments. And when I start losing ground again on meds, I will be needing to look into those new options, unless by then I just don't care about my hair anymore
Don't get me wrong though, because for some men transplants are a great option. I have seen really good results. Unfortunately some of us just aren't in a good position to go that route

[Mentalist]

Do you honestly believe that these new treatments are going to be availible in the often "5-10 years" timescale and will it be the big cure ?

[Kirby_]

Do you honestly believe that these new treatments are going to be availible in the often "5-10 years" timescale and will it be the big cure ?

I'll admit I used to, until June. I didn't think any would be literal cures, but super-treatments that would be as good as near-cures for many people, particularly hairloss sufferers who aren't too far gone. Now I don't think we'll have anything more in the next decade, possibly my lifetime. There's been too many false hopes and discarded treatments along the way. I thought the five years that Propecia would possibly give me would let me thread water until then, now it may be all I'll have, if it ever starts showing that is had done anything more than cause severe hair shedding.

[Mentalist]

I don't think there will be in my lifetime either, it just seems to drag on and on and on and on. I really hope I'm wrong.

[25 going on 65]

Do you honestly believe that these new treatments are going to be availible in the often "5-10 years" timescale and will it be the big cure ?

I don't think we will cure male-pattern baldness in the next decade, or if we do, it will more probably be in the form of immunizing existing follicles from miniaturization. Which is awesome for people who don't start visibly balding until then, but for guys who already start showing significant loss, no I don't expect a treatment on its own to be able to completely restore and maintain a fully-dense NW1. (I really hope I'm wrong like all of us do.)
However I definitely expect new viable treatments in that time frame, and I expect some to be available in less than 10 years. Some companies have already managed to safely grow/thicken hair on human scalps to a cosmetically appreciable extent, without using the treatments currently on the market. That's a breakthrough in itself. Combined with existing treatments, this will give us good new options (for example, one possibility would be transplants to restore the hairline/temples and Histogen to thicken up the native hair behind the grafts....though again no one knows for sure what will and won't be viable)
I definitely expect minoxidil to become obsolete as a growth stimulator, unless it still has some use as an adjunct treatment.
As for if these treatments will allow us to stop taking DHT suppressants, I don't know. In an ideal world I would rather stop taking hormone meds, but for now they are all I've got.

[UK_]

Thing is, ive been waiting for "the cure" as far back as the 80's and I cant remember a time where there were so many companies actually in human trials working on a treatment and showing hair growth.

I remember minoxidil in powder form or something and propecia was still in clinical trials, but nothing like Histogen, Aderans, Allergan, Replicel, Follica etc etc.

Anyone agree/disagree??????

[25 going on 65]

Thing is, ive been waiting for "the cure" as far back as the 80's and I cant remember a time where there were so many companies actually in human trials working on a treatment and showing hair growth.

I remember minoxidil in powder form or something and propecia was still in clinical trials, but nothing like Histogen, Aderans, Allergan, Replicel, Follica etc etc.

Anyone agree/disagree??????

Don't know whether or not these will provide full-blown cures but in general I agree. There have been many false promises over the decades but a lot of it was based on flimsy evidence or none at all.
Now we can step back at look at the concrete studies, trials, etc. going on. we have made serious strides just in the last 5-6 years, not only in understanding pattern baldness but learning how to treat it. The PGD2 link was discovered just within the last few years right? And through various different methods we have multiple companies actually growing/thickening hair on human beings (less than a decade ago this was unheard of, except in limited form through drugs that have been on the market since the 80s and mid 90s). Where one fails, others could succeed, or the treatments could well compliment each other.
I mean it wasn't long ago we were jumping for joy that we managed to grow some crappy-looking fuzz on a mouse....now there are real people growing cosmetically viable hairs in these clinical trials. We all want more results faster, but this is so much more promising a time than what people were dealing with in the Clinton/Blair years it's just not comparable IMO

[mlao]

Thing is, ive been waiting for "the cure" as far back as the 80's and I cant remember a time where there were so many companies actually in human trials working on a treatment and showing hair growth.

I remember minoxidil in powder form or something and propecia was still in clinical trials, but nothing like Histogen, Aderans, Allergan, Replicel, Follica etc etc.

Anyone agree/disagree??????

I agree even the most conservative HT doctors agree that a better therapy will be available within the next 5 to 10 years and that was two years ago.