My Finasteride Story so far...

[Desmond84]

OK guys, here’s my story.

I first noticed my temples thinning around Dec 2011. I was in denial at first but things just kept getting worse. Now, being a pharmacist I knew about Finasteride but with all the horror stories going on at that point I decided I want to stay clear of it.

In a panic mode, I read lots of articles about hairloss and its causes. Websites like livingstrong.com claimed: stress, insomnia, vitamin deficiency, bad diet, etc to be the cause!

I bought into these theories for a few weeks but following their advice didn’t change anything!

So, I tried putting on emu oil, coconut oil and castor oil on my hair every night combined with oral saw palmetto TWICE A DAY for about 2 months and things just kept getting worse.

In a panic mode, I went and bought Minoxidil and applied it ONCE A DAY to start with on my temples (thanks to Tracy suggesting tapering up the dose)…but almost within 2 days of using it, my eyes started getting really sensitive to sunlight, I was experiencing blurred vision and my forehead started to feel really tight as if I had bloating happening under my skin…So after a week, I dropped it and moved on.

By then, I knew I’m only left with one option: FINASTERIDE. It was a scary thought, believe me!

So, I did my research and figured I should start low initially. So, I started taking:

0.25mg every 5 days

Within 2 weeks my shedding started, but also did the sides! My pubic bone above my groin and perineum started to ache pretty much all the time, especially when my bladder was full. I had an intense burning sensation when I urinated. My libido dropped. Testicular pain. Watery semen. Pain after ejaculation. It also felt really stiff down there too! It was no longer loose, but hard and rigid…

All these signs pointed to prostate problems and I knew it’s because I’m shrinking my prostate…It got so bad that I asked my GP to do a urine analysis test which came back as NEGATIVE! There was nothing wrong…no infections, etc…just finasteride shrinking my prostate!

So, I persevered; my libido dropped to an all time low by the THIRD month which really freaked me out! So I skipped it for 2 weeks and everything came back to normal (but so did the shedding).

So, I thought maybe every 5 days is NOT often enough…my DHT levels are swinging from left to right preventing fin from finishing what it started. So I took:

0.25mg TWICE A WEEK (Every Tuesday & Saturday)

By the 6th month, all of my shedding stopped!

By the 8th month, my hair had really thickened up including my temples…for those wondering all LOST hair returned! The pain around my penile area disappeared BUT my libido was still LOW…but I persevered thanks to the advice of Dex and others on BTT…

I am now 9 months and 3 weeks into taking 0.25mg of Finasteride TWICE A WEEK…my hairline is exactly where it was when I started it…my temples are a bit thicker…most sides have disappeared and my libido is almost back to normal.

Now, the product information claims if you hang in there 12 months, most sides should disappear and it may seem to be the case for me anyways…

I kind of feel bad writing this, as I know what Chrisis went through with Finasteride, which totally turned his life around for the worse…Hang in there brother. But I think it is important to share my experience anyway…Believe me I’m not a fin advocate but our options are limited as everybody knows.

At the end of the day, it is your decision and your decision alone. I took it because I didn’t want to look back with regret for not doing something about it when I had the chance!

My advice to those wanting to start finasteride is START low and STAY low. 1mg daily is NOT the holy gospel and luckily with fin you can play with the dose and still get the same benefits…

Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions as well…I’m more than welcome to share it with you…

Cheers,

- Des