New to hair loss and terrified of Finasteride. My story.

[capitan]

Notcool, nah I am not taking the propeciahelp stuff to heart. I am not saying that a lot of these guys are making up their side effects, but the reality is Propecia is a very safe drug if you look at the stats. Ever take Aspirin? Cause you are playing with fire with that drug too. EVERY drug ever approved by the FDA has potential side effects.

I am sure there are a lot of guys though that have sides and it REALLY is all in their head. I should know, diagnosed hypochondriac here. If you tell yourself enough times that you have colon cancer, a brain tumor or anything from the symptoms of a cold, in time you will develop symptoms of those serious illnesses.

I feel confident in the fact that the hair surgeon that prescribed me finasteride said he has over 3500 patients on finasteride and out of all of them he had take 3 of them off the drug. 1 because he had a liver issue that is unrelated and cant take any drugs of any kind because of it. The other 2 because of sexual side effects that they couldnt handle. One recovered within a month of being off the drug and the other just chose to lower his dosage to .5mg ed and his sides went away. So really out of 3500 patients ONE guy had side effects he couldnt manage and so got off the drug and he recovered.

He also said that when all the lawsuits against Merck started happening he met with a group of over 150 other doctors that are part of the ABHRS and he said NONE of the doctors had a patient that ever reported permanent/persistent long time side effects from the drug.

I've learned a lot in the past from my bouts of hypochondria and I know not to give into fear mongering anymore. Ill look at the facts and then try. Cause if Finasteride doesnt work for me or I get unmanagable sides... At least I can say I did all I could.

Did your doctor mention how many went bald despite being on Propecia?

That's the only thing I'm worried about.

[Gordknight]

He said that with all the patients he has had they have all at least maintained.

[capitan]

Hell yes. Good news. Thank you.

[Gordknight]

I found the best way to go about it, is to take the minimum effective dose for you. Try it for at least 6 months. Dont worry or think about sides. Just go about your day. If after 6 months to a year you don't see any results or are still losing hair up the dose.

It has been shown in studies that finasteride at a .25 dose is only like 7-10% less effective than .5 and 1 mg. I also hear people still get great results on .25mg and report less side effects.

But everyones body is different. Some guys are on 1mg for 15 years and have no problems at all. Others have extreme sides from that dose. Just start small and work your way up the ladder if you have to. If you get what you want out of .25 then I see no reason to go higher ever.