10 years on finasteride - the impact!

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This year (where i have just reached the of age 34) marks the 10th year that I have been using Finasteride in one form or another. When I was 24 I had very thick and coarse black hair which I noticed started to fall out in more volume. As I was approaching the age that my dad went bald I researched hairloss on Internet and discovered Spencer's book and, through that, Propecia. I immediately bought a years worth and have been using since without ever missing a day.

Has it worked for me? Hard to say. I still have hair with very little loss at the sides and front. I am thinning in the back but, to be honest, its hasn't progressed as far as I thought it would have 10 years ago.

Its very difficult to tell how much impact the drug has had. My family history with baldness is erratic. My dad was NW 7 by the time he reached 26 and his brother was the same. However my granddad (their father) still had a good amount of hair when he died close to age 80.

Mams dad died with hair and no more males on that side of the family to compare.

I have 2 brothers. Youngest one was almost totally bald by the age of 22 and the other displayed some (but not severe) hairloss by the same age. My brothers are aged 29 and 31 respectively now and the older one has not lost any hair since. He does not take Finasteride or any other hairloss prevention medication.

This brings me to the point of my post. Since my brothers' hairloss hasn't progressed for almost 10 years without the use of medication then maybe I have followed a similar pattern. Despite being the oldest I definitely have the most hair out of the 3 of us. I can't gamble by coming off Finasteride in case my slower hairloss was down to the drug and not natural genetics as in my brothers case.

I really think this plays right into the hands of drugs companies as I will continue to send them money over the long term for a product that may or may not be helping. They advertise Finasteride saying that 9/10 people keep their hair whilst using it. If it works for 9 people then why not the 10th? This creates the feeling of uncertainty regarding effectiveness that I described above. Lets face it... this drug is not cheap (at least not in the UK) and I have spent thousands of pounds over the years.

I guess my question is.... if you are the unlucky 10th person then why does Finasteride not work? Do companies purposefully create this feeling of uncertainty in order to ensure people don't dare stop using the drug in case their hairloss rate speeds up (I'd rather lose hair slowly than rapidly).

Oh well I guess I will never know for sure lol. See you in 10 for my 20 year update!!!