Considering using propecia

General Discussion
#1

  1. Canada

  2. Recommended by someone form Baldtruth forums

  3. 19, 175, 5’9

  4. yes, mostly from hockey

  5. meat eater, avoid fast food, somewhat healthy diet

  6. Have not taken it yet, losing my hair though

So this is my post from the baldtruth forums, someone responded by telling me to ask some of the questions I had here. Thanks Y’all.

Why do you suppose that Fin does in fact work for most people who take it? Does the medical community simply not have a full understanding of its’ mechanisms, and taking it is basically a gamble?

Can there be good and bad candidates for the drug? I mean, would blood tests or hormone tests give a good indication of how Fin may affect a person? If I had to guess, I’d imagine that there is some correlation between a persons original hormone levels before they went on Fin, and what kind of affect it ended up having on their body.

Does easing your way into a Fin regimine make a difference? For example, taking half the reccomended dose every other day.

I just recently starting researching about the drug, and I’m glad there are places online where people can bounce ideas off each other and also provide links to certain studies and scientific evidence.

Here are some of my random theories based on no evidence:

  1. Drastic changes in the bodies hormone levels could be causing some of the long term issues in the body, making certain receptors over sensitive or unresponsive
  2. I noticed from some of the videos I’ve seen of men who had serious problems from propecia, a lot of them weren’t exactly the most masculine of men. I THINK a lot of bald guys tend to be fairly masculine (more muscular, deeper voice, hairy ect.), and maybe Fin does not effect them as much as it does for a less masculine guy who takes it.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you guys can help me out here, I’m a noob with this shit!

#2

This forum is for men with longterm, persistent side effects from the drug. If you are still considering using it despite reviewing this entire website and others out there, pls post on hair loss sites.

That said, I’ll take a few minutes to answer your questions.

It is a gamble in the sense that unfortunately there is no way to know beforehand if you will get such side effects, because there is no test to check for them, or why.

That said, the medical community is discovering the drug does far more than simply lower DHT levels – it’s also been found to be a potent neurosteroid inhibitor, and also potently inhibits the recently discovered 5AR3 enzyme: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5168

Response to Finasteride seems to be based on genetics first and foremost. Scientists are calling for men to be genotyped before initation of therapy to evaluate which drug would be a better fit: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1407

There is a genetic test to check if you will be a good or poor responder from a hair loss perspective (hairdx.com) based on androgen receptor CAG repeats. This won’t tell you if you will get side effects, only if you will respond from a hair loss perspective.

That said, nobody here will advise you to take Finasteride under any circumstances, after what it did to us.

Unlikely, drug has a near flat dose response rate such that 0.25mg, 1mg, 5mg, 10mg inhibit nearly same amount of DHT across the board.

physics.upenn.edu/facultyinfo/frankel/papers/propeciafda2/

While theories may be interesting for discussion, the only way to solve what this drug has done to cause persistent issues will be via research studies in the lab on affected men.

Again, nobody here will recommend you take the drug, especially considering the latest warnings about persistent issues from FDA etc. If you decide to go down this route, pls post on hair loss sites.

#3

Everyone here is messed up bad from it… Absolutely no one on this site is going to reccomend taking it. It has totally ruined my health and my career let alone two past relationships.

If someone from the balding website told you to come here he must have known that we wouldn’t encourage propecia use. I was driven nearly to suicide because of it. I don’t know what else to say. Decision is yours if you decide to take it and get messed up your gonna be regretting it forever, plain and simple.

#4

If you absolutely feel you must take something… go with rogaine. Its available over the counter. It works well enough and I don’t know of any rogainehelp websites.

#5

Friends are there other alternatives like rogaine, nutrifol. mother cells in Mexico. propecia is a curse.

#6

Despite your early hair loss, you are in the fortunate position of not having yet taken propecia and your body is currently young and healthy with nothing interfering with your body’s natural hormonal makeup. Hair loss is nothing compared with gambling with a drug with as yet unknown consequences. All you’d be doing is temporarily putting you hair loss anxieties to one side, but with the potential for much greater, life changing shit on the horizon if your gamble doesn’t pay off. Even if you don’t experience sides whilst on propecia, there is no telling whether you will experience sides after taking the drug, like a lot of guys on this web site. When it comes down to it, the only people that are guaranteed to benefit from you taking propecia are Merck who will very happily take your money whilst not telling the whole truth about potential sides. Have a look at how this drug was discovered and ask yourself if you really want to gamble by inhibiting an enzyme found deficient originally in pseudo-haemaphrodites?

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#7

DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, TOUCH THIS SHIT WITH A 50 FOOT POLE, IT IS A FUCKING POISON, AND THE GUYS ON THE HAIR LOSS FORUMS NEED TO SHUT THEIR FILTHY FUCKING HOLES … AGAIN, IN CASE YOU DID NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT I JUST SAID … DO NOT FUCKING TOUCH FINASTERIDE

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#8

What HE ^ said.

#9

Dude i took two tablets and fucked myself up. I’m prematurely aging at 21. Do not friggin take it!

#10

Are you looking at before or AFTER videos? If they are after think about what that means, balding men taking a drug that inhibits the most potent form of testosterone looking feminine AFTER they take propecia. It’s a feminizing drug to stop the masculine characteristic of androgenic alopecia.

#11

I was at a similar age as you when my hairloss started. I know how you feel. You probably think that hairloss is the worst thing that could possibly happen to you, it’s not! How about not getting your dick up AT ALL? How about looking at a hot naked woman and not feeling any desire at all EVER? How about not feeling anything AT ALL? How about not being able to sleep and relax probably? How about your dick and ball shrinking and becoming numb? How about terrible depression and suicidal thoughts? How about losing any motivation and energy you have? How about loosing a huge part of your muscle mass? How about feminization (is that a word?) of your body? I could go on and on and on. This drug can fuck you up so much that harloss looks like a mild inconvenience.

I’m becoming 30 now and I shave my head completely. And I like it. In hindsight there was never any need to take that poison.

If you want to fight your hairloss, try Rogaine, but don’t risk your health and life happyness by taking this poison!

#12

This is nonsense. Alot of guys here, myself included, where very “masculine” prior to Fin. I had a very high sex drive, put on muscle very easily and maintained it with little effort, had an aggressive personality, etc. and I am among the worst effected on this board. Fin side effects are the result of a genetic predisposition.

#13

Yeah, it’s not that the less “masculine” guys get the side effect. It’s the side effects that makes them less masculine.

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#14

Check out how feminine I was before propecia, surprised I wasn’t named Stephanie I looked so much like a chick.

#15

I appreciate all the responses guys! I am going to explore the alternatives first (Rogain, RU ect.) while doing more research and reading up on the links you provided Mew. Thanks alot!

I got bad skin problems (eczema) which compounds the whole hair loss problem and makes it a lot harder to deal with. My dad and bro shave their head and look good, I’m not so lucky.

#16

Another reason to not take propecia… I, and I’m sure a lot of guys here had zero skin issues before propecia… Now, we can’t shake them. Eczema to some degree on the scalp, neck, forehead.

#17

Hey mew, I read one of the links you provided…,

physics.upenn.edu/facultyinfo/frankel/papers/propeciafda2/

… and it said that

“The change dropped by 60 % for a .05 mg dose and stayed that way for all dosages up to 5 mg. Thus a 20 times smaller dose than PROPECIA had the same effect on the DHT”
and
“Thus the fact that the dosage has been set by the manufacturer at a level far larger than the level measured as necessary for the main function, has not been reported publicly. Yet, the vastly lower dosages, reported in the data submitted to the FDA, would be expected to reduce the chance of side effects.”

I know you said this is a place for people who have had persistent side effects with Propecia to post, so by all means if you rather use your time helping people who are having serious problems, I completely understand.

Obviously the key word is EXPECTED, but seriously, why the hell would these Merck bozo’s recommend such high doses when way lower doses have the same effect on DHT. Aren’t they basically taking a useless risk by doing this?

My original question was “Does easing your way into a Fin regimine make a difference? For example, taking half the reccomended dose every other day.” What I should have said was does it make a difference in your chances of experiencing side effects.

#18

Dan, generally speaking I don’t have the time nor interest to entertain questions from people choosing to use Finasteride for cosmetic purposes, especially considering the recent media awareness and FDA labeling warning updates on the drug which should give you pause for thought.

If you want to take it, that’s your prerogative, and if you do pls post on hair loss sites. If you don’t experience side effects, great. If you do, don’t say you weren’t warned in advance because you will have no recourse, legally or otherwise.

That said, here are some of Professor Frankel’s further thoughts on the matter of his initial analysis and additional incidents after publishing his original article:

physics.upenn.edu/facultyinfo/frankel/medres/propackedit1.htm
physics.upenn.edu/facultyinfo/frankel/medres/propcrapmerck.htm
physics.upenn.edu/facultyinfo/frankel/medres/annaluro4/

As mentioned earlier in this thread, there is NO TEST to determine who is susceptible to potential side effects, only for potential response to the drug from a hair loss perspective. Response to drug seems to be based on genetics. So until there is such a test that can determine who is susceptible to side effects (which may be never), it’s up to you if you want to take the risk of altering your hormones just to stop some hairs from falling out on your head.

As a parting thought, the hairdx.com test would at least tell you if you’ll be a good, average or poor responder for hair regrowth, so you can know in advance if it’s even worth taking the risk based on hair loss response (ie, no point taking it if you’ll be a poor/average responder for hair regrowth… and of course, I would not recommend you take it whatsoever no matter the potential response).

Good luck.

#19

Dan, I can’t believe the amount of attention this thread has garnered. Here’s some much-needed tough love for you and those like you:

YOU’D HAVE TO BE A FUCKING IDIOT TO SEE THE TOPIC HEADINGS ON THIS FORUM AND STILL PLAY RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH YOUR SEXUALITY OVER SAVING A FEW HAIRS. WE’RE MISERABLE IMPOTENT AND/OR BRAIN-FOGGED BASTARDS THAT WISH 1000 TIMES A DAY WE COULD GO BACK IN TIME AND NOT TAKE FINASTERIDE. WE DIDN’T KNOW BETTER. BUT YOU DO. THIS DRUG; DOES NOTHING BENEFICIAL FOR YOUR SEXUALITY OR GENITAL ANATOMY; IT WAS CONCEIVED BY MIMICKING A GENETIC DEFECT THAT PRODUCED HERMAPHRODITES. SHAVE IT AND GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE. I WISH SOMEBODY HAD SCREAMED THIS AT ME A DECADE OR SO AGO. I WOULD HAVE DEFINITELY LISTENED.

#20

Well said Xhorndog.