Hi all.
I’ve been reading this forum and educating myself about Finasteride for a couple of months now.
I’ve done this because I have a hair loss problem, and decided to start Propecia in the future to combat it.
Now before you jump to reply that this forum is restricted to people with unresolved finasteride-induced sides, please keep reading.
Hair loss is an emotional problem to me, and it affects my life greatly on a daily basis.
I do understand I can get far worse if I undergo this treatment, but I also know that I wouldn’t forgive myself to go bald because of fear of trying a FDA approved treatment.
You never appreciate what you have until u lose it. Even some of you who recovered, started concerning more about hair loss again.
So this is my decision.
So for me and for other people in this same situation, I’d like to know what you think it’s the most cautious way to take Propecia.
So far, I’ve taken hormone blood tests to register my pre-Fin state.
My plan is to start with 0.25mg daily and work my way up to 0.5mg daily. I’ll do this in order to minimize side effects. (Despite the drug having a fixed response ratio, some users reported less side-effects with this).
I also take a Zinc supplement for some time now. I’ve read somewhere that Zinc is somewhat useful to prevent aromatise of testosterone into estradiol. By keeping this supplement, do u think it will be helpful?
Also, I’ve read that some people who start to have breast sensitivity try to use Dim to combat it.
Anyway, based on my concerns, my doctor recommended that I take hormone tests every month in the first 3 months of taking Propecia.
I’m not sure what changes in hormones should I be looking for.
I know that a 10-15% increase in testosterone is normal. What other changes should be considered normal, and others that would raise alarm?
I hope this forum can support me also, as I plan to post my Pre and Post Finasteride hormone blood tests.
I’m assuming you’re in your twenties? If so, then be known it affects twenty year olds pretty hard (as there are quite a few members in their twenties such as myself). With that in mind, why so quick to use Propecia? While this is not a hair loss forum, and for good reason, it should be noted that there are other products out there that you can use for hair loss. Have you tried Nizoral? Have you tried Rogaine? Those have worked very well for men and without risking their sexual function.
The general consensus will be to not take this drug, because even if you are among the fortunate ones who do not experience side effects, (and you’re attempting to play it safe by lowering dosage, take zinc, etc.), why take the chance of losing your sex drive, messing with your brain, and damaging your reproductive organs?
I know this is not what you want to hear, and that you’d like advice to help minimize side effects while you use Propecia, but this is not that forum. The majority of us were in the same boat with hairloss–that’s why we took Propecia–we loved our hair. So too, do you love your hair. But as mentioned there are other, safer and effective alternatives that won’t risk your sex drive. No hostility intended towards you, because I can certainly relate to your situation; however, this forum was created for people trying to recover from finasteride usage–not to support others who are wanting to take a risk and use Propecia.
Hope this helps, and I’m sorry to hear about you being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
you should first try minoxidil
if that does not work try laser therapy , i have heard good things about it
that is proper clinic laser treatment and not home based hair brush type as the hair brush is not as powerful as the clinic based
However, this is exactly the kind of answers I’m not looking for.
I won’t argue about other hair loss treatments here.
I also don’t wish to be persuaded not to undergo this treatment.
I’m sure that you understand that even after reading horror stories and scientific facts, many (if not most) men still decide to take Propecia.
If this forum is really intended to help people, I would like to take the oportunity to get some expert advice.
Even Mew said to exerce extreme caution for those considering Propecia. That’s the reason why I paid about $150 for my hormone blood tests. This forum is the reason.
for sure,u can do what u need…but I just want to add a comment to try to save ur life…
now my life all is messed up,really messed up…I often think to suicide,but it is not a psycological issue,it is because my body is fucked up and I often think how life and health are important;
they are the most important things to respect in ur life and I also think that if I could go back to my health , I would appreciate my life, I would enjoy it because hair loss is not a real problem…(for everyone on here it was,that’s why we took propecia) but… it’s clear u don’t know what we are talking about,u don’t know what hell is going on whit us,if u knew,believe me,u wouldn’t take propecia…but it’s like this…
untill u don’t get trouble about something,u 'll never understand the lesson.
You may have done that, but if this was strictly hormonal I’m thinking we would be able to reverse this. I’m sure someone on this forum would have undergone successful hormone therapy and had their sex lives restored if all we needed to do was enhance our hormones and fix what Propecia set askew. My point is, we don’t have all the answers, so why put yourself in our shoes?
I’m trying not to seem ungrateful, but none of you actually answered my questions in the original post. (although maybe only Mew can comment on those)
You’re just anti-marketing this drug.
I appreciate your alarms but as I’ve wrote, I’ve been reading this forum for a couple of months now. So I read your stories. Some had indeed successful hormone therapy. Others have recovered on their own. I even recall Mew saying he has recovered up to 80-90%.
And it seems ED drugs work very well for most of you.
I think people here took 1mg/day. Also many ignored the side effects, or went back to the drug after discontinuing. And for a few this is indeed psychological.
So I’m trying to minimize the risk.
I do believe there’s a risk involved, but I can’t really be moved not to try a treatment that has been FDA approved. The risk is way too small for me to feel depressed everyday to see my hair loss worsen.
As harsh as this sounds, I will feel no sympathy for you if you end up like us. If I would have actually known about the side effects that can come from this drug before I took it, I wouldn’t have gone near it. Sexual dysfunction can be horrible, but when your brain shuts down and you have crushing anxiety every waking hour and can’t sleep or feel content and relaxed, THAT is the killer.
Have fun dude. Your about to make the worst decision of your life.
I’m sorry, but the only questions I could find from your original post relate to “what changes I should make to minimize side effects?” and “should I keep these supplements?”. Yes–Keep the supplements, Zinc is a good supplement to take regardless of if using propecia. Changes that should be made to minimize side effects? Don’t take Propecia. Have you tried other alternatives? It sounds like your mind is set on using Propecia without actually having tried other, effective treatments. Which, oh by the way, the FDA also approves of treatments like Minoxodil.
Look, I understand you really like your hair. Most of us did–or else we wouldn’t have taken Propecia. It’s pretty simple. But since you’ve been “reading this forum for a couple of months now”, then you should be aware of the fact that our hair loss is an irrelevant issue when dealing with mental problems, sexual dysfunction, and other side effects young men should NOT be dealing with.
You seem to think that a lot of guys here have gotten successful hormone treatment, “some guys”, implying that it is a substantial amount, but what facts do you have to back this up? Plenty of people here have tried using Clomid and/or Nolvadex/Arimidex, and to no avail, they are back at their original problems. Also, you do realize that once you start TRT, you’ll most likely have to stay on it for the rest of your life. Why take the risk of being a 20-30 year old having to do hormone therapy (which is expensive and not neccessary), if you can avoid it from happening? And as for Mew recovering 80-90%, if I can successfully recall his story without going back and reading it (I’m getting ready for Chemistry), he recovered a bit for a short while, then crashed (as many other men on this forum have). But he can speak for himself, should he choose to do that.
Trying to speak for other members on the board is a bit offensive. “some took 1/mg a day and ignored the side effects.” Of course most of us took 1 mg or 1.25 mg a day–our doctors prescribed it to us that way. The FDA approves of this as the standard dosage. That’s right, the very organization you keep seem to quoting to merit your use of Propecia is the same organization that says it’s safe. In reality, 1 mg of Propecia has the same effect as .25mg of Propecia–so slowly incrementing the dose is invalid.
And oh by the way, do you know how many drugs the FDA has approved and subsequently pulled from the market after safety issues were reported? Answer is a lot. Here’s an article that I found just by typing in 'FDA Approved drugs Pulled from Market", washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co … 00958.html.
The FDA has failed American citizens plenty of times in the past, and they are not the most reliable organization.
So go on and take the drug, and I wish you luck in not being a member of the unfortunate ones who’s lives are more or less ruined by this poison. Odds are it won’t affect you like that, and if it does, you’ll recover. If you don’t recover, then this place is for you and we’ll be here to try and offer support and insight to this problem.
In the meantime, however, I’m sure a lot of guys would appreciate if you don’t generalize their problems as being “psychological” or “ignoring the side effects”, as if to imply we are irresponsible. You understand why it may seem offensive.
The most important question i wanted answered was: “I know that a 10-15% increase in testosterone is normal. What other changes should be considered normal, and others that would raise alarm?”
You missed it in my original post.
Very briefly:
FDA isn’t perfect alright. But it is what we’ve got.
One of the requirements for a HT is your tolerance to Finasteride.
Writing “psychological” in this forum is like screaming bomb at an airport. I didn’t imply anything. Read again.
Minoxidil doesn’t halt hair loss.
It seems hard for people not to get off-topic here. You expect me to follow your words, and get angry with me when I don’t. It’s much like religion.
I do appreciate as I believe you’re trying to help me, but honestly, I think every pill has rare side effects (anti-depressants cause impotence, nimed kills people, viagra causes blindness, etc…)
And women take birth control pills that messes with hormones everyday.
And I responded – Gave you a list of bloodwork, Estradiol levels, androgen/estrogen ratio… and here’s some other metabolites/ratios to keep an eye on, since you will be inducing a state that matches the hormonal profile of a 5AR2 deficient pseudohermaphrodite: propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=658
As for me recovering 80/90%, nowhere did I state such a thing. I briefly recovered for 5 days 2 weeks after quitting, yes, but from that point forward everything came crashing down. The only other point at which I experienced anything “major” in terms of a semi-recovery was when I had some sort of Norwalk virus for 2 days and my balls and penis blew back up again and I had a return of SOME libido (ie, maybe 40%). Those gains quickly disappared after the virus was finished with me. It has now been 3 yrs off the medication and things have not reversed.
I’d urge you not to take this medication but since you want to play russian roulette with your life, no matter how “rare” the chances are of side effects, then go ahead. For the rest, I’d ask that you stop responding and getting inflamed over his comments, he has clearly made his choice and should anything negative come of it, he’ll have to deal with it then.
HHmmmm changes that could be considered normal?
Normal is the way your hormones are now!
Fina works on dht, estrogen, testosterone dont know if you will see an increase though.
Keep an eye out for prolactin, lh and fsh and all the others for that matter.
I think you are asking questions we cant answer, if we could we would not be here, best thing to do is find the differences when your on in case you will get sides.
The body is complicated and very delicate in its processes.
