Question for newbies - what made you take propecia recently?

General Discussion
#1

Hi guys

I’m not sure if this thread should be in Questions or General…

Anyway, it is a question I’d like to ask guys who succumbed to side effects having taken propecia in the recent past.

I started propecia in the late 90s. I’d like to believe that I would have been savvy enough to have done some homework and scouted about online if I was only starting to lose my hair now. My question is, with so much more evidence (anecdotal and hard science) out there as to how damaging propecia can be, how is it that you made the judgement call to still take it? Was it that you’d need to look to find it and that your doctor was also ill-informed, offering reassurances? Or that you had your own reasons for not believing the dissenting voices and kind of went along with the guys on the hairloss forums that portray us as pussies and cranks, or money chasers? Or that you believed the literature regarding the low odds of acquiring permanent sides? Or that you have such an emotional investment in your hair that your risk taking becomes clouded?

I ask all this because fundamentally I believe that when there is an emotional investment in something guys will take the risk no matter what the warnings. That’s why I feel it should be banned. I can’t help but feel slightly incredulous when another victim pops up on this site when so many others have been suffering for years and I only wished that the same knowledge existed when I popped my first pill.

Anyone willing to share their own thought processes?

#2

I was like you. Started it in 2003. It wasn’t in my mindset yet to reseaech stuff on the Internet. But we live in a world where we trust doctors. Nobody thinks a pill they prescribe will hurt them more or less destroy their lives. It is one of those lessons I ask myself where I didn’t learn it growing up. For as many of us that got screwed by pill pushing docs I am sure thousands of docs, even unaware of its harms, encouraged patients not to use a cosmetic drug. So for the newbies who respond yeah we wonder why you didn’t research but PFS is an indictment on the entire system. If only my doc said she thought propecia were the finest drug ever created, but that all people should do their research before popping, it may have saved me. But when they discuss side effects and guarantee you it is safe, it takes a special person to really smell at rat. We all needed help making the right decision at a moment so vital to our safety but not to our fault this move was encouraged by doctors. So even those just starting fin today, they got it by prescription from a doctor who assured them it was fine.

#3

When I started taking it, there was some awareness about the potential threats- of course I found propeciahelp only after i got pfs… But, yeah, there definitely was a huge emotional investment, I was the ‘happiest guy’ on the earth after discovering finasteride and high probability that I will save my hair. Basically, at the time, I was much more naive and stupid, and was literally thinking something like… If it really can cause serious damage, there is no way, it would be allowed on market, and even be fda approved. Every drug has that famous 2% side effects population etc.
It reassures me that people do not look for facts, but only for facts that confirm their belief…
Yeah, i was young and very very naive…

#4

I decided not to use it 1000 times. But it doesn’t matter how many times you decide not to use it, it’s still there. And in a short period when you aren’t thinking like yourself you may make a decision you normally wouldn’t.

Beyond that, I read the clinical trials and rationalized that I take bigger risks everyday. That isn’t inaccurate either. Driving, for example, is ridiculously dangerous. Snowboarding, etc. Anything can harm you. Obviously… I have a more cautious perspective on that now.

Until something bad actually happens, people are not afraid of what they consider remote risk. Look at how many people smoke.

#5

For similar reasons I suspect, going bald young felt like a theft of youth but now have far bigger problems to worry about. I now shave my head bald voluntarily and hoping to rectify this mess but it is a big ask.

#6

You realize no one believes this. The vast majority of Doctors think this medication is fine. Even after all this shit… I was offered this drug by another doctor. He said it will help you with your hair and keep your prostate small. I just heard a commercial on the on the radio for super beta prostate. They said its as powerful as 100 saw palmetto capsules. I wonder how many poor bastards got screwed by that. Those impacted by this are the only ones that really know the full extent of its damage. I could never have imagined such a fate in my worst nightmare. I think some of us were just biologically doomed by touching this shit.

#7

exactly ^

#8

I honestly dont think dictors are ignorant to the dangers of drugs. Writing prescriptions is the foundation of modern medicine. None of realized how much they could fuck us up. Now that we are in this mess, we are learning how unspecial we truly are. Lots of non propecia folks just like us. Some worse. Many dead. My doctor told me often we don’t know side effects till down the road. I told her that info would have come in handy when she recommended it. Then thanks to propublica I see her office brought in 250k last year from drug companies. Woops.