Re: 3 years on finasteride and Rogaine (with pics) [new pics on page 5]
I've decided to (re) take the plunge, which I was leaning towards, but this thread was the straw that broke the camels back...
Going to quickly tell my story in case there are others like me, hopefully they can give me feedback (positive or negative)
Noticed hairloss aprox. 1.5 - 2 years ago. Thinning around the vertex, noticeable in some lights, but generally not too bad. Decided then and there to start taking rogaine (easily available) and did research and within a few months was ordering propecia online.
Stopped taking the rogaine, but continued with the propecia for about 9 months or so, noticed no side effects, no increased growth, but no loss either. Around the 9 month mark I saw something about how the fake drug market was a multibillion dollar industry, so I decided it would be best to look into getting a legit prescription to make sure I was on the real deal.
About 7 months ago I got the propecia perscription and began taking it. About a week or so into taking it, I decided on a whim to search "propecia side effects" in google (I had never looked into it before beyond the standard stuff reported by Merck).
After being horrified at what I saw, I began OBSESSING over the potential for side effects and IMMEDIATELY started noticing "sides." I couldn't have sex or masturbate without analyzing how horny I was or how hard my dick was or what the consistency of my sperm was. Naturally, all this obsession led to me basically placebo-ing my way into having sides that may or may not have actually been there. I abruptly went off propecia a few weeks later .
Flash forward 6 months (back on rogaine about 3-4 months ago) and my shedding has gotten much more severe than it ever was. While this could be due to the rogaine, I think it is very likely that I was getting the real deal online all along, and I'm now hitting the point where I'm losing what I should have been naturally losing this whole time.
While people should take the sides seriously, I think that if you do decide to take the plunge, you need to understand that it is VERY possible for you to inadvertently WILL yourself into having sides by obsessing too much. You need to either go for it or don't. That being said, I'm giving it another shot. My hairloss is noticeable, though not OMG noticeable (in casual conversation or at a bar nobody would notice, if you come up behind me while I'm at my desk in a well lit office you'll see some thinning), so I'm a perfect candidate and its really a now or never proposition.
Anyways, I'll let you all know how it goes! All I really wanted to get across in this (my first post) is that the placebo effect can be negative as well!
Oh and Rawtashk I dig your style - lose the blue wristband and snag some wayfarers and you'll really be rocking it.
double edit: Oh and is that a fuckin DEUS EX tattoo? I'm not huge fan of tats but thats kind of badass.
