Are there any longitudinal studies on finasteride?

[TheHandsomeLurker]

I haven't found any, but I thought y'all might have sources.

I'm looking for studies which follow people who take finasteride for hair loss over ten or more years. I'm curious about this because, as a lot of you probably know, finasteride got its FDA safety approval for treating old men with prostate issues. Given that it works by messing with your endocrine system, I'd love to see data on what that does to a young man over twenty or so years -- so far as I can tell, there isn't any data on the topic.

Alternatively, I'd love to get input from anyone who's been on finasteride for a really long time. Did you get any of the side effects (depression, sexual dysfunction, etc)? Basically hair > no hair, but ability to have sex >>> hair.

 

[abcdefg]

This was 10 year study. I think that it the longest, but honestly I mean that is a long time we will probably have a few much better treatments 10 years from now anyways so I think chances are tiny you would ever be on it 10 years from now. Okay a different forum I guess is blocked out when I pasted that link but just google finastasteride 10 year study.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1529-8019.2011.01441.x/abstract

 

[TheHandsomeLurker]

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to modify that link -- is it to relevant information?

 

[XXXXXXX]

http://tinyurl.com/mr3p82t

 

[Valiant]

hair loss, are you thinking about starting finasteride? I could not tell from your regimen. I was on it for a long time and my endocrine system got really screwed up after I quit.

 

[XXXXXXX]

Well you're playing with your hormones so cant expect anything good to happen. Its the price you have to pay to have hair.

 

[abcdefg]

I think given how much is not understood and how complex it all it is the motto of do no harm is a good one to live by. Is it worth creating a health condition for a cosmetic problem? I would argue no its not and long term its hard to imagine after 10+ years nothing bad could possibly happen doing that. If you cant tell my vote is wait another year or two for a safe topical AA. Maybe try topical spironolactone for now

 

[hbarley8]

Been on finasteride for 13 years and have never experienced side effects. It certainly maintained my hair level based on comparison to ally relatives.

But who knows maybe I have cancer.

 

[abcdefg]

Propecia proved two thing that androgens are very critical by themselves, and male pattern baldness can be majorly impacted solely at the androgen level. The issue is why is hair sensitive to those androgens and can we stop them topically with a good enough vehicle to make these dangerous internal drugs obsolete? I take issue taking any internal drug long term because I just dont think good is going to come from it and I dont think its as simple as what we know so far on what DHT really does.

 

[TheHandsomeLurker]

hair loss, are you thinking about starting finasteride? I could not tell from your regimen. I was on it for a long time and my endocrine system got really screwed up after I quit.

I'm considering adding it to see what might happen, but if the anecdotes are really due to the drug, then I'd conclude that it's just not worth it -- if there is a one in one thousand chance that it will leave me impotent or otherwise sexually dysfunctional, I'd rather just be bald.

I also noticed that the longitudinal study notes about a 6% side effect rate without saying what those side effects are.

 

[GoodToBeRich]

Finasteride is a funny drug. It seems like side-effects, if any, vary so much between individuals. I took it about three years ago for over a year, with no noticeable side effects. I started it up again about three months ago and have been fine until a few weeks ago when I started getting palpitations, and was just very uncomfortably aware of my heartbeat all the time. I assumed it was the minoxidil, but laying off of that for a week did nothing. The last thing in my regimen that I thought it could be was the finasteride, because of my past experience with it. I continued eliminating one thing at a time in my regimen, but wasn't seeing an improvement. I finally dropped finasteride five days ago and I'm finally noticing my heartbeat returning to normal. I've found a few other rare cases with side-effects like this online. Weird.