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Bear with me guys, but I've been strongly considering starting finasteride soon although I'm very afraid of the sides. I first noticed my hair loss soon after my 15th birthday; I went through an extremely aggressive and sudden shed in the span of a month or two. Prior to that, I've always had very thick and coarse hair. Eventually, the shed stabilized, but it nearly took out half my density and the shed was in a diffuse pattern all over the top of my scalp, mainly the crown area to the mid scalp region. I don't know what triggered such abrupt hair loss in me at that age. During that time I was very, very stressed, I also visited the dermatologist and they said I had seborrheic dermatitis which I've since treated with ketoconazole (which I still use, along with 5% rogaine foam).
Now in two months I'll be 21, my hair loss has been further progressing throughout the years with further loss of density, and I think it's reached a point I have to incorporate a more potent treatment or else I'll be doomed in 1-2 years. I have bad diffuse thinning all over the top of my scalp. I'd say I'm a norwood 2.5, maybe nearing 3. I've always known about finasteride since the start of my hair loss, but I was so young then so I never took it, despite being sure that I finished maturing physically (I'm very hairy and have been able to grow a beard since my early teens).
The thing is I'm really worried about the side effects of finasteride that can also be permanent, and all the shady stuff I've read about it and Merck. I barely have any sexual experience so I'm worried that if I do take it and end up screwing myself with sexual side effects I'll never know what a proper sexual experience feels like. Have any of you faced this same fear?
Another thing is that I'm overweight, not obese but I need to lose a good chunk of weight/fat off me which I'm working on, and my fat distributes mainly on my stomach and chest; I've always had fat on my chest and now I think that aside from all the chest fat, I may have actual gynecomastia. Knowing that one of the side effects of finasteride is gyno, I'm afraid that it'll make my already problematic chest situation even worse. And does the probability of side effects with finasteride increase due to being overweight? Should I lose some weight first? I also have some anxiety issues so I don't want to convince myself of imaginary nocebo sides. How would I differentiate between possible real side effects and ones due to anxiety? If I do get on finasteride, I plan on starting at 0.25mg every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to see how I react, will that still give me results? Should I get on finasteride? What else can I do? Thank you all for addressing my concerns.
Now in two months I'll be 21, my hair loss has been further progressing throughout the years with further loss of density, and I think it's reached a point I have to incorporate a more potent treatment or else I'll be doomed in 1-2 years. I have bad diffuse thinning all over the top of my scalp. I'd say I'm a norwood 2.5, maybe nearing 3. I've always known about finasteride since the start of my hair loss, but I was so young then so I never took it, despite being sure that I finished maturing physically (I'm very hairy and have been able to grow a beard since my early teens).
The thing is I'm really worried about the side effects of finasteride that can also be permanent, and all the shady stuff I've read about it and Merck. I barely have any sexual experience so I'm worried that if I do take it and end up screwing myself with sexual side effects I'll never know what a proper sexual experience feels like. Have any of you faced this same fear?
Another thing is that I'm overweight, not obese but I need to lose a good chunk of weight/fat off me which I'm working on, and my fat distributes mainly on my stomach and chest; I've always had fat on my chest and now I think that aside from all the chest fat, I may have actual gynecomastia. Knowing that one of the side effects of finasteride is gyno, I'm afraid that it'll make my already problematic chest situation even worse. And does the probability of side effects with finasteride increase due to being overweight? Should I lose some weight first? I also have some anxiety issues so I don't want to convince myself of imaginary nocebo sides. How would I differentiate between possible real side effects and ones due to anxiety? If I do get on finasteride, I plan on starting at 0.25mg every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to see how I react, will that still give me results? Should I get on finasteride? What else can I do? Thank you all for addressing my concerns.
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