Concerns About Finasteride? Please Help?

[Kino14]

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.

 

[baba_yaga]

It all trickles down to how much you want to keep your hair. Some get sides, while most dont. But the majority will keep their hair for years.

As for your plan, I dont recommend it at the start. 0.25 mg inhibits approximately the same % of DHT as 1 mg. And taking it 3 times per week (not continuously) will lead to fluctuating hormone levels, which may induce Telogen Effluvium. Start off by taking 1 mg per day, then, after 2-3 months, you can lower the dosage a bit.

 

[Kino14]

Bump

 

[Unacknowledged]

Some say taking finasteride 3 times a week is as good as daily. I would start with 0.25mg 3 times a week. You can always increase it.

 

[Cancervive]

Start with a topical finasteride asap! There are studies that show lower scalp DHT levels when using topical vs oral.

 

[INT]

Safest way to take finasteride: microdose topically and slowly increase dosage. Start with 1 mg in 60 ml, increase to 1,5 mg to 60 ml and in month 3 you put 2 mg in 60 ml. Increase dosage til you feel sides but no need to get more than 0.5 mg 3 times a week.

 

[Anatoly]

1) do your research: finasteride at 5mg and dutasteride at 0.5-5mg side effects profiles have been throughly compared; dutasteride is better tolerated despite being more potent, there're very complex processes involved and a simplistic logic 'more potent = more sides' doesn't work here; all statistical data are publicly available..
2) you do not need to be concerned about weight loss before starting this therapy: finasteride and dutasteride (to a greater extent) raise your testosterone, which in turn facilitates fat loss and muscle gain; check your T level - if it is substantially lower than the upper limit of the normal range - this is actually one of the likely causes of excessive fat in males; increasing a male's T helps weight loss
3) I have little knowledge with respect to the miscrodoses you're considering;