Hi!
[Sorry for the long post but if you are concerned about finasteride side effects, reading is a MUST!]
My name is Marc and this is my first post on this forum. I finally decided to sign up today but I visited this forum a lot during the last year primarily in order to research the male pattern baldness drug propecia. I am 20 years old and have started losing my hair very early - about 2 years ago. About 6 months ago I went to my Doctor and was prescribed propecia but was scared to use it because of all these horror stories on the internet (propeciahelp.com, propeciasideeffects.com, and on hair loss forums...) and never took it.
I had to go to my doctor again because of a bacterial infection (totally unrelated to hair loss) and before I went home, I asked him again about the side effects of finasteride use. He said that he prescribed propecia to many patients and none (really NONE of them) had any problems. I showed him a lot of studies from the previously mentioned websites, especially about mental side effects because of reduced neurosteroid (allopregnanolone, ...) production. He told me that he does not have time to read this all up and said that it was all bullsh*t but if I wanted to know more about this topic, he can tell me the name of another Doctor who knows EVERYTHING about finasteride. So he gave me the name and I went to the door, in order to leave the room. Before I opened the door, the Doctor said "Haha, Allopregnanolone...". When I turned around, he said "by the way, I took finasteride myself for about a decade. No reason to be scared.".
So yesterday I went to this other doctor and I was amazed about how much he knew about finasteride. First of all, he told me that he prescribed propecia to very many people and only one patient had a gyno problem and had to stop using finasteride. He then brought many books documenting finasteride and a lot of studies that have been done regarding side effects. He showed me studies where people in the placebo group had higher incidences of loss of libido and impotence and then he showed me a nocebo study, where people in the group that knew about the side effects had almost 5 times more incidences than the other group who didn't know anything about sides. Regarding the studies I showed him about mental sides, he said that in humans, only 5AR type 1 is present in the brain and spinal chord and the synthesis of neurosteroids takes place there. And absolutely no 5AR type 2 is present there (He showed me this in a medical book). He then explained to me that in 5AR type 1 the neurosteroid production dominates over the T->DHT conversion and in 5AR type 2 the T->DHT conversion not only dominates but it's actually almost the only thing happening that is of use to the tissues containing 5AR type 2. According to him, 5AR type 2 is present only in the prostate, hair follicles and skin and no neurosteroids are produced there. "Do think you need neurosteroids in the prostate ?" he asked me. Well I said no and was pleased to hear that finasteride only inhibits 5AR type 2 (which he also showed me in another book). Many of the studies I showed him were done on rodents and according to the Doctor, 5AR type 1 and 2 is inhibited EQUALLY in rodents with finasteride that's why there was a reduction in neurosteroids and he said: "This does in no way extrapolate to humans who need an extremely high dose of finasteride to inhibit 5AR type 1" (don't remember the number but it was high - hundreds of milligrams as far as I remember. Then he told me that there are some people who think they are smart and take dutasteride for hair loss and he is totally against this thinking these people are a bit crazy. It might be better for male pattern baldness but the sides are more extreme and on dutasteride you most probably will actually get more sides than on finasteride and also serious mental sides are possible. It is also not recommended because of a very long half life and because dutasteride hasn't been researched properly for male pattern baldness. But regarding finasteride and mental effects (brain fog, etc.) I should not be concerned and the sexual sides are also negligible -> they are more psychological as seen in the placebo and nocebo studies. He then told me that he is also taking finasteride and has done so since approval and had 3 healthy kids while he was taking finasteride.
So, when I went home I decided to give finasteride a go and hope my hair loss (Norwood 2.5) will at least stop. I just wanted to share this with you because I was one of the ones that postponed taking finasteride for a long time because of some people who think that they have mental side effects or any other bullsh*t side effect.
(... and no, I don't work for merck and am not selling finasteride...)
EDIT: I no longer believe this -> see page 2.
[Sorry for the long post but if you are concerned about finasteride side effects, reading is a MUST!]
My name is Marc and this is my first post on this forum. I finally decided to sign up today but I visited this forum a lot during the last year primarily in order to research the male pattern baldness drug propecia. I am 20 years old and have started losing my hair very early - about 2 years ago. About 6 months ago I went to my Doctor and was prescribed propecia but was scared to use it because of all these horror stories on the internet (propeciahelp.com, propeciasideeffects.com, and on hair loss forums...) and never took it.
I had to go to my doctor again because of a bacterial infection (totally unrelated to hair loss) and before I went home, I asked him again about the side effects of finasteride use. He said that he prescribed propecia to many patients and none (really NONE of them) had any problems. I showed him a lot of studies from the previously mentioned websites, especially about mental side effects because of reduced neurosteroid (allopregnanolone, ...) production. He told me that he does not have time to read this all up and said that it was all bullsh*t but if I wanted to know more about this topic, he can tell me the name of another Doctor who knows EVERYTHING about finasteride. So he gave me the name and I went to the door, in order to leave the room. Before I opened the door, the Doctor said "Haha, Allopregnanolone...". When I turned around, he said "by the way, I took finasteride myself for about a decade. No reason to be scared.".
So yesterday I went to this other doctor and I was amazed about how much he knew about finasteride. First of all, he told me that he prescribed propecia to very many people and only one patient had a gyno problem and had to stop using finasteride. He then brought many books documenting finasteride and a lot of studies that have been done regarding side effects. He showed me studies where people in the placebo group had higher incidences of loss of libido and impotence and then he showed me a nocebo study, where people in the group that knew about the side effects had almost 5 times more incidences than the other group who didn't know anything about sides. Regarding the studies I showed him about mental sides, he said that in humans, only 5AR type 1 is present in the brain and spinal chord and the synthesis of neurosteroids takes place there. And absolutely no 5AR type 2 is present there (He showed me this in a medical book). He then explained to me that in 5AR type 1 the neurosteroid production dominates over the T->DHT conversion and in 5AR type 2 the T->DHT conversion not only dominates but it's actually almost the only thing happening that is of use to the tissues containing 5AR type 2. According to him, 5AR type 2 is present only in the prostate, hair follicles and skin and no neurosteroids are produced there. "Do think you need neurosteroids in the prostate ?" he asked me. Well I said no and was pleased to hear that finasteride only inhibits 5AR type 2 (which he also showed me in another book). Many of the studies I showed him were done on rodents and according to the Doctor, 5AR type 1 and 2 is inhibited EQUALLY in rodents with finasteride that's why there was a reduction in neurosteroids and he said: "This does in no way extrapolate to humans who need an extremely high dose of finasteride to inhibit 5AR type 1" (don't remember the number but it was high - hundreds of milligrams as far as I remember. Then he told me that there are some people who think they are smart and take dutasteride for hair loss and he is totally against this thinking these people are a bit crazy. It might be better for male pattern baldness but the sides are more extreme and on dutasteride you most probably will actually get more sides than on finasteride and also serious mental sides are possible. It is also not recommended because of a very long half life and because dutasteride hasn't been researched properly for male pattern baldness. But regarding finasteride and mental effects (brain fog, etc.) I should not be concerned and the sexual sides are also negligible -> they are more psychological as seen in the placebo and nocebo studies. He then told me that he is also taking finasteride and has done so since approval and had 3 healthy kids while he was taking finasteride.
So, when I went home I decided to give finasteride a go and hope my hair loss (Norwood 2.5) will at least stop. I just wanted to share this with you because I was one of the ones that postponed taking finasteride for a long time because of some people who think that they have mental side effects or any other bullsh*t side effect.
(... and no, I don't work for merck and am not selling finasteride...)
EDIT: I no longer believe this -> see page 2.