Fina seems to accelerate my male pattern baldness
- Thread starter arnoldd
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give it 1year, quit now it's not a good decision.
i still hope is a shedding and hair will come back..
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Same thing happened to me. I really think there should be a sticky on this, an idiot's guide to finasteride, because I don't think many that start finasteride are aware that it can cause significant and irreversible hair loss. I think the guys that are worse off on finasteride are the ones who are losing hair with low levels of androgens but greater follicular sensitivity to them and finasteride just causes a massive AR upregulation that ends up speeding up hair loss. Everyone that wants to try finasteride should start at .25 mg for a year, because although it's a small percentage of men that have a bad reaction, you don't want it to be you, trust me, and I think .25 mg might mitigate a bad reaction, but I could be wrong. I thought I was depressed when my hairloss started but taking a drug that's supposed to help that ends up doing way more harm, that's a whole nother level of suck.
throwaway592845
Member
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Has this effect (finasteride performing worse than placebo/no treatment) ever been observed in a study?
Spagolli74
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I've taken it for 12 years. It's been great for my hair and I've had no side effects at all. But now I've heard the horror stories on propeciahelp.com and am not sure if I should quit or stay on it forever.
KO21
Established Member
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That's great news. Glad to hear from a long timer user having success. Care to elborate on your story? What Norwood you were when you started. What you are now. Overall thoughts and opinions.
Spagolli74
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Not sure what you mean by Norwood? Are you asking my age? If so, I was like 29 when I started and I'm almost 42 now. That said, I've developed a bunch of bad habits over the years. I'm a bit of a stimulant junkie and am worried about issues with hypertension, even though I don't have hypertension when I'm not on stims. Anyway, I recently had a bit of a scare and decided it was time to grow up and act my age. I set a goal to get clean. No more nicotine gum. No more ephedrine. No more 5 cups of coffee per day. I just want to remember when normal, steady, healthy energy feels like. So, while I'm at it I decided to look into the best way to stop taking Propecia. Although I have a full head of hair and zero sides, I'm sick of taking a pill every day for vanity reasons. I'm almost 42 and am okay with shaving my head again some day.
But, in searching for the best ways to quit Propecia, I've come across some horror stories. I'm learning that long-term users (with no previous side effects) are suffering an endocrine crash weeks after quitting the drug, resulting in irreversible sexual side effects, leading to depression, anxiety and more. I'm wondering if I should taper off of it? Or perhaps it's safe for me to just stay on it. I've had zero side effects, so why fix it if it's not broke? Then again, the idea of staying on a drug for the rest of my life isn't too appealing.
I'm not sure what to do. Any other long-term non-side effect users quit successfully? If so, how? Cold turkey? Taper off?
Also, I'm wondering how much of it might be mental. If you lack the confidence to get hard, you're not going to get hard. I've had bouts with stage fright long before I ever took propecia. Nothing was physically wrong with me - rather I wasn't comfortable in the situation. I thinking that a good portion of this whole PFS thing might be the placebo effect. Guys are worried about having issues, so it becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I'm guessing my best bet is to come off very slowly and have lots of sex with my beautiful girlfriend to keep my confidence high and hopefully avoid this scary endocrine crash I keep reading about?
lickawrist
Established Member
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Norwood is the Norwood Scale--a universal graphic that rates severity of hairloss on a scale of 1-7; 1 being none to minimal hairloss and 7 being total baldness on the vertex and frontal part of the head.
I'd imagine that if you were on a drug for a decade and quit cold-turkey, there would be some dire consequences. I would assume that taper off the drug is the best course of action. Then again, I dont take finasteride, so don't take my word for it.
The same thing happened to me, but please stick with it! I am only on 9 months and all of ot came back, plus more. Now I am just waiting for the density to come back (Had Telogen Effiluvium or however you spell it, pretty much stopped at this point).
It was weird at first and I wanted to quit too because my hairline receded and my temples disappeared, and I got a bald spot on the back of my head, but remember that hairs that are sensitive to dht can shed when you begin using finasteride, and everyones hair grows back at different rates.
It was weird at first and I wanted to quit too because my hairline receded and my temples disappeared, and I got a bald spot on the back of my head, but remember that hairs that are sensitive to dht can shed when you begin using finasteride, and everyones hair grows back at different rates.