finasteride for one month--No side effects yet, am I in the clear?

[Souji]

Hi, been lurking for a while but first time poster here.

Was told by a hairstylist last August that I was losing hair at temples and was shocked honestly. I have always had extremely thick hair, and there's no male pattern baldness in my family (although my mother was adopted and has no knowledge of her biological father).

So I started looking around places like this forum, and eventually decided to do my research and find some legitimate generic finasteride online. This was despite being fairly scared of the reports of serious side effects.

I've been taking 1mg daily for exactly one month. As of yet have had no side effects. If anything, libido and sexual performance are improved. No strange pains. It may be a placebo effect but the hair at my temples seems stronger/thicker already.

At what point should I stop worrying about finasteride side effects? If they develop for a guy, do they usually become apparent fairly quickly?

Also: I am around a NW2.5 with no discernible hairloss except at my temples/hairline. I've read that even though finasteride isn't officially meant for hair-loss at the hairline, it is likely helpful at preventing future hairloss there/encouraging possible growth? This is the consensus?

Thanks.

 

[Travalanche]

I've been on finasteride for 8 months and have had no side effects nor remarkable improvement. Here is my experience with the drug. My hair loss is similar to yours it seems so my post should be helpful for you .

First of all I'm a Norwood 2 and 24yrs old.

Month 1, minor testical aches on occasion but that was it for sides, no improvement in hair, still moderate shedding.

Month 2, No side effects, no improvement in hair.

Month 3, Mild reduction in shedding, no improvement in hair.

Month 4, Shedding reduced by around 50%, began to find roughly 25 hairs in the drain instead of the usual 50 or so.

Month 5, Shedding was gone, only a few hairs found in drain, balding seemed to stop and noticed a few small vellus hairs on hairline that weren't there before.

Month 6, A few vellus hairs turned into thin terminal hairs at the temples, fringe is still thin albeit a bit fuller looking.

Month 7, Hairline still looks thin at temples but could nearly pass for a bad Norwood 1 or a very mild Norwood 2, comparing pictures there has definitely been an improvement although it's not amazing.

Month 8, Mostly same as above, it's literally Frozen my hair loss and improved my hair to what it looked like about 2 years ago. It's still clear that some damage was done as the temples are about a third of an inch behind the middle of the front and are still thin but there are smaller hairs there that weren't present or dormant when starting Finasteride 8 months ago that have been reactivated to an extent.

I don't expect my hair to improve much, sure a couple of temple velus hairs have grown into real hairs but only about 20% of them, I can still pull off a fringe like I did in my teens but it looks about 30-35% thinner than it was 8 years ago

I'm just thankful for what I managed to keep, I wish I would have started Finasteride 2 years ago when male pattern baldness set in but I didn't know it existed at the time. And yes, the minor ball aches were the only negative other than the price of the medicine.

And one more thing, I also noticed a mild Libido INCREASE on the medication, same as you. I used to masturbate only 2-3 times a week and now I'm doing it every other day, I don't know if it's due to the medicine or eating healthier but it's there.

Oh and I have missed about 4-5 doses in the time I've been on finasteride due to either late night drinking at the bar or forgetfulness in general but had no negatives, still I wouldn't risk it and have taken 1mg a day religiously other than that so maybe that's why my results have been decent.

And I have to stress that finasteride isn't a miracle cure, I came into this thinking I'd completely reverse the balding process but it's only done maybe 50% of what I expected but a 50% improvement is better than a 1% regression any day.

 

[abcdefg]

Your never in the clear. They could show up 10 years from now after having never had any. There are very few hard and fast rules to most of this its a game of chance.