I Quit Proscar After 7 Months. Need Some Opinions

[loner67]

Hello guys, so I posted back in late February this year, due to my concern regarding my hairloss. This was the older thread; it seems I didn't get too much feedback.
https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...hairline-takes-a-hit-too.120923/#post-1774151
A little resume about me:

Spoiler

- 24 years old, noticed some temple recession on my left side around 22, and became paranoid about it.
- Diagnosed with severe depression
- I've used minoxidil for beard, and it seems to have worked, tho I'm curious if some hair shedding could've been caused by this, since I've been going on and off with it.
- I'm a type 1 diabetic if it matters
- I used to have long hair in 2017, and this is when I noticed shedding.
- I do have balding genes in my family, my maternal grandfather was heading towards a NW4 by 50, not sure about my paternal grandfather. My dad looks like a NW3 but he masks it, he seems to have receeded further in the last 2 years, but he is 64 now. The weird thing is that my brother is 35 years old, but a NW0-1 and his hair is turning gray.

In late February of 2019, I decided to take Proscar(due to the lower price)as I felt that I was in a good position to start this program. I took a quarter of Proscar on 17th of February. The following days I felt a slight increase in my libido. On 26th of February, it seems that my libido dropped all of a sudden, and I woke up with a limp leg. Watery semen was one of the other side effects experienced. So I decided to commit to this as I was looking forward to a great result.
Longer story below

Spoiler

I had a haircut in March, and I was annoyed by how receeded my temples looked(somewhere in the NW2.5 region). I experienced noticeable amounts of hair falling, when I did the pull test, when I would style it, in the bathroom, on my pillow(something like 50 hairs if wouldn't stress, tho it seemed a lot to me).
I was fortunate that my hair would turn curly and I could style it in a way that I can mask the temples. Now I'm wondering if my hair would get so curly after washing it due to the DHT attacking the hairs.
Everything seemed well(except the side effects which I ignored) until the middle of April, when I noticed a decrease in my hair density. My hair went turned flat like all of a sudden, and it was difficult to style.
During the next 2 months, my hair got worse. By June, I was very anxious and barely went outside, I even avoided getting a haircut, and used to wear a cap most of the times, due to my low density in the front. It seems that the front and the left temple got worse.
I noticed that hairs on my hairline were miniaturizing, and I had hairs of different sizes all over.
Fast forward, I decided to cut my hair(by myself) in August, since I used to go out everyday. It didn't seem like a big problem after I shortened the hair.

I quit Proscar on 23rd of August, since I decided that it doesn't work. What was the reason? Well, I felt horny a lot of times, and I couldn't get over my addiction to masturbation. I started wondering if I had reflex hyperandrogenicity. Low key, I used to believe that this was also a reason to hair loss.
By middle of September, I noticed a huge increase in my libido, and my semen turned thick once again. I must say that this made me feel better about myself, but it was unbearable as I got into college, in October. My sex drive went all over the place, which made me masturbate as much as 9 times a day(and I'm not kidding). Guess what happent? My hair loss seems to have accelerated. I'm now approaching the end of November with fear, because I need to do something about it. My left temple and hairline are affected as usual. Notable symptoms include: severe itching, painful hair/left hairline(the affected area) when touched.
I visited 2 dermatologists, and as I expected, both of them seemed clueless, since they couldn't even make the difference between free testosterone and DHT. They made me spend about 100$ on some useless medical tests, while I only needed one thing.
So my result for Testosterone was:
51.68 nmol/l, for adults the normal range is between 4.94 - 32.01 nmol/l
I also did a test for DHT on my own, and it showed the following:
DHT 959 pg/mL(with a raised arrow), the normal range is between 112-955 / pg/mL
Here are some recent pictures

So I bought Propecia this time, as I've read here several times that the generic propecia isn't working. Do you think it makes any difference?

Thanks

 

[Optimistic]

I've never heard of generic propecia not working. It's the same stuff as the original branded propecia. I use Proscar (cut into four, so 1.2mg per day) and have been on it for about 12 years.

Your testosterone appears to be excessive and is evidently contributing to your very high sex drive. I'd have thought that was a handicap in itself, so why would you stop Proscar after just 7 months?

I believe you need to restard Proscar (from a reputable GP) and give it at least a year.

Which country are you based in?

 

[justbeconfident]

you probably need to give duta a shot

 

[loner67]

I've never heard of generic propecia not working. It's the same stuff as the original branded propecia. I use Proscar (cut into four, so 1.2mg per day) and have been on it for about 12 years.

Your testosterone appears to be excessive and is evidently contributing to your very high sex drive. I'd have thought that was a handicap in itself, so why would you stop Proscar after just 7 months?

I believe you need to restard Proscar (from a reputable GP) and give it at least a year.

Which country are you based in?

Well I know that all of them contain the same thing, but there have been several threads here debating the subject(generic vs brand), and I have a few reasons to believe that generic propecia might not work for some.
For example:
https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...according-to-hair-transplant-surgeons.104751/
https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...propecia-to-proscar-with-worse-results.17833/
https://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/threads/switched-from-propecia-to-proscar-major-shed.34801/

I know it's the high testosterone(and thus the DHT building up)that is contributing to my high libido(which is not a bad thing if you're not lonely, not my case tho) but it's also the reason that I shed a lot of hairs when I'm combing my hair, or touching it in general. The itchiness is crazy these days..
I've already bought Propecia but haven't used it yet(since October) but I don't know when(or if) I should start(as if I don't have a reason already). The thing is, this drug is from the same company(MSD) that made Proscar, so why should it work this time?
And I live in Romania.

you probably need to give duta a shot

I've thought about giving dutasteride(avodart)a shot if neither propecia or proscar works. In the back of my head it seems like the last drug that could potentially slow or halt hair loss.

Could you guys give me an opinion on the stage of my hair loss?

 

[Slid]

You still have a pretty good hair,maybe try duta EOD...If you somehow maintain thats a huuge plus.Than you can save up for a transplant just to fix your hairline and you will be NW1.

 

[loner67]

You still have a pretty good hair,maybe try duta EOD...If you somehow maintain thats a huuge plus.Than you can save up for a transplant just to fix your hairline and you will be NW1.

If I could stop further recession that would be good, but to be fair, I might sound greedy but I'm looking to regrow something that's been lost. Let's say in a 6-12 months span. I read here that it's possible to regrow some hairs that were lost recently, aslong as they are still there. I've been obsessed about maintaining my temples for some time now, but it only seems to get worse. Not only that, but my hairline took a hit aswell.
During the last week I had experienced some serious scalp itch-like feeling.

I'll post some pictures here, hopefully it will help

 

[loner67]

Sorry for double posting
https://imgur.com/KOxA7cj

 

[loner67]

I see that this thread has been getting over 300 views, but no more replies. Why so?

 

[Gregor59]

Sorry for double posting
https://imgur.com/KOxA7cj

Wow, finasteride is hit your density.

 

[loner67]

Wow, finasteride is hit your density.

Yeah, it really does seem so. Around the month of June my density(and front) was the worst, I avoided going out a lot and used different techniques to cover the left part of my temples and front. I wore caps a lot at home(yes, at home) because I was obsessed about checking it out everytime.

You know what's funny? When I got my hair checked by a doctor in october, she said that my hair is very dense, and that she saw very few people with greater density(the ones that visited her). Now, this was mainly due to the way that I styled my hair, I had a lot of density on top, but the left temple/hairline was the problem.

However, I'm not quite sure now, as I have a lot of things on my head, but it seems to have gotten better afterwards, or is it me?

Another thing is the shedding during shower, I think the hairs decreased to around 5-10 at most during August(?). And that was if I tried to force-pull them. It's so annoying but I forgot to note this in my "journal", I only kept it in pictures.

 

[Hairs45]

View attachment 132666
Thanks

you didnt need to take finasteride if this was your before picture.

you dont have male pattern baldness