Is Propecia safe?

[miracleneeded]

I'm glad I came across this forum - I wish I'd studied the threads and done some research before buying my current treatment (Procerin). Anyway, I'm 28, going thin on the crown (mainly) and slightly at the front. I'm hoping that catching my condition early I can maintain and hopefully re-establish my thinning crown.

After reading some threads, I was about to buy some Propecia when I came across this site which made me concerned:

http://www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=20788&name=PROPECIA

Alot of the comments are quite damning - and the side effects are worrying. Being a young(ish) guy, I'm also concerned about my general health and well-being. So my question is - should I be concerned? What are other peoples experiences? Is it safe to use this drug long term?

Any advice much appreciated

 

[jj_24]

I have read this site also. I think it is way overstated. I am 29 and have been taking for almost 6 months. I have not noticed any sides and there are alot of people here that havent either. My derm said he prescribed thousands and only had a couple complaints. If something were to happen just stop taking it and it should correct itself. I think most of those posts are psychosematic responses. Good luck.

 

[Felk]

That site is fear mongering by the looks of it

Many of the side effects are very real (aside from obvious ones such as "my girlfriend recently contracted a strange sickness and i'm concerned it's from propecia..." ) but that site misrepresents the severity, and how common they are.

One that worried me was "detached feeling from the rest of the world" which seemed to come up a few times. I could swear this is happening to me somewhat. It could be what docj007 said - finasteride doesn't only inhibit dihydrotestosterone (dht) but also dihydroprogesterone, which is a neurostimulator, which could be causing brain fog.

 

[blandflabbis]

The only side effects I've ever had were when I first took Propecia it caused some mild acne - the odd spot, but I'd never experienced that before so I'm 90% certain it was caused by Propecia. I stopped taking it as a result though - not because the acne was a problem as it was very mild, but I read an article which said that acne and increased sexual drives were a sign that you had taken the adverse reaction to finasteride that causes DHT levels to rise. I honestly don't know enough about the condition to comment on whether that's accurate or not but I stopped taking it in any case. When I went back on Propecia about 6 months later I didn't experience any acne so I assume it's working correctly.

 

[I_Hate_DHT]

I think it's a safe drug. It not only helped me combat hairloss, but also gave some other benefits.

Be sure to take it always at the same hour.

 

[Petchsky]

You may not have side effects. If you do, you need to consider and decide if you can live with them the rest your life.

 

[The Dangerman]

You must remember the instances of side effects are much lower "in real life" then on this forum. Think about it, if you were prescribed it from your Doctor without ever having come across this site would you search it out to tell people that you had no side effects and kept your hair?

 

[Guest]

You may not have side effects. If you do, you need to consider and decide if you can live with them the rest your life.

Or as long until something better comes out....

 

[miracleneeded]

Thanks for all your replies. After having another good read through the forum, I've decided to take the risk and gain my own experience.

I've decided to start my Regime with Dutasteride, minoxidil (Rogaine Foam) and Nizoral Shampoo. I might be a bit Naieve in my choice about choosing Dutasteride over Propecia (finasteride) - they both seem to do the job (I practicaly flipped a coin between the two). I've actualy only ordered 1 months worth of Dutasteride just in case I do have any immediate side effects. If that months goes ok - then i'll buy a bigger bulk.

Fingers crossed I hope I've started off my regime on the right foot :roll: . I've already taken some pictures, and I'll monitor my progress over the next few months and repost on this forum.

 

[The Dangerman]

I've decided to start my Regime with Dutasteride

I can't work that one out, your scared about taking an FDA approved drug specifially for hair loss, so you decide to take one that isn't approved, and one that I believe trials were stopped for hair loss prevention?

 

[MPBWarrior]

Thanks for all your replies. After having another good read through the forum, I've decided to take the risk and gain my own experience.

I've decided to start my Regime with Dutasteride, minoxidil (Rogaine Foam) and Nizoral Shampoo. I might be a bit Naieve in my choice about choosing Dutasteride over Propecia (finasteride) - they both seem to do the job (I practicaly flipped a coin between the two). I've actualy only ordered 1 months worth of Dutasteride just in case I do have any immediate side effects. If that months goes ok - then i'll buy a bigger bulk.

Fingers crossed I hope I've started off my regime on the right foot :roll: . I've already taken some pictures, and I'll monitor my progress over the next few months and repost on this forum.

i hope u know that there are unknown long term side effects from dutasteride and that it's a much more powerful drug than finasteride.

 

[miracleneeded]

As I said, I've decided to gain my own experience and take the risk.

With regards to dutasteride, there's seems to be plenty of people talking about it and using it in this forum and other forums, which is why I thought it was worth a chance. It's also Licensed on the UK NHS http://www.nyrdtc.nhs.uk/docs/nde/NDE_58.pdf and these sites say it is FDA approved (are they missleading?):
http://www.fda.gov/cder/foi/nda/2001/21319_Duagen.htm
http://www.dutasteride.com/

Do you have any links about why the trials for hair loss with dutasteride. were stopped? ... I'd be interested to read them.

I'm still very open to any suggestions / advice. I only bought 30 days worth of dutasteride., so it's no big loss if someone *strongly* recomends me to go the Propecia route instead.

 

[Guest]

Nobody knows why the trials for hair loss were stopped. There is only speculation surrounding this topic. Some say that trials were simply too expensive or not worth the money. Id

 

[The Dangerman]

With regards to dutasteride, there's seems to be plenty of people talking about it and using it in this forum and other forums, which is why I thought it was worth a chance. It's also Licensed on the UK NHS

It has only been licenced for prostate issues, not hairloss. I'm not suggesting you should not go on dutasteride if that's what you want to do, I was just suprised that your concerned about finasteride, but not about dutasteride. Logic suggests that's arse about face.

 

[The Dangerman]

Nobody knows why the trials for hair loss were stopped. There is only speculation surrounding this topic. Some say that trials were simply too expensive or not worth the money. Id

I find that hard to believe, since the hairloss market is potentially worth billions, though as you say, it's all speculation.

 

[justin]

I think it's a safe drug. It not only helped me combat hairloss, but also gave some other benefits.

Be sure to take it always at the same hour.

wait, what "other benefits?"

and what do you mean "be sure to take it always at the same hour?" i generally try to take it in the morning, sometimes i sleep late and take it in the afternoon... is a couple of hours difference everday really that big a deal? i was actually wondering about this.. i was hoping it was more a suggestion just to get a routine going.

 

[haunted-ballroom]

I think it's a safe drug. It not only helped me combat hairloss, but also gave some other benefits.

Be sure to take it always at the same hour.

wait, what "other benefits?"

and what do you mean "be sure to take it always at the same hour?" i generally try to take it in the morning, sometimes i sleep late and take it in the afternoon... is a couple of hours difference everday really that big a deal? i was actually wondering about this.. i was hoping it was more a suggestion just to get a routine going.

If it was that big a deal, it would say so in the instruction book which (on mine anyway) it doesnt.

 

[I_Hate_DHT]

I think it's a safe drug. It not only helped me combat hairloss, but also gave some other benefits.

Be sure to take it always at the same hour.

wait, what "other benefits?"

and what do you mean "be sure to take it always at the same hour?" i generally try to take it in the morning, sometimes i sleep late and take it in the afternoon... is a couple of hours difference everday really that big a deal? i was actually wondering about this.. i was hoping it was more a suggestion just to get a routine going.

I have had some kind of infection near my pubis area, for 5 years. Very hard itches, sometimes i could not sleep. Never ever went away in those 5 years, no matter what cream I used. I tried everything, also corticoids. 1 month after starting propecia it went away, and never came back. It was due of propecia, period. Even docs say so. I didn't ank them why that happened, but if there is a Doctor here, maybe he could help too. I also don't know what was the name of the infection. And i don't know if it's correct to call it infection. Since my english is still very basic, trying to explain this, will lead to more confusion, lol.

(before someone tells me "show studies about that!"... I will tell you that im talking about my own experience. I know people here will immediately demand a study to backup this. I don't care. If you can't believe another human's experience, then chill out and ignore my post)

Also, about the hour thing, i was refferring to not take 1 pill at 8 pm, and the next day take it on 10am... In my case, this gave me a lot of acne. When I respected the times, got no acen anymore. Of course that taking it at 8pm and next day on 6pm, is ok..

Cheers.

 

[I_Hate_DHT]

Ohh.. and there is another benefit.. but I preffer to not explain it in public, since someone talked about it before here, and people started doing jokes about it.

So, I don't want to feed people's daily sarcasm needs. Specially here, that is an American forum, and Americans are hardly serious about anything in forums.

Cheers.

 

[NYVic20]

That site also kept me away from taking Propecia for 3 months until I took the plunge. I am wondering now, if that site is real or made up by some anti finasteride nut lol. Some of the claims on there are outrageous. You don't have to worry about taking Propecia; it's FDA approved and its been out for a long time now. The majority don't experience any side effects , only a few (according to wiki , its around 20%) and usually they go away after your body gets used to having low dht circulating. In terms of using Dutesteride over Finasteride, I think people would agree with me that its better to first start on Finasteride and see if that helps and if it doesn't , then make the switch to Dutasteride since Dutasteride is more powerful than Proscar which is 5x the dosage of Propecia and thus contains a much higher risk of sides.
Also, the "official" reason why GSK decided to stop the FDA trials was because people wouldn't be able to differentiate between Dutasteride and Finasteride and now that I think of it, its somewhat true, because I don't think the majority of Propecia users know what the hell their taking or how it works because if they did, the Propecia line would have went out of business, because of the fact that you can buy Proscar for almost half the cost (and sometimes have your insurance also cover some of the cost) and split them into quarters.