Long Term Effectiveness Of Finasteride?

[Funkymonk1]

Apologies if people have seen this 10 year study on finasteride before but I found it interesting especially as some people seem to doubt finasterides ability to subdue DHT in the long term.
https://www.hgspecialist.com/resources/product-files/files/Finasteride-10-year-follow-up.pdf

Anyone been on finasteride for more then a couple of years? What was your experience?

 

[abcdefg]

Finasteride doesnt just stop inhibiting DHT one day 15 years later. The issue has always been why are hairs sensitive to DHT at all? Hamilton has proven to us as men age sensitivity to the same levels of androgens continues to increase. Older men injected with androgens go bald faster than younger men with same levels of hormones.
The sensitivity keeps increasing as you age, and after 10,15,20 years the sensitivity is enough to progress male pattern baldness despite the lower DHT. The sensitivity issue never goes away
Anyway I wondered too what is the average amount of time a normal user takes finasteride before quitting?

 

[Retinoid]

According to Merck, after 5yrs 65% of the people taking Propecia did not lose hair. After 10yrs I would assume it would be probably around 30%.

 

[Funkymonk1]

Again though read the article - This is a quote from it;
"Its efficacy was not reduced as time goes on; in fact, a big proportion of subjects unchanged after 1 year, improved later on, maintaining a positive trend.".

Like I said, this is completely different to what a lot of people think, that finasteride stops working/becomes less effective after a few years, and hairloss catches up.

 

[Retinoid]

Again though read the article - This is a quote from it;
"Its efficacy was not reduced as time goes on; in fact, a big proportion of subjects unchanged after 1 year, improved later on, maintaining a positive trend.".

Like I said, this is completely different to what a lot of people think, that finasteride stops working/becomes less effective after a few years, and hairloss catches up.

It is interesting that it you read this forum you would think Finasteride is not effective at all and possibly makes your hair worse.

 

[abcdefg]

It is interesting that it you read this forum you would think Finasteride is not effective at all and possibly makes your hair worse.

This forum is not representative of finasteride results. Most people here are to complain about sides, look for alternatives if it doesnt work, or new to hair loss looking for options. People that take finasteride and it works probably never come here. Why would you?
I do think if your starting finasteride recently or now your in a good spot. I do think seti or some alternative to finasteride will exist in the next 5 years this time although even with Seti you might still want propecia.

 

[Retinoid]

This forum is not representative of finasteride results. Most people here are to complain about sides, look for alternatives if it doesnt work, or new to hair loss looking for options. People that take finasteride and it works probably never come here. Why would you?
I do think if your starting finasteride recently or now your in a good spot. I do think seti or some alternative to finasteride will exist in the next 5 years this time although even with Seti you might still want propecia.

Hopefully, you can see people saying the same thing on posts on this site 10yrs ago Lol...

 

[abcdefg]

Hopefully, you can see people saying the same thing on posts on this site 10yrs ago Lol...

Yes. Nothing in medical research is written in stone. In the next 20 years there might be nothing new. I think PGD2 inhibitors like Seti will cross the finish line though eventually, and maybe even breezula. Some of the rest of it I have my doubts.

 

[Retinoid]

Yes. Nothing in medical research is written in stone. In the next 20 years there might be nothing new. I think PGD2 inhibitors like Seti will cross the finish line though eventually, and maybe even breezula. Some of the rest of it I have my doubts.

I am itching to just start taking the Propecia at .5mg/day (have the brand name in my medicine cabinet) but I only started my current regimen a little over a month ago and am having very good results. But it is so tempting to just take a pill.

 

[itsjustsimon]

According to Merck, after 5yrs 65% of the people taking Propecia did not lose hair. After 10yrs I would assume it would be probably around 30%.

Study? I’ve read something totally different.

 

[Retinoid]

Study? I’ve read something totally different.

https://www.merck.com/product/prescription-products/home.html#P

Find Propecia, click on the PDF for prescribing info and read the top of pg 11.

 

[Retinoid]

I with you man, I ordered finasteride just to have it on standby. However, the more I read into it; logically it doesn't make sense.

My family hair loss history only suggest i'll ever see frontal loss & it would be illogical to make it openhouse for androgens to go to town on my scalp out of fear.

Its that limbo area of feeling as though your hairloss might not be as severe prior to using finasteride.

Not to mention being stuck using it, until another treatment comes through the pipeline. Even then theres still the question of "will it maintain what finasteride has?".

I'd say taking finasteride becomes up for question when you're having indication of forelock & crown loss.

Temple loss alone; forget about it, wait for other treatments.

Yes, kind of how I feel. I think in my instance I know I was able to fix my crown loss with minoxidil alone last time, I feel like I should try it this time. Though I am older, have family history of hair loss and this time around it seems more aggressive so I am like, hm...should I just do it? But I am having great results with what I am doing now, so mine as well just wait. And even with the hair loss plus murderous shedding it is still not noticeable. I think taking the finasteride would give me more peace of mind though.

 

[Retinoid]

Hell, I look at it this way,

If Brotzu lotion proves to be effective come release in 2months, we both can do a dance. I know some people are skeptical about Brotzu after the conference. Like I've been saying, I feel Fidia is taking an unorthodox approach to marketing the lotion given they didn't need FDA approval.

Are you gonna try it out yourself? Or are you gonna spectate the scene upon release?

If it definitely comes out I would prefer to wait and see though the current news on the product stuff seems to be nothing really is happening...

 

[The Balding Boulder]

As hair loss sufferers, we will do literally anything to prolong the existence of as many hair follicles as possible. Propecia is the best we've got for now, but there is bound to be some genuinely good news within the next five years. This osteoporosis drug has recently shown promise in a lab, but we await the clinical trial results before we can get too excited.

 

[Funkymonk1]

This forum is not representative of finasteride results. Most people here are to complain about sides, look for alternatives if it doesnt work, or new to hair loss looking for options. People that take finasteride and it works probably never come here. Why would you?
I do think if your starting finasteride recently or now your in a good spot. I do think seti or some alternative to finasteride will exist in the next 5 years this time although even with Seti you might still want propecia.

That's an astute observation. It's meant to be only a small % of people who get serious sides from finasteride but just going on what you read on here you'd think it's the majority! It's the people what have had bad experiences with it that make the most noise, people with no real sides and good results generally don't say much about it or at least not a forcefully.

I with you man, I ordered finasteride just to have it on standby. However, the more I read into it; logically it doesn't make sense.

My family hair loss history only suggest i'll ever see frontal loss & it would be illogical to make it openhouse for androgens to go to town on my scalp out of fear.

Its that limbo area of feeling as though your hairloss might not be as severe prior to using finasteride.

Not to mention being stuck using it, until another treatment comes through the pipeline. Even then theres still the question of "will it maintain what finasteride has?".

I'd say taking finasteride becomes up for question when you're having indication of forelock & crown loss.

Temple loss alone; forget about it, wait for other treatments.

I'm not sure it's true that finasteride doesn't work at the front. I've read it's more effective on the crown but I myself have had maintenance and even some regrowth at the front.

 

[abcdefg]

That's an astute observation. It's meant to be only a small % of people who get serious sides from finasteride but just going on what you read on here you'd think it's the majority! It's the people what have had bad experiences with it that make the most noise, people with no real sides and good results generally don't say much about it or at least not a forcefully.



I'm not sure it's true that finasteride doesn't work at the front. I've read it's more effective on the crown but I myself have had maintenance and even some regrowth at the front.

It works everywhere. They just studied the crown because they figured it would show the best results/regrowth. It works everywhere though

 

[The Balding Boulder]

That's an astute observation. It's meant to be only a small % of people who get serious sides from finasteride but just going on what you read on here you'd think it's the majority! It's the people what have had bad experiences with it that make the most noise, people with no real sides and good results generally don't say much about it or at least not a forcefully.

Absolutely. It's about 1–2% of users who will develop significant side effects. The only real side effect I got was when I started using it — I noticed my semen was a lot more watery than usual. It did seem to thicken up again before too long though. Probably just needed the body to adapt to it first.

 

[debyne]

I started noticing hair loss my early 30s. I have been on finasteride for about 10 years consistently, along with 5% Kirkland minoxidil. I'm now almost 42. I can tell you that my regimen has worked wonders in maintaining my hair. I still have some thinness at the crown and just behind my hairline, but I was able to recover a bit from my initial hair loss before starting this regimen in my early 30s. You can see where my new hair, likely driven by Minoxidil, is a pure brown color as opposed to my peppered brown/gray hair elsewhere. I can honestly say that after 10 years, I don't think the effectiveness has worn off. There are days where I feel like my hair seems thicker, and there are days where it seems thinner...likely my anxiety of over-analysis of whether I'm keeping or losing my hair. All in all, it seems about the same.

Regarding sides, I got freaked out too 10 years ago because of the scary things on the Internet, and I think I suffered from major nocebo thinking my erections were soft and I was getting brain fog. So, I went on, then off, then back on again, back and forth, back and forth. I finally decided to just go all in and never looked back. Do I worry about long term side effects? Sure...but nothing is proven regarding sides, and I don't think I have sides today once I forgot about the fear mongering. I'm not saying that there are some out there who don't legitimately get sides, but the mind is a powerful thing.

 

[davesmith420]

http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=10&threadid=70161&highlight_key=y

Thread from another forum; long term users discuss their experiences on finasteride/dutasteride.

 

[abcdefg]

For every forum person discussing being on finasteride for 10+ years id say there are 100 that it just works, and they never bother. Forums and online discussions dont really represent everyone. It represents a certain sub sample of the population.
People are amazed when someone mentions being on it 10 years, but its not unusual at all. Its been out for 25 or so and why would you be online discussing it unless it stopped working? There is 10 year study documenting it works for 10 years.
There arent any major sides documented yet even though people want to find them. Maybe there will be, but there are men on it for 20 years they would be complaining if there were.