Long term succes dependant on age that male pattern baldness commences?

[GoldenMane]

I think it's common knowledge that if you start experiencing noticable hair loss in your late teens or early 20s that you have particularly aggressive male pattern baldness. I've read studies saying that propecia is not as successful long term for this group, and that those who experience hair loss in their 30s are much more likely to respond positively long term. I wonder, has anyone here been on finasteride for a long time (5-10 years) and if so, when did you start experiencing significant hair loss? After 5 years were you still improving or stable, or were your results starting to decline again?

I wasn't one of those miracle cases that regrew my entire hairline, temporal recession is still there, thought it may have improved a little, it actually looks more pronounced now because the sides recovered a bit and project forward but from age 27 to 28 I recovered significanly from thinning so that it is no longer cosmetically noticable when my hair is dry (can still tell a bit when wet). I'm just trying to gauge what I should expect from the next 4 years and beyond, and long term prospects if I stay on finasteride and minoxidil. I don't want to go back to how my hair was just over a year ago!

 

[Quantum Cat]

Propecia is relatively new as an male pattern baldness treatment, so we're all in the dark really as to its long term effectiveness. whether it 'wears off' after time is hotly debated - I don't think anyone really knows for sure

occasionaly you get people turning up here who started finasteride back in the 1990s and report that they have still more-or-less maintained their hair.

personally I've been taking it for nearly 7 years and seemed to have maintained pretty well (touch wood!)

 

[ssjpotato]

I'm 21 and steadily approaching nw3. Probably already there tbh. And when I first realised I was losing hair was about 5-ish months ago. So, obviously I haven't been on fni long enough to really answer your question but i just want to share what i was told.

I saw two GPs and a derm.
The derm told me i'd likely have moderate success with finasteride. One of the GPs had never prescribed to a patient before and the other said he rarely prescribed it to anyone but he had experience with patients on the drug and went into more depth explaining hair loss and finasteride to me than the derm did. All three told me that I could take finasteride and maintain for awhile but in the end I would eventually go bald anyway.

I'm guessing that opinion is based on me losing hair so young. But I guess it's like other people have said, it's pretty hard to gauge what the long term effectiveness is.

I hope I'll maintain for a long time. I'm still tryna figure out if my side effects are induced by finasteride or are psychosomatic or otherwise though, so i might end up quitting the drug anyway but yeah.

 

[GoldenMane]

Yeah I think we've all heard very mixed things. My consultant, a hair loss surgeon, basically refused to give me any type of answer when I pressed him on it. He was very vague, but said something like"it's comforting to know that a transplant is an option". He said that in some ways it's unfortunate for hair transplant surgeons that they lose business to finasteride, but that it's great that it's an effective available treatment. I also asked him whether I could attribute my regrowth to the finasteride or minoxidil and he said finasteride is doing 90% of the work, minoxidil about 10%, but I know that's not true, that minoxidil is more important for regrowth.

I'd just love an answer, it's almost like a ticking time bomb! I suppose it's just best to be appreciative that I've bought some time at the very least and make the most of now. I do wonder if switching to dutasteride could help me recover my temporal recession a bit more though...

I think most people's side effects are psychosomatic tbh.

Quantum Cat, did you ever notice a decline from peak results (which I've read can occur anywhere between the 2 and 5 year mark?) Also, what age were you when you started taking finasteride if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Quantum Cat]

I'm curious if your surgeon was looking for sympathy - oh the poor hair transplant surgeons, losing business due to Finasteride!
Maybe if they didn't charge a fortune more people would consider getting hair transplants... :roll:

Quantum Cat, did you ever notice a decline from peak results (which I've read can occur anywhere between the 2 and 5 year mark?) Also, what age were you when you started taking finasteride if you don't mind me asking?

I Started at age 25. Appears to have stabalised my hairloss