A Propecia Story and Questions
Here is a Propecia success, abort, regroup story, for those interested in how other people have faired. A bit more info than I intended, but I covered some interesting (possible) side effects too.
I'm guessing I was one of the first people to start taking Propecia after it was approved. I think I was at my doctors office that day. I used to think about hairloss too much. There are simply too many other things in life to enjoy that your hair has nothing to do with.
Enough small talk. After using Propecia for about four or five months, I was not noticing any effect. I was still at the unrealistic phase of wishing and believing I could get my 17 year head of hair back. I was 27 yrs. old at the time.
My hair loss was just beginning to be noticeable to the outside world. Clearly receding hairline (M shape/shiny temples), and direct bright light with a close look from an investigative eye would make it pretty obvious. No bald spots. Lot's of hairs on the pillow (and behind the headboard). Plus, over the last several years I had started growing a few "wire like" curly hairs mixed in the crown. These things really had a mind of their own and simply did not belong on my head or even a wire brush.
Tried Rogaine for about a month but gave up. Too greasy, wanted too much too fast, and I was too vein (sp?) to wear my hair impaired from greesey residue. :evil:
Back to Propecia. After four or five months I got frustrated, and began doubling the dose. Still no side effects :idea: , at least none that I noticed. Stopped thinking about it. Also stopped thinking about my hairloss for a while. I see now that was probably the first indication it started working.
Anyway, after about the one year marker, I realized I had a hard time convincing people that I was losing my hair. I did not have my 17 year old head of hair, but what I had was very solid with exception of the temples, which I think adds character anyway. No more shedding either. I almost even convinced myself my years of hairloss panick prior to starting Propecia may have just been an over exageration...maybe my hair was just going from boy to man.
After about 18 months, I found myself with a girlfriend I did not want to have sex with :? . Actually, I just did not really want to have sex much at all. Part of me thought maybe it was just because she was not the most sexually attractive girlfriend I'd had in a while. I had also started my own company, was making $0 salary, down from over $250K/yr, and was working 18 to 20 hrs/day, 7 days/wk from my apartment. Thought maybe that had something to do with it. After a couple weeks, I began getting more concerned. That sexual umph just was not there.
At about that time, my nuts started hurting, causing the little general to stay in an unusually strong retreat (actually looked smaller). At that point I scheduled the doctor appointment. Doctor did not tie the squeezed nut feeling to the Propecia (sorry about the lack of creativity there--I'm tired) and prescribed something else for that. He did tell me to get off Propecia if I was still worried about my sex life.
So after ~18 months, I quit. At this time, it was absolutely working without question. As I mentioned, hairloss had become a distant memory. Of course, 6 months after quitting Propecia, the shedding kicked in again. So I started using Rogaine. Its been a year and a half since that, and Rogaine did a fair job of "almost" stopping the hairloss until I wanted to find an Indian that could scalp me to stop the itching. I later learned it was the Propylene Glycol. But that's another story (fixed by Dr. Lee's products).
Somewhere up above in this story I mentioned I had not noticed any side effects until and other than the loss of libido and nut squeeze. However, a few interesing things did happen that I now think were probably side effects. For instance, at abou the one year mark, I had noticed what looked like cellulite 8O on my *** cheek. Trust me, I thought something was wrong with my mirror. At the time, I attributed it too not being able to work out after for 8 months b/c of a back injury. Prior to that, I had worked out for 10 years straight, 5 to 6 days a week to try to outgrow my skinny kid body--which I did successfully with the help of Creatine and massive eating. Several months later, it actually spread to the back of my legs, and I had started working out again.
I also noticed my nipples stuck out, sitting on top of little pyramids of fat. These were not the b**ch tits I've heard others talk of, and only I noticed, but they were definitely there. I also attributed this to not working out for several months after all that Creatine and weight gain. Remember, by now I was sitting on my *** 20 hours a day working. To this day I cannot say for certain that was another Propecia side effect, but it sounds like gynomastecia (sp?) to me.
Quitting Propecia went like this. Took about 2 - 4 weeks for nut pain to be gone for ever. Took 2 to 3 months to recover full sex drive (frustrating period of time). Recoverd! Took about 1 year to 1.5 years of working out again, and getting off the Creatine, massive food intake, lots of alcohol diet, but no fat around the nipples whatsoever, and no dimples or cellulite type looking skin on my legs or ***. THAT was NOT fun to have. Keep in mind I grew up as a 6'4" rail and fought to put on weight for years (eventually hit 235lbs before realizing it was possible to go too far the other way).
Anyway, I'm convinced no doctor fully understand Propecia, its side effects, and effects of dosage. I've heard so many different things from "they are probably not related" to "dosage makes no difference" to "dosage makes a difference", and more recently, "oh well, don't take it".
Anyway, I've decided to grow my hair longer after a long period of wearing it pretty short. In doing so, I've noticed I have not defied the hairloss curse. The light does not have to be so bright. In addition to that, I began to wonder how much of what I experienced truly was Propecia vs. stress and change in lifestyle vs. loss of ability to exercise along with aging etc. I also began to wonder if perhaps the side effects would have gone away on their own had I continue another 6 months, or if my double dosing might have had an impact.
Anyway, I've decided to give it a go again. This time one pill, once a day, same time of day every day. Also, my life is not as stressful anymore. I'm going to give it a few months, and may consider changing the dose if to .5mg / day if I get any trouble and trying that for a few more months.
Wish me luck, I have a feeling I've got about a 25% chance I won't get the side effects again. And let me know if any others of you experienced any of the gyno effects I think I might have. Have not seen anything about cellulite appearance.
Good luck to all. And by the way, if I not had those side effects, Propecia would definitely have been an incredible thing.