Receding at 16, is finasteride the answer for me?

[solomonf]

Hi, i am a 16 year old male with a receding hairline. My hairline started to recede when i was only 15 and a half. For about a year my loss did not get any worse but then suddenly i began to thin at the tempals. The thinning is not visible until i wet my hair e.g. shower. This has sent me into a spiral of depression as i feel the need to constantly look in the mirror at my hair.

My question is "should i take finasteride?" I have already bought fincar from inhouse pharmacy so that should be coming in the mail shortly. I have heard little bits of information about how finasteride before 18 can be unhealthy to some extent but i have never been told what actually happens. This is why i thought the only way to find out was to use myself as a test subject. This sounds grim i know, but unfortunatly for me this is the only way as i am really not prepared to loose my hair at 16. I am also not prepared to look back two years when i am 18 and say "If only i had of acted back then"

I also have another question "Has anyone here actually stopped their hairloss with finasteride and then just stopped worrying about their hairloss or is the battle always relentless in every case?" I just wondered this becuase people who have already cured their hairloss always seem to be still on these forums. This makes me think that even if i do cure my hairloss then i will still be worrying about it. I know that hairloss has slightly changed my as a person becuase before hairloss i was extremely quick to judge on other people looks and also voice my opinion on their looks. I am glad i have changed and do not want to change back but hence my question i do not want to carry on with the worry.

This is my hairline currently (15 may 2008)

This was my hairline months ago, February i think

 

[OverMachoGrande]

Hi and welcome. The answer is NO, you are too young to take finasteride. I am sure will get alot of other responses stating the same as well. I do wish you good luck.

 

[solomonf]

Why should i not take finasteride at my age. I really want to know so then i can see if the pro's outweigh the con's. So just a basic list of reason would be nice please

Thankyou for any replies

 

[treeshrew]

All the literature and Merck themselves say no Finasteride before age 18. This is because it can have serious negative effects on a body that is still developing hormonally.

I'd attack it with minoxidil foam 2x/day and nizoral for now. Check out this thread for all sorts of other things to try besides finasteride:

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=45739

 

[solomonf]

Seen as nobody has given me anyhing that can go round but rather just precautions i think i will try it out lol. I will get back to this board in 6 months and tell you if my legs are like a babys bottom and my penis is the size of a nut lol.

 

[treeshrew]

Where's Mew when you need him?

 

[solomonf]

Thanks treeshrow i appreciate your advice on not taking finasteride. Its not that i dont think your precautions are silly its just that i am extremely desperite and i know that fincar 1/4 has good chance of slowing or stopping my hairloss. How did you feel when you finally stopped it, relieved lol.

 

[Norsk]

Yeah send a PM to Mew.

 

[treeshrew]

yeah man, words can't describe the relief i've felt over the past few months as i've watched finasteride completely stop my hairloss.

i can show you before pics that reveal how rapidly my hair was going, it was really bad. i shaved my head before starting finasteride and the temple was recession was simply hideous. my temples still are pretty bad, but they've stopped receding, and if i grow them long and put in some wax/gel i can cover it up really well.

and finasteride has totally thickened/filled in the rest of my head - a miracle, no doubt, and one i'm very greatful for.

i feel you being desperate man, it's hard for me to say what i'd do in your situation. i think i'd still try to finagle a way to get the real thing - propecia - and not generics from inhouse. i dunno, i just personally am wary about those unregulated generics - you just can't be sure you're getting a good, consistent dose.

are you going to add minoxidil foam too?

 

[solomonf]

were do i get cheap foam

 

[Eureka]

You don't want to take finasteride at your age mate. I started at 17, And I wish I had never bothered. I had to stop taking it due to sides, and had to lose all the hair I gained all over again. While waiting for my body to right itself. Which it mostly did, but who knows what may or may not have happened if I had kept taking it.

I'll be waiting at least another 8-10 months before I get back on it after already being off it now for a good 5. The simple fact is hair matters to people our age a lot, I get that. But it's much more serious to screw your entire body up, then it is to deal with the negative effects of hairloss at our age. T

It never improved anything for me, simply made it worse, It would have been more intelligent to simply wait until I could take it safely. Although I use the term safe lightly, since finasteride isn't really safe for anyone, but even less so for young bucks.

 

[philly]

...

 

[IBM]

What happened to Mew?

 

[solomonf]

Philly my dick is already fully developed i am 6 and half inches so TBH any more lengh would just be for vanity. Are there any documented cases on the internet of someone my age taking finasteride and having serious side effects. When i went to my docter he said it would be fine and that the only thing stopping him writing the perscription is rules.

What i want to know is are you all just speculating or have you seen cases like this first hand? If so i would really like it is you could link these cases to this post.

One final question, who the f*** is this mew that you all speak off?

 

[philly]

...

 

[Eureka]

solomonf, maybe you're an early developer so to say. Just to be on the safe side, I'd take dick measures for 1 year. If it hasn't gotten any bigger, then ****MAYBE**** I'd consider ****THINKING**** taking finasteride. Remember a dick's girth usually grows until one's 21-22.

Where you getting your info from philly? ... Ones penis length is based on the body size, The male body stops growing at 18.

Our dicks are done from 16-18... Sorry to disappoint if you where hoping yours would get bigger :innocent:

 

[Shawnab]

I started balding at around 16 too, I did not do anything about it till I was 22, It was not a huge deal to me, not many people really noticed in my school years.. Yours is very hard to notice, you have very thick hair so you're still very well off atm.

Get on Rogaine/Minoxidil as soon as possible,

Nizoral http://www.unitedpharmacies.com/custome ... t=0&page=1

Minoxidil http://www.unitedpharmacies.com/custome ... t=0&page=1

Use Nizoral twice weekly and Minoxidl twice daily.

About price though, The best advice I can give to you, as someone who went through it at that age is talk to your dad about it, or even your mom, they will understand completely and probably pay for everything for you, specially your dad if he himself is balding.. Moms are good at going up to a pharmacist and getting all the answers you need while you sit in the car so you don't have to be embaressed about it.

Get on it though, you're at the perfect age to start and possibly have a perfect hairline by prom, and please, never give up, stopping at 2 months because you notice no growth will get you no where.

And as for your question, My regiment so far is like this, ive been on Minoxdil for 5 months, finasteride(propecia) for 2 months, Nizoral for about a week. I have noticed a good amount of growth and I have completely stopped losing my hair. I am 22. So yeah, it works.. even if you're just on Minoxidil, don't take propecia at your age dude, it isn't only about growth of your penis that you need to worry about on that drug.. When you hit 18 and you're still lossing hair, than take it.. most likely on these 2 drugs you will notice a good amount of growth.

Start taking better quality pictures of the top of your head, take one the day you start the drugs, then take one 1 month later while on the drugs, compare them, and do that every month, it will make you notice any growth a lot better than just looking in the mirror.

The fact is Propecia is a perscription drug that no doctor would give you at your age because you are still growing in that area where propecia works, it could do serious harm to your body.. If you want proof to that, ask your doctor he will say the exact same thing and you telling him he is wrong won't change that. Propecia should not even be in your mind, Minoxidil and Nizoral are the only two you should be taking until you are 18.

 

[Mew]

Taking finasteride while you are still developing is seriously NOT a good idea. Merck does not recommend Finasteride for men under age 18, and there's a reason for that. 5AR and DHT do serve a purpose, ESPECIALLY in the developing male, and interrupting that process can cause you long-lasting problems far worse than "losing your hair".

I suggest you have a read through the scientific material listed here so you can weigh the pros & cons of taking such a medication:

http://www.propeciahelp.com/forum/viewf ... 37f70f1cf2

Also, here's some prior posts I made about Finasteride... and my logic for stating such things is backed by the medical literature in the above link.

viewtopic.php?p=434198#p434198

viewtopic.php?p=406155#p406155

viewtopic.php?p=434898#p434898

In my opinion, any doctor that prescribes Finasteride to a still developing teenager should have his license revoked. Internal 5AR inhibitors were never designed for hairloss, their first and primary use being androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer and prostate enlargement in older men. Hair growth is a cosmetic side effect of inhibiting ~70% DHT, shifting your hormonal balance in favor of estrogen, and instilling a surrogate state of 5AR2 deficiency in your body that matches the hormonal profile of a pseudohermaphrodite.

Even Merck admits they do not know what the implications of longterm use of Finasteride will be on young men, particularly when it comes to fertility. A certain percentage of men also experience erectile dysfunction, loss of morning/spontaneous/nocturnal erections, gynecomastia, loss of libido, depression, anxiety, reduced ejaculate, loss of penile sensitivity, decreased penile/scrotum size, and other unlisted side effects such as peyronie's disease (penile tissue fibrosis, plaques), vision problems, and more.

For a smaller percentage of men, these side effects do not go away, despite discontinuing the drug... hence the existence of http://www.propeciahelp.com and other forums where men are trying to figure out what happened and how to reverse the damage. Of course, the problem is Merck does/did not disclose all of Finasteride's mechanisms of action, information that men like us NEEDED in order to make an informed decision about wether to take this medication; hence the studies section of propeciahelp.com to try and see what else finasteride impacts beyond just "DHT" (an essential male hormone), to give guys like you who are considering taking it a fuller perspective beyond Merck's "2%" claims.


This drug is extremely powerful and is not to be taken lightly. Many men have no issues with it, but for those that do, they can have very bad side effects. I would urge you not to take such a medication in the first place, but if you choose to do so, at least wait until your 20s at the absolute earliest. In the meantime there are other alternatives discussed on this website that would likely slow your loss without the risks of major systemic hormonal alterations and thus, potential for major side effects.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[Eureka]

Well you can always rely on mew to put things into a depressing view But agreed 16 is too young, Merck says 18 I'll be waiting until 19 myself.

Question not really related to this though Mew, What happens to those guys, who take finasteride, get the sides, like decreased libido, Gyno, erectile dysfunction and all the other more serious ones you listed. For the guys who quit finasteride, but still experience the sides. How does their hairloss continue to progress?

 

[solomonf]

If i cannot take finasteride (fincar) at 16 then i guess it will have to take minoxidil. Does anyone know were i can get cheap minoxidil? Also is there any oral minoxidil, or is that just a stupid question?

So just to sum things up, if i take finasteride before 18 then the side effects will just be more intense. Will the side affects be more likely or is there the same chance of gettin side affects but the affects will just be more intense. Or is the answer both?