all the finasteride hate, can anyone use science to explain this question...

corvidae · Sep 14, 2014

well... it's a site particularly for people who have had problems with it. It could be an astoundingly small community. If 100,000 people took finasteride, and 300 were in that community it might not be a big deal to begin with
also starting to take any pill makes a strong inclination to believe that you are suffering the side effects. Self-delusion, in a sense, even if the problem isn't real.

xRedStaRx · Sep 14, 2014

corvidae said:
well... it's a site particularly for people who have had problems with it. It could be an astoundingly small community. If 100,000 people took finasteride, and 300 were in that community it might not be a big deal to begin with
also starting to take any pill makes a strong inclination to believe that you are suffering the side effects. Self-delusion, in a sense, even if the problem isn't real.

It's called Nocebo.

Well 3% is a statistically significant rate of side effects. The thing is, we do not know how much finasteride causes these adverse effects. It might be that people who are more prone to premature balding have underlying problems to begin with, either hormonal, metabolic, morbid, or disordered. And the fact that finasteride stops the biological mechanism that triggers balding creates other problems that were kept at bay through the initial feedback.

It's a complicated situation, but fortunately, nothing with serious consequence. All we can really do is recommend people to try drugs like finasteride, and see for themselves.