finasteride for 3-4 years and a question

[dek]

Hey there, I havent been on this site in a long time and I have a question for you guys. I noticed my balding at 19, im 26 now and have been on finasteride for 4 or so years but have never been able to tell if its doing a darn thing. I've been on minoxidil for about 21 months, with nizoral here and there. I still have a decent amount of hair, some days it looks better than others, but aside from a pretty thin vertex and an aggresively thinning right temple (left is much better) people say they cant really tell im losing hair. I think it is cosmetically obvious, but I dont look terrible. I would classify my hairline as "mature"

My question to you guys is roughly how long until we are completely slick bald after the average case of male pattern baldness starts? I'm trying to figure out if the finasteride is doing anything for me. I never shed off finasteride, I did on minoxidil and I suspect minoxidil if anything is the only thing helping me. I want to stop the finasteride if its pointless, but do you guys think I should be happy to have a "decent" head of hair 6+ years after i started balding or am I just progressing at the normal rate while using products that arent working?

I guess I feel like I should have lost more than I have if I never started the products and dont want to stop them if any of them are working but I just dont have a lot of balding friends who I can use to gauge a timeline off of. Thanks alot

 

[dresden]

there's no way to know how your hairloss would progress without the meds or with the meds. It depends how aggressive it is, meaning how vulnerable are your hair folicles to DHT. You might get a clue if you look at your family history though - what Norwood are your father, your oncles and your grandfathers.

 

[dek]

fair enough and thanks for the reply, unfortunately I never knew my father or anyone on my mothers side of the family, however my mother is very bald at the age of 55, but I dont know if the gene is from her...anyway, can anyone who has a similar timeline as me (started losing hair at 19 and for last 6 years) give any insight as to how their progression went? I know its likely to not get many answers but I am very frustrated after coming back to this site with so much money spent on finasteride and no results but I dont want to discontinue if its at least slowing things down...

 

[dek]

thanks...

 

[rusty_y2k2]

can't help you with your actual question, but if you're getting irritated with the cost of finasteride why not look into one of the well known generics such as finpecia - manufactured by Cipla which is a regisitered and traded company so no dodgyness going on!

Has the potential to save a lot of money.

 

[dek]

anyone out there with any brief timeline to their baldness that I could use to guage mine? I really need to get some advice whether or not finasteride is helping me or not? 6 years of balding, hairline back a half inch and sparse and thin at crown but overall not terrible. my pattern isnt on the norwood scale or i would give you one. It seems only people who are also balding notice that I am losing it and people who dont spend all their time focusing on hair dont really seem to notice until i point it out for them and if this is due to finasteride then i will continue to spend the money on it but if this is normal progression for 5-6 years then it is probably not helping and only wasting money...

 

[cha11enge]

HI,

Your timeline and description seems to match mine. I have been on only minoxidll for about 6 years now. Slight thinning at the crown. Not considering if i should take propecia? Have u experience any of those serious side effects so far?

 

[Nathaniel]

well I'm your same age, and been doing finasteride for 2 1/2 years. To be honest, I probably have better hair now than when I was 23. That is from looking at old pictures. I would advice that if you are not getting any sides to continue using finasteride. Get some proscar to save $$$ and live with it. You have far more to lose than money if the damn drug is actually helping you and you decide to stop. Sometimes we get all caught up with our hairloss (I do this constantly) and may not even be aware of the benefits of using the meds, like I've read of guys coming off finasteride thinking it hasn't done anything just to see them post a couple of months later completely desperate because they have lost loads of hair - and obviously getting on the drug again.