Finasteride research and questions

[Diffuser44]

I am all about self preservation. Part of self preservation is maintaining youth in my appearance. So I would like to safely keep the hair that I have. That being said, my brain, fertility, and body are infinitely more important to me.

I quit the drug propecia/finasteride 2.5 years ago due to scare mongering, and anxieties over perceived side effects I may have or not have been having. With all of the information and crap out there on this drug it is hard to convince myself to get back on it without fear of causing harm to myself.

If I was basing my information off of the FDA literature alone, I would probably start it again without a second guess. However, I don't fully trust the FDA literature.

Here are the most convincing articles and information I have found online that have basically put me on the fence on whether or not I want to start the drug again. I like seeing members results, especially PeaPody's and would like to be able to follow that path again to regain some of my losses.

I would very much appreciate if people in these forums can point out why the below literature is either "crap" "good" or direct me to literature that has the truth. If the drug does have unwanted neurological effects I don't want any part of it what-so-ever.


http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsa...788s024lbl.pdf

Potential Cons:
P. 9
"Finasteride has been found to cross the blood-brain barrier."

Don't know what the implications of this means. It's disturbing to say the least. Many PropeciaHelp-Esque articles have used this bit of information as evidence it does harm. Nothing is indicative that this is harmful in the warning label. Any thoughts?

Pros:
P. 9


"12.2 Pharmacodynamics
Finasteride produces a rapid reduction in serum DHT concentration, reaching 65% suppression within 24
hours of oral dosing with a 1-mg tablet. Mean circulating levels of testosterone and estradiol were
increased by approximately 15% as compared to baseline, but these remained within the physiologic
range."

The key in this paragraph is "remained within the physiologic range". Although estradiol is increasing by 15% it doesn't have an effect on one's physiologic make up. Or at least not a significant one.




"Finasteride has no affinity for the androgen receptor and has no androgenic, antiandrogenic, estrogenic,
antiestrogenic, or progestational effects. In studies with finasteride, no clinically meaningful changes in
luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) or prolactin were detected. In healthy
volunteers, treatment with finasteride did not alter the response of LH and FSH to gonadotropin-releasing
hormone indicating that the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis was not affected. Finasteride had no
effect on circulating levels of cortisol, thyroid-stimulating hormone, or thyroxine, nor did it affect the
plasma lipid profile (e.g., total cholesterol, low-density lipoproteins, high-density lipoproteins and
triglycerides) or bone mineral density."

This information disproves all of those other articles claiming why finasteride is harmful to our bodies systematically. Clinical studies have found no more incidences of gyno in men taking the drug then those who were on the placebo.


The Scary Articles:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...06.00053.x/pdf
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/reform8.htm

 

[Valiant]

Diffuser44,

You may want to check on the pubmed website for any more recent articles on the neurological impact of finasteride. Depression is listed as a reported side effect. Bottom line is that most men won't have bad side effects. But there is a risk. What sides did you have or believed you had when you quit before?

Val

 

[yort]

Diffuser, millions of men have taken finasteride for over 20 years. It's effects are well documented. Quit obsessing about the details - life's too short (it really is). If you want to stop going bald this is the cure, it's as simple as that.

 

[Diffuser44]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23890183

I did notice my anxiety increase significantly after quitting finasteride. Your body has to make adjustments and changes its structure to try to allow more dht. I think when you quit your body doesn't go back to the same way it was before you started it. There is a permanent change.

What happens when someone like me who has taken the drug for 7.5 years, quits for 2.5 years, and then gets back on it? I'm not sure I want to know what might happen.

- - - Updated - - -

Ok, after reading several articles. A lot of these articles need to be discredited. For one, the Irwig study which most of these articles relate to are a subset of men that don't speak for the majority of the population. Secondly, a lot of studies are done on rats. It is known that finasteride's effect on rats is drastically different than an adult human male. I will consider taking finasteride again in 2 months.

 

[Valiant]

Did you only notice the anxiety after you quit? The reason that I ask is that I took finasteride for six or seven years and did not have any side effects whatsoever. I only developed side effects after I quit. I quit basically because of the same reasons that you did, because I was afraid of developing long-term side effects although I didn't have any. After I quit, my body did not adjust and my test absolutely crashed. I'm still dealing with the fallout from that. Over a year later, in December 2013, my free testosterone percentage was less than half of what it was when I was still taking the drug in November 2012.

If you have made it this far without any problems that have lingered and your anxiety has resolved, be cautious about going back on. The reason is, because eventually, if you decide to quit again, you will be dealing with the same issues.

 

[Diffuser44]

Did you only notice the anxiety after you quit? The reason that I ask is that I took finasteride for six or seven years and did not have any side effects whatsoever. I only developed side effects after I quit. I quit basically because of the same reasons that you did, because I was afraid of developing long-term side effects although I didn't have any. After I quit, my body did not adjust and my test absolutely crashed. I'm still dealing with the fallout from that. Over a year later, in December 2013, my free testosterone percentage was less than half of what it was when I was still taking the drug in November 2012.

If you have made it this far without any problems that have lingered and your anxiety has resolved, be cautious about going back on. The reason is, because eventually, if you decide to quit again, you will be dealing with the same issues.

I've had friends point out that I never used to have any anxiety (when I was on finasteride). It wasn't until after quitting it that I think my issues got wrose. But there were lots of other life issues I was going through that externally would have contributed to my anxiety other than finasteride. So I can't say that it was quitting finasteride that caused it.

Plus on top of that, losing hair obviously caused us enough anxiety to start finasteride in the first place. It would be expected with all of this scare mongering out there for us to be anxious, and to be losing our hair on top of that would double our anxiety. Us post finasteride users I think have it the worst. I can't for the life of me make a decision on whether or not I want to try the drug again. If I'm off of it, i'm anxious about losing my hair. If I'm on it i'm anxious about potential sides, and the sides of coming off it like you said. The fact that I'm stressing out so much about it goes to show that yes my anxiety is pretty high post finasteride.

I remember feeling really awesome a couple weeks after quitting finasteride. Then it just sort of leveled down and I felt like crap for an extended period of time. It really wasn't until 1.5-2 years off of it that I started to feel better. But honestly i don't think it had anything to do with finasteride. Then I started noticig my hair loss again, and the anxiety started again. I went to the dermatologist and they recommeded rogaine foam. I told him about my propecia experience, and he basically said it causes a lot of problems for many men. That it isn't tolerated well, it makes you tired, can have sexual side effects, and sometimes permanent. He also said this could be onset at anytime while o finasteride, and even though I didn't experience permanent sides the first time I was on it, it might happen at some point while taking it agian. Probably a CYA thing, but still it definitely freaked me out.

- - - Updated - - -

My regular practictioner on the other hand is pro finasteride. He has prescribed it too many men and hasn't heard much on side effects. I actually have a perscription for it right now but have chose not to start using it again yet. I'm still trying to collect more information from people and publications and see if it is really worth it to me. What is the trade-off to taking these meds and keeping my hair? I pay maybe $20 a month if i'm taking rogaine and finasteride. I think I would rather have the peace of mind that I am not further messing up the chemistry of my hormones then to save the hair I have left. Work on getting ripped and muscualr instead, and save that $20 a month. I already know once I start having kids (if finasteride didn't make me infertile) that I am going to quit the drug (if I start taking it again) anyway. Knowing that in the future I'm going to accept my baldness, should I then just get it over with now?

 

[Valiant]

If you know that you plan to quit again sometime in the future, you will of course lose your gains eventually. With that in mind, if I was in your shoes I would not restart it. Of course, my results are not typical of most users but based upon what happened to me, I cannot recommend it to someone who is not taking it and I cannot recommend quitting it to somebody who is taking it without any problems.

 

[SayifDoit]

Too many trolls out there who post crap to scare people off propecia and too many mentally unstable people out there who convince themselves their own balls have fallen off! Hey I believe propecia does have side effects and it can effect some people, you just have to be smart enough and read what happening to you! Check the forums. Knowledge goes a long way. Please Christ if you think your balls have shrunken after an hour, stop taking the drug because their is obviously something wrong with you. In your brain. I hope you give it a shot mate, you owe yourself that. I recommend a low dosage, people are idiots, stop taking the drug if believe you experience minor side effects because that could be really bad!