Getting ready to take my first propecia pill please advise

budwardo

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I have been loosing tons of hair and eyebrows for the last 2 years. example I lost over 50 hairs just brushing this morning. I have been tested for thyroid conditions and have been slightly hypo. I have been on synthroid for 1 year now and my levels are fine. I went to several hair specialists and derms and they tell me my hair looks fine and send me on my way. My head burns and itches but shows no signs of any skin disorder, per all docs. I have a script of propecia and am ready to start today. i read about the sheds you might have I also read about the burning and itching which I have in spades. Since Im loosing so much hair already, thin and thick, I guess I might start it. How soon do most guys notice the shed. My loss is diffuse over my entire head, back, ect. but my temples have taken the worst of it. The Doctor in pittsburgh told me I have mild adrogenetic alopecia and I did not need to take propecia, that Im 37 and it happens!! Great, he was bald anyway. I know counting hairs is not a good thing and helps nothing but its hard to stop looking when every time u touch ur head hair falls out. when my hair is wet it looks like sh*t. Anyway Im hoping this pill will stop the hairfall and especially the burning. any advise
 

Rawtashk

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Don't listen to this guy. You have about a 90-95% chance of being perfectly fine, and another 90-92% chance of stopping the loss or re-growing some hair.

Just be smart about it. Stop taking it if you have some of the bad sides. Don't stress out if you have minor stuff like some ball ache and watery semen.

Also, did you get some bloodwork done? It's always good to have a baseline, just in case.
 

Neoski

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I want to get on finasteride too, but I am personally afraid of the sides. I am only 20 and I still want my sex life intact.

Even with those encouraging statistics, Rawtashk, it's kinda scary seeing twice as many posts in the side-effect forum than the success stories forum. Although, your success story looks pretty amazing. I guess the majority are pessimistic then. =/

Budwardo, I heard that the shedding starts usually a month or few after taking propecia. But, shedding is a good thing(although it looks bad), it means the drug is working.

For the itchy scalp I was going to recommend Nizoral, but it says you shouldn't use it if your scalp is inflamed...

Good Luck!
 

Wuffer

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Shedding doesn't usually happen on finasteride. It's not a noted effect of taking it, and I can't imagine any mechanism that would cause it, but people do say it happens from time to time. It's probably not worth worrying about, and I didn't experience any such thing after 5 months.

My only advice is if you can't get behind taking finasteride 100% then don't take it. When you start on it with fear in your mind, you are much more likely to doom yourself for failure from the first pill.

Certainly don't listen to useless advice like: "messing with internal hormone drugs is stupid . period ..... youll probably do yourself alot more damage in the long run"

I'm sure you will do well though. As was said, 90%+ of guys have great experiences. I am one of them.
 

Rashan

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Bud,
I've been on Finasteride since May of 1998. I was 20 years old at the time and noticed my hair was thinning and this drug was very new as it had been out less than a year. I was a little scared like you about taking it, but even more frightened of going bald as male pattern baldness runs throughout my family.

The only real side affect I experienced was a loss in my sex drive, which went away eventually. It took a few years before it fully went away, but I can tell you it was well worth it for me. I dont even want to think what I would look like if I wasn't on finasteride all these years.
 

shineman921

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Wuffer said:
Shedding doesn't usually happen on finasteride. It's not a noted effect of taking it, and I can't imagine any mechanism that would cause it, but people do say it happens from time to time. It's probably not worth worrying about, and I didn't experience any such thing after 5 months.

My only advice is if you can't get behind taking finasteride 100% then don't take it. When you start on it with fear in your mind, you are much more likely to doom yourself for failure from the first pill.

Certainly don't listen to useless advice like: "messing with internal hormone drugs is stupid . period ..... youll probably do yourself alot more damage in the long run"

I'm sure you will do well though. As was said, 90%+ of guys have great experiences. I am one of them.

I guess it may kick out the vellus hair in order for the new hair and this may appear to be a 'shed' to some. You need to get rid of the vellus hair and them falling out is usually seen as a positive.
 

Wuffer

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I can see that maybe if there are hairs already in the dying phase that they might shed, but I don’t believe this would actually cause any difference in physical appearance, or anything like what minoxidil might do.

Yeah, I experienced a slight drop in libido a few days after starting finasteride, followed by a few weeks of dramatically increased libido... That since leveled off to normal again and I’ve been the same ever since.

Sexual sides, if they happen to occur, will always lessen over time instead of increase (unless you are one of the extremely rare few that has severe problems). I recall a large scale study of Proscar (5mg Finasteride) that showed men only experienced adverse sexual problems during the first year of treatment. Every year after that, the medicated group matched the placebo group.

Similar results were seen for Propecia (1mg Finasteride). After 5 years of treatment, only 0.3% of patients experienced sexual sides over the placebo group. Studies clearly show that sexual problems always decrease over time, not increase like many people claim.

Also, I don’t think a lot of guys that have been on the drug for a long time (5 years+) realize that sexual function decreases over time. Especially if you were to take the medication at 20, then at 25 realize you don’t quite perform as well, it’s easy to blame the drug when it’s really just age and a ton of other factors that might be affecting you.
 

shineman921

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Wuffer said:
I can see that maybe if there are hairs already in the dying phase that they might shed, but I don’t believe this would actually cause any difference in physical appearance, or anything like what minoxidil might do.

Yeah, I experienced a slight drop in libido a few days after starting finasteride, followed by a few weeks of dramatically increased libido... That since leveled off to normal again and I’ve been the same ever since.

Sexual sides, if they happen to occur, will always lessen over time instead of increase (unless you are one of the extremely rare few that has severe problems). I recall a large scale study of Proscar (5mg Finasteride) that showed men only experienced adverse sexual problems during the first year of treatment. Every year after that, the medicated group matched the placebo group.

Similar results were seen for Propecia (1mg Finasteride). After 5 years of treatment, only 0.3% of patients experienced sexual sides over the placebo group. Studies clearly show that sexual problems always decrease over time, not increase like many people claim.

Also, I don’t think a lot of guys that have been on the drug for a long time (5 years+) realize that sexual function decreases over time. Especially if you were to take the medication at 20, then at 25 realize you don’t quite perform as well, it’s easy to blame the drug when it’s really just age and a ton of other factors that might be affecting you.

...sounds good wuffer.
 

Spanishlad

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I've been on finasteride for 4 years with no problems .I nearly didnt start finasteride because i was scared of sides, If i hadnt i'm sure i would be bald by now. Try just to look at clinical studies and ignore anything without scientific back up.
 

kabooski

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Hi, I too have been concerned about sides. Past few months I have been reading this board and the "Anti-finasteride" board as well. I have also been reading as many articles as I can on the subject. What was really weird for me was people complying about sides from Saw Palmetto . I took that for 2 months and did nothing for my hair or my body.

Seen people say (on the anti-finasteride site)that they have permanent damage from taking one pill!!

Seems to me:
(A) "Mind over body" is the result of peoples reaction to finasteride. Where you think you have sides so much ; that your mind will make it happen.
(B) people taking higher doses than they should to try speed up recovery.
(C)People with weak endocrine/immune systems are more prone to side effects to drugs or supplements not just finasteride.

Speaking for my self. I've never been a sickly child.
With that said. I decided it would be best to try it out my self. I received my shipment of finasteride Monday. I have decided to ease my body to the drug by taking 0.5mg
(half the pill) for the first 10 days. Today is day 5 and so far nothing different
physically or psychologically.
 

abcdefg

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Many guys have been on propecia already for like 15 years straight so if something bad was caused by it people will find it long before you run into it. Also who is to say that if you have male pattern baldness your hormones are normal to begin? The pseudo hermaphrodites biologically live their whole lives with the same hormone levels as someone on finasteride and live normal lives. Its about as safe as any drug in existence like advil and has been out for like 20 years so its time tested.
 
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