How 'dangerous' is Finasteride?

[Itstricky22]

Hi, so i'm at a point where i'm seriously considering starting Finasteride or Propecia (idk what's the difference?)
I'm gradually losing hair and my hair is tinning a lot. I can just see how much hair i lost this year, and it sucks.

I feel like i can't just sit and see my hair dissapear, if i could keep it how it is now that would be pretty great..
I was wondering, what are the odds of permanent damage (erectile dissfunction i heard?) after taking finasteride, even after quitting.

I'm not really worried about negative side effects that go away after stopping finasteride, i just wonder what the odds are of doing permanent damage? Is it worth the risk, and how big is the risk? I was thinking of using just 0.25mg, would that lower the risk??

Thanks

 

[g.i joey]

in your case you're looking at about .1% chance of permanent sides. if you have healthy testosterone balance right now you are very unlikely to suffer anything extreme from finasteride. i was worried too.. watched my head go from nw2 to nw2.5 until i realized it was time to suck it up and take the chance, now, 3 months in i am exactly where i started, i consider it a success and can say the only thing i regret is not starting earlier. Just know that .5-1mg is almost equally as strong so if you have any troubles just try adjusting the dose before quitting. i take .5 for 2 or 3 days and give myself a "day off" every 2nd or 3rd day and take .25.

 

[whatevr]

Well I am taking it and not worried about sides any more but whether or not it even works...

 

[Rittdk01]

Says 15% had sexual side effects in the first clinical trial in 2003!!!!!!! My penis health and amount of fluid I ejaculate is 10,000x more important to me than hair.

Propecia did six trials and stated 6-8% of men have sexual side effects.
http://www.drugwatch.com/propecia/side-effects/

 

[g.i joey]

Well when you can have a healthy penis and save your hair why wouldn't you. Pfs foundation just put out a report you can find in the side effects section saying out of 1 million men on name brand propecia there has only been 1250 adverse events reported. 1.2% this study is calculated since adverse reactions have been happening. It's the most up to date info we have.

 

[br1]

Well when you can have a healthy penis and save your hair why wouldn't you. Pfs foundation just put out a report you can find in the side effects section saying out of 1 million men on name brand propecia there has only been 1250 adverse events reported. 1.2% this study is calculated since adverse reactions have been happening. It's the most up to date info we have.

I took finasteride for around 15 years, and the only sides I notice were anxiety, mood swings and less intense orgasms (only noticed it when I came off finasteride). It took years to develop, like a decade before I realize I was getting super anxious, and 5 more years to connect the dots and link it to finasteride. I decided to come off finasteride (I'm 39 now) I am married 1 healthy 5yo kid and head full of hair. When I quit finasteride, I started having incredible orgasms and morning wood is back. Also, anxiety levels came down from 100% to 5% - and still going down (i`m 6 weeks off finasteride now).

Good luck.

 

[Digidako]

Worrying about getting side effects from finasteride will cause more problems than taking finasteride itself. It's easy to attribute loss of libido or ED to finasteride when you're taking it, albeit most people taking it are probably depressed/anxious about hair loss to begin with. The side effect profile of finasteride is very similar to that of depression, and most young guys who notice their hair loss probably become depressed/self-conscious/anxious about it. A fine line needs to be drawn between the psychosomatic side effects of taking finasteride, and the actual side effects it is causing your body before causation and correlation can be established. I'm not saying the side effects don't exist, but i'm sure they are not nearly as frequent as everyone makes them seem. Start taking finasteride at 1mg every day and forget about it. Keep living your life normally. If you bed a girl, don't think "Oh I hope I can still get an erection even though i'm taking finasteride and thatoneguy on the internet said finasteride gave him a vagina" because chances are if you're worried about not getting an erection, you probably won't get one. If you start feeling abnormal, GET BLOOD WORK DONE. Only blood work can determine what is happening inside your body and then go from there. Decrease the dosage/frequency if necessary but there is no sense starting out at 0.25mg when you probably have a 0.01% chance of getting ACTUAL physiological side effect from 1mg.

 

[g.i joey]

I took finasteride for around 15 years, and the only sides I notice were anxiety, mood swings and less intense orgasms (only noticed it when I came off finasteride). It took years to develop, like a decade before I realize I was getting super anxious, and 5 more years to connect the dots and link it to finasteride. I decided to come off finasteride (I'm 39 now) I am married 1 healthy 5yo kid and head full of hair. When I quit finasteride, I started having incredible orgasms and morning wood is back. Also, anxiety levels came down from 100% to 5% - and still going down (i`m 6 weeks off finasteride now).

Good luck.

idk if this is supposed to encourage me or not lol, if I could go a decade without feeling side effects, then why the **** not lol. Like you said, you're off finasteride and you're back to normal. Personally what I do is take little 1 week breaks or cut my dosage down once and a while as soon as I start feeling slightly weird. But I mean now that your levels are coming back to normal im sure you are even probably reconsidering finasteride. you should know that almost every drug has side effects and the fact that you took it for 15 years and are going back to normal so quick sort of proves that it isn't really too harmful.

 

[br1]

idk if this is supposed to encourage me or not lol, if I could go a decade without feeling side effects, then why the **** not lol. Like you said, you're off finasteride and you're back to normal. Personally what I do is take little 1 week breaks or cut my dosage down once and a while as soon as I start feeling slightly weird. But I mean now that your levels are coming back to normal im sure you are even probably reconsidering finasteride. you should know that almost every drug has side effects and the fact that you took it for 15 years and are going back to normal so quick sort of proves that it isn't really too harmful.

I decided to take a break, and see. Maybe accept going bald, get a MMA style buzz cut, whatever.. My only concern with finasteride is not even the sexual sides (as I never really experienced those), but the "unknowns" of taking this drug for so long.. Maybe get a cancer down the road, that would suck..