My experience with Propecia

[schitzo]

Im posting this with the hope that it helps some of you who are scared of Propecia and its side-effects. This is not a very scientific thing, its just my experience.

I first took Propecia 6 years ago when I was 26. After 2 months I had experienced all the bad things you hear about, my willy was always asleep. Lost my interest in sex, etc. So I stopped taking it. What I would like to mention is that my habits were terrible :

I smoked about 30 cigarettes a day.
I ate like ****, lots of sugar and carbs, was about 30lbs overweight.
I had a very sedentary lifestyle, no exercise at all.

All things that have been linked in much higher percentages to low testosterone than Propecia.

Fast forward to 2 years ago. I found out my GF was pregnant and decided I was gonna turn my life around in order to be a good father to my son. I made the decision and stopped smoking. Then I started doing p90x and after 4 months I had lost about 10lbs, and gained some strength, this gave me some confidence and I joined a crossfit place and started going every day, no excuses. After 1 month I started investigating about nutrition and started eating a lot cleaner, in particular I investigated how to boost testosterone ( Because I wanted to be better at crossfit ). My diet now includes a lot of protein, fatty-meats, eggs, lots of vegetables. No carbs, No sugar.

So I ended up losing more weight and was feeling good, but my hairloss obviously had continued all this time. I decided to try Propecia again, but this time I went to an endocrinologist and had some tests done of all my different hormones so that I could re-test after 3/6 and 12 months and accurately asses what effects Propecia had on me.

Well Ive been on the stuff for a year now and have had NO SIDE EFFECTS, except for very slight pain in my balls for the first week, which I may have just been imagining. After 3 months all my hormone levels were exactly the same, after 6 they were still the same, and after 12 I was surprised to find out I had HIGHER testosterone than when I started Propecia even though Im now 33 and have no business increment my test.

I really felt compelled to share this, because I know how depressing hair-loss can be. And I know how scary starting Propecia can be. And I think a big part of the problems people experience with Propecia is not that the drug makes you a pussy, but rather that you are already a pussy with pussy habits, and the placebo effect messes with your mind.

Make this an opportunity to evaluate your other habits and you should be fine.

Thats how It was for me. My hair-loss has stopped, Im thinner and stronger than ever, Im happy and confident. My only regret is not making all these changes earlier.

( If my grammar or spelling was off, I apologize, english is not my first language ).

PEACE!

 

[Agustin Araujo]

Thank you for sharing your experience with Finasteride. I myself have been planning to get on Finasteride, maybe even Dutasteride if I'm able to do so. Again, thanks for sharing.

 

[skip2mylou]

Thanks for the story, I think you make a strong point.

Not everyones body is the same, we all have our internal problems, vitamin deficiencies, high blood pressure, cholesteral, etc, etc, etc. Who knows what and what can interact with finasteride? I definitely think, being as healthy as you can be, can have a positive effect on something like taking finasteride and dealing with it's possible side effects.

 

[Spanishlad]

Thanks for posting! It makes a refreshing change for somebody to take the time to post after having a postive experience with finasteride..

 

[brent777]

Thanks for your story

I have just started propecia. I am in mid 40s. Wish I had started way sooner.

I assumed propecia was another false hope and didn't bother reading more until now. I am hoping that I will get some positive results from it

 

[ern]

The fact that your tests showed you had higher testosterone after a year is interesting and consistent with my own experiences on the drug. I never got tested, but after a year or so I just felt better and better all the time, more ambition to say the least, especially ambition towards traditionally male centric activities. I remember I was seriously planning to become a mountaineer, climb the world's peaks, the harder and more dangerous the better. Seems crazy to me now that I've been off Propecia a couple years but I'm almost certain that mindset was directly related to elevated testosterone levels from finasteride. I'm thinking about getting back on it for those effects because I suspect bald men are actually low in testosterone because it is all being converted into DHT by an overexpression of 5ar. Only thing preventing me is that I did experience PFS from hell. But also you say you were working out heavily, eating a paleo type diet, so that certainly helped as well. I'm curious if your testosterone numbers after a year were increased significantlly or only marginally in comparison to your baseline pre finasteride levels.. Anyways, thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[LouReed]

Great post.

I noticed the same thing. When I started taking finasteride, I was in prime shape and eating great. I noticed a slight hit to my libido, but insignificant considering it was already through the roof.

Over the past year I've gotten progressively more sedentary, stopping all exercise and starting eating junk. Libido is nearly dead. finasteride isn't helping.

The answer, though, is getting back to the diet and exercise, not dropping the finasteride.

I think most of the fear around finasteride comes from depressed, anxious, and otherwise unhealthy people getting on it and having a bad experience. Without a healthy diet and exercise, a 25+ male not will be happy and virile, finasteride or not.