If I may ask, has the wife gotten pregnant yet? It's been quite a while now.

__________________
Finasteride 1.25 mg. daily
Avodart 0.5 mg. daily
Spironolactone 50 mg twice daily
5 mg. oral Minoxidil twice daily
Biotin 1000 mcg daily
Multi Vitamin daily

Damn, with all the stuff you put in your hair are you like a negative NW1?

Hey RC,

We've postponed that phase of our lives until we get relocated. We are presently house hunting. Hopefully we get the baby going in the next few months. I'm not getting any younger!

__________________
David (TakingThePlunge)
Forum Co-Moderator and Editorial Assistant

I am not a medical professional. All opinions are my own and my advice should not constitute as medical advice.

View my Hair Loss Website

Just my 2 cents on this same topic. Ive been off Fin since October last year since the side effects became suddenly untenable . I had been on it 3 and a half years.

I had the results of blood work in April.
Alhough all are within normal range except this is the Key point. My Free Testosterone Level which was 12. Normal range is between 9-27 apparently. Im 32 years of age. In good shape and hit the gym 4/5 times a week. A level of 12 could be for someone twice my age .!

People need to be careful seeing a result 'Within normal range'. The key criteria in all these results is what is WITHIN NORMAL RANGE FOR YOUR AGE. Most people will come out in normal range but this normal range covers a spectrum of Men from 18-65.! This is a very important point people should bear in mind.

I knew something was not right back in October my libido was nowhere near what it was.

Theres no doubt it was due to the Fin. Im now in the process of getting more blood tests done in the next couple of weeks to check for a recovery in my levels.

What i will say is since the last couple of months i have noticed quite a big recovery and this is the first month i would say i am just about back to my pre fin state in all areas. It seems my hormone levels took over 6 months but have now rebounded considerably.


Never going near it again.!

It's been about 9 months since I quit finasteride. You may recall that I did so for two reasons. The first and most important was that my wife didn't like it. We had been talking about starting a family but have since postponed that idea while we try to purchase a home and relocate to another state.

The second reason was that I'd been experiencing severe acne for approximately 1.5 years prior and had suspected the cause was finasteride despite being told by a number of doctors that it was not possible.

All I can say for sure is that over the past few months I saw the minor side effects from finasteride slowly disappear and I believe that I am fully back to "normal" in terms of semen viscosity, frequency of erections, etc. I never did have any libido issues.

Perhaps coincidence or perhaps not, the acne also slowly began to clear up during this period. Since I'd been to three dermatologists and my GP months prior to this and had tried a number of treatments with little success I can only assume that stopping fin brought my skin back to normal. Still get the occasional blemish but nothing like the horror I'd been experiencing.

I've had a number of inquiries about how my hair is holding up and I apologize for not presenting quality pics. I snapped these just this morning with my webcam straight out of bed. No products in my hair and I've not colored it in a while so this is what it looks like in its natural state. I don't think I've seen any significant loss since stopping finasteride. I have continued to use Rogaine Foam twice daily and Nizoral twice weekly.

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________
David (TakingThePlunge)
Forum Co-Moderator and Editorial Assistant

I am not a medical professional. All opinions are my own and my advice should not constitute as medical advice.

View my Hair Loss Website

Looking good. I think almost all of you from is transplant so that is good. I did look at your post profile and I got a little concerned at the difference in your personal photos and the clinics photos. I you that you are in good standing with your doc, but I was wondering what your thoughts were about the difference in appearance in your 13 month photos and your 2nd preop and post op? Did you lose hair or was it more of an angle thing?

__________________
2110 FUT grafts by DR. Raymond Konior on July 30th, 2012

Best HT advice I have ever heard: "Find a doctor that you need more than they need you." Author Unknown

Click Here to View Spanker's Website

Spanker,

Thanks! I'm really quite happy with my hair at this point although I do dream about slightly lowering the hairline a bit more and adding overall density.

You're right, pretty much my entire frontal third is transplants. I've had no crown work and, although my crown is thin, I'm pretty comfortable with its appearance at this point.

I think all of the differences you see in my photos are just combing and angles. That's why when I present my own photos, I normally try to capture my hair in its natural state. As I mentioned, the pics I shared today were taken straight out of bed.

I'm thinking about getting my hair buzzed to about a #4 soon. If I do that I'll try to get some higher resolution pics to share.

__________________
David (TakingThePlunge)
Forum Co-Moderator and Editorial Assistant

I am not a medical professional. All opinions are my own and my advice should not constitute as medical advice.

View my Hair Loss Website

Thanks for the update, are you talking anything other than rogaine foam and nizoral ?
Do you think those 2 things could work if someone decides not to take propecia ?

aim4hair,

No, I'm not taking any supplements, vitamins or anything at the moment. I quit everything aside from topicals when I was trying to rid myself of acne.

Honestly, I do not believe that Rogaine and Nizoral are effective replacements for finasteride and I would always stress to any guy wishing to do all he can to retain and regrow hair that finasteride is the best medical option, period. Minoxidil and perhaps Nizoral are great complements to finasteride and, like most guys, I feel strongly that adding all three to your hair loss regimen is the best option. Of course, if you have no intention of using Propecia then you should, at the very least, use Rogaine.

I truly can't say if or how much Rogaine has done for my hair. Maybe I'm just lucky but my crown is holding up pretty well despite stopping finasteride 9 months ago. I was prepared for the worst and I still am. But, I just had no choice but to quit.

__________________
David (TakingThePlunge)
Forum Co-Moderator and Editorial Assistant

I am not a medical professional. All opinions are my own and my advice should not constitute as medical advice.

View my Hair Loss Website

I also stopped Finasteride several years ago because my wife and I are also trying to conceive. I've read some studies that show a difference in sperm motility, population per ml, and morphology that theoretically could have an effect on our chances. We struggle with infertility as well, so although it may be safe, I want to remove all the variables that could be going against us. We're going through IVF right now, and I want to make sure my sperm aren't affected in any way. I'm a NW2.5, and the only difference I've seen is that my hairline hairs are not quite as thick as they were. But I'm pretty religious with 15% minoxidil and Nizoral, so it's holding up ok. Once our kids are here, I may start back up on it.

Good luck to us both for keeping as much hair as we can!

Your hair is still looking great even after 9 months without finasteride regimen.