Sigildark

The symptoms you report are documented side effects (impact on mental health for some, aka depression). Lowering the dose is a good move to see if you can get some benefits with lesser sides. At some point you will need to decide if the sides are worth the benefits. Personally i wouldn't blunt my brain for cosmetic gain, especially a brain as good as yours. Very few individuals are PHD material. I'm an intelligent individual (top 5 percentile) as well and i was taking meds that caused brain fog after a few years of use (anti-depressant). I know what that entails. If you need to use your brain for a complex job or demanding studies where you have to constantly be able to learn new things rapidly then having brain fog when you can choose not to have it is a major competitive disavantage that you are imposing on yourself. You owe it to yourself to try and find your answers elsewhere or be happy with the tradeof. To me that entails exceptional results and the acceptance that you will never reach your intellectual potential for as long as you continue using and experiencing brain fog if you have established a direct link which you appear to have done for yourself.

Nice results! As far as anxiety attacks go, oddly enough, i've been getting them since i started up Rogaine Foam a few weeks ago. I've decided to discontinue to see if it goes away or just a coincidence.

I'm using Rogaine Foam only once a day atm, evenings. I'm doing this partially because I want to ease myself in (started last week) and also because i'd rather style my hair without the Rogaine foam 'effect'. The instructions state that i should use half a capfull for each application, twice a day for maximum effect. This is assuming application to the crown area only?After all, this is the only area that Rogaine recommends in releation to it's FDA approval. If you look at my gallery you will see that i'm experiencing diffuse thinning on top while preserving a decent hair line. 1 - Should the dosage increase based on the coverage area? It's one thing to use it only on your crown and it's another to use it all over your head, one would assume. Or is it? 2 - And does it make sense to use more if only doing one application a day versus two or is that a waste?

problem with the whole 5-10 year theory is that everyone was saying the same thing 10 years ago i remember sitting around with friends at the age of 18 (20 years ago), our hair oh so important and us all hoping we wouldnt have to deal with hairloss and that if we did, by the time it happened, great solutions would be available and while things have advanced the hair we had in the 18-20 range is largely un-recoverable for many of us at this point that said, it's definitely a question of when rather then if but the whole when thing, that's very much in the air that said, here is to hoping it's sooner then later!

Here is my opinion and i'm far from being an expert but i have learnt alot from reading these forums. Are you losing transplanted hair or hair that was already in the area? (hard to know for sure, aka where you totally bald in the transplant area or still had hairs?) While transplanted hair is supposed to be genetically DHT resistant, DHT is not the only cause of hair loss. Also it might not be the only hair in the area. One isn't immune to losing DHT resistant hair to stress or scalp diseases for instance. And non DHT resistant native hairs can still very much go over time. Sucks to be sure, but there are no guarantees in life. Some people have many transplants. I assume that's especially the case for people who do not use or do not respond well to finasteride and continue to lose non transplanted hair post proceedure. Keep your head high, hang in there and plan your next strategic step.

I'm on the same regimen as you. Just started up, hoping to see some results. Can't happen soon enough but tbh i'm not expecting miracles, i'm past the point where maintaining would keep me happy. It crept up on me so fast, it's like poof one day i was like WTF. Just looking at pictures that are 6 months apart make me sad. Guess my work stress really isn't helping things.

Isn't taking oral minoxidil how they actually realized that it assisted with hair growth thereby spawning the topical solution? Downside must be a higher risk of sides as it is systemic and not local. Upside, higher effectiveness? any idea by how much? RCWest, would love to see pictures of the impact that your regimen has on you. Really stacking all the odds in your favor in respect to proven methodologies. Guess you would have done that already if you were so inclined 8)

Well the literature on the drug says that side effects for many people disapear after continued use over a prolonged period of time. So presumably the user thinks that things are going to get better in time. I'm sure others quit sooner then later. Everyone's situation and needs are different and people are willing to go to different lenghts. And keep in mind they were using the assumption that everything would return to normal after cessation.

Rogaine Foam has had an unscented version for a few years, roll with that.

i may be wrong / off base but this is my understanding: what this study does not do is provide a metric for the incidence of persistent side effects as such it doesnt determine the actual risk of experiencing persistent side effects what it did do is focus on people with persistent side effects, documented what those were and how long they had/were being experienced for after cessation amongst other things to be included in the study you had to meet the following requirements (amongst others) completely sexually healthy prior to using finasteride could not have been previously diagnosed with certain mental health issues prior to taking finasteride the symptoms lasted for more then 3 months after quitting prior to the age of 40 yes, it's very possible that some people could experience the onset of some of the mentioned symptoms due to genetics while taking finasteride for reasons totally unrelated to finasteride while being perfectly fine prior to starting up with the drug by coincidence/bad timing, certainly for some that is the case however the doctor/study concludes that a certain subset of people experience side effects that they cannot recover from in what can be considered as an acceptable time frame due to fin. what the odds are to be part of that subset is unknown As i stated in the OP Merk did add the possibility of persistent sides relating to ED once propecia is discontinued. Probably partially to protect themselves legally. It's happening, wether it's 1%, .1% or .01% or w/e, that's the part that is really missing from the study that people would like to see. Would be nice to see a follow up study that addresses this question. That's the way i understand it anyhow.

it's normal to lose 100 hairs a day when i look at your pictures, i see a guy with a full head of hair personally i really don't see a problem and lots of people would be envious of having the amount of hair that you do have if you have no history of MPB in the family then i wouldn't get overly bend out of shape over thsi relax and lower the stress levels and keep your scalp healthy and dandruff free and make sure you have a proper diet

I know some people like me are on the fence when it comes to using this drug. Part of me desperately just wants to take it and then the other part of me calls for caution. But until recently credible info was hard to come by, vocal minority aside on various forums. And well, that left me begging for more information from credible sources. I came across a few sources of information today that i wanted to share with people that are also struggling with the decision relating to commencing the use of Propecia to help treat MPB. On March 18th 2011, a study was published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine pertaining to persistent side effects by a Professor at George Washington University. A George Washington University website article discussing the study can be found here. The published study can be found here. A video of the doctor discusing his research can be found This study doesnt establish the level of risk outside of stating that it does appear to exist. It's worth noting that as of May 2011, Merk has updated their side effect document to include text that states that in general use (aka post study), difficulty in achieving an erection can continue after stopping the medication has been reported. This document can be found here. Unfortunately the risk of persistent sides isn't yet measurable despite the study, presumably it's very small but apparently it's real. As such, I thought some people might appreciate reading thru this information to make the most educated decision possible.

2% isn't that tiny and the fact that persistent side effects have been documented in some unlucky individuals really increases the importance of the decision. Problem is, it's really hard to know what the odds are to get persistent sides. You have to be really unlucky i suppose. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency of the United Kingdom and the Swedish Medical Products Agency have both updated their patient information leaflets to include a statement that “persistence of erectile dysfunction after discontinuation of treatment with Propecia has been reported in post-marketing use.” So then the question is, is the risk worth the potential reward? Not a decision to be taken lightly, i can understand people that choose either road. But it's not just an ah what the hell lets see what happens deal imo. The implications can be greater and warrant a really well thought out and validated decision. A study was released in the Journal of Sexual medicine relating to this topic. Nice to see some research being carried out on the subject. edit: Apparent Merk has updated their side effects to include the following statement: "In general use, the following have been reported: breast tenderness and enlargement; depression; allergic reactions including rash, itching, hives and swelling of the lips and face; problems with ejaculation; testicular pain; difficulty in achieving an erection that continued after stopping the medication; and, in rare cases, male breast cancer." http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/p/propecia/propecia_ppi.pdf

I'm wrestling with the same decision, it's not easy. While i'm not authoritative on the subject and my doctor says it's considered a safe drug I struggle with the decision because of the voice of the vocal minority who blame propecia for persistent negative life changes. And my wife who saw the sides and said i love you fine for who you are, you don't need to risk this. But she's not the one with the thinning hair Chances are you will be fine but there is a not so negligible chance that one could experience serious sides effects. And apparently some people don't recover from the sides quickly enough which is the main cause for worry. For some, maybe those side effects weren't side effects and it was going to happen during that time period regardless and that's why some people don't recover once they cease using. Because perhaps for some it's tied to another condition and therefore ceasing Propecia has no effect on it because it wasn't the cause. Afterall, lots of people out there suffer from brain fog / ED and don't take Propecia. So once you attempt to factor in risk you need to look at reward. Taking propecia doesn't guarantee hair growth. As you know, 42% gain hair, 48% maintain existing levels of hair and 10% continue to lose hair versus 100% of people losing hair without. Depending on what you are looking for, that's a 42% or 90% chance of a positive outcome. In the end, taking a drug is always about the reward being worth the risk. But it's really hard to put a finger on the risks atm and the reward is also diffcult to establish so it does make for a pretty nebulous equation. There are class action lawsuits underway (who knows how those will end up and wether they have merit, obviously some people think so for it to have gone that far) and Europe has added new warnings related to the usage of propecia. So yeah i'm still as undecided as ever. I mean if i knew it would give me a full head of hair i'd say screw it, i'm rolling the dice. But that's highly unlikely. If only i knew 100% for sure that side effects would cease fairly rapidly once the drug usage was discontinued...but i have a hard time convincing myself of that despite what Merk says. There are some people out there that blame it for serious negative life changing effects. Still, the odds are that this won't be us yet we don't know for sure. So yeah, what to do hedge all the odds in our favor :rolleyes: