Hello,
I've been suffering from hair loss since I was 18. Throughout my college years my hairline started to recede, and when I was 19/20 the process sped up and I was really losing hair fast. I eventually started on Propecia, then added in Rogaine.
The Propecia helped - my hair loss stopped and I re-grew some as well. However, I noticed I was experiencing some anxiety problems. A friend pointed me to some articles about some of the bad side-effects people had with Propecia (including symptoms similar to mine), so I stopped and just stuck with Rogaine foam.
After quitting I also decided to shave my head and just deal with baldness the 'easy way'. It looked decent but I'd really like to go back to a normal head of hair, especially at my current age of 23 when surrounded by so many young people. My current appearance makes people think I'm in my mid 30's. I've started re-growing and noticed that in addition to the hairline getting worse, I'm also starting to lose some on the crown as well.
Anyways - on to my question. The biggest suggestion on the forum seems to be supplementing surgical treatments with Propecia, but I don't know that I'd want to go back to taking it again. Is it worth considering surgery if I'm not willing to go back on Propecia? I may consider trying it again, as in hindsight, the anxiety problems I was facing may have been caused more by my tough living situation in college rather than the medication. At the same time I've read some articles suggesting that Propecia may have serious undesirable long-term side effects. Would appreciate your help in thinking about this.
Thanks guys - maybe a good strategy here would be to try out Propecia again and see if I can go 6 months - 1 year on that, carefully monitoring to see if I'm having side effects. If it turns out that I can in fact go back on Propecia without side effects, then I can decide whether or not to proceed. I'm still a little wary of this and will need to think on it - certainly the potential for side-effects should not be underestimated.
