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I was flipping through tv channels the other week and happened to stop on a show called "Botched" where some Beverly Hills plastic surgeons do corrective surgery on people. There was a guy there to fix a fut scar. The docs thought his scalp was too tight to just remove the scar and stitch it back up so they made a small incision in the back of his head, created a pocket, and inserted a breast implant. Over the next week they would insert fluid to expand the implant and stretch the skin. In the end they removed the implant, had plenty of scalp laxity, and corrrected the scar. Never seen that done before but it was interesting to watch.

I flew from Atlanta over there in mid March. You must have had Delek do your extractions? She did mine both days and was awesome. Healed up really quickly when I got home. The flight home was brutal though. Had to fly to Germany then back to Atlanta. Took 20hrs or so to get home but well worth it. Ice down as much as you can. I used popsicles in the airport when I couldn't find ice. Safe travels!

I just flew from the States to have a large 2 day FUE procedure done with Dr. Erdogan. Almost 1 month post op now. His new office was nicer than any I've been in back home. The staff was incredible and made the procedure very very easy. I felt like I was leaving some new friends when I left. I don't have a clue how the results will turn out but I can tell you the first month has been a breeze. I healed up very quickly. Just a little pink still on top but no shock loss or pain at this point. Dr. E is a perfectionist and a great guy in my opinion. I would definitely check them out.

Jefff - I've been taking Propecia for about 15 years. I started out using a T cream, and my hair started to shed pretty quick, even with the Propecia. I don't remember the exact wording but my doc told me something to the effect that my body was converting the cream to DHT, and that was the reason for the shed. I stopped using the cream maybe 3 weeks after I started. My doc recommended trying the shots and to date I've not experienced any further loss due to the T shots. Everyone is different but for me the shots work much better all the way around. There are several steroid forums out there that have sections for trt and are a good source for information. There are a lot of guys out there our age that are posting. Some good info to keep up with, same as this forum..

I pay around $70 a month for the HCG, $120 for the T, and $30 or so for the anti-estrogen pills. My regular doc of 15 or so years does not prescribe any of this. It comes from another TRT doctor. My regular doc is in the loop though, and signed off on everything I’m doing, plus we do blood work every 3 months. Makes me feel better knowing my regular doc is involved. The TRT doc does blood work every 6 months. I just go to their website and order what I need online then it’s delivered a few days later, pretty simple.

I used to do IM once a week, but I found that I feel better doing two smaller doses (Sunday/Wed) per week SQ. The first couple of weeks it’s a little intimidating but now I don’t think twice about the SQ shots in my quads. You would think it would hurt like hell but I hardly ever feel it. They also have me using HCG a couple times a week which keeps everything normal in size. Never had any issues with shrinkage. I had to experiment a little to get everything correct. They had me on a much larger dose than I needed originally. You would think more is better with the test shots, but most guys on trt will tell you it’s not. I actually feel much better on a smaller dosage. I don’t want to sound like I’m encouraging you to start, I’m not. I just read your post and could relate. It’s not something to play around with. For me it was the solution, but everyone is different. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t be as worried about stopping the Propecia. I also just read your last post about the 50lbs. Before you consider a trt protocol, I would lose that weight then see what you feel like. I would guess a hell of a lot better! That’s probably driving your T levels down more than anything. Just my two cents..

Jefff – It seems that everyone reacts differently to the drug. I can speak to my experience. I’m almost 42, been on Propecia about 15yrs or so I guess. I had those same thoughts, that I had been on the drug for so long, is it actually doing anything for me? Some time ago I decided to start lowering my dosage over time. Eventually I got down to 1mg a week. I don’t know the exact time it took me to get down to 1mg, less than a year I guess. Up until that point I had a decent head of hair. I can tell you that during that period I lost most of my hair, I guess it happened gradually so I didn’t catch it quick enough. Went to a transplant doc a few months ago and he told me I had lost about 80% of the hair on my head. The worst part is that I did this to myself. Propecia was working great I just had forgotten about it. I’ve since been back on 1mg a day or every other day, as well as adding in Rogaine, but so far the hair is not really coming back. It sucks. I’ve never had any sides from the drug that I read about. Long story short, a couple of years ago I noticed my body slowing down. To me it was just part of getting older but I'm really active so it was frustrating that my body was not quite keeping up with my mind. I went to my doc and we discussed hormone replacement. Did the blood work and my testosterone was in the lower range, but still normal. I tried the cream you had mentioned but this made my hair fall out in a bad way, since then I switched to shots a couple times a week which works really well and my hair is stable. Doing my blood work every few months I’ve noticed that my DHT levels don’t change whether I’m taking 1mg a day or 1mg every other day. Every time my doc looks at the blood work she always says the same thing, the Propecia is definitely doing its job. Who knows with the family history. My dad and my grandfather were pretty much bald by the time they were in their mid 30’s. Unfortunately I got that gene. My older brother on the other hand still has the same head of hair he did when he was 12. He complains about getting grey hair and I want to slap him, I always say at least you still have f'n hair! I'm glad one of us came out ahead. I would discuss everything with your doctor, hopefully they have the knowledge and guide you in the right direction. Personally I wouldn’t be as scared of stopping Propecia if my dad had a full head of hair. Just keep a close eye on it if you do.. Good luck

Thanks for the tip aaron1234, I thought Proscar was something people were using overseas. I'll definitely look into to it!

I started Propecia when I was 27, I'll be 42 next year. My dad and grandfather were bald in their mid 30's or so. Never had any sides from it. I can say that over that period most of my hair held up fine. I receded in the front a bit but nothing that ever really alarmed me. A couple years ago, not sure exactly when, I started getting those thoughts in my head. Is this really working for me, do I need to spend $90 a month, I've been on this for 14 years or so should I keep taking it, etc. One of the biggest mistakes I've made in my life was deciding to try to reduce the amount I was taking. Gradually over a year or so (again I don't know exact times) I reduced my dosage down to 1mg a week. I don't know exactly when it started to happen but I can tell you I lost half of the hair on the top of my head, my crown went from looking nice to pretty much bald. DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I DID. It obviously was doing wonders for me I just didn't realize it, or I had forgotten about it. I've since gone back to 1mg per day and started Rogaine. Keeping my fingers crossed it comes back but it's not looking good so far..

As far as I could tell I never experienced further loss when I started. It seemed like maybe a month or two in I started getting these random compliments on my hair looking good, which I had never gotten before. Everyone told me it looked thicker, so I guess it did its job and seemed to start working pretty quickly for me. All you can do is give it a shot and see what happens. Hopefully you will have some quick results as well.

If I had to guess I would say at least 8 - 10 months. I wasn't really keeping track of it. I know the time frame that I went from 3 a week to 1 per week was much shorter. I think that's when the wheels started to come off. For a period when I was taking it every day to the time I reduced to every other day I was having to do a lot of blood work for my doctor. (for another issue) She had prescribed me the Propecia a long time ago and out of curiosity I asked her to keep an eye on my DHT levels. She said there was no change in the levels from the time I was taking it every day to every other day. I remember her saying that the Propecia was definitely blocking the DHT. I know everyone is different but I can't imagine that taking it every other day would make much of a difference.

I'm 41, started taking Propecia when I was 27 or so. Took 1mg every day for most of that time. I had a lot of people comment on my hair in the first year so I guess I had good results with it. Never experienced any of the side effects that I read so much about now days. My hair loss stabilized for the most part especially the crown area but I was still ever so slowly losing my hair line. Maybe a year or two ago I started taking it every other day to save money and didn't notice any change. Then I went to 3 times a week, then 2 times a week, then eventually once a week. I don't know when or how quickly it happened, but now I've lost a lot of the hair on my crown. It sucks, and was a big mistake on my part to try and get away with that small of a dosage. For the last couple of months I've been taking it every day in hopes of gaining back what I lost. Hopefully I'll get lucky and some of it will come back but I don't know. I was fine with taking it every other day and will return to that dosage at some point. Be careful..