Cristero

This. Portugal, you know me and we spoke in PM several times, but I have to tell you that your choice to jump on finasteride was dictated by panic rather than logic. There is no need for you to stay on finasteride, since your native hairs were all gone. It may actually be counter-productive since you had beard grafts implanted.

Looking really good and natural. Congratulations!

I saw cases from Dr. Couto covering the frontal third with a great dense effect with only 1.8k grafts. While I believe these are the exceptions, we are talking about more than the double of grafts to cover a way smaller area. Considering the patients is pretty young and no one knows how his AGA will progress, in my opinion that was a bad call.

I agree with the guys above. 4k for such area is an overkill. Hopefully the patient loss won't progress more, to the point where another procedure will be needed.

No I don't agree with you. You definitely need to do some research on pharmacology and endocrinology before coming out with such bold statements. Your post can be read by young dudes that will believe the bro science you are spreading. Finasteride is an anti-androgen, that can have devastating effects on a male endocrine system, it's not an aspirin. And the more you age, the more you will be at risk for side effects, since the body will be producing less and less androgen once you reach 30. Topical, both in an alcoholic solution and in a liposomal form, goes in the bloodstream, even if in lower doses.

I saw you only advised HLC in Turkey, while you had yours with Pekiner. What happened? Aren't you happy with how your transplant is coming out? Pekiner results are way better than HLC from what I've seen online.

As an FYI, if someone is considering him, De Freitas finally replied to me, quoting me for 1400 grafts for the crown, but he wouldn't touch the temples. But, as many of his colleagues, he doesn't proceed to surgery if you are not on fiansteride. On a side note, I forgot to mention I met Dr Pradeep Sethi here in NYC on Sunday and he strongly disagree with surgeons not proceeding to surgery if you're not on finasteride. Especially in cases like mine, with above average donor area, he said it's stupid. He told me he could have extracted easily 6000/7000 grafts without being noticeable on my donor. Take him in consideration if you're not willing to get castrated with finasteride.

No, but her assistant sent me an email, after I told them I booked with another surgeon, saying they felt the urge to warn me that surgery is pointless if I don't take finasteride. As finasteride is the solution to all the AGA, which we clearly know it isn't.

Please, don't transform my thread into a discussion of Pekiner vs dredd77. You have the original thread for that. Thank you. @Portugal25 I will post on the Italian forum most probably.

I will let you know how my experience will go. I don't think you have anything to be afraid of. As a FYI, Ximena Vila told me she refuses to proceed to surgery if I'm not taking finasteride 10 months prior. Hoping one day surgeons will stop with this nonsense.

I will probably post my brief opinion about the surgery, without pictures if that's allowed. And I agree with everyone saying that the doc behaved ethically. I hope you guys here don't advise people on this forum going to Asmed anymore. The results I've seen recently are seriously embarrassing.

I've replied to you in a PM. Yes, I'm aware of the things you mentioned and I still don't think it's unethical to offer a discount to patients willing to showcase their case on a forum. He's a young surgeon trying to build up a name. I'll report my experience if you wish when I'll be done. I won't have any issue reporting a bad case if I won't be satisfied and I'm usually quite picky with everything.

I've searched enough and I've spoken personally to people who had surgery with him. They just said good things about him. I've looked into every single surgery he did, that were published online, and I liked all of his results, apart from two: one was a thread of a user that has published his story here and another one is an Italian guy who had a less than optimal result, but still a good one. All the others were really good. I've seen an amazing crown reconstructions by him and that's what I was more interested into. Also there's a thread by an Italian guy who did 12 hair transplants (yes 12), one including the really expensive Dr. Wong. And he said Dr Pekiner was his last one and best so far. More expensive doesn't mean always better by any chance. Pekiner seems to have all the requisites to do a good job: manual FUE, stick and place, split the surgery on more days and he uses high end equipment. Then it's a surgery still, and God knows if it's gonna go all well or not.

Booked in with Pekiner eventually for the end of March. He had this opening and I thought now or never. Thanks everyone for your suggestions and advices.

Hattingen told me the best thing would be to shave my head to see how I look like. If I wanted to shave my head and get away with it I would have done it already. About Feriduni, I've already said I don't like his results, sorry. And he doesn't come cheap.

Which means transplanted hairs are not immune from AGA, as many surgeons claims.

I became hypogonadal thanks to it and I'm on hormone replacement therapy for the rest of my life. It's not just about the side effect, it's about the long term issues the drug causes. Many men don't understand the importance of androgens for overall well being, it's not just about sex issues. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4064044/ Also, if you stop it after 18 months as you're doing, you will go back to square one soon.

Still need to convince them to do the surgery without finasteride though.

Hey, I'm waiting for a quote from Freitas still. I've also contacted Pekiner and waiting for his reply. The results he posted on the Italian forum are solid. But, as I said, all the top surgeons wants me on finasteride, so I'm telling them I would rather have a second surgery than taking finasteride anymore. So at the moment I'm waiting for Ferreira, Vila, Freitas and Pekiner thoughts on having the surgery without taking finasteride. Dr. Michalis Georgiu gave me a good discount as well and he's willing to go on without me taking finasteride, but I don't like his results.

This is one of the bad surgeries of Feriduni I would say: https://bellicapelli.forumfree.it/m/?t=65008601&st=150 Crown didn't regrow much and the donor seems depleted.

I'm glad there are still surgeons like that. I don't know what other evidences they need to see to get convinced of the dangers of 5ar inhibitors drugs. But as I said before, I checked his work on the Italian forum and I'm not a big fan. He's way too conservative and also a bit expensive. I would spend those money only for Couto. But I take my hat off in front of doctors brave enough to warn against the danger of a castrating drug.

Update - Dr. Vila said I would need 1800-2000 grafts, which is the number I was expecting since the beginning. Problem is that she wants me on finasteride before and after the surgery and she wants me to go to Madrid for a face to face consultation. Dr. Ferreira sent me a thorough examination of my case and he's been the best so far. Unfortunately he wants me on finasteride as well, starting from 6 months before the surgery. I replied to him saying I would rather do a second surgery later on, than taking that junk. Dr. Michalis Georgiu quoted me for 2000-2500 grafts, and he didn't mention any necessity for me to be on drugs. Unfortunately I don't like his results. I tried to push back with both Vila and Ferreira about finasteride and I'll see what they say. If they can't do without, I will have to look somewhere else. In general, I'm fed up with this attitude of pushing patients to use finasteride, but I guess they just want to be sure not to have an unsuccessful case in their portfolio.

Update - HLC gave me an estimate of 2000-2500 grafts for the hairline and 1000-1400 for the crown. This is definitely the worst plan of all the clinics contacted until now and makes absolutely no sense to me. Filling my temples with 2500 grafts it's a serious overkill. Dr. Ximena Vila assistant told me the first available date for a consultation is October and the surgery roughly 8 months after. It's almost the same waiting list Couto gave me.

The first one has results a The first one is at 10 months and a half for the hairline, and 7.5 a half for the vertex. So I don't know where you saw 2 months and a half. The other one is 2 surgeries if I'm not wrong and years after the surgery. I was getting that result I would have been quite pissed off.

https://bellicapelli.forumfree.it/m/?t=75575118 https://bellicapelli.forumfree.it/m/?t=70210123