Hey everyone.
I’m a 33 y/o male who has recently decided to do something about my hair loss rather than dealing with the daily depression, anxiety and body dysmorphia. I’m a NW3 vertex, I was told during my consult that my balding will very likely never go passed a NW5.
To be 100% transparent, it makes little sense to me that so many men risk their sex life by taking fin, a drug that one likely would need to take for the rest of their life once they start it. It’s way beyond my personal risk tolerance to take a drug that could leave permanent sexual side-effects, regardless of how small of a % it may or may not be. DHT does more in the body than cause balding and I don’t want to altering my body’s natural endocrine system by suppressing a hormone that does so many other things.
It concerns me that the majority of men blindly listen to the advice of doctors who, in my experience, tend to minimize the potential for lasting sexual side-effects. To the men who understand the potential side-effects of fin but take it anyway, I completely respect your choice to do that. It’s your body and your hair may be more important to you than your sex life. For me, I’m not willing to play Russian roulette with my sexuality. For that reason, fin is 100% off the table for me.
As the donor grafts are likely resistant to DHT induced loss, my line of thinking is that worst case scenario not doing any med therapy post HT would be continued balding in the non-grafted areas which would likely require future transplants. I’m okay with that. I feel like my expectations are realistic as well. I would rather pay $30k long-term for multiple FUE procedures than deal with the potential sides of fin.
It seems that men who choose not to take fin before or after a hair transplant are the minority here and I’m not sure why that is. I’m not sure if it’s lack of education about the potential side-effects or if they choose to take fin understanding there is a possibility they may in fact experience permanent sexual side effects.
The hair restoration doctor I’ve done a consult with has been in this field for a long-time, he’s been doing HT‘S for 30 years. He told me that out of the 3,000 transplants he’s done, no one has ever had post-finasteride syndrome. That may be true, however it’s not going to change my mind about taking fin. He wants to start me on oral minox but I don’t want to do that either because again, starting these drugs is basically a long-term commitment and I don’t want to be taking a blood pressure medication for the rest of my life when I don’t need that for actual health reasons. The doc also wants to put me on a topical fin + minox serum that’s made at a local compounding pharmacy. He was emphatic that I HAVE to, at the very least, take the oral minox.
My intent is posting is I want a hair transplant without having to take meds. Yes I may need future transplants. Beyond that, am I missing anything?
Thanks in advance for your posts!
