I'm Learning More Every Day

[Time to do something]

I'm feeling a little anxious tonight and hoped someone out there could calm my nerves. I've been through hell and back with my hair transplant saga. I had two with very little growth and I've had a third one which I'm very optimistic about. I was prescribed finasteride and in the last couple of weeks I've begun to experience side effects in the way of periodic ED and lethargy. I've read some very scary things about this drug on the internet. I just had blood work done Friday to measure my testosterone, DHT and estradiol levels. I posed the question as to why I even need to be on this drug since 90% of the hair on the top of my head is transplanted from the 'safe zone' and not susceptible to the effects of DHT. I was told donor hair is susceptible to finesteride, just not as much and it's not talked about that much, but as time goes on and we get older the donor hair gets finer and it's not known how much a role DHT plays. I'm probably overreacting but that kind of worries me that I had a hair transplant thinking that the hair from the back of my head was genetically programmed to be resistant to DHT but I may have been wrong. I suppose it is my own fault for not being completely educated on the subject. I feel like I just can't take the side effects of finasteride. I've been on it since November but I just began to notice these issues maybe three weeks ago. I gave it a couple of weeks to make sure it wasn't in my head or that it could be from something else but finasteride is the only thing I'm doing differently that I wasn't doing before.

[windjc]

Propecia shouldnt make you tired. If you are tired it might be you're worrying and psychosomatic.

 

Regarding ED, that could be stress related too. I mean if you are already getting blood tests done after two weeks, then you must be really worrying about this.

 

As for your miniaturizing donor hair, well how old are you? Because this probably wouldnt happen until your 60s or 70s if at all. So if you are 40 now, we are talking 30 to 40 years. I am not so sure propecia will work for 30 or 40 years. Most people are lucky to see it work 10-15 years.

 

So I think you're worrying is, in the words of Shakespeare, "much to do about nothing".

[EpilepticSceptic]

Well brother, I'm a finasteride veteran and have been on and off of it for over 10 years now. Only in the last 1 year have I taken a 1.25 mg dose every day consistently. The drug companies try to claim that reduction in sex drive is a "side effect", but IMO this is the actual effect of the drug. Before ever taking fin. I was highly oversexed and could easily have 5-7 ejaculations in a 5 hour period of lovemaking with the right girl. On fin. I'd be lucky to make it to the second shoot, and the first one would likely be a pre-mature measly squirt of water anyway.

 

I haven't even had a HT yet, but I'm still taking the fin. cause I'd rather not be bald. Being excessively horny and bald (in our society) is probably the worst curse that could ever be placed on a dude. So keep taking the fin. and just don't worry about the sides.

[glajo]

I was on Propecia since 2000 and quit cold turkey like 4 months ago. Propecia actually raised my libido. This happens but I think its rare. Propecia did thicken my hair over the years since Im classified as a diffuse thinner. My main reason for quitting Propecia is Im not exactly convinced that there are no long term side effects from taking Propecia. Plus I hate taking drugs period, even if they promote hair growth. I recently switched to Advecia which contains Saw Palmetto and other natural ingredients which are an alternative to finesteride. So far, so good. I understand your situation about a decreased libido stressing you out as I took some other medication years ago that made that happen to me and man did I get depressed. See if your doctor thinks Saw Palmetto may be a good substitution for you instead of Propecia.

[Megatron]

a few random thoughts on what's been discussed above:

 

- I do believe and have experienced first hand that propecia does affect the quality of your sperm. it lowers your count and makes them poorer swimmers.

 

- ED has been reported by many guys on propecia, but it goes away in most cases.

 

- any drug, disease, condition etc. that you read about on the internet will scare the shit out of you

 

- ejaculating 5-7 times in 5hrs!? you missed your calling in porn.

[Time to do something]

Thanks for your replies. I wanted to clear a couple of things up that were misunderstood. I've been on finasteride since November not for two weeks. You are right it could be stress related because I do have a stressful job however, no more stressful than normal and I haven't had these symptoms before. I have also read on the internet countless guys who say the drug made them very tired. Apparently this drug effects everyone differently. I will be 49 in three months so to think I've gone through all of this to have hair for maybe 15 years is an education. I have heard that finasteride only works for about 10 years and if the donor hair is susceptible to the effects of DHT then all of the transplanted hair is at risk at that point. I hope I'm wrong but it is beginning to sound like the art of hair transplantation is a temporary fix. If you understand the mechanism behind the way the drug works then sexual dysfunction seems like an obvious side effect. It suppresses the enzyme 5 alpha reductase which converts testosterone into DHT, which is an androgen three times more potent than testosterone.

 

Its responsibility lies in all of the male secondary sexual characteristics such as deepening of the vocal chords, male hair patterns on the body, hair on the face, oily skin, and last but definitely not least, male sexual drive and function. I could not imagine trading sex for hair but beyond that if this drug is what is making my skin drier (that has been documented about this drug as well) and making me lethargic it is a no brainer. I take everything I read on the internet with a grain of salt. However, if the material I'm reading is from a peer reviewed source and countless guys are complaining of the very same symptoms??¦ I take notice. Below is something I copied and pasted which is a study from a medical journal. If DHT is necessary for sexual function then why would anyone think we could function sexually normally without it?

 

 

' This study shows that dihydrotestosterone is the dominant hormonal determinant of the frequency of orgasms in young healthy adults

' The frequency of orgasms depends not only on psychosocial factors but on variation of dihydrotestosterone concentrations within the normal range