My Hairloss Story and My Experience with Finasteride...

[balding1985]

Hey guys, hope everyone has been having a great Christmas! I am glad to be back on this forum and read the success stories and advice of all the members.

 

I am 25 and have been taking finasteride 1.25 mg for about 1 year now. I was heading toward a Norwood 6 without a doubt. My dad is a NW6. I still waited too long to begin this med (at least 3 years late) but better late than never. Not that I was denying my hairloss but I have to admit that in the year prior to me starting finasteride, my hairloss accelerated like crazy. At first I was like oh well, I just shave it. But then the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to keep my hair. Also I realized that even if I get a hair transplant, I will most likely be started on finasteride anyway, so I began taking it. I actually began taking it for a bit in October of 2009, but the side effects were pretty nasty especially the ED so I stopped. However, in January, I realized that I will be extremely busy with school for quite some time so I honestly didn't care about not being able to sustain an erection. So I started it again and what a great idea it was. I am quite sure that had I not begun finasteride, I would have been completely bald by now or within the next year or two.

 

So I joined this forum last winter break and pretty much spent the entire break reading about hair loss and I decided that finasteride is a must. Also I did some search about different shampoos and decided to go with Nioxin system 2. I probably should have gone with their system 6 since I have coarse hair. In the first few months of 2010, I experienced quite a lot of shedding but I honestly thought it was the Nioxin and finasteride shocking my system. But since I didn't have time to think about it being so busy with school, I kept taking the medication and using the shampoo saying what do I have to lose?

 

Regarding side effects of finasteride currently, they are there but I think it is just how it is as long as I keep taking the medication. I have minor gynecomastia, but my erections are fine now. In fact, I wake up with morning erections at least 70% of the time. The watery semen is there and also my ejaculations are not as forceful as they used to be (probably 80%) and my semen volume is always lower even if I haven't ejaculated in a while. Also both my penis and testicles are smaller in size and volume which I am sure is explained by the extra testosterone in my system. Also I might have experienced the "mental fog" that some other members talk about, but I honestly think that is because I have been so burned out with school and not this medication haha. So I understand that either I take this medication and keep and regrow my hair or go bald and not have side effects. Also as I said I have been busy with school so it has been nice to know that I am doing all I can for my hair. I will have some free time in the next few months so I am thinking about making an appointment with a urologist perhaps to talk about using anastrazole (arimidex) to decrease the esterogen in my body. As I said the lack of time is a main issue for me to make these kinds of appointments. Does anyone have any experience with arimidex at all? I think it is now available for generic, which means the cost is much less.

 

So regarding results, I have definitely kept all the hairs that I had before I began taking this medication. Also I have experienced regrowth ( I have been taking pictures of myself and also I know how bad I looked before I began taking this medication). Also if I look closely at my scalp, there are very fine hairs growing between the thicker hairs that I have. I have also asked other people to make sure I am not imagining. So here is my question: are these hairs eventually going to "thicken"? How does that work? From what I have heard, after 2 years of taking finasteride, whatever hair that I haven't regrown will not grow any more. Is this true?

 

Also I think the main benefit with Nioxin is that it definitely creates a healthy environment in the scalp but more importantly thickens whatever hair there is. I really recommend it. As I said, I have mistakenly been using system 2 but now I am trying to find system 6 (system 6 is not that easy to find in local stores close to me). But even system 2 has been helpful. But as I said, I think finasteride is THE main thing. I mean I feel like even if I wash my hair with laundry detergent while on finasteride, I will keep more hair than if I use the best shampoo but don't take finasteride . I am just hoping that finasteride doesn't lose its charm for me after some years of using it.

 

So anyway, I just thought I would share my story. As I said, I sometimes feel like beating myself up for not starting finasteride sooner but then I come to my senses and I realize that beating myself up doesn't help at all. Also I keep telling myself that whatever hair that this med doesn't regrow can be replaced with a hair transplant later on. :cool:

 

Thanks for this awesome forum I look forward to your comments! I also hope I can help out other members on this forum...

Edited December 26, 2010 by balding1985

[TakingThePlunge]

balding1985,

 

Thank you for sharing your detailed experience with the community. I'd say my experience with finasteride mirrors yours fairly closely. My side effects have been minor and since everything still works when I need it I don't sweat the minor loss of involuntary erections.

 

All the best,

[balding1985]

Thanks for posting TakingThePlunge! By the way I looked at your hair journal and I have to say that your results look great! Congrats! As I said, I am waiting to have some free time from school to make an appointment to see either a dermatologist or a consultation with one of the approved hair transplant surgeons. Not that I want to get a transplant right away but I just want to show them my scalp and ask them if they think my progress has been good and if and when I qualify for a hair transplant.

 

So it seems that you also take minoxidil TakingThePlunge. I had been using rogaine on and off since I was 18. I don't really think it did anything for me and it was just a hassle to apply. It might have helped a bit but I think finasteride is the main powerhouse. I personally don't use minoxidil because considering my balding pattern I don't even know where to apply it lol...

 

It is reassuring to hear that guys who are your age can also tolerate the side effects of finasteride. I still worry about the fact that long-term side effects of finasteride is unknown considering that it is still a relatively new drug. But I have seen some guys post here who say they have been on it since it was first approved and they are doing fine (12 years now). When I first began taking it I freaked out a bit, because I was telling myself if my ejaculations are like this when I am 24 and on this med, what will they look like when I am 50 if I am still on this med? But that would just serve to worry me so I stopped to freak out about it.

 

Sorry I know I wrote a long post above but I was wondering if you or anybody else could help with my questions that I brought up above (which was hard to read in between all those lines )

 

1- Do you know anyone who has used arimidex (anastrazole) to lower their esterogen levels after they have been on finasteride? The idea of it makes sense...

 

2- As I mentioned in my first post, my hair has certainly regrown. Also the good thing is most of those new hairs are very thick which makes it less obvious that I was thinning. My experience is that my temples on both sides are thickening and so is the crown of my head. But the funny thing is that I have this strip of thinness in the front of my head which from what I understand finasteride is least effective on. But as I said the distance between my temples is shortening (in terms of thinness).

 

I am kind of curious to see how other guys who have taken finasteride have experienced regrowth. I mean the pattern of regrowth...

 

3- Also as I mentioned above, I am seeing all these really thin hairs all over my scalp betwen the thick hairs that I had before starting finasteride. I wonder if based on your experience, you think they are ever going to "thicken".

 

4- Do you think it is OK that I use the same type of shampoo (Nioxin) everyday? It doesn't irritate or dry my scalp and as I said I am now trying to find their system 6 which seems best suited for my hair. But it seems that here it is recommended to use a variety of shampoos so that the scalp doesn't get used to the same thing.

 

Thanks for your help and all the best!

[Spanker]

. The hairs may or may not thicken up....you may have up to another year of seeing improvement. Some people are seeing a loss of efficacy after about 4 or 5 years while some are 10 plus years and going strong. You will just have to wait and see. A lot of it depends on how strongl you are prone to genetic loss IMO.

 

As for the shampoo, I would use as directed, I use Nizoral (but I am out now). I try to use about 3 times a week.

 

Good luck.

[balding1985]

Thanks Spanker!

 

I definitely hope that the hairs thicken up. If I look at the pictures before I began finasteride/Nioxin, I certainly think now I have more density on my temples and I hope that eventually the two sides keep getting closer to each other with full density and close the thinness on the front of my scalp. I mean if the thin hairs don't thicken up, how am I ever going to get a hair transplant with all these thin hairs in between the thick hairs? There is no room for the follicular units to be transplanted to... :confused:

 

Also I certainly agree with you that finasteride works best in case of DHT induced hair loss only based on its mechanism. I have heard MANY people say that stress, sleep deprivation, etc. make hair loss worse. I think that's true for a lot of people but not for me. I have been in medical school in the last three years which as you know is as stressful as any training can get (Almost done, 5 more months ). As I mentioned in my original post, my hair loss began to really accelerate probably in the beginning of 2009. At first I was like well considering how much I have to study/memorize/not sleep, my hairloss was speeding up. But then I began finasteride about a year ago and not only my hair loss stopped but now I am growing hair. Now last year has been the most stressful year of medical school for me so far so how come I haven't lost hair? So I think at least for me, genetics and DHT are the main ones responsible.

 

Also as I said my dad is probably a NW7 after looking at the NW scale and I have strong genes heading me in that direction. I just hope and pray that finasteride keeps up the good work or I am in trouble.

 

Actually my dad has begun taking finasteride for his prostate so he sometimes jokes and says that he might grow more hair than me haha...

[Spanker]

The docs can punch right through the really thin hairs, the only think is when you do that there would not be as significant of a difference because the thin hairs will likely become casualties so basically you have the same amount of hairs, just strong ones instead of vellous.

[RCWest]

Look at it this way, the occasional ED would give you more time to study instead of fooling around with the women LOL

I'm glad to hear you are having success. Even if people think they are having zero success, it is usually helping to *some* extent. The medication doesn't really start taking full stride for 9-12 months, so the good things are just getting started. Lotsa luck to ya!!:cool:

[balding1985]

Thank you guys for posting. fortunately, as I mentioned, I don't really have any problems with ED. My libido is good too. It is just the other problems that I mentioned above (watery semen, decreased ejaculate volume and orgrasm pleasure, decrease in size of my penis and testicle, gynecomastia and increase in body fat due to esterogen) that I experience.

 

Now I know these side effects are quite A LOT and I know many guys who won't subject themselves to these just to keep their hair. In fact, one thing that worries me quite a bit is that I have worked with some endocrinologists and urologists who are young and bald/balding. I am sure they know about finasteride and hair loss so how come they aren't taking it?

 

Another possible side effect that I might be experiencing is that I think I am not as "sharp" as I used to be. Clinical medicine requires me to be able to put a lot of medical facts together to come up with a diagnosis and treat a patient. I think it takes me considerable effort to do this. I understand that DHT plays a role in some neurotransmitters in the central nervous system so lowering it might have cauzed an imbalance. However, my situation might be due to a lot of reasons. First of all, I am still in the early stages of my training so I am not that good in putting facts together to make management plans. Secondly, I have been working nonstop for quite some time now and every break that I have I am trying to learn more about other things such as hair loss, and in general keep my life together. So burn out could be responsible for this mental fatigue too.

 

Overall, do I wish that I didn't need to take this medication? Yes for sure. Not that I need to ( I mean my life doesn't depend on this med), but as I mentioned above, there are only two options for me: take this med and keep my hair or not take it and go bald. I guess the good thing is at least I have two options; balding guys 30 years ago only had 1 option.

 

Happy New Year everyone! Hopefully 2011 will put a lot of hair on our heads!

[Danielkiwi]

Balding 1985..nice post and i can completely understand where you are coming from as i have been through a similiar expereince..After having tried Fin off and on for about 2 years, i decided to quit and not deal with the side effects (I suffered similiar side effects as you have mentioned).

 

But i would like to say something about your comment that it is better to have two options than one option...the reason i say that is if we did not have the second option of Fin, it would be much easier to accept our baldness and move on!! since there is really no other option..Wat fin has done is created more problems in our heads (atleast in my case)..after going through this ordeal for 2 years, i am happy that i have decided to quit and would recommend the same to you as well..I am sure you are a smart guy and looks like you have a great career ahead of you...You will not have any shortage of girls and if you feel, fin is messing up with your sharpness, dump it....it certainly did for me and i work in financial services that requires me to be sharp all the time...Good luck mate

[balding1985]

Thanks for all the awesome comments guys! I know you might think that I am absolutely crazy for writing this, but actually I decided to quit taking finasteride and I took my last pill on last Sunday and that's it.

 

Over the last few weeks I have had more free time on my hand and had time to think about what I am doing to my biochemistry and physiology by taking this med. Also I read some medical articles about importance of DHT to remind myself of its roles in the body.

 

So here is a list of adv. and disadv. ( for me at least) that I came up with regarding taking this med which I kind of mentioned above:

 

Advantages:

1- no hair loss; 2- decrease in body hair

 

Disadvantages:

1- Minor decrease in libido; 2- decreased sexual pleasure; 3- hypogonadism; 4- gynecomastia; 5- decrease in muscle mass; 6- decrease in energy; 7- slowed mental ability

 

So the disadvantages were way too many for me to put up with any more. So yeah I quit. Am I saying it is a bad medication? no. I am actually extremely happy that I took it for about a year or so to see that it works, and what my side effects were and that I made an educated decision to quit. Had I not taken this med I would always be regretting that I never gave it a try.

 

So yeah, I am going to be a NW7 and I will shave my head. I am sure that there are some women out there who will never even talk to me because I am bald even if I have a great career or even if I was the king of the universe. Fortunately, there are not a lot of women out there like that.

 

Also if I feel really bad about being bald, I can always get hair transplant surgery. I know I probably won't have enough donor hairs to get my entire head covered and it will cost me a fortume since I will need many follicles transplanted, but I will hopefully have a good income in the future to cover that. (Well, hopefully. Who knows what happens to medicine careers in the future?) But I won't go back on finasteride again because it will be the same story all over again.

 

I am waiting for my DHT levels to get back to normal so that I get back to my normal life once and for all.

 

Good luck to you all!

[NorwoodScale]

there's no way your penis got smaller cause of propecia. I don't buy it.

[okay2land]

Sounds like you made a wise and very personal decision. Good luck to you.

[balding1985]

there's no way your penis got smaller cause of propecia. I don't buy it.

 

Let me explain the reason why finasteride could cause hypogonadism (of course not in everyone). I am sure you probably know anyway so please forgive me if I am repeating something you already know.

 

When you block DHT synthesis, you naturally increase testosterone in your system. So what is this excess testosterone going to do? It is going to get aromatized into estrogen.

 

Extra testosterone causes a negative feedback loop on your testicles and since they "think" you have a lot of testosterone they are going to undergo atrohpy i.e. shrink. It is similar to body builders who take anabolic steroids to get big. They wil have testicular atrophy. Furthermore since esterogen is also increased in a guy who takes finasteride, it could also lead to testicular atrophy. Kind of similar to any guy with advanced liver disease (cirrhosis) will have extra estrogen in their system and will have testicular atrophy. That's a fact regarding testicles.

 

To be honest I am not saying my penis got smaller but here is something that makes sense. Since the prostate is surrounding the urethra before it connects to the bladder and I was shrinking my prostate by taking finasteride it is completely possible that I "felt" like my penis would not reach its previous size when erect because the smaller prostate might in a way pull on the urethra. I am not sure if this theory is right so I would love to hear someone else's opinion on this.

 

As I mentioned people react differently to differet medications. I have been in medicine for a short time but I have worked with enough patients who react in weird ways to very common medications such as antihypertensives (for high blood pressure) or other very common medications.

 

But to be honest, it is really hard to believe that there are some guys out there who take finasteride with NO side effects whatsoever. I mean you are effectively blocking DHT in your system so I don't get it. I know the side effects could be more severe for some people but NO side effects as if you aren't taking this med?

 

So I know that my DHT levels will most likely get back to normal about 14 days after quitting this med. When should I expect my hairloss to restart? I am still continuing to use Nioxin which I believe will remove some of the DHT from my scalp topically. Of course it won't be as powerful as finasteride but hopefully it will help a little bit.

 

Also do you guys think it would be a good idea for me to make an appointment with a qualified hair transplant surgeon from this website to discuss my future options? I mean considering that I still have hair on my head. But as I said even now my hair is very thin because I began finasteride late and it is extremely easy to predict where I will be (NW7 or 6 if I am lucky).

 

Thank you again for your help!

Edited January 22, 2011 by balding1985

[Kenny537]

balding1985 -

I have used finasteride for 7 months and decided that today was my last day of using it after reading so many studies and side effects - and the possibility that the side effects may not go away even after discontinuing the drug.

 

You seem like you have done your HW - I have a few questions:

 

- Have your side effects gone away, not that it's been about two months since you've stopped using the drug?

- What do you do now about your hair loss? Any other drugs? Topical applicants? Concealers?

- Did you also discontinue nioxin? or just finasteride? Do you recommend I try nioxin?

 

I am looking into replacements drugs for my finasteride - but I want to stick to strictly topical to avoid the side effects. Is this logical that topicals will avoid the side effects? I thought so but I am not sure.

 

Shampoo drugs that I am consider:

 

- Rogaine - any reason not to?

 

The main side-effects of minoxidil include pruritus, allergic dermatitis, palpitation, scalp irritation, worsening of seborrheic dermatitis, and hypertrichosis in women, on the face, arms, chest and sacral area. Minoxidil is preferably avoided in pregnant and breast feeding women. [10],[11] Use of new propylene glycol-free, minoxidil gel and foam has reduced these side-effects. [12]

 

- Nioxin - any reason not to?

- Revivogen - any reason not to?

 

Nizoral - the active ingredient in this is Ketoconazole. I don't want to risk using this drug because I am reading that one of the side effects may be drug-induced gynocomastia. Do you think this could occur or is it only if ketoconazole is taken orally?

Drug-induced gynecomastia. [Pharmacotherapy. 1993 Jan-Feb] - PubMed result

 

Concealers I am considering (I have been using toppik):

 

- dermatch

- nanogen

 

Do you use any concealers?

 

Thank you.

Edited March 29, 2011 by Kenny537