Official Thread: Have you experienced side effects from finasteride? (Poll)

[civic]

There was some research that finasteride impacts GABA receptors in brain, which can cause anxiety, ocd etc in some people. It's best to consult with doctors before taking this medicstion & if one is prone to aforementioned, probably best to not take it.  

[BaldDude]

I definitely recommend taking saw palmetto for those who can't or don't want to take fin/dut.  I've been using it for abut 6 months now and have noticed much less shedding.  Not much hair growth but also no sides.

[sukh123]

On 8/10/2022 at 2:43 PM, sunsurfhair said:

Don’t stress #1 is the most important thing. Work out 4-5x a week with good resistance/weight training, eat lots of healthy clean proteins, and try to keep stress (cortisol) down. Ask your prescribing doctor about reducing your Finasteride dosing strategy as an option. If you do all that and are still having issues, ask your provider to check your labs with attention to key hormones. 

This site has an extensive panel for Finasteride labs, which I actually thought was really pretty thorough. It’s a bunch, but considering you’re on the med and having low libido at 26, it would make sense to have them check if you can’t get it in check w the basic suggestions listed above. Considering you’re not having other issues, I think you will be OK my friend!

The Comprehensive Pre-Finasteride Hormone Panel includes the following tests:

• Testosterone, Free + Total, LC/MS
• Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxy
• IGF-1
• Prolactin
• Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone (TSH)
• Comprehensive Metabolic Panel
• Thyroglobulin Antibody
• Hemoglobin A1C
• Luteinizing Hormone (LH)
• NMR LipoProfile + Lipids + IR + Gph
• DHEA Sulfate (DHEA-S)
• Ferritin
• Reverse T3, Serum
• Pregnenolone, MS
• Testosterone Free, MS/Dialysis
• DHT, Free, LCMS/Dialysis
• CBC with Differential/Platelet
• Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH)
• Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin (SHBG)
• Estradiol, Sensitive 
• Progesterone
• Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA)
• TgAb + Thyroglobulin, IMA or LCMS
• Cortisol
• Thyroxine (T4) Free, Direct
• Iron and TIBC
• Dihydrotestosterone
• Triiodothyronine (T3), Free

You copied this from more plates more dates 

[hairman22]

I think we have slowly saw more Hair transplants doctors not recommend propecia

That is damning really because ideally it is needed to maintain hair

Topical is worth a try. Oral I would be every careful of. I took it 2 years no issues. Then permanent sexual side affects which will never return to 100%. Now i am ok now with being 70% now but i do wonder what would it be like to be back to what I was. I did have some insomnia too but very mild. Was ok otherwise.

Dr Saifi said years ago many of his patients had side affects & he didnr recommend it. Any time i mentioned it to someone they also mentioned someone who had bad side affects.

[Melvin- Admin]

I believe topicals are the future because they’re much safer. 

[GoliGoliGoli]

14 hours ago, sunsurfhair said:

Released today by NY Post

 

https://nypost.com/2022/08/10/georgia-family-blames-propecia-for-sons-suicide/

The interesting thing is they mention this guy was big into working out - very fit and healthy. There is another guy on Youtube talking about his experience with PFS who was training to be a physical therapist and also mentioned that he used to love working out. It's all anecdotal but I think this exposes the lie of "Well these people who have PFS were probably unhealthy to begin with". 

[sukh123]

2 hours ago, hairman22 said:

I think we have slowly saw more Hair transplants doctors not recommend propecia

That is damning really because ideally it is needed to maintain hair

Topical is worth a try. Oral I would be every careful of. I took it 2 years no issues. Then permanent sexual side affects which will never return to 100%. Now i am ok now with being 70% now but i do wonder what would it be like to be back to what I was. I did have some insomnia too but very mild. Was ok otherwise.

Dr Saifi said years ago many of his patients had side affects & he didnr recommend it. Any time i mentioned it to someone they also mentioned someone who had bad side affects.

Which doctors lol, all the ones I’ve consulted with including reddy, bisAnga and Freitas all told me within the first few minutes “ you need to get on finasteride if your not already” . Alot of the guys I know who don’t have problems with fin are healthy and maintain low body fat , now I’m not saying that is a pre cursor to not getting sides but look at the guy mazab ont this forum as a anecdote. He is 50, maintains low body fat and has good muscle tone and a good diet and had no problem for 25 years .  A lot of the YouTubers who are fitness related all take it and have no problems too. The west in particular the uk and USA have poor health and big obesity problem . People need to start taking care of themselves . Most people’s hormones are probably out of whack before even starting fin , and is again why I advocate doing a whole hormonal blood panel before hoping on . The drug is not for everyone but if you care so much about your hair health, then  I would also be as focussed on overall health as hair is just one part

Edited August 11, 2022 by sukh123

[ciaus]

 

I would say topicals are the future for the more troubled obsessive guys on this forum. And clearly we have a much higher proportion of those than the general population, just like this higher rate of reported side effects.  If almost 50% of all guys were actually getting side effects like in this little forum poll, Merck would have never bothered with trying to get it FDA approved for hair.

[hairman22]

2 minutes ago, sukh123 said:

Which doctors lol, all the ones I’ve consulted with including reddy, bisAnga and Freitas all told me within the first few minutes “ you need to get on finasteride if your not already” . Alot of the guys I know who don’t have problems with fin are healthy and maintain low body fat , now I’m not saying that is a pre cursor to not getting sides but look at the guy mazab ont this forum as a anecdote. He 50, maintains low body fat and has good muscle tone and a good diet and had no problem for 25 years .  A lot of the YouTubers who are fitness related all take it and have no problems too. The west in particular the uk and USA have poor health and big obesity problem . People need to start taking care of themselves . Most people’s hormones are probably out of whack before even starting fin , and is again why I advocate doing a whole hormonal blood panel before hoping on . The drug not for everyone but if you care so much about the health, people need to look at other aspects to if fin is affecting them in my opinion 

My body fat is very low & I have always worked out. Dont drink smoke or eat any junk food ever.

Still got sides after 2 years & I didnt believe in PFS before hand. Now many people will be fine & I agree about blood work before hand.

But i would say people willing to take Propecia are in better shape in most cases than the average public

Bicer,Pitella,Zarev,Saidi are 4 that I know who dont prescribe propecia. Zarev does topically in some patients

[mr_peanutbutter]

sorry but this thread is slowly turning into annecdotal evidence („someone mentioned something“, news report about suicide and what else not)

and all of a sudden we swifting (without mentioning it directly) from 1-2% sideeffect rate to basically "100% will get severe side effects“..

 

this is called availability  heuristic:

———-

„Which job is more dangerous—being a police officer or a logger? While high profile police shootings might lead to you think that cops have the most dangerous job, statistics actually show that loggers are more likely to die on the job than cops.

 

When it comes to making this type of judgment about relative risk or danger, our brains rely on a number of different strategies to make quick decisions. This illustrates what is known as the availability heuristic, a mental shortcut that helps you make fast, but sometimes incorrect, assessments.

 

There are all kinds of mental shortcuts, but a common one involves relying on information that comes to mind quickly. This is known as "availability." If you can quickly think of multiple examples of something happening—such as police shootings—you will believe that it is more common.““

https://www.verywellmind.com/availability-heuristic-2794824

———-

this how all debates go. and hence there is no point really. i dont even want to know how many people got scared of from finasteride without trying because they read some horror stories on the internet. people who might wouldnt have experienced any sideeffects.

 

what i also find unethical is to tell people that they can get a transplant without finasteride with no problem, when its really not the case. the truth is that many people shouldnt get a transplant without finasteride. this should be mentioned. it also should be mentioned that not everyone will look like jason statham bald. that baldness can affect love life, self confidence and various other aspects of life in a negative way. im also very sure that baldness alone can lead to depression, hell now that we are at annecdotes already it even can lead to suicide..https://m.timesofindia.com/city/madurai/techie-commits-suicide-in-madurai-due-to-hair-fall-problem/amp_articleshow/62325039.cms

this all should be presented and then everyone can make his own decision based on that.

 

[sukh123]

14 minutes ago, hairman22 said:

My body fat is very low & I have always worked out. Dont drink smoke or eat any junk food ever.

Still got sides after 2 years & I didnt believe in PFS before hand. Now many people will be fine & I agree about blood work before hand.

But i would say people willing to take Propecia are in better shape in most cases than the average public

Bicer,Pitella,Zarev,Saidi are 4 that I know who dont prescribe propecia. Zarev does topically in some patients

I’m just going by the doctors I’ve consulted with. I can’t speak about the others .  But the ones I did speak to like bisanga and de Freitas are arguably in the top 5 best transplant surgeons in the world in my opinion, so I take what they say with more credence . Both advocate oral minxodil to. Yes as I said it’s more likely you will have a healthier hormonal profile if you work out and maintain Lower body fat. But that’s not a given, it’s why blood testing is so important to manager your markers , and it’s why I do it every three Months while on the drug. The vast majority don’t do this, and it gives me more peace of mind, Knowing the markers that fin affects are all normal to continue taking the drug. 

Edited August 11, 2022 by sukh123

[LookMaxx]

Just my 2 cents

I have gone through such horrible loss in my life several times, when I was in my late teens I was suicidal because I couldn’t bear the overwhelming loss. I am a Muslim and in Islam it is forbidden to commit suicide so I couldn’t go through with it, I became religious and the realisation that this world isn’t everything saved me, I started to feel better. When I look back on that time, few themes become apparent to me. I was highly irrational, emotional and in a panicked mind feeling like my world is over and things will not get better, it continued through weeks. I don’t even recall sex being on my mind at the time at all and I was a healthy teenager at the time. I have no doubt if not for Islam, I would’ve ended my life then because there was no other barrier to it and I felt hopeless. 

 

People who commit suicide don’t reach that point suddenly. In that horrible horrible state of mind, nobody feels horny or sexy, sorry to be blunt here but many people get ED while with a beautiful woman solely from performance anxiety, imagine someone in a bad state of mind panicked. I want to explain more but it feels vulgar, look it’s not a dead meat or mechanical machine, it’s directly connected to the brain and for pleasure. When you’re in agony, it’s not going to work. 

The thing with PFS is physically everything is OK with them but it’s the mind. Unfortunately, they DO experience it. The solution is for them to stop imagining it and there’s no drug that can make you do that. How do you make a drug addict stop smoking? You can NOT unless he wants to.

People in PFS are in a vicious negative cycle, “my erections are weak” etc etc it’s a vicious panicked ugly mode. I don’t think anyone else can even understand how it is unless you go through it yourself and I unfortunately have experienced it many years ago.

Our minds are really scary things. PFS is a psychological phenomenon and not physical, this is why every research they do the physical hormonal parameters are fine. 

[sukh123]

9 minutes ago, mr_peanutbutter said:

sorry but this thread is slowly turning into annecdotal evidence („someone mentioned something“, news report about suicide and what else not)

and all of a sudden we swifting (without mentioning it directly) from 1-2% sideeffect rate to basically "100% will get severe side effects“..

 

this is called availability  heuristic:

———-

„Which job is more dangerous—being a police officer or a logger? While high profile police shootings might lead to you think that cops have the most dangerous job, statistics actually show that loggers are more likely to die on the job than cops.

 

When it comes to making this type of judgment about relative risk or danger, our brains rely on a number of different strategies to make quick decisions. This illustrates what is known as the availability heuristic, a mental shortcut that helps you make fast, but sometimes incorrect, assessments.

 

There are all kinds of mental shortcuts, but a common one involves relying on information that comes to mind quickly. This is known as "availability." If you can quickly think of multiple examples of something happening—such as police shootings—you will believe that it is more common.““

https://www.verywellmind.com/availability-heuristic-2794824

———-

this how all debates go. and hence there is no point really. i dont even want to know how many people got scared of from finasteride without trying because they read some horror stories on the internet. people who might wouldnt have experienced any sideeffects.

 

what i also find unethical is to tell people that they can get a transplant without finasteride with no problem, when its really not the case. the truth is that many people shouldnt get a transplant without finasteride. this should be mentioned. it also should be mentioned that not everyone will look like jason statham bald. that baldness can affect love life, self confidence and various other aspects of life in a negative way. im also very sure that baldness alone can lead to depression, hell now that we are at annecdotes already it even can lead to suicide..https://m.timesofindia.com/city/madurai/techie-commits-suicide-in-madurai-due-to-hair-fall-problem/amp_articleshow/62325039.cms

this all should be presented and then everyone can make his own decision based on that.

 

You can get a transplant without finasteride though. But the problem You have is that a hair transplant is not a given and donor is finite . So if this doesn’t go well , you need to keep going into your finite donor which may run out before having adequate density . Which is why meds are important to retain as much native hair to lessen the grafts needed and so more can be banked for future needs.

Edited August 11, 2022 by sukh123

[GoliGoliGoli]

7 minutes ago, sukh123 said:

The vast majority don’t do this, and it gives me more peace of minds Knowing the markers that fin affects are all normal to continue taking the drug. 

Oh ya? What are your DHT levels at? 😄

[yesplease]

2 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

I believe topicals are the future because they’re much safer. 

I wish we knew this to be the case. However there is evidence that topical fin decreases blood levels of DHT to a similar extent as systemic (oral) fin does. 
 

This does not reassure me that topicals are necessarily safer. 

[sukh123]

4 minutes ago, LookMaxx said:

Just my 2 cents

I have gone through such horrible loss in my life several times, when I was in my late teens I was suicidal because I couldn’t bear the overwhelming loss. I am a Muslim and in Islam it is forbidden to commit suicide so I couldn’t go through with it, I became religious and the realisation that this world isn’t everything saved me, I started to feel better. When I look back on that time, few themes become apparent to me. I was highly irrational, emotional and in a panicked mind feeling like my world is over and things will not get better, it continued through weeks. I don’t even recall sex being on my mind at the time at all and I was a healthy teenager at the time. I have no doubt if not for Islam, I would’ve ended my life then because there was no other barrier to it and I felt hopeless. 

 

People who commit suicide don’t reach that point suddenly. In that horrible horrible state of mind, nobody feels horny or sexy, sorry to be blunt here but many people get ED while with a beautiful woman solely from performance anxiety, imagine someone in a bad state of mind panicked. I want to explain more but it feels vulgar, look it’s not a dead meat or mechanical machine, it’s directly connected to the brain and for pleasure. When you’re in agony, it’s not going to work. 

The thing with PFS is physically everything is OK with them but it’s the mind. Unfortunately, they DO experience it. The solution is for them to stop imagining it and there’s no drug that can make you do that. How do you make a drug addict stop smoking? You can NOT unless he wants to.

People in PFS are in a vicious negative cycle, “my erections are weak” etc etc it’s a vicious panicked ugly mode. I don’t think anyone else can even understand how it is unless you go through it yourself and I unfortunately have experienced it many years ago.

Our minds are really scary things. PFS is a psychological phenomenon and not physical, this is why every research they do the physical hormonal parameters are fine. 

“But many people get ED while with a beautiful woman solely from performance anxiety” . Speak for yourself son lol

[GoliGoliGoli]

5 minutes ago, LookMaxx said:

The thing with PFS is physically everything is OK with them but it’s the mind. Unfortunately, they DO experience it. The solution is for them to stop imagining it and there’s no drug that can make you do that. 

You are displaying your rather blatant lack of understanding of basic biology/endocrinology. While I don't disagree that some percent of people with Fin sides are probably psychosomatic, the fact is that when you drastically lower a key male androgen (DHT) by pharmaceutical means you shouldn't be surprised when you have side effects especially in areas related to ED/sexual function. You don't need a peer review study to tell you this. You just need to apply basic reasoning skills. That isn't to say everyone who takes it will have those side effects though. 

[yesplease]

6 minutes ago, LookMaxx said:

Just my 2 cents

I have gone through such horrible loss in my life several times, when I was in my late teens I was suicidal because I couldn’t bear the overwhelming loss. I am a Muslim and in Islam it is forbidden to commit suicide so I couldn’t go through with it, I became religious and the realisation that this world isn’t everything saved me, I started to feel better. When I look back on that time, few themes become apparent to me. I was highly irrational, emotional and in a panicked mind feeling like my world is over and things will not get better, it continued through weeks. I don’t even recall sex being on my mind at the time at all and I was a healthy teenager at the time. I have no doubt if not for Islam, I would’ve ended my life then because there was no other barrier to it and I felt hopeless. 

 

People who commit suicide don’t reach that point suddenly. In that horrible horrible state of mind, nobody feels horny or sexy, sorry to be blunt here but many people get ED while with a beautiful woman solely from performance anxiety, imagine someone in a bad state of mind panicked. I want to explain more but it feels vulgar, look it’s not a dead meat or mechanical machine, it’s directly connected to the brain and for pleasure. When you’re in agony, it’s not going to work. 

The thing with PFS is physically everything is OK with them but it’s the mind. Unfortunately, they DO experience it. The solution is for them to stop imagining it and there’s no drug that can make you do that. How do you make a drug addict stop smoking? You can NOT unless he wants to.

People in PFS are in a vicious negative cycle, “my erections are weak” etc etc it’s a vicious panicked ugly mode. I don’t think anyone else can even understand how it is unless you go through it yourself and I unfortunately have experienced it many years ago.

Our minds are really scary things. PFS is a psychological phenomenon and not physical, this is why every research they do the physical hormonal parameters are fine. 

I am sorry for what you went through in the past. But saying that symptoms of PFS are purely psychological and not physical is simply conjecture on your part. Not a fact. And not every diagnosis or symptom can be linked to a particular hormonal level in the blood. The human endocrine system is incredibly complex and involves many cellular pathways and receptors that cannot necessarily be monitored with a simple lab study. 

[GoliGoliGoli]

16 minutes ago, mr_peanutbutter said:

the truth is that many people shouldnt get a transplant without finasteride. this should be mentioned. 

Well, I think most of your post is completely off base but I do agree with this. The HT industry would be a lot smaller without Fin. I think that's part of the reason HT surgeons are comfortable believing it's a safe drug. I'm not implying that they are engaging in some sort of conspiracy with Merck, it's more that they want to help their patients with the hair loss and have a financial incentive to believe the studies that say Fin is totally safe and only 1-2% get sides. People think Dr's are the be all end all of what medicine is safe to take. The logical usual goes, "Surely if my Dr prescribed it to me it has to be A-OK!.

History has proven this to be nonsense. How many hours of study do most HT surgeons spend on endocrinology? How many hours of study do they have on the physiological functions of DHT? 

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/new-drugs-found-cause-side-effects-years-after-approval-n757526

https://prescriptiondrugs.procon.org/fda-approved-prescription-drugs-later-pulled-from-the-market/

[Mike10]

I guess the jury for topical Finansteride is still out there

[Melvin- Admin]

10 minutes ago, yesplease said:

I wish we knew this to be the case. However there is evidence that topical fin decreases blood levels of DHT to a similar extent as systemic (oral) fin does. 
 

This does not reassure me that topicals are necessarily safer. 

Topicals reduce systemic DHT by less than half of oral finasteride. Oral fin reduces 70% while topical reduces 30% thats a huge difference.

[Mike10]

PFS is real and has destroyed lifes. Anybody who tells different is a liar

[sukh123]

8 minutes ago, Mike10 said:

I guess the jury for topical Finansteride is still out there

I think from the studies done you can say it’s as effective . What’s unclear is how much of a difference it makes to serum dht levels to oral. From studies a concentration of 0.025 was found to reduce it by 25 percent and scalp by 50 percent. Obviously   There is like 20 percent less reduction for scalp than higher concentration’s and oral but less loss of dht serum.  Some guys even with this little reduction will still have a non functioning penis 

Edited August 11, 2022 by sukh123

[yesplease]

11 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Topicals reduce systemic DHT by less than half of oral finasteride. Oral fin reduces 70% while topical reduces 30% thats a huge difference.

Not necessarily true. It depends on which study you read. There are a few (Caserini et al) that demonstrate essentially identical serum DHT reduction (~70%) with both oral and topical fin. 
 

Enough to make me believe that we need more studies and evidence, both in terms of dose-ranging for efficacy and systemic effects. 

[LookMaxx]

12 minutes ago, GoliGoliGoli said:

You are displaying your rather blatant lack of understanding of basic biology/endocrinology. While I don't disagree that some percent of people with Fin sides are probably psychosomatic, the fact is that when you drastically lower a key male androgen (DHT) by pharmaceutical means you shouldn't be surprised when you have side effects especially in areas related to ED/sexual function. You don't need a peer review study to tell you this. You just need to apply basic reasoning skills. That isn't to say everyone who takes it will have those side effects though. 

 

9 minutes ago, yesplease said:

I am sorry for what you went through in the past. But saying that symptoms of PFS are purely psychological and not physical is simply conjecture on your part. Not a fact. And not every diagnosis or symptom can be linked to a particular hormonal level in the blood. The human endocrine system is incredibly complex and involves many cellular pathways and receptors that cannot necessarily be monitored with a simple lab study. 

I wrote that wall of text to explain I can relate to the condition as I’ve been through the same state of mind. Also to explain that sexual effects are mostly psychological and little physical. 

PFS is a purely psychological condition and I say this based on established research. There’s nothing wrong with them physically. 
Read this article

https://www.karger.com/Article/Fulltext/497362

Nocebo effect is on another level with finasteride because the penis is after all a very psychological organ. 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17655657/

In the current study, blinded administration of finasteride was associated with a significantly higher proportion of sexual dysfunction in patients informed on sexual side effects (group 2) as compared to those in which the same information was omitted (group 1) (P = 0.03)

 

It would make sense if you get side effects while the drug is administered but it is extremely illogical to think you get sides after drug is stopped which points to the mind angle as studies prove it.

Do this exercise.

Lay down and focus on your right hand. Keep thinking and repeating my hand is dead, my hand is dead, imagine it rotting gangrenous. Within a few minutes it would feel heavy and different to the other hand and rest of body.

Hand is nowhere near as connected to the brain as our penis is. Do the math yourself and the conclusion is 🤌

If PFS was real phenomenon Merck wouldn’t have been able to get the drug approved it. Strange that this mysterious illness appeared 30? years later when internet discussion forums appeared