Had Hair Transplant, need to quit Finasteride

[devop911]

Hello there,

I am in a very Bad Situation. I had a Haitransplant in February with one of the best clinics (ihmo), Hattingen Hair in Switzerland.

I had 5200 Grafts with a 2.40 Ratio. So Finasteride worked well for me with minor Sites, stopping Hair Loss totally with No regrowth.

In these Last two monts I had a Bad Change:
Zero Libido
ED
Brain Fog 
Growing Tits
Eye Problems
Testicles Hurts

I need to quit with Finasteride and now I find myself in a very bad Situation about my Future.
I am 28 years old, Hair Loss Kicked in early and iam a NW5 since 24yo.

I am very scared that Sides and Back will dip down and i May not be able to Cover ist, as a NW6 is hard to handle.
Cant Tell anything about my relatives, never used to know them.

My Donor might be able to Provide 4000 more Grafts with FUT and Fue,I guess.

What do you think?
Do you have any advices, what I can do now in this Situation?

Thank you in advance

Pics attached
https://imgur.com/a/FHFHvrG

[Melvin- Admin]

 

[LaserCap]

First thing is to consult the doctor. You could have him send you to a derm-pathologist and ask them to biopsy.  This could give you some info.  Third, ask the doctor about, perhaps, taking fin every other day.  For how long did you take it before experiencing side effects?  If months, they I would say that there may be something else causing the issue. 

Let's also consider...say you are truly experiencing a side effect and that fin is the culprit. You still have Rogaine, PRP and laser therapy which are external to you.  Perhaps any of these or, better yet - all of them in conjunction.  These work in different ways and are thus synergistic.

Freaking out is not an option.  Stress, while not the reason for loss, can speed things up.  

[Curious]

How long did you take finasteride for before you began to suffer side effects?

[LonelyGraft]

4 hours ago, LaserCap said:

First thing is to consult the doctor. You could have him send you to a derm-pathologist and ask them to biopsy.  This could give you some info.  Third, ask the doctor about, perhaps, taking fin every other day.  For how long did you take it before experiencing side effects?  If months, they I would say that there may be something else causing the issue. 

Let's also consider...say you are truly experiencing a side effect and that fin is the culprit. You still have Rogaine, PRP and laser therapy which are external to you.  Perhaps any of these or, better yet - all of them in conjunction.  These work in different ways and are thus synergistic.

Freaking out is not an option.  Stress, while not the reason for loss, can speed things up.  

What will the derm pathologist tell him? I don’t see him complaining about scalp or skin issues. 

[LonelyGraft]

OP, hattingen is a great clinic from what I’ve seen/heard and the husband and wife doctors running the clinic can possibly help you with a path forward. Whether it be a lower dose or a visit to an endocrinologist they work closely with. I wouldn’t give up hope yet. Good luck and let us how things go

[LaserCap]

7 hours ago, jj51702 said:

What will the derm pathologist tell him? I don’t see him complaining about scalp or skin issues. 

The pathologist can do a biopsy and tell both the patient and the doctor what the actual condition is.  They can then decide how best to proceed.

[Melvin- Admin]

If you’re suffering from side effects and wean off, I posted my personal story of 3 hair transplants with no propecia. It can be done as long as you’re conservative. 

[devop911]

Dear guys,

thank you for all your answers.

 

In my case, I took Finasteride now for 2 Year, each day 1.25mg daily. On the first day I had heavy testicle itches and tiredness and brain fog kicked in on the second day like very heavy. 

In conclusion, side effects were always heavy but I ignored them mostly until the day when everything crashed and be very scared of using finasteride again. 

There have been days without it and I can say that everything is getting better than, my mood on finasteride is more mood and scared.

 

So taking this drug with all of this side effects was very dumb, but I told my self it's nocebo like most people did until my men boobs starting to grow and it's not fat but heavy tissue.

 

I had also asked Dr.Muresanu and he advised to try a lower dosage, so I tried since:

- 1mg EOD

- 0.6mg Daily

- 0.05% and 0.1% Topical own mixed Finasteride and Minoxidil

Sides were always present.

The sides which effect me most are not libido or ed (which is present, too), it's more like: Brain Fog, Depressions/Bad Mood.

 

I am working as a programmer and on some days brain fog is heavy, I am looking at my own written code, and i can't just comprehend, it looks like strings of characters instead of mean code. If this will continue I guess, I will lose my job.

 

Dear Melvin, 

I had looked at your results and they are very impressive either you are not on finasteride. BUT: I don't know where I am heading to, my hair loss starts with 18 YO  and I was an NW4a with 23, crown developed since.

So I don't know my parents or grandparents, neither anyone of my family I can't tell if I will be a FULL BLOWN NW6 with sunk sided and a crown falling very deep, how do I know?

If I look at older guys more then NW4 I don't see much NW5 moreover NW6s.

This all left me scared.

Anyway, I hope from my pictures, you can see, that my clinic and I was going the very conservative way.

 

Now since 3 days without any medications but minoxidil(5% once a day) and ket (2 times a week), I am thinking about getting on RU instead, what do you think?

Thank you in advance!

 

 

 

 

 

[harry_potter1]

Dude, you are with one of the top clinics in the world, an argument can be made about them being actually top clinic in Europe despite not being well known in English speaking world. 

What I like most about them is their conservative  approach combined with their ability to do mega sessions and cover those with advanced hair loss. So in other words they are good for your case.

If you have additional 4K  that is actually probably more than enough to get you decent result. 

Look, I am almost 28 and I am diffused NW5, right now I would take a good conservative hairline , good thickness in middle scalp and see through or even bald crown as successful story for a guy in his 30's. 

So, if you lower your expectations a bit, stick to your clinic (again I think they are perfect match for you) and do conservative approach, I think you will be doing more than fine.

Worst case scenario: SMP for your scar, shave your head. And even that is unlikely 

[jjsrader]

F*nk all this noise.  UP your game to Dut! (asteride)~~

Why not, right?  Sometimes a daily beer drinker needs to switch to the hard stuff, eh?

 

Edited May 2, 2019 by jjsrader

[Al - Moderator]

It looks like you went rather conservative on the hair line placement, so that will make it much easier to keep up with any additional side and crown loss in the future. If you had gotten an aggressive, low hairline then your chances of having enough grafts left for the future would be much worse as lower hairlines use up a lot of grafts. There are plenty of NW 6 hair transplants that look great, so you should be OK for some years as long as you don't try too hard to thicken what you have now and you go back for a few additional procedures over the years to address continued loss.

If you do end up at some point running out of scalp grafts then you can look at possibly using some beard and chest grafts if you have any decent hair growth in those area, but hopefully even if that time comes you will have already gone through 25 to 30 years of having a good head of hair from the transplants.

I think it's better for some people to be off of the medication and take their chances. If you're having various side effects that you don't like then stop using it. You could try dutasteride as an alternative, but you may have similar side effects with that as well. You could also try lowering the finisteride dose to once every other day or take it every day but give your body a two day break from it on weekends or something.

 

[Melvin- Admin]

7 hours ago, devop911 said:

Dear guys,

thank you for all your answers.

 

In my case, I took Finasteride now for 2 Year, each day 1.25mg daily. On the first day I had heavy testicle itches and tiredness and brain fog kicked in on the second day like very heavy. 

In conclusion, side effects were always heavy but I ignored them mostly until the day when everything crashed and be very scared of using finasteride again. 

There have been days without it and I can say that everything is getting better than, my mood on finasteride is more mood and scared.

 

So taking this drug with all of this side effects was very dumb, but I told my self it's nocebo like most people did until my men boobs starting to grow and it's not fat but heavy tissue.

 

I had also asked Dr.Muresanu and he advised to try a lower dosage, so I tried since:

- 1mg EOD

- 0.6mg Daily

- 0.05% and 0.1% Topical own mixed Finasteride and Minoxidil

Sides were always present.

The sides which effect me most are not libido or ed (which is present, too), it's more like: Brain Fog, Depressions/Bad Mood.

 

I am working as a programmer and on some days brain fog is heavy, I am looking at my own written code, and i can't just comprehend, it looks like strings of characters instead of mean code. If this will continue I guess, I will lose my job.

 

Dear Melvin, 

I had looked at your results and they are very impressive either you are not on finasteride. BUT: I don't know where I am heading to, my hair loss starts with 18 YO  and I was an NW4a with 23, crown developed since.

So I don't know my parents or grandparents, neither anyone of my family I can't tell if I will be a FULL BLOWN NW6 with sunk sided and a crown falling very deep, how do I know?

If I look at older guys more then NW4 I don't see much NW5 moreover NW6s.

This all left me scared.

Anyway, I hope from my pictures, you can see, that my clinic and I was going the very conservative way.

 

Now since 3 days without any medications but minoxidil(5% once a day) and ket (2 times a week), I am thinking about getting on RU instead, what do you think?

Thank you in advance!

 

 

 

 

 

The thing about the future is it’s unknown. You’re going to drive yourself wild thinking about “what if” or “what could be” . Worry about the present that’s all you can control. Having a hair transplant without propecia isn’t the end of the world. In fact, I don’t take propecia and neither does @Bill - Managing Publisher

[mhaider1991]

You don't need to take propecia. It is reccomended, but if you are conservative with your surgeries & donor and are able to have realistic expectations, you can get away with it. You may want to leave the crown open a bit and leave that for fibers or concealers. I wouldn't go for FUE at all until you are totally maxed down to your last grafts. Be realistic, conservative and wise with your surgeons/donor and you should be fine. Hattingen is a great clinic.

[xadiohead]

On 5/2/2019 at 5:24 PM, jjsrader said:

F*nk all this noise.  UP your game to Dut! (asteride)~~

Why not, right?  Sometimes a daily beer drinker needs to switch to the hard stuff, eh?

 

I actually would suggest this.  Why not try dutasteride for a few months? Just take it every other day.  Even though it is stronger, some people have different side affects between the two.  If it doesn't work, then you know you have tried everything in regards to DHT blockers. 

[Dr Blake Bloxham]

Dev, 

While it is unfortunate you had to stop the preventive medication, I do not think you are in bad shape here.

The approach you took with the hair transplant was perfect for someone in your situation: FUT mega-session with a conservative hairline. You -- and the clinic -- put yourself in the absolute best position for the "long term," and this is regardless of whether or not you are on preventive medication. You are set to continue with surgical restoration if you do lose more hair, and this is probably what you will need to do. Not a bad position to be in at all. Just continue with FUT until you cannot do any more, and then switch to FUE if you need or want more work (including putting some grafts into the scar). I frequently work on patients who cannot or simply will not utilize preventive medications, and the goal with these patients is to start with the approach you took here and move forward as I outlined above. So while more surgery may be in your future, I think you are probably in pretty good shape here. And, by the way, the work looks great as well. 

I hope this helps. 

Dr. Blake Bloxham 

Feller & Bloxham Medical, NY