HT and Finasteride

[HortonC]

Hello all,

I just recently had my HT two days ago and I have been taking Finasteride for about two months now. My surgeon told me I'm required to keep taking Finasteride for at least a year otherwise it will negatively affect my natural and freshly transplanted hair.

My question is - what if the side effects become bad? A few weeks ago I've noticed the usual lower libido and less nightly errections. At the moment it's not at a point where I'd stop taking Fin, but there is a possibility that it does get worse over the next 12 months and then I'll have to reconsider.

Is it really problematic to stop Finasteride within 12 months post-HT? Would it really have a bad impact on my results?

[SeanT1]

3 minutes ago, HortonC said:

Hello all,

I just recently had my HT two days ago and I have been taking Finasteride for about two months now. My surgeon told me I'm required to keep taking Finasteride for at least a year otherwise it will negatively affect my natural and freshly transplanted hair.

My question is - what if the side effects become bad? A few weeks ago I've noticed the usual lower libido and less nightly errections. At the moment it's not at a point where I'd stop taking Fin, but there is a possibility that it does get worse over the next 12 months and then I'll have to reconsider.

Is it really problematic to stop Finasteride within 12 months post-HT? Would it really have a bad impact on my results?

You're meant to stay on finasteride for most of your life if you have hair loss, not just a year.

What dose are you on?  It's common for people who have lower libido to take finasteride every other day rather than every day.

Finasteride prevents your hair from receding any further. 

Edited August 29, 2022 by SeanToman

[HortonC]

1 minute ago, SeanToman said:

You're meant to stay on finasteride for most of your life if you have hair loss, not just a year.

What dose are you on?  It's common for people who have lower libido to take finasteride every other day rather than every day.

Finasteride prevents your hair from receding any further. 

Yes I know. I'm on 1mg 3x/week.

I'm just wondering what if side effects become worse and to the point where I need to stop taking Fin. I've only been on it for two months and I've read of cases where people had to quit after 5-6 months.

[SeanT1]

2 minutes ago, HortonC said:

Yes I know. I'm on 1mg 3x/week.

I'm just wondering what if side effects become worse and to the point where I need to stop taking Fin. I've only been on it for two months and I've read of cases where people had to quit after 5-6 months.

You could try topical finasteride if this is the case, apparently it has no side affects compared to oral. 

In regards to the affect on your HT recovery, it's better safe than sorry & just take the finasteride.  It's a wound on your head essentially, you want as little conflict going on up there as possible.  Your grafts need to find themselves.

Edited August 29, 2022 by SeanToman

[general-etwan]

Agree with above…Good that you’re already at 3x/week. And remember that lower overall libido isn’t a severe side effect and shouldn’t be a deal breaker if you truly care about your hair. Everyone is different though. For me it took my extremely high libido down just a little to a more reasonable level and I’m actually way happier overall. And yes topical fin is always an option if oral turns bad, but have confidence…take 2-3x/ week and *most likely* you’ll be good. 

Edited August 29, 2022 by general-etwan

[general-etwan]

9 minutes ago, general-etwan said:

Agree with above…Good that you’re already at 3x/week. And remember that lower overall libido isn’t a severe side effect and shouldn’t be a deal breaker if you truly care about your hair. Everyone is different though. For me it took my extremely high libido down just a little a more reasonable level and I’m actually way happier overall. And yes topical fin is always an option if oral turns bad, but have confidence…take 2-3x/ week and *most likely* you’ll be good. 

 

[HortonC]

7 minutes ago, SeanToman said:

You could try topical finasteride if this is the case, apparently it has no side affects compared to oral. 

In regards to the affect on your HT recovery, it's better safe than sorry & just take the finasteride.  It's a wound on your head essentially, you want as little conflict going on up there as possible.  Your grafts need to find themselves.

Thanks! Yeah I guess you're right. I was just a bit surprised because the mantra usually is "Start taking Fin. If you experience sides, you can always stop and it will all go back to normal.". Seems like after a HT that's not the case anymore.

5 minutes ago, general-etwan said:

Agree with above…Good that you’re already at 3x/week. And remember that lower overall libido isn’t a severe side effect and shouldn’t be a deal breaker if you truly care about your hair. Everyone is different though. For me it took my extremely high libido down just a little a more reasonable level and I’m actually way happier overall. And yes topical fin is always an option if oral turns bad, but have confidence…take 2-3x/ week and *most likely* you’ll be good. 

Thanks! As I said, right now, side effects are at an expected and manageable level. Good to hear that your side effects turned out to be positive haha

[NARMAK]

31 minutes ago, HortonC said:

Hello all,

I just recently had my HT two days ago and I have been taking Finasteride for about two months now. My surgeon told me I'm required to keep taking Finasteride for at least a year otherwise it will negatively affect my natural and freshly transplanted hair.

My question is - what if the side effects become bad? A few weeks ago I've noticed the usual lower libido and less nightly errections. At the moment it's not at a point where I'd stop taking Fin, but there is a possibility that it does get worse over the next 12 months and then I'll have to reconsider.

Is it really problematic to stop Finasteride within 12 months post-HT? Would it really have a bad impact on my results?

Firstly i wish you well on your recovery and hopefully getting s great final result. 

Regarding the Finasteride, you will experience what you have as a common side affect. They're not an indication imo that is a guarantee you will be affected by more serious side affects and in fact, because you may not have used Finasteride previously, the drop in DHT requires your body to re-calibrate. That's what happened to me. It took a few months tbh and then now i would personally say i feel fine on the medication. I don't have any issues with the lower libido or not getting as much morning wood as it were. The most important thing imo is that in the moment, you can perform without issues caused by the medication however, i would strongly preface that statement to bear in mind, men who don't take the medication still have issues whether related to age, stress or anxiety in the moment to perform and falling short. So don't be too quick to blame the medication if an issue arose. Usually there's other signs. 

I think within a few months, you should find things go back to a more or less normal baseline and you will have to indefinitely take the medication to try preserve your hair long term. 

[SeanT1]

4 minutes ago, NARMAK said:

Firstly i wish you well on your recovery and hopefully getting s great final result. 

Regarding the Finasteride, you will experience what you have as a common side affect. They're not an indication imo that is a guarantee you will be affected by more serious side affects and in fact, because you may not have used Finasteride previously, the drop in DHT requires your body to re-calibrate. That's what happened to me. It took a few months tbh and then now i would personally say i feel fine on the medication. I don't have any issues with the lower libido or not getting as much morning wood as it were. The most important thing imo is that in the moment, you can perform without issues caused by the medication however, i would strongly preface that statement to bear in mind, men who don't take the medication still have issues whether related to age, stress or anxiety in the moment to perform and falling short. So don't be too quick to blame the medication if an issue arose. Usually there's other signs. 

I think within a few months, you should find things go back to a more or less normal baseline and you will have to indefinitely take the medication to try preserve your hair long term. 

This is an interesting thing to say.

I don't think anyone can argue against the idea that side effects from stress & anxiety from hair loss itself, could be mistaken as finasteride side effects.

For most people, hair loss causes a huge dip in confidence, which we can assume would also cause a dip in libido and sexual performance.

Edited August 29, 2022 by SeanToman

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

HortonC,

FYI, finasteride will do nothing to affect your transplanted hair good or bad. So I’m thinking as possible that you maybe misunderstood your surgeon?

Ultimately, it is recommended to use finasteride for at least a year prior to determining its efficacy. Over the first couple of months during use, it’s possible you will experience a hair shed which is an indication that the medication is working. These hairs will grow back in several months and they may even grow in thicker and fuller looking.

transplanted hair however, should have come from the universal safe zone and as a result, be DHT resistant.  Because of this, finasteride should have no effect and is not required for your transplanted hair to grow in.

Now, if you sort of experience side effects for some reason, you have a couple choices. Many men who experience side effects stop experiencing them with continued use of the medication. Therefore, you could attempt to push through to see if they stop on the run. Otherwise, you can stop using the medication or cut down its use to see what happens. If you do decide to stop taking it, you won’t lose any benefit that the medication is providing or would provide. If you cut down its use and it helps make any side effects go away, the medication may still work because an astroid has a longer half-life.

but again to be clear, your transplanted hair is not impacted one way or another by finasteride use or non-use.

I hope this helps.

Rahal Hair Transplant

Edited August 29, 2022 by Rahal Hair Transplant

[NARMAK]

40 minutes ago, SeanToman said:

This is an interesting thing to say.

I don't think anyone can argue against the idea that side effects from stress & anxiety from hair loss itself, could be mistaken as finasteride side effects.

For most people, hair loss causes a huge dip in confidence, which we can assume would also cause a dip in libido and sexual performance.

Honestly, even if we take hair loss out of the equation and using Finasteride. A lot of guys don't seem to blame things as readily as they usually do when they get ED issues with stress, anxiety or even due to alcohol which gave them so called "liquid courage" to end up in a situation where they might have an opportunity to get lucky and then fail. 

Personally i think side affects are a very real issue, for a minority of people to the point where they have to stop use. 

[GaryStruthers]

2 hours ago, NARMAK said:

Regarding the Finasteride, you will experience what you have as a common side affect. They're not an indication imo that is a guarantee you will be affected by more serious side affects and in fact, because you may not have used Finasteride previously, the drop in DHT requires your body to re-calibrate.

Bumping this ^ from @NARMAK

I had these mild Fin sides around the 3-6 month mark. Could always “perform”, but morning wood and less interest was apparent. I’m now 14 months in with no sides, and have restored my hair through (Fin & Min, & micro needling ) to actually cancel my surgery. I’m not saying surgery isn’t in my future, but Fin was definitely the key component for me in making that decision. 
Wishing you all the best post surgery, and hope the “sides” dissipate in the same way. 

[Melvin- Admin]

8 minutes ago, GaryStruthers said:

Bumping this ^ from @NARMAK

I had these mild Fin sides around the 3-6 month mark. Could always “perform”, but morning wood and less interest was apparent. I’m now 14 months in with no sides, and have restored my hair through (Fin & Min, & micro needling ) to actually cancel my surgery. I’m not saying surgery isn’t in my future, but Fin was definitely the key component for me in making that decision. 
Wishing you all the best post surgery, and hope the “sides” dissipate in the same way. 

This is why it’s best to get on meds first before getting a hair transplant.

[NARMAK]

30 minutes ago, GaryStruthers said:

Bumping this ^ from @NARMAK

I had these mild Fin sides around the 3-6 month mark. Could always “perform”, but morning wood and less interest was apparent. I’m now 14 months in with no sides, and have restored my hair through (Fin & Min, & micro needling ) to actually cancel my surgery. I’m not saying surgery isn’t in my future, but Fin was definitely the key component for me in making that decision. 
Wishing you all the best post surgery, and hope the “sides” dissipate in the same way. 

Thanks for the bumped quote and really happy you got to a stage where you felt you could put the surgery on hold for a while. That's truly the dream scenario imo. 

I pretty much lost my temple points so medication alone wasn't going to cut it, but i do stand by previous comments that i have made that i would have loved to have started much earlier than having been put off by the anti-Finasteride stuff way back in like 2010ish when i first looked into it as a younger guy, and you were predominantly met with "Your penis will stop working(!)" as a guaranteed thing. 

I'm still happy i got on it when i did  but i definitely think i could have been in an even better position before my hair transplant and particularly looking back on it, not lost the ground on the crown area which admittedly doesn't stand out to anybody else visually as much of an issue, but definitely slipped a bit from my early 20s. I am still hoping the Dutasteride may possibly help me gain some ground back as it apparently works best there when the studies were done and the 10 year Japanese study showed the best outcomes over that 10 year period. 

[Mike10]

5 hours ago, SeanToman said:

You could try topical finasteride if this is the case, apparently it has no side affects compared to oral. 

In regards to the affect on your HT recovery, it's better safe than sorry & just take the finasteride.  It's a wound on your head essentially, you want as little conflict going on up there as possible.  Your grafts need to find themselves.

Topical Fin has sides as well. They are just less frequent. 

[Mike10]

5 hours ago, SeanToman said:

You're meant to stay on finasteride for most of your life if you have hair loss, not just a year.

What dose are you on?  It's common for people who have lower libido to take finasteride every other day rather than every day.

Finasteride prevents your hair from receding any further. 

If you are able to tolerate Fin long term. That is not a given at all