Propecia breakout

[Curlykid]

Hi everybody, I'm a longtime lurker, firsttime poster. I'm in my early thirties and will be getting my first HT in a few months. My question concerns Propecia.

 

I've been on Propecia since March of this year and my results have been very good (or at least they seem pretty good to me, maybe part of that is wishful thinking). There is definitely more overall fullness in the crown and my once sizable bald spots back there are greatly reduced in size - almost gone altogether. However, I'm pretty sure that there is more miniaturization up front since I started the drug than before. It's like "Propecia-head".

 

But that's not really my concern. My concern is side effects. About five months after I started the drug I developed acne along my sides and hips, and little on my back. I have never had acne before, on my face or anyplace else, ever. I noticed that other threads have mentioned this phenomenon.

 

Also, I'm definitely getting a little extra fat deposits around my nipples. Nothing outrageous, but it's noticeable.

 

My question is: should I stop taking Propecia? I really don't want to. And I know there will be a major fallout if I do stop. Any advice?

[Curlykid]

Hi everybody, I'm a longtime lurker, firsttime poster. I'm in my early thirties and will be getting my first HT in a few months. My question concerns Propecia.

 

I've been on Propecia since March of this year and my results have been very good (or at least they seem pretty good to me, maybe part of that is wishful thinking). There is definitely more overall fullness in the crown and my once sizable bald spots back there are greatly reduced in size - almost gone altogether. However, I'm pretty sure that there is more miniaturization up front since I started the drug than before. It's like "Propecia-head".

 

But that's not really my concern. My concern is side effects. About five months after I started the drug I developed acne along my sides and hips, and little on my back. I have never had acne before, on my face or anyplace else, ever. I noticed that other threads have mentioned this phenomenon.

 

Also, I'm definitely getting a little extra fat deposits around my nipples. Nothing outrageous, but it's noticeable.

 

My question is: should I stop taking Propecia? I really don't want to. And I know there will be a major fallout if I do stop. Any advice?

[JacobS]

Curlykid-

 

I've been on propecia for 10 months and it has worked out really well, more fullness in the back and even toward the front. I just went through a short phase of pimples. I had been socialising more during that time so I attributed it to the beer. Once I cut out the beer I went back to normal.

[Robert_]

Curlykid,

 

Welcome to the forums. While it is unfortunate that you have these side effects so far, have you completely isolated them to the Propecia? I am not saying that you haven't, I am just saying that you may want to consult with a physician before you alter your medication so that they can help you isolate it more thoroughly and make sure that there is no other underlying condition.

 

I have had great success with Finasteride (in Proscar form), however I may have to end up dropping the medication due to other side effects. It seems like I am one of the unlucky few that has "mood" side effects to the medication. While this is certainly unfortunate, I am considering topical DHT inhibitors (like the ones found here) and/or Dutasteride.

 

My advice is to consult with a physician that is familiar with finasteride and its side-effects and to research other forms of DHT inhibition. Dutasteride is NOT FDA-approved for the treatment of male-pattern baldness, though it is FDA-approved for the treatment of certain prostate conditions. Look into that, take note of its possibly more severe side-effects (and higher price) and come to your own conclusions.

 

I wish you the best of luck, and please do not hesitate to voice any other concerns. Remember, the question that you ask is the same that dozens of other readers are in need of an answer to.

 

-Robert

[Curlykid]

Thanks for the quick replys gentlemen.

 

Unfortunately, I already did speak with my dermatologist and he ended up being a font of confusion. On the one hand, he was pretty certain that the acne had nothing to do with the Propecia (this despite the fact that I've never had acne anywhere on my body before, ever, and other people - at least on this board - have reported similar symptoms) and prescribed some special body shampoo. But he was absolutely convinced that my somewhat girlish breast tissue around the nipples was attributable to Propecia. He didn't bother asking what my father's chest looks like.

 

I think he may have just been in a particularly anti-Merck mood because of the whole Vioxx scandal. He said "you just don't know what the long term effects are going to be, Merck doesn't know and if they did know they wouldn't tell you" and then proceeded to misrepresent the Proscar/prostate study (the one that found that taking finesteride helped prevent prostate enlargement from turning into prostate cancer), suggesting that it might mean taking finesteride could actually cause you to get a more virulent form of prostate cancer. I did research (thank God for the Internet!) and the only study I could find was that 2003 study, and there was indeed a warning, and here it is, reprinted in full for your edification:

 

"On a cautionary note, Ian Thompson, M.D., principle investigator of PCPT, said, "Men in the study who developed prostate cancer while taking finasteride were more likely to have high-grade cancers, which, when found in the general population, may spread quickly even if the tumors are small. But, more than 97 percent of men who did develop prostate cancer during this study had early-stage cancers, which are

most often curable." The significance of this

cautionary note cannot be known until nformation

about the biological behavior of these high-grade cancers becomes available."

 

Here is the link:

http://www.usrf.org/news/070703_finasteride/070703_finasteride.html

 

So, it goes without saying that I am now probably more confused than ever. If I stop taking propecia I'm not going to replace it with anything else. I know that there have been people on Propecia for more than five years (has anyone been on it for ten?) and I don't think that number of users and the data that would come from that can be replicated by any other alopecia-indicated DHT blocker.

 

It would be funny (not funny ha-ha, funny in a bad way) if I stopped taking propecia and had (1) no improvement in the acne situation, (2) no improvement in the breast tissue situation, and (3) a massive fallout of hair.

 

I'm going to use the dermatologist's medicine and see if the acne situation improves and make a decision then (hopefully I'll get more comments to this thread as well).

 

Sometimes I feel really silly for having ever gone down this road in the first place, but that moment always passes. One glance around me confirms that cosmetic issues for men are becoming <i>more</i> rather than less important every day. It's definitely not something our father's generation had to deal with. Sometimes there's a voice in my head (a military voice, probably my grandfather's) saying: "See, you act like a little girl, you get boobs like a little girl! Real men don't try to make themselves look pretty, real men have work to do!" To which I can only reply: grandpa, for a lot of us in our generation, appearance has a major impact on the work you do. That's not just true for the media field anymore, it's starting to be true everywhere.

[Curlykid]

I just read through this other Propecia thread:

 

http://hair-restoration-info.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=5696015661&f=3466060861&m=138103164

 

I know the issue has gone round and round on this board. I'm sorry if I was being redundant.