Propecia and Rogaine... It Works!!?? - Valley Forge, PA

Hi there. I'm pleased that your regime is working for you. I don't want to rain on your parade at all, but feel it is a duty, even if not for yourself, but for others who may read your review and be persuaded to take propecia. I took propecia for over 10 years, and you are absolutely right, it does work. I held on to most of my hair whilst I was on it and was only aware of one side effect whilst taking it. Sadly this side effect was the thinning of my skin. This is one of the side effects experienced by men who suffer from post finasteride syndrome, which is an umbrella term for cognitive, physical, and sexual side effects which occur whilst on the drug, on which occur on cessation. The thinning skin manifests itself for me on my face, and results in fine wrinkling with any expression, like smiling etc. As you can imagine, for a man in his 30s this is a lot more troublesome than the natural occurrence of male pattern hair loss. If you perform a perfunctory Google search then you will see anecdotes about this particular side effect scattered throughout the internet. I have also posted on this site with photos that you can check out. As I said, propecia does work for holding on to your hair, but please do not be so naive to assume that the 5ar enzyme serves no function in adult males other than hair loss and prostate enlargement. It is an important enzyme for various biological pathways, most particularly neurosteroids, which protect you against depression and anxiety. It also helps to maintain your sexual organs. I'm afraid that Merck, the manufacturer of this drug, have played with fire by wantonly disrupting a biological system which has been developed over thousands of years, and has intricate and many purposes and connections, as many men have sadly found out. As well as experiencing the thinning of my skin whilst taking the medication, on stopping I experienced unexplained weight loss over a few months, subcutaneous fat loss, and tissue loss to my penis, again reflecting the experience of many other men. Please check out the post marketing reports on this. Although Merck have amended the patient leaflet to acknowledge that some side effects for some men don't stop on cessation i.e. sexual dysfunction (which is no joke for a young man)!), certain side effects are inferred, like low mood, but don't do justice to what some men have gone through, which includes depression, brain fog, impotence, muscle loss (the list goes on), and sadly for 67 men so far, suicide. The father of one such young man set up the Post Finasteride Syndrome Foundation (www.pfsfoundation.org), which is funded by victims to look into why some men experience such devastating effects, and the results so far are promising, but more research is needed. The are also nearly 4000 men who have registered with www.propeciahelp.com which is forum for men like myself looking for both support and answers. Also www.solvepfs.com. The point I'm making is, when something is working for you, great, but you don't want to hear the downside, or wish to dismiss the naysayers as hypochondriacs or moneygrabbers. Looking at the evidence, Merck performed trials which poorly monitored side effects (see pfsfoundation web site), and clearly only looked for benefits and downplayed risks. Although this probably won't happen to you, I would be doing a disservice to you and other men considering the drug not to say do your research on both the drug and Merck. The risk my be small, but there is still a risk that you could damage yourself mentally, physically, and sexually, as I have experienced myself, and the damage could be permanent - all for holding onto your hair. I wish that I had never taken the drug, or that the facts were given to me first.

Lie any medicine/drug, there are always risks. You are smart for being under the supervision of a doctor. You must be purchasing your Rogaine from a pharmacy. Do yourself a favor and buy the Kirkland Signature Monoxidil (foam) from Costco. Cost is 6 bottles for $50. Likewise, you can get generic finadteride (5mg), split into quarters (1.25mg), and take one pill each M, W, F. Cost should be about $5/month. Talk to your doctor. Good luck and take care.

For context, I would imagine the number of Finasteride users worldwide must be in the millions. Everyone's body and tolerance is different, so it should be expected that a small subset of users may experience side effects. You can find horror stories for everything on the internet, even people who drink too much water. Finasteride sold as Proscar (5mg) has been FDA approved for 25 years. A lot of men have been taking this higher dose daily for many, many years to test enlarged prostate conditions. That's 35mg per week. To be conservative for my hair loss treatment, I take 1.25mg every M, W, F. That's only 3.75mg per week, only 1/10 the dose of Proscar users. I figure if the FDA says it's safe (for most users) at 35mg/week, then 3.75mg/week is a fairly good risk/reward scenario for most people.

I took propecia for 15 years and kept my hair in that time. I have to agree with the cautionary note. Libido went to zero. To be frank had no interest in sex at all ever. Became the new normal and if anyone had asked I would have said I had no real sideeffects and it worked. Also suffered depression. Stopped taking it and feel like a new person. But losing hair badly again. So imo there is a price to pay.

Are you aware that there is substantial data that links propecia to long-term sexual side effects, even in very young men. There are also adverse sexual side effects of Rogaine. I encourage you to do some research and also to consult your doctor about these 2 drugs.

What is this app? And agreed, your results are impressive! Do you find yourself shaving more too?

Did u have any sexual side effect because of finasteride?

Please do not stop you will lose all what've you gained, Congratulations !

Still using it? How’s it all looking

What have you done ?

Awesome!! Congrats!

I know utterly stupid this sounds but I'm 27 and not exactly balding but I do suspect my temples aren't exactly where they were 5 years ago and my dads still going bald at 60 and 2 older brothers are balding so I'm thinking of starting propecia preventatively. I do wonder can it offset baldness permanently like trumps doctor has came out and said trump uses it and he himself has done since the 80s and his hairpiece is awesome. The doc not so much trump