Hi guys,
I just signed up to tell my story and hopefully get some advice.
I started losing my hair quite early on, around the late teens. By my mid twenties I started keeping my hair short and cropped, simply to try and mask how thin my hair was getting. Towards my late twenties I was more self-conscious, and found out about propecia through a local pharmacy offering a "hair retention program". I signed up and started taking it around May 2009.
I kept it up regularly, only missing the odd pill by accident every 5-6 months. I didn't experience any noticeable side effects, everything seemed ok. Fast forward 2-3 years and everything is still ok. For the first time I just let my hair grow and I was amazed at the results. My hair was thick, full, with minimal signs of balding. It felt like I stepped in to a time machine and was back to my early 20s with a fairly decent head of hair. I was a lot more confident and I could see how people that I'd not seen for several years would look at my hair and wonder how it was so good.
In December 2013 I started experiencing some pains at the lower left side of my back which I thought were just muscular. Unfortunately these got progressively worse to a point where it would be sharp, stabbing pains on the left side of my my body. I felt a bit like Joey in that episode of Friends where one of the girls is having a baby and he ends up with kidney stones. Anyway with a bit of self diagnosis, I felt that it was potentially kidney stones so started flushing myself with loads of water. I went to the Dr who sent me to hospital for a scan, she also suspected kidney stones.
After some urine tests, blood tests and a scan there was no evidence of kidney stones, however at my next Dr appointment she mentioned how my urine tests had slight traces of blood so it is possible I had something small which flushed itself out. I also asked her about the link between propecia and what had happened. She said it was unlikely to be caused by propecia, but that anything which messed with your hormones can't be a good thing.
The result of all this stress and worry was me wondering if propecia actually had any influence over what had happened. I should point out that when the pains started, I stopped taking propecia cold turkey. I realize now I should've maybe tapered off.
Anyway once the drama of the stabbing pains and kidney stones was over, I started back on propecia but on a lower dose. I would take either 0.5mg a day or 1 mg every 2-3 days. Around this time I also noticed some weird feelings in my body. Around my groin or lower abdomen I would feel strange pangs and dull pains. I wasn't sure what it was or why, but it worried me. I thought perhaps it was my body getting used to propecia again and it would sort itself out. I carried on taking for a few weeks, but it remained the same. Not every day, but frequently enough during the week. I also noticed I had to urinate a lot more frequently. It could be that I was just more aware of these things as I had looked into the side effects of propecia in more detail than I ever had before.
I also noticed a slight soreness in my chest sometimes that would last 3-4 days, and that worried me even more. It was around the "breast" area and I was paranoid about the possible side effect of male breast cancer, as stated in the propecia leaflet. I guess the problem now was that after going through a bit of a medical "crisis" (I'm normally a very healthy guy), I would associate any odd things in my body with the drug.
So I stopped taking it completely. I said to myself the long term health risks weren't worth the short term benefit. I don't remember exactly when, but it's probably been around 6-9 months. My hair has been slowly shedding and now it's quite thin and poorly. When it grows to a certain length, it looks thin and lifeless.
I was sure that I wouldn't go back to propecia as I didn't want my health to suffer and I didn't want the stress of wondering of what it's doing to my body. It could be that my body tolerated it well for 4 years but as I got older, it didn't like it so much. I'm now in my mid 30s and at a stage where I'm considering going back on to get those results and the confidence in my appearance again. I've been using Nizoral 2% twice a week for 3 months and haven't really noticed any improvement. I'm also taking green tea extract tablets as I read somewhere that it might help, but not much difference.
Any advice/comments appreciated.
I just signed up to tell my story and hopefully get some advice.
I started losing my hair quite early on, around the late teens. By my mid twenties I started keeping my hair short and cropped, simply to try and mask how thin my hair was getting. Towards my late twenties I was more self-conscious, and found out about propecia through a local pharmacy offering a "hair retention program". I signed up and started taking it around May 2009.
I kept it up regularly, only missing the odd pill by accident every 5-6 months. I didn't experience any noticeable side effects, everything seemed ok. Fast forward 2-3 years and everything is still ok. For the first time I just let my hair grow and I was amazed at the results. My hair was thick, full, with minimal signs of balding. It felt like I stepped in to a time machine and was back to my early 20s with a fairly decent head of hair. I was a lot more confident and I could see how people that I'd not seen for several years would look at my hair and wonder how it was so good.
In December 2013 I started experiencing some pains at the lower left side of my back which I thought were just muscular. Unfortunately these got progressively worse to a point where it would be sharp, stabbing pains on the left side of my my body. I felt a bit like Joey in that episode of Friends where one of the girls is having a baby and he ends up with kidney stones. Anyway with a bit of self diagnosis, I felt that it was potentially kidney stones so started flushing myself with loads of water. I went to the Dr who sent me to hospital for a scan, she also suspected kidney stones.
After some urine tests, blood tests and a scan there was no evidence of kidney stones, however at my next Dr appointment she mentioned how my urine tests had slight traces of blood so it is possible I had something small which flushed itself out. I also asked her about the link between propecia and what had happened. She said it was unlikely to be caused by propecia, but that anything which messed with your hormones can't be a good thing.
The result of all this stress and worry was me wondering if propecia actually had any influence over what had happened. I should point out that when the pains started, I stopped taking propecia cold turkey. I realize now I should've maybe tapered off.
Anyway once the drama of the stabbing pains and kidney stones was over, I started back on propecia but on a lower dose. I would take either 0.5mg a day or 1 mg every 2-3 days. Around this time I also noticed some weird feelings in my body. Around my groin or lower abdomen I would feel strange pangs and dull pains. I wasn't sure what it was or why, but it worried me. I thought perhaps it was my body getting used to propecia again and it would sort itself out. I carried on taking for a few weeks, but it remained the same. Not every day, but frequently enough during the week. I also noticed I had to urinate a lot more frequently. It could be that I was just more aware of these things as I had looked into the side effects of propecia in more detail than I ever had before.
I also noticed a slight soreness in my chest sometimes that would last 3-4 days, and that worried me even more. It was around the "breast" area and I was paranoid about the possible side effect of male breast cancer, as stated in the propecia leaflet. I guess the problem now was that after going through a bit of a medical "crisis" (I'm normally a very healthy guy), I would associate any odd things in my body with the drug.
So I stopped taking it completely. I said to myself the long term health risks weren't worth the short term benefit. I don't remember exactly when, but it's probably been around 6-9 months. My hair has been slowly shedding and now it's quite thin and poorly. When it grows to a certain length, it looks thin and lifeless.
I was sure that I wouldn't go back to propecia as I didn't want my health to suffer and I didn't want the stress of wondering of what it's doing to my body. It could be that my body tolerated it well for 4 years but as I got older, it didn't like it so much. I'm now in my mid 30s and at a stage where I'm considering going back on to get those results and the confidence in my appearance again. I've been using Nizoral 2% twice a week for 3 months and haven't really noticed any improvement. I'm also taking green tea extract tablets as I read somewhere that it might help, but not much difference.
Any advice/comments appreciated.
