Afraid of long-term health issues caused by finasteride

[br1]

Hello I am new to the forum and want to give my story and hear you guys opinion.
There we go:

I took finasteride for around 15 years, back then I wasn't really going bald, but my dad is totally bald (my mom said he was totally bald at age of 21), I freaked out and a doctor (in Brazil) recommended finasteride. I then started taking it (1mg a day), and I may have been off it for no more than 2 intervals of 3 to 6 months each time during this years.

I never had any sexual side effects other than no more morning woods.

But, during the last few years I have developed a case of anxiety and mild depression (negative thoughts, very dark mood) but I was always linking it to some bad moments in my life - which made sense at the time. Til a couple months ago, my mom asked me if I was still taking finasteride. because she was somewhat concerned about taking a drug for so long. Reality, it actually became part of my daily routine, I did not even thought about it anymore.. So, I started making my online research and to be honest I did not even knew how finasteride would actually work to prevent hairloss.

I assume I became quite paranoid about messing with hormones, and I never bothered making any blood test for that, as I always felt great. I workout 4 times a week, and do BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) 3x a week. During the summer, I bike a lot too (like 20k to 30k each ride).

Anyways, my hair looks pretty much the same after all these years. I decided to quit finasteride, or to give a break from it and see how it goes. Maybe, even accept going totally bald - getting a shaved BJJ fighter head, why not.
But I decided to quit because I got really upset on the possible harm I could have done to my health. Things like: could I have hurt my prostate, to a point I could develop cancer in the coming years? That scared me a lot! :shock:

Being 2 months off finasteride, I really noticed that my hairline has receded, nothing crazy (I was complaining at the gym and a couple guys said "really? didn't notice it"). Well, I noticed..

I still think on coming back to finasteride after a 4 or 6 month break, maybe at .5mg/day.

What are your thought on the health thing? All I read online come from research made by the makers of the drug, and their "long term" study is shorter than the period I was on finasteride.. :wow:

Thanks guys, and sorry about the long post. I really had to put all that out..
Cheers.

 

[Soviet Youth]

I don't really have any advice, except that if you stay off of finasteride that long there is a chance that your hair will be irreversibly affected (at least with the technology we have readily available atm). However, I also have a question. Did you ever develop a proper beard, and do you feel that you developed to your full potential even with starting that young?

 

[br1]

I don't really have any advice, except that if you stay off of finasteride that long there is a chance that your hair will be irreversibly affected (at least with the technology we have readily available atm). However, I also have a question. Did you ever develop a proper beard, and do you feel that you developed to your full potential even with starting that young?

Thanks for your reply.


You know, I never had a full beard. I had beard, but never a lot. I have a Chinese background (~25% as my father is 50% chinese) and I know they don`t have lots of facial hair. It might be just my mind playing games on me, but after I quit finasteride it seems like my beard is growing thicker, and with more facial hair too (# of hairs).. who knows

Another thing that confuses me, is that I have a young brother who took a finasteride for a few months (decade ago) and then decided to quit because he got scared about all the sides.. He still have all his hair.. I read somewhere that Androgenetic Alopecia can skip a generation. Which led me to think if all these years, I was taking finasteride for nothing..

O_0

 

[MrDepressed]

Amazing you took finasteride for 15 years so I'm guessing you had pretty much good results from it right? Because I was worried what if finasteride i'm taking would lose effectiveness in the future when I get older

PS: I wouldn't worry about the side effects if nothing happened unless I go see a doctor

 

[Funkymonk1]

The cancer thing is something that scares me somewhat as well. The thing is it's a grey area and non of the studies have any solid facts about how much finasteride increases the risk of prostate cancer but the risk is clearly there. I guess you just got to weigh up potential sides like this verses how much your hair really means to you when going on a drug like this.

 

[g.i joey]

funkymonk, the risk is there because it shrinks your prostate and can make more aggressive cancers easily detectable, basically saying that it will disregard your non agressive prostate cancer until it becomes aggressive (fun fact: 90% of prostate cancer patients do more damage treating the cancer than the cancer would cause on its own). you have to understand they cant even say FINASTERIDE CAN POTENTIALLY CAUSE PROSTATE CANCER, if they could then this product would not be used and its name would be even more tarnished.

 

[Funkymonk1]

Yeah, I read something along those lines. The way I understand it, finasteride actually makes the less serious prostate cancer easier to detect but the more dangerous cancer harder to detect.

 

[br1]

Yeah, I read something along those lines. The way I understand it, finasteride actually makes the less serious prostate cancer easier to detect but the more dangerous cancer harder to detect.

What I got from the researches is that it makes the aggressive types easier to detect and thus why the risk of being diagnosed with such. But in reality nobody knows ****.

 

[abcdefg]

If you want your hair I would just keep taking it. If your dont mind being bald or just are worried about possible issues then I guess just stop taking it. What other choices are there? I dont think finasteride is going to make much a difference with prostate cancer, but it could alter things involved with it since androgens are involved to some degree with that. Its a risk no one can ever really explain, but its still a small one. Anyone can get prostate cancer whether on finasteride or not.