Did you read the studies I posted? There's proof that the tissue loses weight and fibroses. Is that reverrsible? Probably not.
I'm not talking about total impotency. Even castrates are able to have sex, but it's just not as easy to achieve an erection, because there's a lot fibrosis in the penis (yes, there are other CNS mediated reasons too, of course, but I don't think these are of importance with finasteride). Just like for finasteride users. And that's frustrating: you're not at 100% health anymore after taking the pill. Do you know what atherosclerosis is? It's very similar, because the penis is much like vascular tissue. People live with atherosclerosis and don't actually feel it, because it's so gradual, but they actually get noticable complications (hypertension, infarctions, ischemias, thrombembols, brain hematoma, gangrenes and much more) and may die.
To be fair, the second study you posted did not say that there was fibrosis in the penis. Fibrosis implies scarring of tissue. Rather, the study said that the smooth muscle tissue became irregular shaped.
It's not at all clear what this implies or whether it is reversible. How absolutely frustrating that the researchers did not terminate the Finasteride and then observe whether there was a slow return to baseline!!
- - - Updated - - -
These statements are in stark contrast to what the best research we have on the drug tells us. Placebo controlled trials involving thousands of men tell us that side effects always (repeatedly and demonstratively) diminish over time, and that they occur at a rate of around 2-3%. How can you possibly argue that this is false without some providing some significant evidence to the contrary?
The problem is the 2% figure is based on the absolute weakest form of experimental evidence: self-reported symptoms from users of the drug. You have a guy who is absolutely in love with the drug because his hair loss rate has dramatically slowed and you are asking him to engage in direct conflict of interest and report back a reason he needs to stop taking the drug. The mind isn't going to give an objective report. If a man's erection volume is 30% lower, he may not even notice. His partner may not notice either, since the vagina readily adapts to different thicknesses.
In stark contrast to these 2% rates, you have the experimental results in rat studies where they autopsy the rat and do detailed tissue analysis of the penis, and they are reporting extremely dramatic changes in both the volumes and the structure of the smooth muscle tissue in the penis. So who are you going to believe: a guy who has conflict of interest and may not even notice the 30% change in erection quality or the actual biopsy of corpus cavernosum tissue in animal studies? I find the reported biopsy results extremely troubling, and I think it is very short-sighted of the researchers to not study whether those tissue changes reverse after Finasteride is terminated. Kind of incomprehensible to me that they didn't think to do that next step.
- - - Updated - - -
@wuffer don't argue with people about this matter it won't get you anywhere. Just take the drug and enjoy the benefits. I take it, have 0 side effects, great sex drive (a little too high because of Wellbutrin) and awesome erections. Oh and did I mention awesome hair? Yah I love finasteride! Plus my DHT levels are low normal. I also take 25mg of DHEA supplement. Though that's a recent addition and coincidentally my hair has been sprouting a lot in the frontal region. I read somewhere after noticing this that DHEA and finasteride may be a good combo due to the extra IGF-1 letting the finasteride work better.
I started on DHEA as well, but I notice that at higher doses around 200 mg/day that I start to get itchy scalp and extra hair loss. So to some undefined extent the DHEA and Finasteride seem to be fighting each other.
I find that Finasteride has a very pronounced effect on how my scalp feels and sheds hair. Without Finasteride I can lose 100 to 200 hairs a day (a LOT) in the shower, and my head always feels very itchy and not really very healthy. With Finasteride, that shed rate will come down under 30 per day in shower, and the itchy feeling subsides about 80% to 90%. It's a very pronounced thing - not at all subtle - and I can very quickly reduce shed rate after starting Finasteride, and it will very quickly come back to high shed rate after I terminate Finasteride.
The feeling I get on scalp in high doses of DHEA is very much the kind of itchiness I get when off Finasteride, so I do think I have a reasonable basis for thinking DHEA is competing against the Finasteride and somehow getting more DHT into scalp tissues.
- - - Updated - - -
How do we prevent replies to different posts from concatenating together into a single reply?
