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finasteride side effects
- Thread starter Rocky V
- Start date
Finasteride is generally very well tolerated. Take the regular 1mg version and don't worry about cutting your dose to half. Even taking 0.1mg finasteride inhibits DHT by as much as the 1mg version, so cutting your dose won't achieve anything except the placebo effect. The only time I recommend cutting a dose is when you are taking the 5mg proscar version; you can split it into quarters.
I would say you have a roughly 5% chance of one or more of the more serious sexual side effects (ed, less libido). There is a higher chance of minor things like temporary testicular pain or decreased semen, but i'm not sure how common these are. If you do by chance fit into the 5%, studies show that the incidence of these decrease over time, meaning there is a good chance you will level off to normal after a year or so. The original finasteride trials showed that 0.3% of people had sexual sides after 5 years of use.
Keep in mind if you start on this stuff expecting to have side effects, you probably will because of psychological reasons.
To put things into perspective, do some research on other drugs such as antidepressants. Those can cause sexual side effects in up to 20% of men taking them, plus more than a dozen other symptoms. In my opinion, finasteride is much safer than antidepressants, but like putting any medication in your body, there is a risk.
I would say you have a roughly 5% chance of one or more of the more serious sexual side effects (ed, less libido). There is a higher chance of minor things like temporary testicular pain or decreased semen, but i'm not sure how common these are. If you do by chance fit into the 5%, studies show that the incidence of these decrease over time, meaning there is a good chance you will level off to normal after a year or so. The original finasteride trials showed that 0.3% of people had sexual sides after 5 years of use.
Keep in mind if you start on this stuff expecting to have side effects, you probably will because of psychological reasons.
To put things into perspective, do some research on other drugs such as antidepressants. Those can cause sexual side effects in up to 20% of men taking them, plus more than a dozen other symptoms. In my opinion, finasteride is much safer than antidepressants, but like putting any medication in your body, there is a risk.
thanks man thats alot of good info. But hearing all these dudes with sides make me really hesitant. I have anxiety so I'm pretty sure I will get the sides if I take even 1mg finasteride. I really want to get on finasteride but I dont know because of the sides
I first noticed some thinning a bit over 5 years ago. I was about to pull the trigger on finasteride...but then ran across the propeciahelp site. It freaked my sh*t! I decided against taking it. 2 years later someone made a comment about my "thin spot". I freaked out again, and decided that I was going to take the plunge. 3+ years later and I still have 85% of my hair, but none of the sexual sides.
Just think about it all for a second....I'll give you 2 scenarios:
Scenario #A: Man starts thinning. Doctor gives him finasteride. finasteride works. Man is happy and goes about his business.
Scenario #B: Man starts thinning. Doctor gives him finasteride. Man gets sides from finasteride. Man wants to fix sides. Man goes online looking for help and posts in forums trying to find help.
THAT is why there are more negative things than positive things online about finasteride. Most people that have successes don't feel the need to talk about it. I was on it for 3 years before I ever made one post on a forums about my hairloss battle and my experience with finasteride. Now, you bet your sweet *** that I would have jumped online and started trying to find help had I gotten persistent sides.
I'll use another example, my wife and her job. Every day I hear about drama and difficult customers (she's a personal banker). Usually it's 1 or 2 bad customers a day...but I know that she deal with anywhere from 50-100 each and every day. How many times does she tell me "Oh, there was this really nice lady today"? None. How many times does she have nice customers? More than none. It's simply human nature to latch onto the bad experiences and talk about those.
You can read my entire story and look at pics here
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=65594
Just think about it all for a second....I'll give you 2 scenarios:
Scenario #A: Man starts thinning. Doctor gives him finasteride. finasteride works. Man is happy and goes about his business.
Scenario #B: Man starts thinning. Doctor gives him finasteride. Man gets sides from finasteride. Man wants to fix sides. Man goes online looking for help and posts in forums trying to find help.
THAT is why there are more negative things than positive things online about finasteride. Most people that have successes don't feel the need to talk about it. I was on it for 3 years before I ever made one post on a forums about my hairloss battle and my experience with finasteride. Now, you bet your sweet *** that I would have jumped online and started trying to find help had I gotten persistent sides.
I'll use another example, my wife and her job. Every day I hear about drama and difficult customers (she's a personal banker). Usually it's 1 or 2 bad customers a day...but I know that she deal with anywhere from 50-100 each and every day. How many times does she tell me "Oh, there was this really nice lady today"? None. How many times does she have nice customers? More than none. It's simply human nature to latch onto the bad experiences and talk about those.
You can read my entire story and look at pics here
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=65594
Rocky, I dealt with severe anxiety for about 6 years of my life in my early 20's. It controlled my life, and basically everything was put on hold during that time. I got into drugs and basically screwed my life away during that time. I found a fantastic therapist that teaches CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) and was able to come out of it in less than 6 months, never to return again. That was 2 years ago, and i've achieved twice as much in the last 2 years as I did from the age of 18 to 27 (I am 29 now). If you have anxiety problems, look into CBT. It quite literally saved my life. Feel free to PM me if you want more info.
Anyway, back to finasteride. Quite honestly, if you feel you don't have reasonable control over your thoughts and worries, finasteride might not be a good choice for you. Since you already display fear and worry about side effects, i'm willing to bet you will experience them. If you are more of an obsessive person and see yourself researching every little symptom you find while taking it, definitely don't start until you are menatlly prepared for it.
I fell into the trap a while back and drove myself crazy over finasteride symptoms that I realized were all in my head. If you want to commit to taking it (I do recommend it, i've personally had great success with it) I would suggest you take it and stay away from researching anything related to it. Stay away from forums, especially!
Anyway, back to finasteride. Quite honestly, if you feel you don't have reasonable control over your thoughts and worries, finasteride might not be a good choice for you. Since you already display fear and worry about side effects, i'm willing to bet you will experience them. If you are more of an obsessive person and see yourself researching every little symptom you find while taking it, definitely don't start until you are menatlly prepared for it.
I fell into the trap a while back and drove myself crazy over finasteride symptoms that I realized were all in my head. If you want to commit to taking it (I do recommend it, i've personally had great success with it) I would suggest you take it and stay away from researching anything related to it. Stay away from forums, especially!
rawtashk,
thanks for that bro I appreciate it. Most of what you say is true. I feel a little better about it.
wuffer,
bro its like you completely read my mind. everything you said was what I was about to do with finasteride.lol. I'm a bit of a hypochondriac
thanks for that bro I appreciate it. Most of what you say is true. I feel a little better about it.
wuffer,
bro its like you completely read my mind. everything you said was what I was about to do with finasteride.lol. I'm a bit of a hypochondriac
TheGrayMan2001
Senior Member
- Reaction score
- 17
If you have hair loss, at least try finasteride. Chances are you won't have side effects. If you do, just stop, and you'll return to normal.