No one is forcing you to take it, but that being said, you only have yourself to blame if your hair loss gets worse.
Let's take a step back and look at things logically, if you look at the studies for the oral 5ARIs, finasteride and dutasteride, you'll see that a good percentage of the placebo group even experiences side effects. Such is the nature of a study where the researchers tell you what side effects to look out for, impotence and the like are largely influenced by psychogenic factors, this is why the placebo group experienced side effects too! Even if you do experience ED or similar side effects, they will resolve a few months after ceasing the drug.
This guy on bodybuilding forums compiled a post with studies to back it (
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=158889153), one of the very important questions was answered as follows:
"Sperm mobility and morphology is regulated by testosterone levels, rats given 100mg/kg of finasteride showed no effect on fertility, so did humans with up to a single 400mg dose. Chances of finasteride causing impotence are close to zero. Chances of finasteride causing permanent impotence are statistically non-existent."
All those scare stories you see on the internet are either a product of an extreme nocebo effect or a result of someone who already had impotence in the past, finasteride certainly won't improve any existing sexual issues but it won't cause them on its own. The mind is a powerful entity, so try to relax and trust in science instead of drones parroting invalid advice. I actually read one of the Propecia suicide stories, the bloody idiot was on two other medications that could cause sexual side effects at a much greater propensity than finasteride alone (zolpidem and an SSRI).
Calling DHT a vestigial hormone would be a bit extreme but in fully grown men it really only enlarges the prostate, causes acne and miniaturises hair follicles, it isn't essential for healthy adult males.
What about gynaecomastia? Worrying about this side effect is
slightly more warranted but even then it's statistically insignificant. Take a look at this chart for some proof:
http://i.gyazo.com/dbbc762b031e11387805edd0605aedf1.png
Average serum estradiol, which increases when excess free testosterone is aromatised, never rises above what is considered the normal reference range for men. Even the outliers (which were also present in the placebo group!) likely wouldn't produce any abnormal pathological changes. Look at this study, (
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7614406), it even shows normal, healthy,
fertile men can have serum estradiol levels as high as 82 pg/mL (ng/L). Someone would have to have a predisposition for estrogenic side effects such as gynaecomastia to occur (read: abnormally high serum estradiol levels), hence the low incidence rate. This is why I had a comprehensive male hormone panel performed before I started any treatments, everything came back within their normal reference ranges and I plan to start dutasteride at the end of next week. I suggest you do the same to make sure you are considered a normal, healthy male from an endocrinological perspective.
Think of it this way, oral 5ARIs can exacerbate or manifest an underlying endocrinological issue but it's doubtful that they can cause such issues outright. It's like with psychedelics and their relation to mental illness, just because someone takes LSD once, has a psychotic episode and is later diagnosed with schizophrenia, doesn't mean the LSD caused it. It's well known that psychedelics only can cause mental illness to manifest itself earlier, but even if you hadn't taken said psychedelic drug, you still would experience the very same mental illness, only with a later onset. Basically only people with underlying issues that haven't surfaced yet will experience problems with certain drugs, be it finasteride, ibuprofen (look up Stevens-Johnson syndrome), aspirin (look up Reye's syndrome) or psilocybin. Correlation does not equal causation. (Or should I say "correlation does not equal castration"?
)
I honestly regret not going on an oral 5ARI sooner, I admit I should've done more research and then I would've realised that the side effects were statistically insignificant. I feel like a damn fool, especially given the above LSD analogy, which is a great parallel. Granted I haven't waited as long as some people (1 year since Androgenetic Alopecia likely started, took about 9 months wasting time ruling out other causes, spent 3 months on only mildly effective treatments, here I am now at NW1.5-NW2 and
ravenous for my first dose of dutasteride) but I'm not about to wait any longer and see my temples get worse! Don't be an anus, take prophylactic action as soon as you've confirmed you have Androgenetic Alopecia. Pursuing every avenue is vital to at least achieve maintenance, regrowth is a bonus if you're lucky. I see far too many
sad boys on this forum who have woken up too late, you don't want to end up like them.
If the above reasons aren't enough, let's examine some of the potential health
benefits of going on an oral 5ARI:
-Possible decreased risk of prostate cancer as well as slowed progression or even regression/remission if you have the cancer already (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g0m8ATOLaM) (notice how he even says that Avodart, which is a trade name for dutasteride, has no significant side effects!)
-DHT stimulates sebum production, so you may even see decreased acne, attenuation of seborrhoeic dermatitis symptoms and better skin overall.
-Easier time peeing, 5ARIs shrink the prostate, reducing urethral occlusion and therefore increasing urinary flow rate.
-And of course the obvious fact, it's very likely that you'll end up
keeping your hair
Here's a bit more concrete (and extreme) analogy involving Michael Jordan:
"In their discussion about risk-reward, Reinsdorf offered Jordan an example of having 10 pills in front of him to help a headache, but one of the 10 pills would kill you. He said he didn't think it was worth the risk, however, Michael said "it depends how bad the headache is"
So, how bad is your Androgenetic Alopecia headache? 
