Progress After 3 Weeks Of Finasteride, Quit Due To Side Effects, Not Sure What To Do Now.

[RatherGoBlindThanSeeItGo]

Hey everyone,

I was not sure whether or not I had hair loss since july 2015 (or what was causing it anyway, thinking it might be underweight). My hair line was receding but what worried me most of all is increased shedding all over the top and the feeling that it was becoming thinner. All of my mother's 5 brothers seem to be good NW2s at age 60, but my maternal grandfather was a NW5 by his early 50s. My father has 0 hair loss, my half-brother is a NW3 vertex but has a balding father that is pretty much identical to our maternal grandfather. Long story short - a history of hair loss in the family.

I went to an IAHRS-certified hair loss surgeon in Belgium (nearest one to the Netherlands) and he looked at my scalp with an enhanced camera and showed me that, obviously, I had miniaturization on the hair line, and, as I suspected, hairs seemed to be becoming ever-so-slightly thinner all over the top (not so much the crown) and he said this would progress and explained the diminishing hair volume I perceived to have.

By that point I had decided to try finasteride (1mg a day for a week, then 1mg EOD) and minoxidil (twice a day). I started mid february, both at the same time. Instantly diminished nightly and any spontaneous erection, and after 3 weeks I got so frustrated by waking up without ever feeling that lack of urgency to masturbate (I could still orgasm but it felt very much underwhelming) that I didn't feel like taking my pill that day, or the next, and I stopped. I continued minoxidil as normal. Sexual function got back to normal 6 days after quitting (I even had an intense wet dream that night which I don't remember ever having before)

Anyway, I made my peace with not taking finasteride. Then a week after I quit (4 weeks after having started taking it) suddenly my shedding decreased immensely. I would always shed 50-75 hairs in the shower, and another 50 throughout the day (that I noticed). and this went down to 5-15 in the shower, and around 20 throughout the day. I was pretty amazed. This lasted for about a week or two, then it went up to about half my 'baseline shedding' (around 25 in the shower, 25 throughout the day), which lasted for several months. Plus I was seeing some good regrowth after only 1-2 months on my right temple, which was the most receded, whereas left barely receded yet (pics at the bottom).

I assumed the minoxidil was just doing its work, but as of four weeks ago (which would be about 4 months after starting treatment, 3 months after stopping finasteride) my regrowth has diminished and is now barely above baseline, which is pretty evident in the photographs.

Do you guys agree with my assumption that, given the best results in shedding and regrowth appeared in the period of 1-4 months after taking finasteride, they were the result of finasteride use?

I am now facing a bit of a dilemma. The complete lack of sexual arousal makes me apprehensive to finasteride, but when I decided to stop taking my pills I had not yet seen and felt decreased shedding and regrowth on the hair line. A list of pros and cons:

Pros:

- My hair still has the potential to be really good if I only take finasteride and use minoxidil on the hairline
- I work as a fashion model, so the longer I can keep my hair the way it is the longer I can do this work
- Hair loss is very distressing for me, as I don't really have much going for me job- or relationshipwise
- I don't really have an active sex life because of a myriad of reasons, no desire to have sex with people, so I'm not giving up much there
- If only I can keep my hair as it is until there is a brotzu lotion or replicel treatment that can help me maintain without side effects, I would not even have to take finasteride that long, possibly-maybe?
- I really don't want to end up a NW3 vertex at 30 like my brother, what little confidence I have I take out of my looks.

Cons:

- I really hated not getting to enjoy masturbation, made me feel like less of a man to lack that feeling of urgency
- I do not know how long I would need to be taking finasteride until there are better treatments
- Sexual function went back to normal, but I am slightly worried that taking finasteride for a long period of time at my age (I am to turn 24 in August) might see me getting worse side effects (ED to gyno) or side effects that are lasting after stopping finasteride.

So even if I have the willpower to endure the side effects, which I'm not sure I do (possibly seeing my shedding decrease and hair regrow the way it did would really help with that), the biggest dilemma for me is that I will potentially damage my sexual health in the long term. The hair loss surgeon only gave me a prescription for one box of Proscar as he expressed that I should try it for 6 months, but he explicitly said he did not think it would a good idea for me to take it indefinitely. A local hair clinic in the Netherlands told me I should not be taking finasteride at my age at all, because its long-term health effects aren't clear.

I know it's my own choice and I'm already leaning towards one side, but I was hoping to get some opinions. Could I try microdosing finasteride in hope it does the same as 1mg with fewer sides? Does anyone have experience with taking finasteride and then stopping and resuming every month or two months?

baseline
after 1 month I think
after 2 or 3 months or so
Now at 5 months, closer to baseline

 

[michel sapin]

you are still on minoxidil?

 

[RatherGoBlindThanSeeItGo]

Yes. But since my shedding is back to what it was, I feel like it is not really doing very much.

 

[hwezdarik]

I believe you should hop on finasteride say 0.5 mg/day , keep using minoxidil and use a keto shampoo (Regenepure, Revita or nizoral) at least 1x a week.
From what you say, you MAY have very weak hairloss and thus the Big 3 should work well in your case . Perhaps adding RU and start saving up for a small hair transplant in Turkey..

Also, in terms of gyno, looking at your pics I'd say your body fat is almost none, which makes me think gyno is unlikely to occur in your case.

 

[RatherGoBlindThanSeeItGo]

I believe you should hop on finasteride say 0.5 mg/day , keep using minoxidil and use a keto shampoo (Regenepure, Revita or nizoral) at least 1x a week.
From what you say, you MAY have very weak hairloss and thus the Big 3 should work well in your case . Perhaps adding RU and start saving up for a small hair transplant in Turkey..

Also, in terms of gyno, looking at your pics I'd say your body fat is almost none, which makes me think gyno is unlikely to occur in your case.

I do use Regenepure DR. If I use it too much it really dries out my hair, but if I use it too little I start to get Dandruff. So I'll stick to that.

I hope you're right about the gyno. I had gyno as a teenager despite barely having body fat back then, there's a little lump under my right nipple that isn't visible but never went away. I never went to a doctor over it, since my mother said it's normal and that my brother had it too. Anyway, I just realized how all the bad things on my body seem to happen on my right side. Hairline recedes more, beard growing in slower, lump in my neck I've had since birth, lump under my nipple I've had since a teenager, a recurring jock itch, plus when I visited my GP she said the hair on the right side of my head seemed a little less dense than the left. All that sh*t happens on the right side of my body for some strange reason.