Hi guys, firstly - this site rocks! Has been so useful to me this last year. Secondly, could really do with some of your stories/advice about now. I'm going to try and keep this as short as possible but skim through if you want.
Really brief backstory - hair loss has been a slow burner for me but really progressed when I was about 18 when I had a bout of urticaria (auto-immune condition) - which thinned my hair relatively quickly. Since then it's just been gradual receeding and thinning. Difficult to gauge what Norwood I am as the hairline has come definitely come up instead of forming a 'V', but probably a 2/2.5 - although it's the thinning that kills me, and very quickly crept up on me after ignoring it for so long.
Anyway the shedding got really bad last year, and after trying various herbal treatments I bit the bullet and went for Propecia in around December/January. I'm not usually one to be affected by scare stories and honestly I went into it thinking I'd be absolutley fine; within 3 days I had unbeliavable testicular pain, struggled to get the pecker up and had this crazy numbness on my shaft that absolutely could have not been pyschological. Scared the sh*t out of me and I quit instantly - things went back to normal within a week.
With my hair shedding like crazy, in my desperation I went to see a hair transplant consultant. He had a look at my hair, and said at this point the only option is Propecia/Rogaine as a hair tranpsplant is way too risky without knowing how quickly my loss could progress.
After this I decided to give Propecia one last shot at 0.5mg and see what happens. The first 3 months I had absolutely zero side effects and was feeling extremely positive, and hopeful - even though my hair was still shedding. Around 4 months in the sides started coming back more subtly - the numbness, difficult maintaining erection, decrease in libido, was noticing some strange cognitive sides too. At this point I was going through a difficult situation at home though so I'm not sure how much of that may have been stress related. I stopped for a week and the sides cleared up once more.
The next weekend I see a friend of mine I hadnt seen since university 4 years earlier. His hair was extremely thin and receeding back in those days, and yet he had thicker hair than me now! I genuinely asked if he'd had a transplant and the answer was of course - he'd been on propecia. Apparently it took 12 months to kick in but after that his hair was getting thicker each cycle up to now where it's just stablised now. Worth mentioning he hasn't had noticed any sides since he started at all, and had no idea there were horror stories.
So being curious, I give Propecia another shot at 0.5mg every other day and now I'm back to every day and I have no side effects - and the shedding has completely stopped.
Really hope you're still with me as this is where i have the dilemma! I went for another appointment with the hair transplant consultant who has said that the propecia has absolutely thickened up my middle, crown already and the hair shafts are looking a lot thicker (could see this from the camera they use). However my hairline hasn't responded. With such a dense and thick donor area though, he said that 1,500 grafts would thicken/lower my hairline and achieve a really spectacular result if I wanted to go ahead with surgery. Just to clarify - totally trust this guys judgement as have seen/heard his own previous nightmare with a premature hair transplant.
Now this would obviously mean staying on Propecia for the long-term, and I have absolutely no idea if the sides will come back in a month/2 years/5 years. Has anyone else noticed sides come on, then eventually dissapear? Am I being ridiculous to stick on a medication that even though is helping my hair loss might eventually castrate me?! Or is there a chance your body can adjust to the hormone changes and stabalise?
I had no luck with Rogaine as i already suffer with occasional migraines and it caused unbelievable headaches from the moment I started (lasted a week).
If I stop Propecia I'll probably just eventually get a hair-piece. I know there is a massive stigma attached to it and the element of cost, but a mate of mine wears one and honestly the look/result is astounding. This is the last option though!
What would you guys do in this sutiation? Had a pretty rough few years and whilst acne sucked, this is a next level. I've been saving for either a transplant/hair piece for a while so it's a case now of making a decision.
Would really appreciate any insights, hopefully some of you have been involved in similar situations
Thanks
M
Really brief backstory - hair loss has been a slow burner for me but really progressed when I was about 18 when I had a bout of urticaria (auto-immune condition) - which thinned my hair relatively quickly. Since then it's just been gradual receeding and thinning. Difficult to gauge what Norwood I am as the hairline has come definitely come up instead of forming a 'V', but probably a 2/2.5 - although it's the thinning that kills me, and very quickly crept up on me after ignoring it for so long.
Anyway the shedding got really bad last year, and after trying various herbal treatments I bit the bullet and went for Propecia in around December/January. I'm not usually one to be affected by scare stories and honestly I went into it thinking I'd be absolutley fine; within 3 days I had unbeliavable testicular pain, struggled to get the pecker up and had this crazy numbness on my shaft that absolutely could have not been pyschological. Scared the sh*t out of me and I quit instantly - things went back to normal within a week.
With my hair shedding like crazy, in my desperation I went to see a hair transplant consultant. He had a look at my hair, and said at this point the only option is Propecia/Rogaine as a hair tranpsplant is way too risky without knowing how quickly my loss could progress.
After this I decided to give Propecia one last shot at 0.5mg and see what happens. The first 3 months I had absolutely zero side effects and was feeling extremely positive, and hopeful - even though my hair was still shedding. Around 4 months in the sides started coming back more subtly - the numbness, difficult maintaining erection, decrease in libido, was noticing some strange cognitive sides too. At this point I was going through a difficult situation at home though so I'm not sure how much of that may have been stress related. I stopped for a week and the sides cleared up once more.
The next weekend I see a friend of mine I hadnt seen since university 4 years earlier. His hair was extremely thin and receeding back in those days, and yet he had thicker hair than me now! I genuinely asked if he'd had a transplant and the answer was of course - he'd been on propecia. Apparently it took 12 months to kick in but after that his hair was getting thicker each cycle up to now where it's just stablised now. Worth mentioning he hasn't had noticed any sides since he started at all, and had no idea there were horror stories.
So being curious, I give Propecia another shot at 0.5mg every other day and now I'm back to every day and I have no side effects - and the shedding has completely stopped.
Really hope you're still with me as this is where i have the dilemma! I went for another appointment with the hair transplant consultant who has said that the propecia has absolutely thickened up my middle, crown already and the hair shafts are looking a lot thicker (could see this from the camera they use). However my hairline hasn't responded. With such a dense and thick donor area though, he said that 1,500 grafts would thicken/lower my hairline and achieve a really spectacular result if I wanted to go ahead with surgery. Just to clarify - totally trust this guys judgement as have seen/heard his own previous nightmare with a premature hair transplant.
Now this would obviously mean staying on Propecia for the long-term, and I have absolutely no idea if the sides will come back in a month/2 years/5 years. Has anyone else noticed sides come on, then eventually dissapear? Am I being ridiculous to stick on a medication that even though is helping my hair loss might eventually castrate me?! Or is there a chance your body can adjust to the hormone changes and stabalise?
I had no luck with Rogaine as i already suffer with occasional migraines and it caused unbelievable headaches from the moment I started (lasted a week).
If I stop Propecia I'll probably just eventually get a hair-piece. I know there is a massive stigma attached to it and the element of cost, but a mate of mine wears one and honestly the look/result is astounding. This is the last option though!
What would you guys do in this sutiation? Had a pretty rough few years and whilst acne sucked, this is a next level. I've been saving for either a transplant/hair piece for a while so it's a case now of making a decision.
Would really appreciate any insights, hopefully some of you have been involved in similar situations
Thanks
M
