TravisB story (4 months Finasteride only)

[Going2beBald?]

I'm not sure what you meant by "flex it's muscles". Anyway, my two cents after I've been on finasteride 13 months now. What comes to sex drive, no problems maintaining an erection, more watery semen but that's it. What comes about body composition changes, I've been working out six for seven years. During last summer after 8 months on finasteride I was at the best shape in my life ( body fat under 10% ). So far finasteride hasn't affected to my ability to gain muscle or lose fat etc. I usually keep my body fat 15ish and still look same or maybe even better than lets say a year ago. The changes you guys noticed may have something to do with the way your body gathers water, I dunno. I haven't used estrogen inhibilators never before because I didn't know about them previously. I've ran a bottle a few times during this 13 months and it surely makes you look good when the test / est ratio changes to your advantage. So if you have problems gaining more fat than muscle you may want to try to reduce est a bit.

 

[TravisB]

I'm not sure what you meant by "flex it's muscles".

I meant that finasteride usually doesn't start showing visible results until 8-12 months mark

 

[TravisB]

Ok I decided to make a compilation to better see my progress, and I'll be damned, it seems like I'm making gradual progress! But left side of my hairline is pretty eaten up, and recently I think it's gotten worse. I hope it's only temporary and finasteride is just making place for thicker hairs. I'm into 9 month now. I think I'll make another photo update at 10 months mark

 

[Benjamin36]

I can definitely see improvement

 

[TravisB]

Is it possible to have a shed at month 9-10 on finasteride and then recover with thicker hair?

Because the shed is what I think I'm experiencing lately (I'm into 10th month, 9 months and 10 days to be precise).

For past 9 months I didn't have any shed, and I experienced a LITTLE bit of thickening + regrowth, and situation was stabilized, but lately (since few weeks ago) it's gotten worse, and it doesn't look like it's coming back.

 

[mmmikkke]

Well that was a fast improvement ... I look forward to following your progress!

 

[IrishFella]

Is it possible to have a shed at month 9-10 on finasteride and then recover with thicker hair?

Because the shed is what I think I'm experiencing lately (I'm into 10th month, 9 months and 10 days to be precise).

For past 9 months I didn't have any shed, and I experienced a LITTLE bit of thickening + regrowth, and situation was stabilized, but lately (since few weeks ago) it's gotten worse, and it doesn't look like it's coming back.

I've been shedding sporadically since the end of August 2012, it seems though the past few months everything is looking better and better. But I do expect another to hit at any random time. What I'm saying is, yes, it is possible, it will eventually look better. Just prepare for it to look not as good as before for a while. It can be disheartening seen yoer hair getting worse after getting better but it will go back to normal.

 

[WorkHardPlayHard]

TravisB.

Thank you for your continued diligent reporting. You have marked improvement, from what I can see -- impressive indeed.

I'm at 1.5 months on finasteride, and shedding like absolute crazy. Your story is providing some re-assurance.

I'm wondering how everything looks now?

All the best,
WHPH

 

[TravisB]

TravisB.

Thank you for your continued diligent reporting. You have marked improvement, from what I can see -- impressive indeed.

I'm at 1.5 months on finasteride, and shedding like absolute crazy. Your story is providing some re-assurance.

I'm wondering how everything looks now?

All the best,
WHPH

To be honest it looks like sh*t

I'm now more than 10 months on finasteride, and until 8 month everything seemed to be fine, i.e I was maintaining + possibly slight regrowth and thickening.

But after the 8 month I noticed the steady decline that continues till now. If it's not some kind of late shed which will be followed by thicker hair, then I guess finasteride just doesn't work for me and I'm ****ed.

But my plan is to take it for 2 years if I won't have serious side effects. If after 2 years I'll see no improvement, I'll drop finasteride.

 

[TravisB]

So, update on my situation.

Currently I'm off finasteride for more than a month now after being on it for a year, because of the problems that started developing. finasteride I believe caused ZERO regrowth for me, and also the hair started thinning even further since 8th month I believe, and the hair didn't come back even until now, so I guess it might be the case that finasteride just didn't work for me. I wanted to give it 2 years, but the side effects became annoying lately.

Since early months into finasteride:

- I had periods when I always felt like I had full bladder and always needed to piss

- Weird feeling in the prostate

Since 8th month:

- I had weird period that lasted around 3 months when I wasn't sick, but constantly feeling tired and cold. Also my body temperature was low all the time. I never had something like that.

- I started having annoying acne breakouts on forehead ONLY that just didn't want to go away. When one pimple went away, immediately the next one (or two) was growing. Plus the skin on my forehead became dry and the pimples were leaving red marks. I'm sure it's from finasteride because I dropped finasteride around a month ago and my forehead nearly cleared up already and I don't have new breakouts.

- It seems my stomach became tired of finasteride because I developed very acidic stomach to the point I have reflux and yellow tongue. I checked my liver and it's totally fine, It's just a problem with stomach. I never had something like that so I also think it's safe to say finasteride caused this.

- My eyebrows were thinning at the ends despite my thyroid being OK (I had it checked thoroughly). Eyebrows also stablised and became thicker since off finasteride.

- I developed a lot of stretch marks on my thighs. However I'm not sure if it's finasteride that caused it, because I gained some weight. Might be because I'm lazy.

What's important is my free/bioavailable Testosterone decreased by nearly 50%!! Yes, I'm not joking. Before, my free T levels were in the middle of the range, and when I checked it few months ago, it was near the lower end of the range.

Additionally I had significantly lowered sex drive. I didn't really had a problem to get my ding-dong hard, however I wasn't turned on easily at all, and erections weren't so firm. I also had no spontaneous erections at all and it was hard to even think about sex, like it didn't interest me most of the time. Semen was very watery and there wasn't very much of it.

Also I believe I was experiencing infamous "brain-fog" to some degree. I was forgetting what I wanted to say very often, and also had difficulty finding the right words.

Luckily all of these things (except stomach acidity) seem to be resolving now, and I generally feel quite a lot better after only around a month off the drug. I started having spontaneous erections again, semen is of normal sticky consistency and there's more of it, forehead acne went away nearly completely, I have clearer mind, and also I don't have constant feeling of full bladder or weird prostate feelings. I think maximum few months more and I'll be just like before the finasteride again.

I don't think I'll return to finasteride again, especially because I was taking it for a year and it didn't seem to be working because I continued to lose ground. Also I admit that the longer term sides concern me. Now I think I'll be looking into minoxidil to see what it will do for me because I'm curious.

I also believe now that finasteride sides are very real, however luckily they weren't too serious for me, but I definitely felt them.

PS I'm not some anti-Finasteride troll and what I wrote here was 100% honest.

Cheers

 

[TravisB]

OK, I decided not to stop finasteride afterall. I stopped it for a month (June 2013) but now I'm back. Now I'm about 15 months into treatment.

So, it looks like finasteride has maintained more or less + gave me slight regrowth at the hairline. In fact I constantly see new hairs sprouting in various places (especially at the hairline and temples), but the progress is VERY slow.

I'm surprised it somewhat works on the hairline, but it doesn't work AT ALL on the crown (other than maintain), because finasteride is supposed to be very good for the crown.

I'm quite happy because of the progress on right side of my hairline (it can be easily judged because of my scar), but at the same time annoyed that left side doesn't want to regrow (it's not slick bald, there are still stiff hairs there that I can feel with my fingers). It looks like finasteride thickened some of the vellus hairs on the right side, but it doesn't want to thicken hairs on the left side. I definitely had more hair than now on the left side of hairline at earlier points of my treatment. Who knows, maybe they shed and now they are in resting phase and will start growing all of sudden at some point? I can only hope.

I'm still hoping for some sudden growth/thickening until 24 month mark.

Below are pics from May 31st 2012 (beginning of treatment), and today. Hair length is the same I believe. Any feedback will be welcome!

May 31st 2012:



Today (September 22nd 2013):



Flash pics:

September 29th 2012 (4 months into treatment)


Today (September 22nd 2013, 15 months into treatment)



On the flash pics you can see that right side of hairline improved further, but on the left side there's more hairloss. I don't know if these hairs will regrow.

To me it looks like my results reached their peak at 4-8 months and since then nothing is happening (except a bit more hairloss on left side of hairline).

 

[capitan]

I see the difference on the right side!

But why do you shave you head?

 

[TravisB]

I see the difference on the right side!

But why do you shave you head?

Because when I grow it out it's all thin and see through and looks like sh-it

Maybe I could thicken my hair using Minoxidil, but I'm going to wait 2 full years on finasteride because I want to see it's full potential.

My main problem is that DHT is eating the left side of my hairline alive, and finasteride doesn't seem to work there. This sucks, because it creates assymmetry

 

[giannis]

what i dont understand is why your left side is worse(not much but still) and your right is better. Doesnt make sense at all. Did you notice anything positive or negative on your hair during the month you went off finasteride ?

 

[talmoode]

my right side is much worse than my left side. but the good news is the good side will catch up eventually and it will evenly go bald

 

[TravisB]

what i dont understand is why your left side is worse(not much but still) and your right is better. Doesnt make sense at all. Did you notice anything positive or negative on your hair during the month you went off finasteride ?

I didn't notice anything negative