Few question, any input would be great

[cruznnfast]

Hi,
I am 22 years old, I started noticing receding hair line at 19-20 years old. It was driving me crazy at 21, so I decided to do something about it. I did some research, I started taking fincar and using rogaine. After about 2 months on the fincar I noticed like night and day that I had totally my libido. It was almost if I had erectile dysfunction. I stopped taking the fincar and everything is back to normal now. I kept using the rogaine, but it made my scalp itch like crazy and gave me really bad dandruff . It almost seemed like it made my hair line worse.
Now I'm back at step one, it sucks. I was wondering if other medicines like procepia would have the same effect on me as the fincar did. I believe they are made of the same stuff. There was another process I have wondered about too, it's called dermaroller. I guess you roll this spiky roller and it's supposed to increase blood flow in that area of loss and get topicals into the pores.
So any input would be great and advice on a system to use. I'm kind of bummed being back at step 1.

[Lain]

Hey

I am sadly not from the offical staff, however I might give some input: The substance which is in Propecia and Fincar is Finasteride. Propecia however is 1mg Finasteride / pill and Fincar is 5 mg Finasteride / pill. In case you did not split Fincar in 4 even pieces the chance of decreased libido is much higher than on 1 mg Finasteride. But to answer your question: If you would start taking Propecia and you had decreased libido from Fincar you would have the same with Propecia (considering you have split Fincar in 4 pieces). What you might try is 1/2 a pill of Propecia (0.5mg Finasteride/day) According to Dr Rassman it still has a high effect and VERY low chance of decreased libido. Dont forget that whatever affects our sexuality we men act very neurotic. When Propecia was tested the Placebo control group also had participants with decreased libido. So just don´t worry sometimes our mind is quiet tricky ;) However your reports of close erectile dysfunction are of course to be looked at seriously.

The derma roller is something which I highly doubt that it would work. Its more or less the same scam as the Hair Max Laser. It cannot hurt you... however I am sure to 100 % it will not make any positive effect.

If you tried Rogaine 5 % you might try Rogaine 2 %. Maybe you are lucky and you wont have itching from it. There is something which is called Aminexil which is from Vichy. The substance is very similar to Minoxidil (its almost the same substance). There are hardly any side effects from it, HOWEVER it is NOT FDA approved. We Europeans swear on it but in terms of effectiveness I would rather recommend Minox (Rogaine).

If you have more questions or are even more confused just state em here.

[cruznnfast]

Hey

I am sadly not from the offical staff, however I might give some input: The substance which is in Propecia and Fincar is Finasteride. Propecia however is 1mg Finasteride / pill and Fincar is 5 mg Finasteride / pill. In case you did not split Fincar in 4 even pieces the chance of decreased libido is much higher than on 1 mg Finasteride. But to answer your question: If you would start taking Propecia and you had decreased libido from Fincar you would have the same with Propecia (considering you have split Fincar in 4 pieces). What you might try is 1/2 a pill of Propecia (0.5mg Finasteride/day) According to Dr Rassman it still has a high effect and VERY low chance of decreased libido. Dont forget that whatever affects our sexuality we men act very neurotic. When Propecia was tested the Placebo control group also had participants with decreased libido. So just don´t worry sometimes our mind is quiet tricky ;) However your reports of close erectile dysfunction are of course to be looked at seriously.

The derma roller is something which I highly doubt that it would work. Its more or less the same scam as the Hair Max Laser. It cannot hurt you... however I am sure to 100 % it will not make any positive effect.

If you tried Rogaine 5 % you might try Rogaine 2 %. Maybe you are lucky and you wont have itching from it. There is something which is called Aminexil which is from Vichy. The substance is very similar to Minoxidil (its almost the same substance). There are hardly any side effects from it, HOWEVER it is NOT FDA approved. We Europeans swear on it but in terms of effectiveness I would rather recommend Minox (Rogaine).

If you have more questions or are even more confused just state em here.

Lain,
Thank you for the detailed response. When I was taking fincar I did split the pills up into 4 pieces and would take 1/4 pill each day. I really wish it worked for me without side effects. I was so happy to start taking fincar. Right up to the incident I was hardly shedding and didn't worry about my hair as much. In regards to the rogaine I was on the 2% foam. I will have to look into the Aminexil product. I figured that the derma roller was some type of scam, just wanted to get a second opinion on it.
Again thank you for the response.

[Lain]

You are welcome. I see thats very complicated if the only 2 FDA approved substances for hair loss have too big side effects. That is really a pitty.

Dont forget that Aminexil is extremly expensive. It does not regrow any hair but might prevent what you have a little longer.

Good luck

[Mark]

Boy, we're going to have to put Lain on the payroll here soon! ;)

-Mark

[cruznnfast]

You are welcome. I see thats very complicated if the only 2 FDA approved substances for hair loss have too big side effects. That is really a pitty.

Dont forget that Aminexil is extremly expensive. It does not regrow any hair but might prevent what you have a little longer.

Good luck

Thank you Lain, you are very knowledgeable about hair loss and treatments. The last questions I have may be only for a doctor, but we will see. I was wondering if maybe I took even a smaller dosage of the fincar do you think it will have the same effects as it did before? Maybe if I just smashed the pill up into little pieces and barely took any each day, or took 1/4 of the pill like every 3-4 days? Also is it ok to maybe just use rogaine every other day or once a day? I know I have a lot of questions, but I'm just trying to figure out some type of system again. Thank you

[Lain]

Yupp this question certainly is for a a person with professional experience only I fear that my answer is beyond reliability. What I can only say is if you had side effects from finasteride and still want to use it, it is very wise to simply reduce the dosage. So far so good. To what extent one has to cut the drug intake in terms of finasteride, is difficult to answer and needs empirical evidence. There are people who make drug weeks every month and chomp everything which prevents hair loss, some people take finasteride on sunny days only and some only every other day. Personally I would recommend taking it daily due to the fact that its half life (duration of action of a drug) is below 24 h I think. Meaning that starting from when this time passes you are unprotected. Also this intake frequency (once daily) is the one mostly evaluated in studies.

Concerning your rogaine question, sorry I could not even dare to speculate here. I really really really just dont know :(

[Mark]

Lain is quite modest. He's got the answer pretty well nailed here.

Just off the top of my head, the biggest problem you're going to have with fincar is physically breaking the pill into small enough pieces to try to stop getting side effects while also making sure that the pieces are all generally the same size. You may want to switch to 1mg finasteride pills and break those up.

In various blog posts I found, Dr Rassman has recommended people switch to using Rogaine once every other day, but generally that advice is for people who have been taking rogaine for long periods and then want to stop. When you get irritation, is it immediately after applying Rogaine, or is it only if you apply it twice a day for many days?

-Mark

[cruznnfast]

Lain is quite modest. He's got the answer pretty well nailed here.

Just off the top of my head, the biggest problem you're going to have with fincar is physically breaking the pill into small enough pieces to try to stop getting side effects while also making sure that the pieces are all generally the same size. You may want to switch to 1mg finasteride pills and break those up.

In various blog posts I found, Dr Rassman has recommended people switch to using Rogaine once every other day, but generally that advice is for people who have been taking rogaine for long periods and then want to stop. When you get irritation, is it immediately after applying Rogaine, or is it only if you apply it twice a day for many days?

-Mark

Thanks Mark,
I was thinking about grinding up the pill and maybe using the tip of a damp toothpick or something. So lets say I did find a way to take a smaller dosage, do you think it will still have the same effect as before? I have also heard some people have side effects and they keep taking finasteride and the side effects eventually go away.

As far as the rogaine, I had been using it twice a day for about 5 months and the irritation had just started recently. The irritation gradually became worse, but I kept using it. I finally couldn't take it anymore, I had red bumps and dandruff. It itched like crazy and felt like I was scratching out my hair.

Again thank you for the responses, Lain and Mark. I have needed help for a while know and didn't know where to go.

[Mark]

Thanks Mark,
I was thinking about grinding up the pill and maybe using the tip of a damp toothpick or something. So lets say I did find a way to take a smaller dosage, do you think it will still have the same effect as before? I have also heard some people have side effects and they keep taking finasteride and the side effects eventually go away.

To be perfectly honest with you, I think that most of the "side effects" that people experience on finasteride are in their head. In clinical studies of the drug, people taking a placebo were almost exactly as likely to experience side effects.

Now, of course I don't mean to tell you what you are or aren't legitimately experiencing, just that my personal experience working here at NHI has shown me that. And it makes perfect sense. I've been taking finasteride for 2 years now and have I had erectile dysfunction? Yep! And I'd had it occasionally before I started taking finasteride. It happens to everyone. Sometimes you're just not in the mood and you still want to have a go at it anyway. And if you consider the stress that a lot of men put themselves through when they're losing their hair, it's not at all strange to hear how that stress manifests itself through their bodies.

People want to find a concrete answer for all their problems, and as good as medical science is these days, there's still an incredible amount of information that we just don't know.

Regarding the efficacy of a lower dosage of Finasteride, we've read studies that show that .5mg finasteride is 80% as effective as 1mg, but of course they chose 1mg as the standard dose because it was shown to be the most effective dose. You can choose to give it some time to see if the side effects you're experiencing are real or not, or if you want, just go to .5mg and see how you do.

But whatever you do, have a good way to measure your progress. If that means that your doctor takes photos of you every time you come in, great. If it means you do it yourself, that's fine too. But watching your hair grow (or fall out) is such a slow process that it's virtually impossible to notice without photos.

But again, the real problem you're going to have is trying to get an exact dose by breaking apart 5mg pills into .5mg chunks. I have a hard enough time precisely cutting my 5mg pills into quarters (1.25mg each). Trying to split those small bits in half would be even more difficult. If you can get 1mg finasteride, it would be much simpler to cut that pill in half.

As far as the rogaine, I had been using it twice a day for about 5 months and the irritation had just started recently. The irritation gradually became worse, but I kept using it. I finally couldn't take it anymore, I had red bumps and dandruff. It itched like crazy and felt like I was scratching out my hair.

Maybe lowering the dosage would help. You might want to try going to once a day and see how that goes, if you still get irritation go to once every other day.

Again thank you for the responses, Lain and Mark. I have needed help for a while know and didn't know where to go.

Ideally you should go to your doctor, as they will be able to be much more precise than we can. But aside from that disclaimer, we're glad to help.

-Mark

[cruznnfast]

Mark,
Thank you for the very detailed answer. Your guys advice has been great and I appreciate everything. I have to come to a decision on my own now. Most likely I will start taking .5mg fin and start using rogaine once a day at night. Hopefully the side effects were just in my head, I have read this before also. I will see how it goes and try and document my results with pictures.

Thank you

[Mark]

Mark,
Thank you for the very detailed answer. Your guys advice has been great and I appreciate everything. I have to come to a decision on my own now. Most likely I will start taking .5mg fin and start using rogaine once a day at night. Hopefully the side effects were just in my head, I have read this before also. I will see how it goes and try and document my results with pictures.

Thank you

Good luck, and we'll be wishing you the best.

-Mark