3 ms·

Would be great to find an alternative to the dangerous finasteride, dutasteride and insufficient minoxidil we have. To anyone reading this: Minoxidil + fin/dut

Would be great to find an alternative to the dangerous finasteride, dutasteride and insufficient minoxidil we have. To anyone reading this: Minoxidil + fin/dut will turn back your balding by a few years and stabilize it for more than a decade, in almost every man. Yet fin/dut can cause brain fog, depression, anxiety and low libido. Some claim those side effects can be permanent, even after stopping the drugs. Bonus tip: 5mg oral minoxidil is vastly superior to twice daily 5% topical application. One can drink the topical solution if pills can not be acquired. Bonus tip 2: Microneedling weekly massively improves results. Finasteride gave me severe depression and loss of libido. After stopping it I am fine. I am on 5-15mg oral min a day. If you have any questions, let me know. I am very confident in my knowledge of male pattern hair loss / AGA in men.

AQuantized 4y ago
Does minoxidil alone have any of those potential side effects, perhaps at a lesser incidence? I wouldn't mind extending my hairspan a few years, but I'm unwilling to risk long term side effects. I'm leaning towards avoiding taking anything.
- Traubenfuchs 4y ago
  ((low dosage) oral) Minoxidil has a range of tolerable, transient side effects. There is zero scientific discussion about it causing permanent side effects. But there are online communities that claim Minoxidil permanently ruined their skin, eyes, immune system, joints and killed their pet with an ax. Just like with Finasteride.
auganov 4y ago
Most of the alleged finasteride side effects are perfectly vague things that happen to people all the time for all kinds of reasons. While there are plausible (logically, not in terms of empirical evidence) arguments for how finasteride could be causing some of these things, nobody can explain how they could ever be permanent. Or how they would only affect a tiny subset of users despite triggering all the same mechanisms in every user. I can't think of too many other drugs that get so much hate on the Internet with so little to show for it. Even with the often controversial psychiatric drugs, most will stop short of claiming their lives were irrevocably destroyed forever. But with finasteride any claim seems to be fair game. And quite coincidentally, people on these hair loss sites often make the exact same claims about hair loss itself. It seems to me some simply choose to blame finasteride instead.
- Traubenfuchs 4y ago
  > nobody can explain how they could ever be permanent Epigenetic changes. Easy as that. I am not about to argue if PFS is real though. I haven‘t formed my opinion on that and probably never will, because one can‘t prove it doesn‘t exist, unfortunately. For me it‘s serious side effects were completely transient.
  - auganov 4y ago
    Epigenetics are interesting, but is finasteride's epigentic action uniquely interesting? Not too familiar with the latest on epigenetics, but a few quick Google searches suggest nearly every heavily-researched drug produces some kind of an epigenetic effect. I don't think it's impossible something is going on. I just feel like in the realm of medical controversies it's one of the least substantial. Even if some lasting physical effect can be proven, it's still a long way from there to lasting mental anguish. How convinced are you it caused your depression? Did you try taking it again?
- pcthrowaway 4y ago
  I don't know what the percentage of people affected is, but I suffered nearly complete loss of libido that crept up on me and took a couple of months to return after ~1 year on propecia. I don't think I've gone a full month in my life without even having morning wood before or since (and that wasn't a high-stress time in my life or anything).

AQuantized 4y ago

Does minoxidil alone have any of those potential side effects, perhaps at a lesser incidence? I wouldn't mind extending my hairspan a few years, but I'm unwilling to risk long term side effects. I'm leaning towards avoiding taking anything.

Traubenfuchs 4y ago
((low dosage) oral) Minoxidil has a range of tolerable, transient side effects. There is zero scientific discussion about it causing permanent side effects. But there are online communities that claim Minoxidil permanently ruined their skin, eyes, immune system, joints and killed their pet with an ax. Just like with Finasteride.

auganov 4y ago

Most of the alleged finasteride side effects are perfectly vague things that happen to people all the time for all kinds of reasons. While there are plausible (logically, not in terms of empirical evidence) arguments for how finasteride could be causing some of these things, nobody can explain how they could ever be permanent. Or how they would only affect a tiny subset of users despite triggering all the same mechanisms in every user. I can't think of too many other drugs that get so much hate on the Internet with so little to show for it. Even with the often controversial psychiatric drugs, most will stop short of claiming their lives were irrevocably destroyed forever. But with finasteride any claim seems to be fair game. And quite coincidentally, people on these hair loss sites often make the exact same claims about hair loss itself. It seems to me some simply choose to blame finasteride instead.

Traubenfuchs 4y ago
> nobody can explain how they could ever be permanent Epigenetic changes. Easy as that. I am not about to argue if PFS is real though. I haven‘t formed my opinion on that and probably never will, because one can‘t prove it doesn‘t exist, unfortunately. For me it‘s serious side effects were completely transient.
- auganov 4y ago
  Epigenetics are interesting, but is finasteride's epigentic action uniquely interesting? Not too familiar with the latest on epigenetics, but a few quick Google searches suggest nearly every heavily-researched drug produces some kind of an epigenetic effect. I don't think it's impossible something is going on. I just feel like in the realm of medical controversies it's one of the least substantial. Even if some lasting physical effect can be proven, it's still a long way from there to lasting mental anguish. How convinced are you it caused your depression? Did you try taking it again?
pcthrowaway 4y ago
I don't know what the percentage of people affected is, but I suffered nearly complete loss of libido that crept up on me and took a couple of months to return after ~1 year on propecia. I don't think I've gone a full month in my life without even having morning wood before or since (and that wasn't a high-stress time in my life or anything).