Finasteride for Androgenetic Alopecia User Reviews (Page 3)

• Cc7...
• Taken for 1 to 2 years
• August 29, 2021

"I've been using 1 mg finasteride over the past year. After a few months of use, I was unable to recall basic information that I otherwise would have had at the tip of my tongue. Brain fog, haziness in my responses, and sometimes I could not even verbalize what I was thinking. Find another way to save your hair loss."

• Jim...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• December 3, 2019

"I have taken this drug for 3 months and take writing this review very seriously, as I can see some negative feedback which I believe to be inaccurate. The drug does not work immediately, so be wary of any review where the user has taken it for less than 3 months. After becoming anxious about going bald, I bought a 3-month supply. I started noticing hair loss reducing from about 6 weeks on, as my desk was no longer covered. Hard to tell if any regrowth, but as I started early, I still had a reasonably healthy cover. Not being anxious about premature aging has really helped my confidence. Have experienced no tangible side effects, but in the first week believed it may have affected sex drive, but as this has disappeared, I now think it was a mental block. Can't say I have noticed any other issues. For me, it has been very positive, as I no longer worry about looking old for my age."

• nat...
• Taken for 6 months to 1 year
• October 5, 2016

"I was on 1 mg about a year ago on and off for about 6 months. I only had slight pain and discomfort in my lower abdomen/testicles for the first few days. Then my morning wood disappeared and sometimes came back. At about the 6th month, I noticed bad shrinkage, low ejaculate volume. I stopped taking it, and after 1 month of seeing no improvement, I was breaking down. I was a tall, athletic 30 yr old man and feeling like I had nothing between my legs. It's almost a year since I stopped. I'm about 90% back to my old self (I think I'm one of the 'lucky' guys). I thought the number of negative comments were b.s. (they're not). The percentage of men being damaged must be much higher than reported. Don't take the risk."

• Ton...
• March 2, 2019

"I've been on this medicine right at 1 year, and all I can say is that the difference in my hair from day one to now is tremendous. When I first started, I still had a good amount of hair, I'm only 23, and I'm trying to catch my hair loss early on. I had fairly significant thinning on the vertex and crown to the point that scalp could always be seen. For the first 3-4 months on finasteride, I shed a lot, to the point that I thought the medicine was making it worse, I had lost an additional 40-50% of the hair on the top of my head. Now, at month 12, it has all entirely grown back, and then some. Wait out the shed, my friends, it will be worth it. You may also try adding saw palmetto, it sped up the results for me. I am happy to report no side effects at all, and now when I comb my hair every morning, there are less than 3 hairs in the brush or sink. My hair loss has virtually stopped altogether. I hope these results last, but the best advice I can give from my experience is: wait out the shedding."

• w77...
• Taken for 1 to 2 years
• August 19, 2017

"I've never written a review for a drug before. I'm 47. When I started thinning a couple of years ago, I freaked out and started looking into this drug. I read thousands of reviews, many of them negative. But I went ahead and started taking it anyway. Thankfully, it worked for me. I've been on it for 2 years. I experienced weird ejaculations/less intense orgasms starting about 3 days into taking it. It freaked me out, but I kept taking it as some of the reviews explained these side effects were temporary. Yes, the side effect went away on its own after about 2 months and all went back to normal. I noticed my hair loss stopped on its tracks about 3 weeks into taking it. Now I've regrown a lot of lost hair back. It changed my life."

• Hem...
• January 19, 2011

"I am 22, and I had some hair loss. I have started using this medicine, and right away after starting (less than a week!), I noticed that I have hair loss no more. Even when I intentionally try to pull my hair out! For help to grow new hair, well, I have used this medicine for about 4 months, and I can say YES, it works, but gradually."

• Ak1...
• Taken for 5 to 10 years
• March 27, 2015

"I have been taking this drug for the last 5 years now, and it's working great. I have a head full of hair, and I feel very confident about my looks. I almost gave up on my hair, but Proscar 1.25 mg gave my life back. Also, I invented a pill cutter to cut Proscar 5 mg into 4 pieces for the daily dose."

• Eth...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• May 15, 2023

"At the age of 19, I took finasteride for 2 weeks from dosages ranging from 0.25 mg to 0.50 mg. This was easily the biggest mistake of my life. As a consequence of my usage, I went on to rapidly develop post-finasteride syndrome - for me, characterized by continuously cold and numb genitals, muted orgasms, near absent libido, and weakened erections. It's been 2 years that I've been in this hell, and because of this, I have no sex or romantic life. I constantly regret taking this drug and think about what could have been had I never taken it."

• Don...
• December 15, 2019

"I've done a lot of research about hair and looking for natural ways to make my hair grow back. I've been working on my hair, and I have come up with the simplest solution within the last couple of years. Use shampoos that do not have sulfates and those that pull blood toward the roots of the hairs. Add a little mint oil to your shampoo. I use Nizoral quite often, as it also contains zinc. Leave your shampoo on for about 15 minutes before you rinse it off. I wash my hair twice a week unless it's summer and warm when I wash it three times a week. Result? It's growing back, slowly but surely. I'd say it should take about four years to have a full set of hair back. Save your money and health!"

• vet...
• Taken for 2 to 5 years
• July 24, 2021

"This drug is bad! It is given by the Veterans Administration for enlarged prostate. VA doctors, including urologists, have been incompetent and derelict in failing to warn veterans about the side effects of the drug and its dangers. They also fail to give hormone blood tests before taking and after taking for testosterone and other hormones to get a baseline. This drug has messed me up and millions of veterans who have enlarged prostate with no recognition nor treatment from the Veterans Administration or its urologists/doctors. VA doctors will tell you a fat lie that Post-Finasteride Syndrome doesn't exist, as all the symptomology goes away once you cease the drug. This drug has caused our veterans total impotence, shrinkage of the penis and genitals, enlarged breasts, brain fog, anxiety, depression, severe memory loss, sleep apnea, sleep deprivation, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sleeplessness, suicidal ideation, and suicide."

• And...
• Taken for 10 years or more
• May 1, 2022

"Do not risk this drug. Over ten years I’ve taken this drug, and I wish I never knew it existed. For 12 months I’ve been telling my GP I am no longer able to get sexually aroused, cannot trust my erection, struggle to orgasm, and my penis is completely numb. This is not 2% of men, as they say, latest studies are showing this is, at the lowest, 20% and growing as more men come forward. The ‘side effects’ also appear to not be reversible. That means you cannot have a child and will not be able to have a sexually active relationship. I’m struggling, it’s the realization I’ve been prescribed a super dangerous drug, and it’s not destroyed a large portion of my life."

• Rob...
• December 9, 2019

"Took Propecia for 18 years. Worked great. Insignificant sides. Well, it was years afterward that I started getting all the sexual and some cognitive (brain fog, bad sleep) side effects. Went to the doc about semi-hard erections, he gave me Cialis. I decided to go off the drug, and after about 2-3 months, I noticed my erections were completely hard as a rock. So much so, that it hurt when I got an erection (in a good way). It was growing BACK! I went back on the drug after about 1 year. My new hair loss stopped soon after, along with my penis working. This time it also started to get hard crooked. I stopped again. Many of the side effects men speak of on this forum are also dissipating. When I was on and had no big side effects, all was good and I thought the negative experiences were small. I'm done for good with Propecia - had I known before what I know now, I would not have started."

• Rob...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• December 27, 2015

"I noticed rapid shedding of hair in March of 2015. I would occasionally count hairs lost on a day to gauge the extent of the hair loss (getting better or worse). For months, I was losing well over 100 hairs a day, which was quite concerning. For some time, I deliberated whether to proceed with finasteride, as I was conscious of the negative side effects. I started taking finasteride in August. For the next four months, my hair loss continued. It's now December, and it has completely stopped. I can run my hands through my hair/have a shower and count little to no hairs at all. My hair also feels stronger and looks thicker, which is great. Better still, I have no noticeable negative side effects, and my sex drive is as it was previously."

• Dyl...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• August 3, 2020

Finasteride "I have been on Propecia for almost 6 months now. My experience with it is as below: 1) Shedding was worst during the second to third month, as expected. Slowed down, but I still notice medium to bad hair loss every now and then. Hopefully, it will stabilize and come to a halt. 2) I notice some baby hair along the hairline. (Although I had been using minoxidil 6 months prior to Propecia, I didn't notice any hair growth until I was on Propecia. I am on both Propecia and minoxidil now, by the way.) Not much improvement on the crown. Overall hair volume and quality seem to have improved. Nonetheless, it's still too early to tell, I guess. 3) No side effects so far. I will give another update after a year. I do hope that the hair loss stops for good."

• spa...
• Taken for 10 years or more
• December 16, 2014

"I've been on finasteride (Proscar) for 14 years. I started when I was 40 and noticed rapid and heavy hair loss occurring. When I look at pictures of myself now and back then, I can see that I have not lost any more hair since then. I do have to say that I have continued to thin more on the back of my head, but up front, all remains stable."

• DO...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• February 18, 2022

"There is no way the '1.2% of men experience side effects' is accurate. Almost everyone I talk to has serious side effects. This drug has ruined my life. I can't get an erection anymore. My sex life is nonexistent, I have no feeling down there and no drive to have sex. It has been 2 years, and no cure! I wish I could figure out a way to sue this company for misleading information. That's how bad my life has become because of this drug. It changes you forever."

• No...
• January 30, 2017

"Been taking this medicine since I was 23 and found I had a receding hairline. My hairline has stayed mostly at the same level for the grace of this medicine. No brain fog, no low sex drive. You just need to do exercise and keep a positive attitude. In fact, it was exactly what I did and feel like it was the most productive 2 years of my life (I was doing an engineering master). If you worry about the hair, give it a shot, and divert the time spent on worrying to something else important. Cheers."

• Anonymous
• Taken for 10 years or more
• June 24, 2019

Finasteride "I started on the drug in my mid-twenties. I have been taking it for over 10 years now. It has stopped my hair loss effectively and helped me gain some volume as well. I have not noticed any side effects. I stopped taking the drug for a month somewhere along the line, and I did lose more hair when I wasn't on it. That was some years ago. I have been on it ever since."

• Dub...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• July 23, 2021

"This drug has the potential to destroy your life in every way possible. Taking it is like playing Russian roulette. Vanity is just not worth the risk. I found out the hard way, and I will regret the day I took finasteride for the rest of my life."

• joh...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• November 5, 2019

"Taking finasteride was the biggest mistake of my life. Finasteride is a type II 5α-reductase inhibitor. 5α-reductase is responsible for so many important bodily functions, and some unlucky individuals, like me, become damaged from it. I suffer physical, sexual, mental, and digestive symptoms every single day. I don't know if I will ever recover from this poison."

• Anonymous
• April 15, 2022

"Do NOT take this medication, it can ruin your life. (PFS) Post-finasteride syndrome is real and affects millions of people worldwide. There is no cure or treatment. It is a terrible syndrome that can take you from being a perfectly healthy individual to a shadow of your own self, living 24/7 in a torture chamber, physically and mentally. Please spread awareness, and this drug should NOT be sold, as it is ruining lives!"

• Cur...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• October 10, 2018

"I don't get the negativity surrounding this drug. Most of those reviews are by people who have used it for just a week at the most. Maybe what they experienced could have been some confirmation bias heightened by what they read in reviews like this. But still, I can't speak for their part. As for me, I have been using it for the last 4 months. Never experienced those side effects of loss of sex drive, erectile dysfunction, or any other. My hair loss has stopped, but I am not seeing hair growth still. They say it takes 4-6 months to see some noticeable growth. Maybe that is because I am not pairing it with Minoxidil. Planning to use it for the next 5 years if things don't go wrong."

• JJa...
• Taken for 2 to 5 years
• June 27, 2019

"I was worried in my late 20s about hair loss, but it wasn't noticeable. The main side effect was I couldn't achieve an orgasm, which forced me to stop. I was also taking a diuretic for blood pressure at the time. In my early 30s, my blood pressure medication was changed (a non-diuretic), and I started really noticing hair loss in the front of my head (a bald spot was forming between the front of my hair and the midline -- like my father). I went back to 1mg finasteride. The sexual side effects were gone, and the balding spot is now full. I can get the generic for $14 out of pocket."

• Jam...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• July 5, 2019

"The decision to take finasteride for hair loss should not be taken lightly. I read the other reviews and just assumed this was ‘in their heads’ and I wouldn’t experience any negative symptoms. I hate erectile issues, depression, and pains in the testicles. AVOID at all costs! Your hair is not worth your happiness."

• Bc1...
• Taken for 10 years or more
• June 27, 2016

"Have been taking Proscar cut into quarters for 15 years. Started when I was 17 and noticing my hair just beginning to thin and recede. I am now 32 and my hair is thicker and more abundant than when I started. I had minimal side effects (decreased ejaculation), which was an easy price to pay for the results. I have more hair than any of the friends I grew up with, and I am convinced I would be completely bald by now if it wasn't for this drug."