I am assuming that you are a female and that you have some form of female hair loss. To get a diagnosis for cause, you needs medical tests which are defined in this post here: https://baldingblog.com/2009/03/13/woman-with-handfuls-of-hair-that-come-out-every-morning/. You can treat this cosmetically with scalp micropigmentation, something that my daughter-in-law did with us. See here for examples: https://scalpmicropigmentation.com/smp-for-women/
To answer this question, you would need to have a doctor check you with an instrument called HAIRCHECK which will show the hair bulk in different parts of your scalp with good clinical numbers ascribed to each measurement. If you were balding, it would take significant hair loss before you would know because of your curly hair which would certainly hide the balding in its early stages. See a doctor if you really care to find out the answer to your question.
I usually cut a ~10 day supply but the last couple of months. I feel like finasteride doesn’t do anything since I started doing this. For the first months I used to have watery semen and sometimes feel slight reduction of my sex drive but the last couple of months I have ZERO side effects and I’m curius if cutting pills causing them to lose effectiveness after some days.
It is not unusual for people on finasteride to have their body normalize and see that the side effects disappear in the first 1-3 months, much like you discussed. If you keep the pills in a sealed pill bottle so that moisture does not get to it, then it will hold for months.
Your question is basic to hair science. Your question is like asking me to prove that the earth rotates around the sun. It can be proven, but it takes a bit of science and you must be open minded.
A Harvard researcher reported: “The promise of regnerative medicine to grow human tissue outside the body using pluripotent stem cells and to use that tissue to treat diseases such as diabetes has shown significant potential. But recent work by Harvard researchers determined that human pluripotent stem cells are prone to develop mutations in the TP53 gene, which ordinarily helps suppress cancer. The mutated versions of the TP53 found by the Harvard team, however, tend to drive cancer development suggesting the need to screen lab-grown stem cells for deleterious mutations.”
Doctor and patients are excited about the use of stem cells, but this finding certainly puts the brakes on the use of stem cells in certain situations by raising ‘a red flag’ highlighting the down side of these stem cells.
You have an early Class 3 pattern of balding which means that as you get older, the hairline will probably rise and the middle section you see now, may disappear. The only way to slow it down or stop it is with the drug finasteride which works well in young men. I know that there is a lot of bad talk about this drug on the internet, but only less than 4% of men get sexual side effect. Far more men either get their hair back or stop the balding completely. At 25, you could also get a hair transplant. I looked into my Gallery on my website and found someone who had his entire hairline moved down as shown below on the right next to your picture which is on the left. This was, of course, a hair transplant, something you might consider.
Two different people are shown above (not a before and after picture)
I have Alopecia Areata and the patchy part of the disease that had various bald spots is gone. Now I am left with thinning hair but a normal hairline, but a thin one. Can I have Scalp Micropigmentation?
Good planning with SMP is critical in discussions with your doctor. In a worst case scenario where your disease comes back with a vengeance, you can always resort to a shaved look that will look good always, regardless of the presentation of the AA. We often perform SMP giving the patient the opportunity to go both ways, with a full head of hair (whatever they have especially when thinning or patchy balding spots) to a shaved head of hair. These are options should be discuss with your doctor. This is a great option for patient who don’t know what their future hair loss will look like.
The hair is a rapidly growing organ, possibly among the fastest of body well (outside the intestine). Cancers are also fast growing so when the cancer is treated with Chemotherapy, the treatment targets fast growing cells. That is why many people who get this get stomach and intestinal side effects. Hair loss occurs in the same way. We have written about the Cold Cap to prevent hair loss with chemotherapy and it is an important tool, review posts here: https://baldingblog.com/?s=cold+cap&x=0&y=0 and you can review the many posts on the subject.
Some people only partially regrow their hair if they lost it. This may be caused by permanent changes in the life of the hair follicle which is frequently limited anyway. When a hair follicle reaches the end of its life (from genetic balding or even old age), the cells undergo apoptosis (cell death). The Chemotherapy may damage the hair cycle clock limiting how many cycles the hair goes through. We know that hair goes through aging in all of us and we often see changes of hair character (from a coarser hair to a finer hair) or graying (as we lose the pigment cells that give our hair color.
I have been diagnsed with an aggressive large-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma and received chemotherapy from June until September. My chemo included Adriamycin. I had two hair transplant procedure years ago and they have thinned. What should I do?
It might be worth trying minoxidil topically on the area where you lost hair. You will have to give it 8-12 months to see a benefit.
Some men get penile deformities without finasteride. In my 27 years in practice, I have not had anyone present with this problem suggesting finasteride, yet I do see reports on the internet about it. There is an incidence of penile deformities in the general male population and the urologists are the best doctors to evaluate it. A friend referred me a patient who has it and was never on finasteride, He was treated by a urologist. not me.
William Rassman, M.D.
Pre-existing erectile dysfunction is more common than most people think. The statistics are something like 20% of men in their 20s, 30% of men in their 30s, 40% of men in their 40s, 50% of men of men in their 50s. Many men don’t like to recognize that they might have ED, so it is easier to blame Finasteride, so for this reason, it is difficult to tell which causes what. The risk of making it worse is about 4% as the general statistics remain the same, i believe.
Finasteride, in some men, reduce the body hair. Some men find that it goes away, so I am not surprised that it is growing slowly.
This young man decided to shave his head and with the help of scalp micropigmentation (SMP) he looks like he has a full head of hair and maximizes this good looks. This is an option that is being taken up more and more by young men wanting a perfect looking head of hair, even when they are balding and our practice is booming performing this procedure. This is a non-surgical process that can be performed on any many with any degree of balding provided that he shaves his head like the man below.
I’m wanting to start taking fin but I have a couple of questions on my mind if you don’t mind answering. I have an inconsistent sleep schedule. Would there be much of an issue if my pill taking is not spot on 24 hours? If for example I take 1mg at 12pm and then the next day 1mg at 10am and the following day 1mg at 11am, would that be fine?
My other question is if side effects are obvious or do I need to be searching for them? I’m thinking a lot of the sides i’ve read about would be obvious so I don’t need to stress about looking for anything bad.
Finasteride can be taken anytime during the day. Just so you don’t forget to take it, I generally recommend that patients take it in the morning when they wake up. If you get the sexual side effects, you will know in many ways. First, you might lose interest in women, won’t get an erection in the morning if that is your usual routine or the erection you do get is not hard as it usually is. You will know if you have the side effects because men focus on their penis, often too much (according to some women) but that is our hormones telling us to procreate.
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