If I Won’t Take Propecia or Rogaine, What Else is There for Me?
I am in my early twenties and am in Type II of my hair loss. I started losing here about 2-3 years ago and in the past year it is becoming quite noticeable, i am losing hair at a faster rate then ever and am concerned that I will end up like my father (type 6). I have been staying away from Propecia and Rogaine due to their irreversible side effects concerning sexual dysfunction. Is there no viable alternative other than hair transplant for me?
Nope.
Side effects are not proven irreversible from Rogaine and Propecia, but if you don’t want to try either of the two FDA approved hair loss medications, that is your choice. Unfortunately, hair transplantation is the only permanent solution at this point if you do not want to manage your balding problem with medication.
Sorry for the lack of paragraphs in that post. I’m not sure how to do those on here. (I tried the BR tag, but it didn’t work.)
Agree, Bob. Science can often be anecdotal but in the field of drugs and side effects, one would like to have more information than people upset on blogs. When case histories appear in peer-reviewed journals (I have yet to see one) or the FDA acquires enough post-marketing complaints that a reasonable statistical analysis can be conducted (those of similar age and risk factors who don’t take these drugs vs those who do), it would be more compelling.
“nothing against Rogaine but it’s pretty much worthless anyway–harmless but worthless”
Is that why it’s FDA-approved to treat hair loss?
@Jeremy: You’re accusing me of being a troll? This coming from the guy who accused Dr. Rassman of being on Merck’s payroll!
Dr. Rassman was involved with a committee at Merck, one of the world’s largest for-profit corporations. It was reasonable to expect he would have been paid for providing services to them. If he never received money from them, that I clearly admit a mistake, but still is indicative of a relationship that poses a conflict of interest and a source of bias.
Johnny: Yeah, Rogaine is a waste of money. FDA “approval” means what? That it grows some peach-fuzz that falls out as soon as you stop taking it? Is that what you call “effective”? Sure, for FDA purposes, but that’s not what most people expect.
“Proscar is not competition. It is the 5mg brand name pill made by Merck.â€
I didn’t say “Proscar†I said “generic Proscarâ€. And generic versions of Proscar (i.e., 5 mg finasteride) are available at most major pharmacies. For example you can get 30 pills at Wal-Mart for ~$10. These generic brands compete directly with brand-name Proscar. If Dr. Rassman had any vested interest in Merck, he would not be promoting the usage of competing products.
“If it is true what you say and users were banned on other forums for asking questions about conflicts of interest, that behavior is very suspect and raises significant red flags.â€
I think it’s perfectly reasonable to ban anonymous posters who make libelous statements.
“The conflict of interest is there still and public for all to see, but it was very reasonable for him to state he has never received a penny from Merck.â€
How is there a conflict of interest? He presented at a Merck committee 11 years ago!
We can keep going back and forth calling each other wrong, but I believe what I believe, and so do you. I won’t budge until I’m proven wrong, and I don’t see anything on the horizon that will do that any time soon.
But yes, my story was entirely true. It wasn’t ‘hypochondriac rehab’; it was a therapist specializing in cognitive therapies, who tailored a treatment program for me based on a program used to treat hypochondriacs. I absolutely developed impotence, but it wasn’t a result of Finasteride use. It was a result of worry, anxiety and obsession over side effects, as I mentioned in my original post. My therapist showed me how to effectively manage this fear, rationally talk it down and in a short amount of time my symptoms abated.
In the end, it was putting a stop to telling myself that finasteride has caused these problems. Essentially, I brainwashed myself to believe nothing was wrong with me, and now that I believe it at a core level, I’m ‘cured’.
In fact, now that you bring this up, I am going to contact my therapist and ask her if I can scan the program and host a pdf of it online. A therapist is handy, but I believe people could do it at home if they chose to. However, I’m not expecting a lot of PFS volunteers to try it out, simply based on the refusal to consider that the problems could possibly be cognitive in nature.
I’m not suggesting you suffer from the same, but I absolutely did. I have been problem free ever since, and I believe 100% in my case that it was my mind causing the symptoms. As a rather average individual with an obvious inclination towards obsessive behavior (a quality most males with MPB will also exhibit), I can realistically reach the conclusion that others are currently going through the same as I did.
Thank you for coming clean and admitting you lied. I will do your online PDF 4x a day until I die and its not going to reverse my pudendal neuropathy. You are ridiculous.
Steven, I’m sorry to hear about your bf and now understand a little bit about why you seem to be the only non-PFS patient to actually support our cause. Has he undergone any doctor’s visits or testing to get the problem checked out?
If his problem is only delayed ejaculation, he should be happy that at least the consequences could have been much worse. But I imagine, he probably has some lack of sensation, which can decrease overall satisfaction.
oh, and one more thing, Jeremy. Very glad to hear that homosexuality doesn’t bother you. The medical profession is made up of a fairly conservative group of people and it has a history of and still a strong undercurrent of homophobia within it. Things are changing, but change is slow. I have a couple of gay doc friends– one in a dermatology residency– and they are typically not out at work. Funny, straight docs don’t have to hide their orientation.
Sorry, wanted to edit my last comment but I guess editing is not allowed here. One sentence needs correcting: “Sometimes it even feels anti-climactic, almost too much like I’m going to faint or whatever, but it’s that killer feeling I remember feeling the first time I experienced it at age 12 or whatever later” should have said “it’s NOT that killer feeling I remember feeling the first time I experience it at age 12 or whatver”