Minoxidil’s Potent Side Effects

I had used minoxidil 2% and then 5% when it became available. Roughly 7 years in total. I just stopped using it in May ’06.

The reason I stopped did not become apparent to me right away. I had two near fainting incidents. I went to the ER for both of them, saw my doctor, went to a cardiologist etc. One person, the ER Dr. suggested that it might be the minoxidil. Everyone else thought it was not a ‘new’ element in my life and looked for other causes.

Well, after I got a clean bill of health, I decided to stop the minoxidil and other symptons I had experienced, erectile dysfunction, fatigue, headaches, dizziness etc slowly are going away.

I figured I was getting older, 43, and that the above were part of aging. This has caused considerable distress in my life, including my marriage. My wife was concerned about my lack of performance and within 3 weeks, the ED is going away.

Please let your readers know that minoxidil is a potent drug. The side affects I experienced are considered rare, but they came on gradually and was hard to connect to the minoxidil.

I posted the above email as the sender wrote it, unedited. Minoxidil was originally a antihypertensive drug and those that used it noticed it grew hair. The hair came to the face and other body parts as well. Like any such medication, different people require different doses and the problem with minoxidil for the treatment of high blood pressure was that it was not as predictable as other drugs. Eventually the drug became out of favor for the treatment of blood pressure as better, more competitive drugs were on the market. What is important to note is that when a drug is put on the skin, it gets absorbed into the body to some degree in every person who uses it. The above story shows just that.