Stress and the side effects of finasteride (Proscar)

I originally posted this question on Hairlosstalk.com's forums. You can find the original topic on there in the "Dealing with Side Effects" forum, titled "Stress and the side effects of 5mg Proscar", as well as a couple pictures of my hairline there so you can better understand my situation.

So I started noticing some thinning on one side of my head, and I went and asked my doctor about it. He said it was probably male pattern hair loss, and prescribed 5mg Proscar to me. He instructed me to cut the tablets in quarters and take 1/4th every day. I did so for a few weeks, but then I began to notice side effects including:

-Depression
-Mild difficulty maintaining erection (I still got it up just fine, but it would go away faster and easier than before without continuous stimulus)
-Lessened ejaculatory volume
-Increased hair shedding.

Then I went online and started hearing the horror stories about this drug, so I immediately stopped taking it. That was last Thursday when I stopped taking it, and the side effects seem to be resolving themselves. There was no change in my sex drive for the couple of weeks I was taking finasteride, the only sexual change was in my erection and ejaculation. Now that I've stopped, I'm still as horny as before, and the quality of erections seems to be improving. It's not quite what it was before taking finasteride, but it is improving, though I'm still not getting morning erections like I used too. Orgasms have increased in intensity since stopping taking it, but the volume of ejaculate hasn't quite reached what it was before, this could be related to my masturbation though, I do masturbate quite often. The increased hair shedding varies from day to day, with some days having quite a bit of shedding and other days having little to none.

Now my doctor is going to be out of town for a while, so I went and talked to my barber about it. He took a look at the thinned out area on the right side of my hairline and said it was stress-based. With over twenty years of experience dealing with hair, I think his opinions have some weight to them. I have been going through quite a stressful period in my life, and at only 19 years old, it seems a little early for MPB to be setting in, though my father is bald so the possibility can't be ruled out.

I wanted some further answers about finasteride side effects, how stress might be affecting them, and what to do about them, so I went to the Hairlosstalk forums and posted the topic I linked above. I wasn't getting very critical or helpful responses, and Hairlosstalk was setting off some of my bullshit alarms. What particularly alarmed my cynical senses was the fact that Hairlosstalk sells these products (and I'll admit, I'm wary about Immortalhair for the same reason), and the fact that their review section doesn't give anything a lower rating than three stars and doesn't demonstrate much in the way of critique of their own products.

Now I'm here, and I guess I should talk about what's important to me: I would like to preserve my hair, but my hormonal health and healthy, functioning sexual organs are far more important to me than any hair is. Hair is just hair and a man can always go bald gracefully with the right attitude and the right barber. I'm more concerned with my health than my hair right now, so some input and answers on these questions would be much appreciated:

Do the side effects of finasteride show up when first starting taking the drug and then gradually go away as your body becomes more used to the medication or something like that? How long can it take the body to return to normalcy after stopping taking finasteride?

Are the stories about permanent side effects just typical internet hype or are have they shown up in peer-reviewed scientific studies?

Would a reduced dosage of finasteride per day still have the intended effect with lessened side effects?

If my hair loss is just stress-based, what would the effects of finasteride be?

If persistent side effects from finasteride use develop, how can they be treated? Can they be treated at all?

I asked these things at Hairlosstalk and they weren't really addressing my concerns, they were just saying "Stick with it!".

EricD12 wrote:
I would like to preserve my hair, but my hormonal health and healthy, functioning sexual organs are far more important to me than any hair is.

Luckily for you, hormonal balance and fully functioning organs (not just sexual) are essentially the cure for hair loss. Finasteride does not promote this. The reason we are here is to fix hair loss NATURALLY, and it is likely you won't find much more than horror stories leading to dropping the drugs. I rarely see any of them mentioned here, and reading something about DHT is even less common on this forum. I'd honestly say that my hair loss has been a positive factor for me, and I'm only 20 years old. Why? Reversing hair loss means turning to a truly healthy lifestyle. When your body is happy, you are happy.

A few tips to help you start:
-Remove grains from your diet (this includes ALL types of bread, cereal, granola bars, etc.)
-Cut out refined and processed sugars. Sugar from fruit and WHOLE FOODS is perfectly fine, but candy, cookies, typical things when we think of junk food, must go.
-Don't eat anything cooked in vegetable oils. This is where those awful trans-fats I'm sure you've heard of come from. Canola oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, and other liquid oils are all poor cooking choices. Butter, lard, coconut oil, any saturated fat, are the best choices. If you see "hydrogenated blah blah oil" in the ingredients, avoid it.
-Most people here cut out dairy as well. Pasteurized milk does not digest properly and isn't well tolerated in a lot of cases. Raw milk seems to be okay, but it is illegal to sell in most states. There are people here, however, that do just fine on milk. Try to go a week with no dairy, then drink a glass of milk. If you get gas, something is wrong.

My biggest food recommendation is definitely coconut oil. The stuff is the fountain of youth in a jar. I always go for 4-6 tbsp a day. If i can't cook with that much, I just spoon it out. Since adding it, my hairline regrowth has really kicked in. Don't be alarmed by the saturated fat content. There is no evidence that saturated fats cause harm to your body. See these links:

http://healthyfixx.com/1/busting-the-myths-of-saturated-fat
http://naturalbias.com/12-reasons-why-saturated-fat-is-good-for-you/
There are many, many sources on the subject.

I think getting your diet in order is the first step to success. Once you have it all under control, add supplements and explore other ways to aid regrowth. Experiment with different foods and carb/fat/protein balances that work for YOU. It may all seem hard at first, but once you ease into all of it, keeping the diet is very easy.

Thanks for the input! I'm not sure about how all this stuff will affect hair loss due to conflicting accounts about the effects of dieting on hair growth, but I never object to some dietary advice. I am trying to cut down on refined sugars (though my grandma's homemade chocolate chip cookies are hard to quit, haha), and focus more on eating whole grains rather than the processed grains that most people get. The advantage of being able to bake your own bread: You control what goes into it! As for dairy: I have some mild acid erosion on my teeth due to drinking a whole lot of orange juice and other citrus drinks when younger, so my dentist has told me to make sure I drink milk and get my dairy into me to help counteract that, so I don't think cutting dairy out of my diet would be beneficial. Teeth take priority over hair!

Interesting links too

The hairlosstalk forums will tell you that there is conflicting data linking diet and hair loss, but their claims are so wildly incorrect. When people there profit from hair loss drugs, they want to make sure you're taking them. Proper diet worked for many people, including myself. They may say "what about bald athletes?" or something similar. I'm sure the majority of athletes do not avoid dairy. And I'm sure 99% of them eat grains, which might be the most problematic food. Baking your own bread won't serve much good if you are using any wheat, flour, or yeast, as these are all anti-hair and anti-health (think of those two terms as synonyms). Humans aren't designed to digest these "healthy whole grains". Dairy won't do much for your teeth, especially when it's not digested properly. I was actually in for a check up yesterday and they said my teeth looked better than they ever have. I haven't had dairy in months, and I don't even brush that often (I usually just use a dry toothbrush). Dental health depends on the quality of the blood that nourishes the tooth. A salt water rinse is all that's necessary.

While I appreciate your advice and will take it into consideration, I can honestly say, with no offense intended at all, that I trust the words of my doctor and my dentist more than the words of someone on the internet whose evidence seems to be mostly anecdotal. I hope you don't take offense at this, I have no doubt that you have the best intentions, but I am just generally highly critical of what I hear on the internet, especially in regards to hair loss.

However, interesting as this stuff may be, it's still not addressing the questions I had in my original post.

No offense taken. Trusting someone over the internet can be hard. All I can say about the finasteride is that the side effects have stayed with some people permanently, and that smaller doses have helped some people with the side effects. Although, you won't find many people here that do tremendous amounts of research on finasteride because it's just out of the question for somebody looking for a natural approach that improves overall health as well as hair. The only answer you'll find is to drop it.

You say that you trust a doctor, which is to be expected of most people. Here is a page on this site written by a real doctor, with real proof:

http://www.immortalhair.org/theoryinpractice.htm

EricD12 wrote:I trust the words of my doctor and my dentist more than the words of someone on the internet whose evidence seems to be mostly anecdotal.

I remember when I thought this way... Give it 3 months and you'll think differently.

So if you were on finasteride and you quit it as a shed was beginning, will you lose those hairs permanently or will they still come back even though you've stopped taking finasteride?

My guess is that the initial shed from finasteride is from your hormones being altered, but the drug itself hasn't started doing its job for your hair. That said, once you stop taking it and the "protection" is discontinued, your hormones will be in an even worse state. Hormonal imbalance = hair loss. Browse this forum and you'll see that it looks more like health forum than a hair forum.

tooyoung wrote:

EricD12 wrote:I trust the words of my doctor and my dentist more than the words of someone on the internet whose evidence seems to be mostly anecdotal.

I remember when I thought this way... Give it 3 months and you'll think differently.

Haha, high five tooyoung, I'm so glad you're still on this site.

EricD12 wrote:
Are the stories about permanent side effects just typical internet hype or are have they shown up in peer-reviewed scientific studies?

Not hype. http://www.propeciahelp.com/

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tooyoung wrote:

EricD12 wrote:I trust the words of my doctor and my dentist more than the words of someone on the internet whose evidence seems to be mostly anecdotal.

I remember when I thought this way... Give it 3 months and you'll think differently.

Haha, high five tooyoung, I'm so glad you're still on this site.

I'm so glad I found this site! Literally the most ill i've ever been was 2 weeks following a flu vaccination. I've not made a huge amount of improvements yet but I'd hate to think where I would be if I had carried on the same without this site.