Originally Posted by
emay459
Hey guys,
I wrote this out once before but by the time I tried to post it, I'd been logged out and lost it all, so I guess I'll give it another go.
About 3 years ago, I started worrying that my hairline might be receding. In retrospect it was probably just maturing as I generally had a good head of hair and wasn't having any hair fall, but either way I went to a doctor and was offered either minoxidil or finasteride. Not wanting to mess with my hormones I went with the minoxidil.
I used 5% minoxidil for about 5 months but it caused constant hair shedding, a problem I hadn't dealt with before which didn't seem to slow down with continued use. After 5 months, my hair was in a much worse state and I decided to stop the minoxidil and let my hair recover. However, from there my hair seemed to only get worse, and after a six month break with continued decline I was starting to get fairly insecure about it. I wasn't keen on any hormone altering medications but I'd been burnt by minoxidil already and was feeling desperate to do something, so with multiple doctors proclaiming it to be safe and one even taking it themselves, I decided I'd give finasteride a go.
At first I took 1.25mg twice a week to try to minimise the dose. At first I felt I had more sex drive if anything which eased my worries a bit but after about 4 months I started to experience some sexual side effects. As a response to this, I quickly dropped the drug and seemed to recover fairly quickly after a week break. I talked to my doctor who told me that it was fine to take a break from finasteride and come back to it, as taking something for the issue was better than taking nothing at all. Still feeling fairly desperate about the situation, I followed this advice and jumped back onto the finasteride at a seemingly lower dose of 0.5mg every other day. After about 2 months I started to experience sexual side effects, so I took a break for a week and I felt normal again. I continued this cycle another two times over the course of a few months before eventually deciding I'd had enough with oral finasteride when the side effects became bad enough. I seemingly recovered okay though and decided to try topical finasteride as it appeared to have a lower side effect profile based on studies I read.
I started by applying a 0.1% finasteride + retinoic acid+ 5% minoxidil solution daily, with microneedling to promote efficacy. After a week of daily application I had more severe sexual side effects than I had experienced before and so I eased off the topical finasteride, using it twice a week and minoxidil all the days between.
I did this for about 6 months from November 2020 to April 2021. At this point, I could barely get an erection when I wanted one and with a new girlfriend, I decided I'd had enough of finasteride altogether. I dropped the topical and after about a week off I started to feel better. I tried using a minoxidil+ caffeine+ retinoic acid solution during this break period and I experienced immediate ED, which reoccurred on three different incidence of trying this solution but cleared up in the days after using it. I attribute this to the retinoic acid, as I was still using minoxidil on its own regularly but the straight minoxidil was not causing any fluctuation of the issues.
From there I experienced a decline overtime in sexual function and wasn't appearing to get better. I jumped on mucuna pruriens and Dim after a couple of months because I read in a forum that they helped someone recover, and added maca later. I added pine pollen a few months ago and have been cycling 16 herbs off the list for the last 5 weeks. I also exercise regularly and have done for a long time.
I continue to use minoxidil, I know it is heavily discouraged within this forum as some people have unfortunately experienced side effects from it but it is the only thing keeping my hair going at all and I believe self image and confidence plays into sexual function as well as any physiological factors. I tried the shaved head thing after using minoxidil and literally everyone around me, family and friends told me I looked worse. That being said, I get putting your ego aside for your health and everything, but I took minoxidil on its own for 5 months without any semblance of sexual issues so I feel as though I'm not particularly sensitive to it in that way.
I used to be able to have sex all day, I had no refractory period and could get a boner at a moments notice, where now I mostly rely on cialis for consistent erections. I also have next to no libido and have had almost no morning/ spontaneous erections in the past 4 or 5 months, which used to be a fairly common occurrence.
I would say that I've had a few small upswings but they've only ever lasted a day or two and I've only felt at most at about 40% of my former self sexually in the past 4 months or so.
I'm planning on doing a juice feast and running a cycle of r andro after 8 weeks on the herb cycle. I've been reading this forum for a while and wanted to say hi and maybe chat to some of you guys who have a lot more experience dealing with this issue than I do.
Thanks to anyone who read through the essay and I look forward to chatting more with you.