I’m 18M and have been on oral finasteride 0.25 mg daily since early August 2025 (almost 4 months now).
I started it because my hairline began receding quicker this year.
My issue:
I still have mild sexual sides, and I’m not sure if this is normal at the 4-month mark or if I should adjust the dose and i strongly belive that i m going thru a nocebo( yeah for 4 months).
My current sides:
-
Softer erections
-
Lower libido compared to before
-
Morning wood only occasionally
-
Still able to get erections with stimulation
-
Still able to masturbate
Hair situation:
-
Fin seems to have slowed shedding
-
TE from earlier has mostly calmed
-
Hairline still thin but shedding isn’t crazy anymore
-
On Tugain 5% once daily + ketoconazole 2x/week + vitamins
-
As such i am not able to see any major regrowth
Pls let me know what i can do best here in this situation I am in college and would really wanna just pass these 3-4 years peacefully.
**
Thank you**
TL;DR:see a doctor.
consult with a proper derm for assesment.yes I added a tldr intentionally
1 Like
I have been to my derm he said we can’t increase the dose either go for oral min or prp shit and all
wrassman said back somewhere in reddit that he prescribed fin all the time to young people, earlier better. i am at it 20 rn. see a few additional doctors and evaluate their assessments.
I’m not a doctor so take my advice with a pinch of salt. In any case, if you’re unsure whether it’s nocebo or not, what you could do is reset by getting off it the drug for say, 3 weeks, and see how your system operates without it (because it’s easy to forget). Then after you’ve been off it for week or two, reintroduce, and reassess after you’ve been on it again for a couple of weeks.
TL;DR: Look. If you have AGA, the treatment is simple either finasteride/dutasteride and minoxidil. This is it. Minoxidil may be in oral/topical, oral is better for efficiacy but with increased side effect risk. what matters is whether the benefit of such drugs is worth the risk**
Microneedling 1.5mm every week, Dutasteride 0.5-1mg ED, Oral Minoxidil 5mg ED, RU58841 90-100mg/ml ED, Ketoconazole 2% (three times a week), Microneedling 1mm once a week, All suitable (that won’t give you sides) biotin or vitamins etc. This is the nuclear stack. The real question AGAIN is NOT whether this would bring your hair back, it would in all likelihood even if you are severely thinning in your late teens but the real question is the sides and the risk/benefit ratio. RU58841 is not even approved for human use for instance and dutasteride at 18 may NOT be good for you. My suggestion for you would be the ask about these to a doctor:
-A topical anti-androgen (ie spironolactone or ru58841 but keep in mind he/she cannot prescribe ru58841 as it is a research chemical, use at your own risk for ru58841)
-Finasteride 1-1.25 mg OR Dutasteride 0.5-1.5mg
-LDOM (low-dose oral minoxidil) 2.5mg-5mg
-Microneedling every 7-10 days, 0.5-1mm.
-Multivitamin supplements (won’t do much against AGA but will thicken what you have).
If you are on ketoconazole, keep in mind it has anti-DHT properties so keep that with you. If fungi builds resistance (I assume you have yeast on your scalp) to it, then ciclopirox may be an option with a doctor’s guidance. It seems to be good against bacteria and inflammation from what I had heard though whether it is good against bacteria is NOT something I know myself.
PS:You may also consider tretinoin with topical minoxidil for boosting absorption and increase response rate, though refer to a doctor as minoxidil’s absorption may lead to changes in blood pressure as minoxidil originally is an anti-hypertensive medication, about 1mg of it is absorved with twice daily 5% application. with tretionin that number may go up, potentially to levels where minoxidil may begin acting in a way to decrease blood pressure, be careful.
Thanks man will surely do it
Just keep in mind you should be doing all of this under the supervision of a doctor. I hope a doctor prescribed you finasteride in the first place.
yeah my derm did prescribe me with 1 mg fin or alternate days but i started with 0.5 mg eod felt scared too early didnt knew i had to push thru so yeah after a week i started with 0.25 and still on it rest u know also like due to busy college schedule i usually apply min just once a day does it really matter ?
TL;DR: ask a doctor about topical finasteride+oral minoxidil. ask also about dutasteride, given your concerns of side effects. not ask for, ask about. you must kill dht before it kills your hair follicles so fin in topical/oral or dut (generally oral) form is must. for fin 1mg >0.5mg or 0.25mg all the day everyday, just far more effective. refer to a doc as always for taking meds.
propecia 1mg + minoxidil twice daily perhaps with tretinoin for boosting efficiency. this is it against mpb. maybe go for LowDoseOralMinoxidil 2.5mg-5mg instead under a doctor’s supervision and topical for finasteride given a)you dont wanna apply topical minoxidil b)you are scared of sides of 0.5mg fin but keep in mind 0.5mg is inferior to 1mg in fin. for minoxidil twice is superior and that maybe dutasteride may help you btw, ironically but some experience less side effects on dutasteride, obviously refer to a derm. dutasteride is more effective but takes a week roughly to properly build up and its effects are usually speaking longer-lasting, if sides occur that is. (not months, ignore who tells you that dut takes months to build up, i believed this too starting it but then found that this is not true.)
ps:ask about microneedling (this is especially you should consult a doc for) to a doc. if no scalp issues eg. yeast is present (to the extent of infection/inflammation) then you may try it. be careful and don’t go 1.5-2mm EVER. ask a derm and do a good research on whether it may harm a hair transplant in the future, i honestly don’t wanna risk ruining a hair transplant and yeast is present on my scalp to the extent of inflammation/infection but under a derm’s advice you may go that route too. i don’t know whether it could ruin an HT, just i am a bit paranoid on that regard.