Tomás B.'s Shortform

Tomás B.

Tomás B.'s Shortform — LessWrong

Comment Permalink

You can just not go bald. Finasteride works as long as you start early. The risk of ED is not as high as people think. At worst, it doubles the risk compared to placebo. If you have bad side effects quitting resolves them but it can take about a month for DHT levels to return to normal. Some men even have increased sex drive due to the slight bump in testosterone it gives you.

I think society has weird memes about balding and male beauty in general. Stoically accepting a disfigurement isn't particularly noble. You could "just shave it bro" or you could just take a pill every day, which is easier than shaving your head. Hair is nice. It's perfectly valid to want to keep your hair. Consider doing this if you like having hair.

Finasteride prevents balding but provides only modest regrowth. If you think you will need to start, start as soon as possible for the best results.

Showing 3 of 7 replies (Click to show all)

15Stephen Fowler1y

"I think society has weird memes about balding and male beauty in general. Stoically accepting a disfigurement isn't particularly noble" I think calling natural balding "disfigurement" is in line with the weird memes around male beauty. Not having hair isn't harmful. Disclaimer: I may go bald.

Tomás B.1y*20

It is a "disfigurement" by the literal definition, but I see your point. Given it is now treatable, we should be honest about it being a significant hit to attractiveness. I just think people should be informed about what is now possible.

28neo1y

Note that there have been many reports of persistent physiological changes caused by 5-AR inhibitors such as finasteride (see: Post Finasteride Syndrome), some of which sound pretty horrifying, like permanent brain fog and anhedonia. I've spent a lot of time reading through both the scientific literature and personal anecdotes and it seems like such adverse effects are exceedingly rare, but I have high confidence (>80%) that they are not completely made up or psychosomatic. My current best guess is that all such permanent effects are caused by some sort of rare genetic variants, which is why I'm particularly interested in the genetic study being funded by the PFS network. The whole situation is pretty complex and there's a lot of irrational argumentation on both sides. I'd recommend this Reddit post as a good introduction – I plan on posting my own detailed analysis on LW sometime in the future.

See in context