Does the telemedicine appeal to people because they want to avoid embarrassment, or because they know that traditional doctors will schedule you for an appointment three months out just to say “have you tried getting better sleep, losing 30 pounds, and reducing stress?”
Hair loss is sucky, sure, but in the grand scheme of medicine it's nothing. Erectile dysfunction sucks, but are you old? That's just the name of the game.
I lost my testicles to cancer (yippee) and you would be shocked how difficult it is to just... get testosterone. My fundamental bodily functions no longer exist, but I'm technically fine so... I guess that's okay? Like I'm not dying, and quality of life is in the eye of the beholder or something. Never mind I'm literally castrated, like physically. And they'll talk your ear off about side effects.
Side effects? What about primary effects? Man, I have no balls! Everything sucks and I wake up feeling like I've been run over by a truck!
It's also pretty trivial to prevent or recover at onset. Finasteride and minoxadil are FDA approved on-label prescriptions for it (well, the later is OTC).
Dermatologists will happily write the prescription and check in with you as often as you want to schedule.
But - read up in the side effects and potential risks, they can both cause other issues in some people, and for me it took a while to find the right finasteride dose.
Another downside is oral finasteride use means I can no longer give blood.
I wonder if physicians standards for normal are warped by spending most of their time in contact either with the ill or the overworked?
Yes, I learned this the hard way, when I was trying to figure out why I have zero libido, brain fog and brain fog having a healthy BMI and lifting weights.
As a 35 year old, I had the T levels of a 65 year old men, yet doctors refused to consider this an issue because it was in the "normal" range.
It took me over a year to get a diagnosis of Secondary Hypogonadism in Canada and that was after I went to see a male private urologist after giving up on a public health care in Canada.
This was finally revealed once I finally did more specialized tests for LH, FSH, Estradiol, Testostrone and Free Testosterone at the requested of my urologist.
After 3 months of HCG treatment and all the symptoms were gone. It has now been 2 years and I have never felt better in my life.
Minoxadil increases blood flow and restores the natural growth cycle lengths of weakened follicles. This is applied topically, and promotes hair growth pretty much anywhere - beard, crown, temples. You can take it orally, and it will promote hair growth everywhere (more body hair). However, it can't fix follicles already dormant or scarred over. So if things are already bald, it may not give the results you want.
A word of warning that about 5% of those who take Minoxadil experience a shedding period where it gets worse. Because it restores normal hair follicles growth cycles, this includes the process of pushing out old hairs. This is not permanent and will last, at most, a month. This is why most providers like "Keeps" will try to sell in batches of 3 months.
In 2026, a new drug will finish phase 3 human trials. That one targets (IIRC) stem cells and can restore even advanced hair loss where the follicles are dormant or dead. Very exciting!
My hair is very grey now which I think makes it also look thinner, but I don't want to dye it - though I tried Alpecin 'grey targeting shampoo' and it turned my hair blue... Not a good look for the office and extra visible in video calls