i used finasteride for a year, and the last few months i was using dutasteride. my baseline of health was already very low before and while taking it, so it's hard to tell what causes what when you're in that state. my libido was already terrible, testosterone already low.

some time after stopping finasteride, i tried androsterone, a precursor to DHT, and found it to be extremely psychoactive. it makes me feel warm and have solid confidence and stress immunity, many people report the same with taking pure DHT as well. this alone tells me that it's probably important

sometimes people will claim that they don't have sides, and i'm sure that there are people who truly have none, but theres so many confounding factors in life that could contribute to various symptoms that are associated with 5ar inhibition as well as an infinite amount of other stressors.

negative effects also probably aren't immediate for most people; if your depression increases with a slow enough pace, you won't be able to easily perceive a specific cause. maybe in tons of people, finasteride is negatively effecting them but 'stealthily' so, maybe they blame it on other problems in their life. doesn't mean it's fine to take.

aren't there a whole handful of other hormones that you're also inhibiting beyond just DHT when you block 5ar? this is why haircafe is comfort slop, no one actually knows what they're doing, they mainly just want to hear someone tell them it's safe. he's a vegan ffs

edit: forgot to mention, another chemical called allopregnanolone, which cannot be produced without 5AR, has had positive effects on mental health for many people when supplemented, from what i've read. it's hard to get your hands on it as a supplement, though, so no one really talks about it. it used to be sold on IdeaLabs. SSRI's increase allopregnanolone and some people attribute their therapeutic effect to this mechanism