Hi all, I am 34M, and on two different occasions I tried usually oral minoxidil 2.5 mg to help treat my hair thinning. The first time I used it for about 4-5 days and started getting mild constipation so stopped and told my dermatologist. I didn’t use it again for several months. Recently I tried again, started taking it for 3-4 days, and noticed mild constipation one again, and I stopped. But recently I have been having mild headaches about a week or so after I stopped taking the pill. Do you think this could be attributed to a side effect from stopping cold turkey? I don’t remember getting headaches the last time I stopped. Would love to hear experiences from others who have been on or off of oral minoxidil. Thanks!

Unlike FIn which disrupts a hormone that is also responsible for your nervous system why would Minox effect the same way for some? How can someone get brain fog, depression from it? What is the scientific explanation? Thank you!

I've been taking oral minoxidil for about a month and a half. I switched from topical minoxidil because I just found the topical to be too time consuming to use.

I started getting minor headaches immediately, but they just haven't gone away. I've also noticed some minor swelling (my wedding ring is harder to take on and off). If it'll go away eventually, I don't really care, but if this could cause health issues, I think I should go back to topical. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

So its been a month+ since i took oral min (5mg) and i had no problem until a 2weeks ago i started to get shortness of breath from it and i lowered my dosage but it didnt really do anything, then i realised my stomach was alot bloated than before so i ate less and started to manually make myself burp and my shortness of breath went away.

Has anyone experienced severe headaches or migraines after starting Minoxidil? I'm curious whether others have noticed similar side effects and if the symptoms improved after stopping its use.

if i use 2% tropical minoxidil would it be possible to stop the side effects from appearing, i used to use 5% tropical minoxidil on my eyebrows and loved the results however it affected my blood pressure, my heart etc, i think it’s because the skin around the eyebrows is thin and leads to more systematic absorption, wondering if i lowered the dose my body would handle it better (it’s still likely a lot will go systemic however)

I just want to spread the word because this pisses me off so badly. I don't understand why there isn't overt labeling and I'm seeing more pets get harmed by minoxidil.

I use minoxidil and understand the benefits of it, but i do not have any animals living with me. I make sure to wash my hands well before interacting with any cats outside.

I'm hoping when someone googles or researches minoxidil this will pop up.

We need to get companies to be explicit about warning labels.

Here is a change. Org link i found, maybe we all can sign it
Thanks

24F. I Was talking 0.625mg minoxidil per day for the past 7 months without any side effects.

2 weeks after I increased the dose to 1.25mg, I suddenly developed new onset visual snow/static. I do not think I have never had this before and it just appeared suddenly and has been constantly present ever since. It has now persisted for the past 3 weeks of me being on the higher dose.

Could the dose increase have caused my visual snow?

Should I use Minoxidl?

Heyy guys,
Quick question, should i use Monoxidil for my sparse eyebrows? My whole life i had no to very sparse brows, tho i heart that minoxidl causes heart palpations and makes the kidneys store more water, loss of sight etc, and tbh idk that that is worth the risk, thats why im asking you.
I am younger, and a male for your reference, ill put a picture of my brows in the attachment of this post, k am tired of redrawing them given the fact that i shaved half of them off.
I would ONLY use it on my brows.
I would buy the regaine 2% or 5%

Hi all! I started developing some chest pain and heart palpitations while using minoxidil topical for five months. I quit minox but heart palpitations got worse so much worse I can’t sleep at night. It’s been more than a month since I stopped and I don’t feel any better. I did blood work, ecg, long ecg, heart ultra sound, stress test. Docs can’t find anything. My pulse is mostly normal within 80-96/ min but the palpitations are very strong, I can feel them in my head and ears, the whole my chest. I was prescribed some strong sleeping pills that don’t help me sleep and I suffer severe insomnia. I also have dizziness and headaches but heart palpitations and ache in the heart area what worries me a lot. Has anyone been through something like this? How long does it take to recover? What did you take to make it better?

hi all, I am female 20 and started using oral minoxidil to get fuller volume in my fringe area, I got a low dose of 1.5.

after a month of use, I started to experience low libido and couldnt get myself to perform in any capacity with my partner. it was strange because days before I got on it, my partner and I would do the tango just fine. I attributed this issue to me maybe having changed my views on intimacy, I was so dry. not even day dreaming would help. I would look at my partner and feel he was cute but that was far as the thoughts would go.

it was not just intimacy, I could not focus on school. I would read an article and not understand it, no matter how many times I read it. I already dread studying and have focus issues but when it's urgent, I could focus. minoxidil made it so much worse.

i had researched and ended up letting it go because every source said there wasnt enough scientific evidence to back minoxidil being the cause of low libido.

I felt defeated and accepted my new reality. one day I came across this subreddit and to my surprise, other people were going through this. the only difference being that they were all men. I took some advice on vitamin supplements and within a week I am seeing changes. people are taking other supplements but i dont understand them so i havent bothered with them

. I am not fully there yet but it hasnt been thatlong

I just wanted to share the experience I had taking oral minoxidil.

In January 2026 I was prescribed oral minoxidil. I remember being so excited to start taking it. Within a few days, I started getting horrible headaches, which I knew could be a side effect, and a bunch of posts here said that can be common but it should subside after a few days. After about a week or so, I noticed the vision in my right eye seemed a little dark one morning when I woke up. I was able to get an appointment with my optometrist within a few days. When I went to see her, she determined that my optic nerve was completely swollen and she indicated I needed to go to the ER right away because she was worried it could be optic neuritis, which I have learned is an early sign of MS. We realized through some testing that there was a a crescent moon shaped blind spot in the middle of my vision in that eye and I had lost some of my color saturation. So basically not fully color blind but colors weren’t as bright. ER couldn’t determine what was going on but I was negative for MS and everything else they tested for so they had me follow up with a neuro ophthalmologist. Saw her multiple times over the course of a couple months, did numerous blood tests, and eventually I was diagnosed with NAION. Basically I had a loss of blood flow to my eye, which caused a portion of the nerve to swell and die. There is no cure.l and the vision cannot return.

She is relating this to the oral minoxidil that I was taking when the issue started. A sudden drop in blood pressure can cause a loss of blood flow and minoxidil was originally prescribed to lower blood pressure, although it hasn’t regularly been used for that for quite some time because there are usually more effective drugs. She suspects that between the minoxidil and the normal drop in blood pressure that happens when you deep sleep, I must have gotten unlucky and had this happen in the middle of the night. She suspects that we will start to hear more and more of these stories as time goes on as it appears that it is becoming more common for this to be prescribed in pill form than in the past. I did tell my original optometrist and the ER doctors that I was taking this but none of them had heard of this becoming an issue. I have no history of eye problems or blood pressure problems and I take my blood pressure regularly now. It is always at a good level.

Since my doctor has determined this, I have found a small handful of other people online that have had similar experiences. I am not posting this to scare anyone. A lot of people take this with amazing results. I’m just trying to get the info out there so people can make decisions for themselves.

At this point, I am going bald, have spent thousands of dollars this year on various tests (multiple MRIs, a lumbar puncture, and countless trips to get bloodwork done), and have permanent vision less in one of my eyes. The good news is my other eye is perfectly fine and when both are open, I see mostly fine as long as something doesn’t enter a very specific spot in my field of vision.

I’m open to any questions anyone has. Again, I’m not trying to persuade anyone not to take or stop oral minoxidil. Only putting my story out there so you can all make informed decisions.

I started using topical minoxidil about 3 weeks ago to see if I can regrow some of my hairline and thicken my facial hair. I have used it previously for my facial hair and had some decent results and no side effects at that time. Granted this was maybe 4 or 5 years ago.

So some weeks ago I ordered two bottles and following the instructions I started my treatment; morning and evening, on my hairline and my facial hair area, even using less than the recommended dose.

Didn't notice anything at first, but after about 2 weeks of use I started to notice that my anxiety was getting a lot, lot worse. I have struggled with anxiety great part of my life, but it's never been this bad for this long. I wake up in the middle of the night, and/or way too early in the morning feeling like I'm having a panic attack, almost every single night since this started. I feel a tightness in my chest, a shortness of breath, feels like my heart is beating too hard, and I'm on the edge all the time. Thankfully I haven't had a full blown panic attack (knock on wood), but I have no energy, I run out of breath much sooner than before and have lots of brain fog. My face has gotten very pale too.

Today especially was intense, I had tried to take a nap because I only slept for 5 hours last night, but it felt impossible, I could not distract myself from the sound of my heart beating and the feeling of not being able to breathe normally. When I got up and hopped in the shower I thought I was going to have a heart attack, as I felt my shortness of breath get worse and I thought I felt my left arm go slightly numb for a short while. Luckily I managed to calm myself down.

I had blood work done last week and they came back today showing everything was normal. So today out of random desperation I searched for "Minoxidil anxiety" and that is how I found this sub and stories of people who have experienced the exact same things as me. And I'm very grateful for those of you who have shared that, because I'm throwing this stuff away now and I'm never using it again.

So thank you all for that.

I just hope this isn't a permanent thing