Day: January 1, 2023

Thinking about doing 0.5MG 3 times a week. Would this be effective at removing some of the DHT from the scalp? I want to start using FIN but worried about the sides, so i wish to start gentle. Is there anything you can recommend that I do before starting FIN? I am going to ask for blood work done soon to measure my hormone levels.

You are not making sense to me. If you don’t have side effect, use the full dose of 1mg. If you develop side effect (a 4% risk at most), then you can play with a reduced dose.

You should not know that you are taking finasteride when you are on it in terms of how your body functions normally.

i have a question recently i have come in contact with this dr and i would like to know what you think about this new advance treatment.. https://doctorgreco.blogspot.com/

Aside from contributing to advertising the aforementioned site, my opinion are as follows…

The use of platelet rich plasma treatment, to my knowledge, is not FDA approved. Just making claims of hair growth would be a medical claim violation with the FDA. Publishing his results in the Hair Transplant Forum (which is not a peer reviewed journal) is not an endorsement of reputable editors in the academic community, so although it is a sharing forum format, it does not bring any credibility to his research. I would suspect that the claims in the website would be subject to actions by both the FDA (a few isolated cases are not an approved study) and the medical board in the state where the doctors who tried the treatment would be regulated. I am among the first to embrace new technologies, but I want to see science which shows safety and effectiveness… not hype. Human experimentation requires that special approvals be obtained through a hospital type facility under an institutional review board (IRB). What we are seeing on Dr. Greco’s site is not that!

Dr Joe Greco of Greco Med Group Florida claiming 80% success rate with infusing growth factors from ones own platelets into the scalp to regenerate hair. Really 80%? How can doctors make claims like this? Any safe treatment that had an 80% success rate would be duplicated all over the world wouldn’t it?

Anyone can claim anything. It may be true. I do not know. I cannot verify the claim personally. If these treatments do work, you are likely correct in stating that these treatments would be duplicated and offered all over the world – especially because it is such an easy and inexpensive thing to do. By that I mean, in essence, someone takes a vial of your blood and spins it down in a centrifuge to separate out the PRP (platelet rich plasma) from the red blood cells and injects it back to your body part (scalp).

I do know many doctors advertise Platelet Rich Plasma PRP therapy and discuss it in terms of regenerative therapy or stem cell therapy which definitely catches the attention of many consumers.

I also know that there are many articles and journals that publish positive results of these types of therapy but I have not found one that is truly a well designed research that has been replicated. What I mean by a well designed research, is called a Double Blind Randomized Control Study.

When reports come out that you get an 80% improvement, what does that mean? An improvement of what? If we get 90% of the hair to grow without it, does that mean that we can get 98% of the hair from a hair transplant to grow instead of 90% with it? There has never been a study done that shows value. We would have no objection to using PRP and may even do so one day, but as I believe that if a doctor needs to get an 80% improvement of their results by using PRP, then they have a problem in their technique and I would doubt that PRP would help them solve such a deficiency. I have seen doctors inject PRP into the scalp of balding men and women, but they do not do this as a charity, they charge for it, and charge they do. If we start injecting PRP which would be a push, we would not charge for it unless we demonstrated real value.

Hi Dr. Rassman , Please help me on this one .
I have been taking Plant Sterols 1000 MG. siad to contain 375 MG Beta Sitosterol per Tablet … combined with Generic Finasteride 1 MG. every DAY !

My Question is :
Can I combine the two i.e. Plant sterols and Propecia ( Finasteride )? Will that Harm my Health in anyway ? as Both are known to Lower DHT , so will that very Low DHT cause some imbalance in my Body ? Please Advice .

Let’s be reasonable here. You know better than to ask personal health and medication questions on the Internet. You really need to see your doctor for these issues. I am not your doctor and cannot give you medical advice. Baldingblog is a not a place to check for medication interactions.

Beta-sitosterol is a substance found in plants and I am sure you can find plenty of information on the Internet.
Propecia (finasteride 1mg) is a medication that needs to be prescribed by your doctor for the treatment of androgenic alopecia.

I personally am not too familiar with the use of Beta-sitosterol and it’s interaction with other medications. So I would defer this to your doctor.

Currently 23 and seriously looking to get an FUE of about 2000 grafts done in the winter or spring of next year. I’ve had consultations a few months back, some doctors saying I’m too young but others giving me a price point with a conservative outcome I would be happy with.

At this point in time, it is good to get an assessment of your donor supply and your hair mass value so that you know, for your lifetime, what is your donor supply from a practical matter. I do this routinely as a person thinks about a hair transplant, even if it is a few years away. It give the patient the ability to plan, budget and obtain realistic expectations.

We were explaining our hair transplant and Scalp Micropigmentation procedures to a group of patients today and we were shocked to find our pictures lifted off of our various websites and now appearing on the web sites of other doctors. This, of course, is a copyright infringement so letters are now being sent out by our lawyer informing these doctors that if they do not remove these photographs, then we will take legal action against them. They appeared on doctors websites and various other clinics from all over the world, not just the United States.

There was a case many years ago when I brought one of my patient to an international ISHRS medical meeting. This patient who was completely bald (Norwood 7) had phenomenal results in one session due to his unusual high donor hair density. Doctors were photographing him at the meeting. Later I found these photos on the doctor’s websites claiming that he was their patient! I guess that being a thief is really a matter of what is best for your pocketbook when it comes to unethical practices.

There seems to be a problem for many doctors wanting to get into Scalp MicroPigmentation but they do not have good before and after photos or reviews to show prospective patients. They take a short cut and plagiarize pictures they need off of the Internet. There seems to be no moral scruples among these thieves. Even a doctor can be a thief. We even found some of our photos with our own NHI WATERMARKS on them, telling those who see them that these photos originate from the New Hair Institute. We even found one of our celebrity patients on the site of another doctor.

What does this mean? It means that as a buyer, you must be careful for what the doctors are showing you, as what you are seeing may not be what you are getting.

Thanks for this info. I have been to my dermatologist and physician to consult with them before taking Propecia. They assured me it is an overall very safe drug, and it works. For a few weeks before taking this drug, I even monitored ball ache and (paranoia induced) sexual performance issues; related to the worried anticipation of taking this drug. I did so to remind myself to see if these feelings had occurred before taking the drug. I literally took my first pill today and I have been feeling the slightest but (seemingly) very real presence of a mildly annoying ball ache. I know (as a Dr. who has no idea who I am) you can’t make any determination as to what is going on with me. However, is this common? Do you know why one’s balls might ache on Finasteride? Is there anything I can do to try and combat any potential nocebo effect? Is it realistic to get sides after 1 pill? Thank you to anyone who can provide insight.

It would be highly unusual to get sexual side effects of any type on a single pill. However, you seemed primed for a placebo effect on the side effects which are about 100% if you psych yourself up about this process.

You should certainly see a doctor and get a diagnosis in the case that these pimples reflect an infection. Of course, that is the problem when you go to Turkey, there is no follow-up of problems but you should be able to find a doctor in the UK that will see you