Month: January 2023

Posted on

Finasteride can increase depression and increase patient actions on self-harm but not suicide

In an article just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Internal Medicine edition by Dr. Blayne Well et.al. , the impact of finasteride on patients with known depression were studied. Of that population, 272 patients out of 100,000 have a tendency for depression. Could it be that these men, once identified should not be prescribed the drug finasteride? Their concern was to determine if there was a suicide risk that increased because of the use of 5 alpha-reductase inhibitors which included finasteride and dutasteride.

The answer, in my opinion, to this is probably Yes, it is a good idea not to give this drug to people with known depression. Note excerpts below:


2017-05-24 15:00:22Finasteride can increase depression and increase patient actions on self-harm but not suicide

Posted on

Finasteride and Body Hair Loss

I have been on Finastride for over 5 years (1 mg/day), and during the past 2 years, I have been experiencing progressive thinning and hair loss on my stomach and chest. Although I am not confident this is related with a prolonged use of Finasteride, I will stop taking it for a while and see how it goes. Note that I am an excessively hairy guy.

Yes, Finasteride can cause reduced body and facial hair. However, if you stop taking Finasteride, you can develop what I call “catch-up hair loss” which means that all of the benefits will disappear in 3 months; if you go back on the drug, these benefits might not return.

Posted on

Finasteride before Hair Transplant

I know you suggest finasteride after hair transplant to prevent shock loss. How long would you use finsateride after a hair transplant to prevent shock loss?

I generally like the man to be on finasteride at least 1-2 weeks before the transplant and until the transplanted hair has grown out. That applies to men under 35 as a rule, but what finasteride protects, is loss of the native hair with miniaturization present. As men get older, they may have less miniaturization and as such be less likely to get shock loss.

 

Posted on

Finasteride and Balding Problems

I have been taking finasteride for 10 years now, and I have been slowly losing my hair since, though at a much slower rate. I was wondering, will I eventually become slick bald in a class six pattern if that’s what my genetic fate is, even if I continue to take the medication? Does hair have to miniaturize to the point of completely not being visible anymore, or is it possible for the process to stop in an intermediate stage of miniaturization?

Look at the miniaturization pattern and try to predict your hair loss. Or, better yet, see a doctor like me with specialization in hair loss who might be able to answer your questions after a detailed examination of your scalp. Hair does not have to miniaturize for balding to occur, and most patterns can be predicted after a man is 26 years old.


2018-06-21 06:12:01Finasteride and Balding Problems

Posted on

Finasteride at 45 y/o

I’m 45 yo and frontal loss has me kinda upset. I know I’m lucky I’ve had plenty of hair up to this point and am wondering if I’m just being vain trying to improve my hairline at this age? For some reason, I can’t deal with the idea of going bald and looking older. I am planning on starting Fin every other day and see what happens. But I wonder if I’m just being dumb about this. I want decent hair for the rest of my life tho. I’d even consider a HT someday while staying on the eod Fin. I want to be one of those good looking older men who can still get chicks if desired. Stupid and vain right ?

If you are not satisfied with your hairline, then consider a hair transplant as it would be unlikely that finasteride will reverse it; however, if you are losing hair than finasteride is a good drug to address that even at your age.

Posted on

Does Finasteride and/or Dutasteride reduce bone density?

This is an interesting question which required some reading on my part. I found an a scholarly article in the Journal of Urology which addresses this question and concludes: “Profound suppression of circulating serum dihydrotestosterone induced by 5?-reductase inhibitors during 1 year does not adversely impact bone, serum lipoproteins or hemoglobin, and has a minimal, reversible effect on serum prostate specific antigen and sexual function in normal men. Circulating dihydrotestosterone does not appear to have a clinically significant role in modulating bone mass, hematopoiesis or lipid metabolism in normal men.?”?

The clinical doses for these drugs is relatively low so I believe that the article is discussing these low doses

Posted on

Finasteride and Weight Gain?

Does finasteride make me gain weight? been taking it from 2003 until 2005, stopped until apr 2007, now im on again with 1mg a day, i am a male.

i searched the previous answers on the topic, only found one that states that NO, theres no link. just touching base again to check for any new info. my personal experience: with some brands i gain weight, with others no. perhaps its only my delusional mind. thanks, gooooood blog congratlations

Nope. Aging (with slowing of the metabolism, diet, and a sedentary lifestyle) is the primary cause of weight gain. Don’t look to blame the drug finasteride for it.

Posted on

Finasteride effects on urination problems

I have frequent urination after taking fin that got better over time on finasteride?

Finasteride is often used for older men who have prostate problems who can’t pee because of an enlarged prostate which reduces in size on finasteride. It should not be the cause of your peeing problem


2019-12-10 10:49:17Finasteride effects on urination problems

Posted on

finasteride and thinning hair

If finasteride can not cause thinning, why am I continuing to thin while on finasteride? I’m definitely not imagining this. Could it be that the dosage 0.5mg is not enough and the miniaturization is too aggressive?

Yes, it is possible that you need a proper dose of finasteride (1mg), or your thinning process is more active than the finasteride can manage.

 

Posted on

Finasteride and the Swedish Medical Products Agency

This is continued from my response an hour ago about finasteride and the Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA). The question was:

What is your opinion about the Swedish Medical Products Agency 2008 study that supports permanent side effects from the use of finasteride?

As I said in my earlier response, “If you believe in the study, do not use Propecia. Many of the reports that I read are on bulletin boards which are suspicious.”

What that boils down to is that I’m not going to try to convince people to use a medication if they’re already so convinced it’ll do them harm. I’m not a sales rep and it isn’t my job to make guarantees about medications or provide incentives for you to take it. It’s an elective medication. You don’t have to take it if you don’t want to. If you’d rather believe message boards than published reports in medical journals, then by all means that is your choice to make.

But I’ll elaborate more with some interesting tidbits from the Swedish Medical Products Agency (sources: here and here). Some key points I found:

  1. In clinical studies, single doses of finasteride up to 400 mg and multiple doses of finasteride up to 80 mg/day for three months (n=71) did not result in dose-related undesirable effects.
  2. Drug-related sexual undesirable effects were more common in the finasteride-treated men than the placebo-treated men, with frequencies during the first 12 months of 3.8% vs 2.1%, respectively. This means 3.8% of men taking Propecia had undesirable sexual effects and 2.1% men taking a fake sugar pill had undesirable sexual effects. The incidence of these effects decreased to 0.6% in finasteride-treated men over the following four years. Approximately 1% of men in each treatment group discontinued due to drug related sexual adverse experiences in the first 12 months, and the incidence declined thereafter.
  3. People that are up in arms about the Agency listing “persistent difficulty having an erection after discontinuation of treatment” as a possible side effect should also realize this is listed under the “frequency unknown” section. In other words, they received complaints about it (how many hasn’t been established), but it is not a proven effect.