Doctor Recommended Against Propecia – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

i am writing this for my 19yr old son. He has lost a lot of hair at the sides and is thinning at the top. His GP told him to try rogaine, although he didn’t hold out much hope for it. He only suggested rogaine because we told him we had been looking on the internet and we came across propecia and rogaine. My son did want to try propecia but his GP advised against it due to hormones relating to female breast tissue? You are the expert in this field. Which one would you recommend to get the best results?
– from a very concerned and worried mum

It is true, one side effect of Propecia is gynecomastia, which is a benign enlargement of the male breast resulting from a proliferation of the glandular component of the breast. It is reported in a very small pecentage (approximately 1 in 300) of patients using Propecia. Of note, many other drugs (such Advil or Motrin) also cause gynecomastia. The good news is that most of the time, gynecomastia is reversible.

Your GP may or may not be familiar with male pattern baldness (MPB) and may not feel comfortable prescribing the drug Propecia. Propecia can only be prescribed by a medical doctor, so I if your son is concerned about hair loss, he should see a qualified hair transplant doctor or a dermatologist. For male patterned genetic hair loss, Propecia is the only FDA approved drug that will prevent, slow down, or reverse hair loss. Rogaine does not act in that manner with any predictability.