Dear Doctor Rassman,
Since the medications Propecia and Rogaine will eventually lose their efficacy, would it be advisable not to take them and address hair transplantation instead?
I believe that we have no way to determine if and when the medications that are working will lose their effectiveness. Sometimes it will last a very long time and if the medications are not producing problems for you, then it would be generally my preference to stay on the medications and exploit them until they become less effective. Supplementing the benefits of the medications with hair transplants may be appropriate in some situations.
There is also the issue of how far the hair loss will progress if you stop the medication and start losing hair very quickly. If that progression gets very advanced, then transplants may not be something that will solve the problem either. I discuss the supply/demand balance between your donor source and the advancing balding pattern. When the pattern exceeds your donor supply’s ability to give up the hair, you will not look normal unless you and your doctor had a Master Plan devised when the process started.