Hi
I sent you the fake Propecia press release a month ago. Here is another short article dating back to 2007 about people stopping finasteride thinking it didn’t work for them when they were taking a placebo after all.
The article states, “Propecia is one of the world’s most copied drugs and it is an extremely easy drug to sell online as many men to feel embarrassed to go to a doctor to speak about their hair loss problem. The Propecia drug works for about 90 percent of men.”
And it continues, “It is estimated that thousands of men around the world have stopped using Propecia believing that it doesn’t work for them when in fact if they had used a real version of Propecia made by the drug company Merck they would have experienced good results and possibly hair regrowth.”
I’m not sure where those estimates came from, and seeing as how the article is a couple years old by now, the problem might even be worse, regardless of attempts to thwart it. Thanks for sending this in, along with the previous article you sent.
The area that balds in the Norwood Class 4A is the frontal area (see art at right). Finasteride might slow the loss down in the front, but rarely reverses the hair loss in that pattern. Minoxidil might regrow hair in that area, but it would be extremely rare.
For those that aren’t familiar with the Fraxel laser treatment, it is an outpatient procedure that renews the look of your skin. The depth of these lasers do go into the dermis and therefore create a partial 3rd degree burn, but apparently the damage is limited to a narrow column which is claimed to heal quickly. If the laser took the burn into the depth claimed, any hair could be killed… and in theory, there could be an infection risk, as 3rd degree burns open that possibility, even if it is an a narrow column.
I’ve not heard anything from my patients nor have I read anything in the medical literature about finasteride (Propecia) effecting the voice. There’s one young reader that sends me questions through this site from time to time suspecting his speech was altered by Propecia, but I have no way to verify that it was the medication or that it actually occurred.
The pill doesn’t seem to contain anything that would cause hair loss (
Dutasteride (marketed as Avodart) is being used by many men, prescribed by some doctors to treat hair loss despite the absence of FDA clearance. In the phase 3 dutasteride study done in Korea, there was no mention of sperm or sterility. This is a concern to me, and I do not believe that this drug will be approved for treating hair loss until issues like that are studied further. That’s my opinion, and I’m sure I’ll get plenty of emails from people telling me how I’m wrong or I’m narrow minded about this medication. Ultimately, going to market is in the hands of the drug company that manufactures it. I am reluctant to prescribe dutasteride, because without clinical clearance from the FDA, I do not know the risk of sterility for those taking the drug for their MPB treatment.