Author: Dr. William Rassman

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9678755/

Please note the following statement in the article:

” Since the original introduction of low-dose oral minoxidil for this indication, reported adverse effects have been purported to be infrequent and of minor impact, with 15.1% hypertrichosis, 1.7% lightheadedness, 1.3% fluid retention, 0.9% tachycardia, 0.4% headache, 0.3% periorbital edema, and 0.2% insomnia reported in the largest retrospective multicenter study so far of 1404 patients, leading to drug discontinuation in 1.2% of patients.”

The focus on the Pericardial Effusion is significant as it appeared in a woman with a low dose of 1.25mgs/day. So the kew here is to watch for the following symptoms as they appear:

Shortness of breath, discomfort while breathing in the supine position, chest pain, lightheadedness, and swelling in the legs

Any medication can have serious side effects. Aspirin for example, has killed people from allergic reactions, bleeding from long term use, etc.. For those of you who take oral minoxidil, just be alert to the warnings in this article.

How often do you see such dramatic improvements using oral min among your patients? Thanks

It occurs often. I only started prescribing it a four-five years ago, and I have been more than surprised with the results

This is a wonderful response to Oral Minoxidil 2.5mg daily that I prescribed for one year use. Most of his frontal hairline had disappeared but returned with the oral minoxidil.

There are over 500 clinics in Turkey bringing in over $1 billion per year. Of the 500+ clinics, over 90% are illegal without a doctor in the facility doing the surgery or the anesthesia. Many clinics perform multiple surgeries in a single large room, risking a cross-over of germs or even HIV from one patient to another. Production line hair transplants should be avoided as they are not bargains. Some of the good clinics with a good doctor do good work, but many of the clinics do variable quality work, many with infections reported by my European colleagues and deaths that are never reported. Just be careful and make sure that there is a doctor doing the surgery who has a good reputation.

A recent report out of South Africa showed a healthy woman placed on 0.25mgs of oral minoxidil developed cardiac and other systemic swelling. This situation could have been life threatening, but it was picked up early and the medication was stopped. The problems went away.

Up until this point in time, I, like most of my colleagues believed that dosing oral minoxidil of 2.5 mgs/day or lower did not expose the risk of cardiac complications. This is the first such reported case of what may be thousands of people, but this post is here to let you know if you are on oral minoxidil that this is a risk.

Of significance, this patient had signs of a problem with swelling of the legs, hands and face and her doctor was quick to discontinue the drug with reversal of all side effects , so if you get swelling of your hand, feet face, speak with your doctor and consider stopping the minoxidil.

My derm prescribed me 1mg oral minoxidil as they wanted to evaluate the effects of the drug for a month before they increase the dose. I am wondering if 1mg is effective enough and if anyone has seen results when taking 1mg? I currently use topical minoxidil 2 times a day.

Since 60% of men will not respond to topical minoxidil, the oral works on 100% of men. The 1mg dose is a reasonable starting dose. Your dermatologist knows what she is doing.

I have been a long time fin user and recent Dutasteride user for the last few months. I’ve already spoken to the guy that’s done my dysport for years about trying oral minoxidil. I’m not interested in using it topically and have read some really encouraging and really recent literature lately on low dose oral Min for MAA. Is this a reasonable option?

Oral minoxidil can be very effective and is a good alternative to finasteride