Author: Dr. William Rassman

Health Canada reports that there is an association with people of any age on finasteride of Proscar with leg cramps and muscle pain. About 500 patients on finasteride have been reported to have severe leg cramps from a brief scan of the literature. This is including Proscar for prostatic enlargement. This is an important new side effect we have not known about until recently.

There doesn’t seem to be a consensus among studies with finasteride’s or dutasteride’s effect on women?

Premenopausal women should not take finasteride or dutasteride because if they became pregnant, the baby would have genital developmental problems. These drugs work in about half of post-menopausal women for hair loss.

I was hoping to get your thoughts on an issue related to the use of finasteride while trying to conceive.

There is no clear evidence that taking finasteride will cause problems at conception or with pregnancy. What I have told my patients that asked, if they were concerned, then could go off finasteride for one week before and one week after ovulation. Two weeks off, on a temporary basis, should not be a problem. As I have not seen lawsuits against Merck for baby problems that are proportional to the millions of men who have taken finasteride and gotten their wives pregnant without stopping the drug, I think that it might be safe; however, I would go to Mercks (original manufacturer for Propecia) and look up on the Propecia website, advice on pregnancy and finasteride. Keep in mind, that much of what they say was likely written by their legal department to protect them.

if you had to guess (rough estimate) what percent of your patients in early 20s experience regrowth in crown/vertex/midscalp when hairloss is very early. Assuming the mpb is caught very early in the young patient, does the finasteride generally regrow the crown/vertex/midscalp so that the hairloss is not-visible or aesthetically insignificant so as to make the balding undetectable to the average naked eye? Sorry for the long-winded questions. I really appreciate all of the time and effort you put into the community. Thanks again.

There is no study that I know of that will answer your basic questions; however, from my experience reversal is more likely in men under 25 with recent hair loss than men over 30

A recent article here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/2772818 suggests that men under 45 who take finasteride, have a higher risk of suicide than control groups.

We have known that there are some complaints of Central Nervous System problems in a few young me who take finasteride. We need a lot more information than is supplied in this article but I have no doubt that if a man is suicidal, then should stop taking finasteride if they are on the drug. It is interesting to note that suicide is the second most common cause of death in men under 45 and that does not include finasteride. How does this information alter the finding in this paper?

So I’ve been on fin for about a week and a half now. For the first week I noticed that the only side effect I experienced was a lack of morning wood. I was slightly concerned about this but I still used fin because it wasn’t a big deal to me. I think it’s subsided, because now I get morning wood again but there’s a few sides I didn’t expect. I feel like my libido has exponentially increased and the morning wood I experience is much more intense than it used to be. Is this normal? Will it subside eventually?

I have seen men who claimed a reduced sex drive in the first few weeks and found that this symptom disappeared within a month.

I’ve been on generic finasteride 0.5mg for 6 weeks now and have experienced a week of low libido which went away within the first few weeks. I have not experienced any noticeable amount shedding so far. I’ve been considering upping the dose to 1mg. If I were, will I experience a shed within the next 3 months as if I were only just starting the medication or would it continue alongside the last 6 weeks of 0.5mg? Will there be a noticeable effect? The only reason I am taking 0.5 is for financial reasons, so if it’s best to stay on that then I might do so.

I doubt that you will experience shedding at the 1 mg dose considering that you are on it now. The libido is another story. If you should see an impact on libido on the 1 mg dose, go back to the half dose as it is 80% as effective. A recent study shows that there is far less sexual side effects than the public believes, see here: https://baldingblog.com/new-report-that-finasteride-does-not-cause-sexual-side-effects/

I am using finasteride and me and my partner had unprotected sex whilst she was in her infertile stage of the menstrual cycle. This may sound stupid but I am worried that having unprotected sex whilst on finasteride will cause damage to the female’s reproductive ability / any egg cells. Is use of a condom specifically recommended if your partner is pregnant or could get pregnant? We are not looking to have children for another few years at which point I will quit using finasteride but just worrying myself that there will be damage caused by unprotected sex in the present

If you are using any birth control, not a problem. The use of a condom is recommended if she it tying to get pregnant. Timing fertility (the actual point of ovulation by taking body temperatures) is not always accurate unless she is regular on her periods.

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