Author: Dr. William Rassman

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Finasteride and Body Hair Loss

I have been on Finastride for over 5 years (1 mg/day), and during the past 2 years, I have been experiencing progressive thinning and hair loss on my stomach and chest. Although I am not confident this is related with a prolonged use of Finasteride, I will stop taking it for a while and see how it goes. Note that I am an excessively hairy guy.

Yes, Finasteride can cause reduced body and facial hair. However, if you stop taking Finasteride, you can develop what I call “catch-up hair loss” which means that all of the benefits will disappear in 3 months; if you go back on the drug, these benefits might not return.

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Finasteride can increase depression and increase patient actions on self-harm but not suicide

In an article just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Internal Medicine edition by Dr. Blayne Well et.al. , the impact of finasteride on patients with known depression were studied. Of that population, 272 patients out of 100,000 have a tendency for depression. Could it be that these men, once identified should not be prescribed the drug finasteride? Their concern was to determine if there was a suicide risk that increased because of the use of 5 alpha-reductase inhibitors which included finasteride and dutasteride.

The answer, in my opinion, to this is probably Yes, it is a good idea not to give this drug to people with known depression. Note excerpts below:


2017-05-24 15:00:22Finasteride can increase depression and increase patient actions on self-harm but not suicide

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Does Finasteride Cause Defects in Babies? (from Reddit)

If a woman takes finasteride while she is in the first trimester of pregnancy, finasteride will impact the sexual development of the fetus. There are no documented cases where a man who has taken the drug finasteride has produced a child with sexual defects because the drug does not impact the fetus during intercourse.

Does finasteride lead to birth defects? from tressless


2018-09-14 09:27:36Does Finasteride Cause Defects in Babies? (from Reddit)

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Finasteride dosage

I unable to find 1Mg finasteride and there is only 5Mg available in my country .. what to do please help??

This is not uncommon. I advise people to cut the pill into 4 or 5 equal parts. Most people find that the pill will crumble so apportion the amount that you take. It is important to know that what counts is not the daily dosage but the weekly dosage divided into seven days.

 

 

 

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Finasteride competes with DHT at the receptor (graphic)

For the scientists in our group who are interested in how the drug works, finasteride is a competitive inhibitor to DHT and the effectiveness of this is shown in the graph below. Note that the inhibition works even at lower doses. The degree of inhibition at the AR receptor does not correlate directly with the effectiveness of the dose based on clinical finding; however it is nevertheless close to the degree of inhibition.
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Finasteride Dosage and Body Weight?

Hi Dr Rassman,
I am a big fan of your site, and you have answered couple of my questions via your blog.

I am 24 and been using finasteride 1mg generic per day for the past 14 months. I have got a receding hairline and vertex and it is on norwood 3 vertex. After started fin, there is an increase in the hair density at the hairline but vertex is continuing receding. I am obese and weighing 124 Kg (273 lbs) and my height is 5 feet 10 inches (177.80 cns). So based on BMI, I am weighing almost double than that I should be. I have gone through your site to find is there any relation between finasteride dosage and body weight. But I was unable to find an answer. should I consider increasing the dosage to 2mg per day to hold the hair I have. Waiting for your suggestion. Thanks a lot once again.

There is no evidence or reason for adjusting finasteride to body weight, but there is no harm doing it provided that you do not develop side effects (which may increase with a larger dose). I realize hair loss is an important issue to most readers here and most readers want to maximize their treatment, but increasing the dosage does not always mean better results.

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Finasteride causing testicle pain

I am currently taking Fin 5mg cutting it into 6 parts. While taking it, i am feeling a very mild ball ache. And still continuing it. as it is very mild and tolerable. is it ok?

You should speak with the doctor who prescribed the drug to you. If the ache and the pills are connected, then maybe you are not a candidate for finasteride.

 


2020-12-04 11:52:53Finasteride causing testicle pain

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Finasteride & Dutasteride may cause Type 2 Diabetes

The article shown here published in a respected medical journal discusses the influence of Finasteride and Dutasteride in the appearance of diabetes in men with enlarged prostates treated with these drugs

CCBY Open access

Research

Incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in men receiving steroid 5 alpha-reductase inhibitors: population based cohort study

BMJ 2019; 365 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l1204 (Published 10 April 2019)Cite this as: BMJ 2019;365:l1204

Authors: Li Wei, associate professor in epidemiology and medical statistics1,, Edward Chia-Cheng Lai, assistant professor2, Yea-Huei Kao-Yang, professor2, Brian R Walker, pro vice chancellor (research strategy & resources), Thomas M MacDonald, professor of clinical pharmacology and pharmacoepidemiology5, Ruth Andrew, professor of pharmaceutical endocrinology3

Author affiliations Correspondence to: R Andrew ruth.andrew@ed.ac.uk (or @RuthAndrewMSEd on Twitter)

  • Accepted 11 March 2019

Abstract

Objective To investigate the incidence of new onset type 2 diabetes mellitus in men receiving steroid 5?-reductase inhibitors (dutasteride or finasteride) for long term treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Design Population based cohort study.

Setting UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD; 2003-14) and Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD; 2002-12).

Participants Men in the CPRD who received dutasteride (n=8231), finasteride (n=30?774), or tamsulosin (n=16?270) were evaluated. Propensity score matching (2:1; dutasteride to finasteride or tamsulosin) produced cohorts of 2090, 3445, and 4018, respectively. In the NHIRD, initial numbers were 1251 (dutasteride), 4194 (finasteride), and 86?263 (tamsulosin), reducing to 1251, 2445, and 2502, respectively, after propensity score matching.

Main outcomes measure Incident type 2 diabetes using a Cox proportional hazard model.

Results In the CPRD, 2081 new onset type 2 diabetes events (368 dutasteride, 1207 finasteride, and 506 tamsulosin) were recorded during a mean follow-up time of 5.2 years (SD 3.1 years). The event rate per 10?000 person years was 76.2 (95% confidence interval 68.4 to 84.0) for dutasteride, 76.6 (72.3 to 80.9) for finasteride, and 60.3 (55.1 to 65.5) for tamsulosin. There was a modest increased risk of type 2 diabetes for dutasteride (adjusted hazard ratio 1.32, 95% confidence interval 1.08 to 1.61) and finasteride (1.26, 1.10 to 1.45) compared with tamsulosin. Results for the NHIRD were consistent with the findings for the CPRD (adjusted hazard ratio 1.34, 95% confidence interval 1.17 to 1.54 for dutasteride, and 1.49, 1.38 to 1.61 for finasteride compared with tamsulosin). Propensity score matched analyses showed similar results.

Conclusions The risk of developing new onset type 2 diabetes appears to be higher in men with benign prostatic hyperplasia exposed to 5?-reductase inhibitors than in men receiving tamsulosin, but did not differ between men receiving dutasteride and those receiving finasteride. Additional monitoring might be required for men starting these drugs, particularly in those with other risk factors for type 2 diabetes.