Category: Drugs

I have been on Propecia now for about 2.5 years (I am 22 now) and I noticed a receding hairline back when I was 18/19, so I decided to act on my hair loss quickly. Ever since being on Propecia I havent noticed any further hair loss. I was wondering is there a time where I should think about stopping Propecia?

I’ve heard that it can affect fertility (I know that you have said that many people do complain and the ones with positive experiences don’t) but I was just
wondering is it safe to continue? should I consider stopping? thank you in advance

These are decisions that you should speak with your doctor about. If you stop it, you will lose all of the hair that benefited from the drug from the day you started to where the progression should have taken you.

There are extensive risks and you should have read all about them from your doctor at the time you started the process. It is uncertain if fertility is one of those risks. For my own son, I have kept him on this drug as it completely stopped and reversed his frontal hair loss.

I am 27 years old and have diffuse hair-loss on the top of my head with my crown being the worst. I have been on Finasteride for around 5 years and I think I am slowly losing ground. It definitely helped me maintain but lately I am noticing a lot of hairs falling out which leads me to believe Fin will no longer be effective. I think I the next step for me would be to get a hair transplant but I have a few questions:

Is it possible to get a hair transplant when you are diffusely thinning all over the top? I am afraid that a hair transplant will cause shock loss and I will lose my remaining hair. Is there any way to get good results?

At 27 years old, is it still to early to get a transplant? Should I wait until my hair-loss gets much worse? How do you decide when is the best time to get a transplant?

These are personal decisions. Like the stock market which is losing ground, when is a good time to sell your stocks? Is it when the stocks drop another 50% (i.e. you lose 50% of your existing hair) or do you wait out the possibility of the stock going up (like waiting for Propecia and/or Rogaine to kick in and reverse some of the loss)? The analogy falls short here, because the stock market in the long term does well, but your hair loss in the long term is progressive, leading to a greater degree of balding.

In your case, have you been back to your prescribing doctor to see if you are losing ground after 5 years on finasteride?

I would need to see your photographs to really answer your question, so if you’d like me to take a look, you can send them to the address on the Contact page and I can get back to you privately. Reference this post when you send the photos.

I started taking Propecia when the drug first hit the market. There was some early hairloss when I started the medication. I stayed on it faithfully for about 14 years and last year I decided I did not need it anymore and would try to be off of it. I had no side effects, but I wanted to be free of taking drugs. About 1 month later, the hair loss started and got really bad by the third month. I am not sure why I did not go back on the medication, but I was scared. My hair loss was worse than when I started on the drug.

After almost a year I made the decision to go back on the drug and saw the hair loss stop again and some hair started to grow back. Will I get it all back?

As you were off the drug for almost a year, I would not be surprised to see little regrowth. Only time will tell, and this time stay on the drug as it is a lifetime commitment.

Hi Doc,

So a little background. Have been on finasteride for approximately 8 months. I think its working, since I have not progressed at all and maybe perhaps (don’t know if its my mind playing tricks) have seen very slight thickening.

I asked you a similar question before regarding the generic finasteride from pharmascience. You stated that I should be good with this drug as the company is a reputable one here in Canada.

However today my question is about the 5MG. I take that and cut it into quarters and have been doing so since the beginning of my treatment (so that its cheaper for me)…I read somewhere on your site that this is not recommended….and some people/doctors claim that the ingredients of the pill are not equally divided??? could you elaborate on this…am I fine with what I do or should I switch to the generic 1MG (which is available in Canada)…do you roughly (again roughly) still get 1.25 if you quarter the pill with a pill cutter?? So just wondering if I may be loosing ground with what I do, or that I am infact fine with the above regimen?

Thanks in advance

I am not sure where you read on this site that cutting the 5mg finasteride wasn’t recommended, but I’ve been suggesting doing this for years. You just need a doctor to prescribe the higher dose with the instruction that the pill is to be cut.

Cutting a 5mg tablet of finasteride in quarters is just as good as taking a 1mg pill. In a perfectly ideal world the drug companies would make a 1mg version and sell it cheaper than the 5mg version, but for now the 5mg version is about $30 for 90 pills while the 1mg version is $100 for 90 pills.

So in the interest of cost savings, you can cut the 5mg version into four pieces to make 1.25mg. If you know how to cut a small pill into 5 equal pieces to make 1mg each, go for it! In general, when you cut the pill you will never be precise and you may get more or less 1.25mg. This is alright in my opinion as long as you consistently take the medication on a daily basis. My reasoning behind this is that studies show 0.5mg is almost as effective as 5mg dose, so the daily variation should not matter as long as the drug is taken on a consistent basis.

Hello!

I’m a male that recently turned 22. I’ve been suffering from hair loss for about 4-5 years and started with minoxidil at the age of 19½. The last 9-10 months have been like hell (my hair loss accelerated quickly and the depression started). I had decent coverage all over the scalp last summer but that’s not the case anymore. The hair is thin all over the scalp and I’m soon going to have a baldspot on the back of my head.

I’m somewhere between NW4 and NW5 on the norwood scale. I’ve got alot of tiny almost transparent hair on my scalp.

I want to keep the hair I still got on my head but also reverse it if possible. What do you recommend? Shall I try propecia or even dutasteride?

You probably should have started Propecia (finasteride 1mg) when the hair loss process began, instead of minoxidil. Young men can reverse hair loss on finasteride, but without trying it, you will not know. At the least, the process can be slowed or stopped with finasteride.

You need a good doctor to manage your situation, because after all, it is your hair and your future hair loss we are talking about.

Hi doctors,
I’m 30 years old and i lost one testicle when i was 18. So now i thinking about my options to stop hair loss. Is finasteride for me? I know about some side effects of fin and i’m worried, but with only one testicle is it still safe for me to start it? Or am i in for more dangers than others?

Anyway i will definitely talk about it with my urologist before i start (if i start), just looking for more opinions. thank you

Finasteride is likely still an option for you, though your prescribing doctor will have to make the call on that. I don’t know what your hair loss situation looks like. You certainly aren’t automatically ruled out from taking Propecia (finasteride 1mg) because of your one testicle, as the safety of the medication has nothing to do with the number of testicles you have.

I would schedule that urologist appointment to at least get some more advice. If you are concerned about testosterone or other hormone production from the testicles, I would guess that your one testicle puts out as much testosterone as two testicles to compensate.

If you are concerned about side effect potential from finasteride, your risk isn’t any higher or lower than the rest of the population (less than 2% will experience some side effects). I’ve written much about the side effects before over the years.

Hi Doctor Rassman, I have a question, I know med advice is not given on the internet, but all I need is just an expert opinion from someone like yourself who is an expert in hairloss industry.

I am 28 years old male in perfect health. No drinking or smoking at all. I have been on brand propecia 1mg for 2 years exactly as prescribed by my dermatologist. in the 2 years I have not got the best results, hair looks almost the same as pre treatment with propecia, but doctor said looks like I am slightly below baseline. so he said for me to keep taking propecia 1mg daily because it has slowed the rate down, I have not experienced any side affects at all on propecia.

Since I have not experienced any side affects from finasteride, my dermatologist also wrote me a prescription for avodart 0.5 mg. he told me avodart is a stronger dht blocker and told me to use it ever other day at the 0.5 mg level. He suggested I still take the 1mg finasteride daily, but just use avodart 0.5mg every other day, basically 4 times a week. He told me not to drop finasteride as maybe I might experience a loss of hair that finasteride was hanging on to. I asked if this was safe and he said yes, and not to worry. Basically in your opinion do you have any positive results from patients that use avodart? do you think its better for hairloss?

I really do not know the details about you. I generally think that if Propecia (finasteride) is working, then just keep to it. If your hair looks the same today as when you started Propecia 2 years ago, that sounds like it’s working just fine. Not everyone will see substantial regrowth, and just keeping the hair loss at bay would mean the medication is successful.

Avodart (dutasteride) added to the Propecia routine makes no sense to me, as both medications work in similar ways. I’ve prescribed dutasteride in rare cases for patients that saw results from Propecia dissipate over the years… but in your case, it sounds like the Propecia is working just fine. I have no idea why your doctor would prescribe both drugs to you.