Category: Drugs

I am 22 years old. I have just recently stopped taking Propecia (after 8 months). I have played guitar since I was 16, but I started to feel pain in my left hand and arm about a month or so after starting Propecia (looking back on it). Turns out I had developed tendonitis in my left elbow (tennis elbow). Not attributing anything to Propecia, I took time off guitar (2 months), started typing with one finger, tried anti-inflammatories, started doing hand excersizes, started taking Hyaluronic Acid, Glucosamine, and Chondroitin, and finally started seeing a chiropractor about 3 months ago (who cannot explain why I have not been healing). Then, about 2 or 3 months ago, my right arm also developed joint pain and tendonitis as my left arm has stayed about the same despite me taking every effort and measure to heal the “injuries.” I finally started researching Propecia, and I have quit use as of yesterday being as I have tried everything else without success. I began to read about some of the side effects from people who have taken it, some of which I had not thought of attributing to the drug… like increased “tummy fat”. I had been a skinny guy all my life and I have gained about 25 pounds in 8 months(which is alot considering I only weighed about 125-130 before propecia!). I have also had a few bad experiences with difficulty ejaculating that I never had before proprecia. Of course I have never thought before now that Propecia could be the culprit. I have only found a couple of comments from random people so far on the internet about “joint pain” and propecia, what is going on?

Many of your complaints may not be related to Propecia. Ejaculation volumes are often decreased on Propecia. I have had one other patient report weight gain. You could decrease the dosage (rather than go off the medication entirely), and see if that reduces your joint pain. Discuss this with your prescribing doctor.

At 22, have you developed a Master Plan for your hair loss with your doctor? Got your hair mapped out for miniaturization yet? You may not even need Propecia or it may not be the right thing to use for you. You are in control so take the driver’s seat.

Hi Dr., I know minoxidil does not block DHT but I was wondering if minoxidil strengthens existing hair, or if it just regrows a bit of new hair. Thanks for helping out so many people with your site!

I believe that it does strengthen the hair on some people. Minoxidil is not, however, a reliable drug for either strengthening or regrowing hair in the majority of patients that take it.

To Dr. Rassman:

I am 19 years old, and my hairline has receded slightly. My mother insists that I am paranoid, and that my sense of paranoia is only exacerbated by my reading too many Philip Roth novels. But a few jokes here and there about my thinning hair from friends who don’t know about my “paranoia” has only confirmed me in my judgment.

I want to start taking Propecia. My question is, in the unlikely event that I’m completely wrong and am not balding at all and that my mother is actually correct but I go on Propecia anyway…are there any side effects from taking Propecia when it’s not “needed,” besides the ones reported (decreased libido, etc.) by those who do “need” it? On a side note, (forgive my naivete), are proscriptions of Propecia difficult to obtain? Thanks very much for your time and help.

There is no point to blindly commit yourself to a lifetime of drug without a diagnosis. Be smart and get your hair mapped out for miniaturization to find out what is really happening. Many 19 year olds are developing a maturing hairline, not balding. Get a good doctor to tell you what is happening to you. Friends, at your age, can be cruel even if it is not intentional.

I recently made a trip to my doc and he told me that he has known people that have been on propecia since it came out back in 97, and they are still on it and they still have their hair today. Can this be true, people taking it for over 6 years and it still being beneficial? I don’t think my doctor would lie, at least I hope not. What do you think. How come it only works for some patients and not for others? From your experience, those patients that have been on propecia for more than 6 years, have they retained all their hair?

Thank-you for answering my questions

Propecia will continue to work for as long as you take it. There is no guarantee that it will override the progressive nature of hair loss completely, but it will continue to help as long as you take it. If works better on some people than others, that is just the way it is. We are all different and we respond to our balding genetics differently.

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Dr. Rassman,

Thank you for continually answering questions on this forum. I am amazed how I routinely learn about hairloss by just reading the answers you post in response to other readers.

My question is about proscar. I’ve decided to switch to proscar over propecia because quite frankly, it is much more affordable to buy and split proscar into fours. I read in the past on this forum how you stated that Merck removed the warning about possibly passing Finasteride to a female through semen. My information leavelet that came with the Proscar had the following on it (women should not) “be exposed to the drug through sexual contact with a man taking Proscar”. It suggests that you should use a latex condom during sex. Does this mean that you should not try to have children while taking Proscar/Propecia? Does the fact that the dosage in split Proscar/Propecia is significantly lower than that of regular Proscar eliminate or reduce the risk for “birth defects” in a baby’s sex organs?

Also what you heard or know about a product advertised on TV by the name of Procede? They claim it is once every three months treatment.

Thank You

What is known about finasteride is that if a baby in the womb is exposed to this drug (dosage is not understood) that the development of their sex organs and possibly the way their brain is wired (female vs male) may be influenced. Genital abnormalities can be created by the influence of this drug in the first trimester of pregnancy. These abnormalities, when associated with finasteride, had been observed when the natural form of finasteride was ingested in very, very large doses (based on the research of a mountain village in the Dominican Republic).

The warning by the drug company reflects that knowledge and that a risk may be present. These are clearly warnings that are meant to protect the drug company, but to my knowledge, even with the widespread use of Propecia in young men (over a million men) there are no reports that I know of that show that there is a link between women who got pregnant with their men on Propecia and the creation of genital abnormalities in any of their children. I have one of my sons on Propecia and when he is ready for a family, I will not recommend that he change his usage of this medication. He likes the hair that is now strong in the frontal area and was thinning before he started to use it.

A little bit of history (though having little to do with your exact question) — One of the untold stories in medicine are about the hermaphrodite whose sex is misdiagnosed at birth. The absence of a penis may cause a baby to be classified as female or the presence of a large clitoris, may cause the baby to be classified as male. These children are then raised according to the original sex designations from the birthing room. These situations lead to great tragedy. For those of you wanting to learn more about hermaphrodites, I suggest that you Google the term hermaphrodite. Also, I have recently read a best selling novel titled Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (a Pulitizer Prize winning epic that follows many generations in a family that had a hermaphrodite inheritance pattern in the family line). It puts a face on this tragedy and is a recommended read.

With regard to Procede, please see past responses here.