Category: Drugs

I’m turning 26 years old soon and been on Propecia for 4 years now starting in mid July. For over 2 years I been cutting generic fin in 4 pieces and have saved tons of money. If you are cutting fin you are taking a slightly higher dose can it give you side effects? Because when cutting those pills the dose can be sometimes from like 1mg to maybe 1.5mg it’s hard to cut it accurately! And even if you do you be still taking 1.25mg!

Unless the pieces are perfectly symmetrical and you didn’t lose any crumbs in the cutting process, you probably aren’t getting a full 1.25mg finasteride dose — and like you said, splitting it accurately is difficult.

But let’s assume you’re getting an average of 1.25mg per day. I suppose taking that dose by cutting a 5mg tablet can theoretically give you a slightly higher risk of side effects than taking a premade 1mg finasteride pill (Propecia)… but in practice, we have not seen this.

There was doctor last night talking about hairloss on tv and about propecia. He siad that propecia only gets rid of 70% serum DHT and 38% scalp DHT. there is still 30% serum left and 62% scalp DHT left which is still alot of DHT. Then he said those remaining DHT can still do a number on hair follicles, and cause hairloss even by taking propecia. so he said taking finasteride is basically useless and that he would not prescribe it for that reason.

His words were, “why take this propecia drug, when it leaves behind a huge percentage of the DHT in the blood and scalp, that can still cause hairloss. He used a colonoscopy example. he said when people do a colonoscopy and a patient has lets say 5 polyps the doctor removes all 5 the polyps and doesn’t leave any behind. he said a drug like propecia removes one polyp and leaves 4 behind which can turn deadly. so why take propecia when its not that effective at removing the source hormone.

whats your opinion. I value your opinion more than the doctor speaking on tv. this threw me off lol. there is alot of dht left even with propecia. 62% scalp dht is alot.

I thought my opinion on Propecia was pretty much established here.

The reality is that Propecia works at preventing or stabilizing hair loss in most men. His numbers on DHT seem reasonable, but when you see the drug work to slow hair loss or even reverse the loss in young men, then the results speak for themselves. The visual results have been well documented. Add the fact that it has been proven safe for 98% of men without side effects, and that is what is important.

When all is said and done, it’s really not about the numbers, percentages, or colonoscopy analogies. Propecia does work, but your genetic predisposition in the long run will catch up to you. It buys you time, so to speak.

A comment received from the recent post about Propecia and free testosterone levels –

doctor…as an athlete, this is something about propecia which interests me greatly – but there just doesn’t seem to be enough information available about it.

Would there be anything to stop doctors like yourself taking bloodwork of patients before and during finasteride use so that you (as someone in a position who sees finasteride users daily) could report back to us – so we could make informed decisions taking into account not only our hair, but other matters also of interest to us like hormone levels?

Would really appreciate a response. Thanks.

This can be done, but insurance may not cover these tests. If someone wants to pay for the tests out of pocket, it would be in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And even if these tests were free, what would we do with the results? What significance or interpretations would come from the tests?

If you look in the literature, I am sure there have been similar studies done before Propecia or finasteride was approved by the FDA. You need to know what you’re looking for before searching for data points.

Okay, so let’s face it, hair loss sucks, hair loss does make a man less attractive by a noticiable amount. There’s no avoiding it. Propecia is an effective medication at stopping hair loss and regrowing hair. Is it really safe though? I have my doubts. One could say that anti propecia blogs are full of men who had problems in the first place and that most normal men wouldn’t be on these blogs in the first place. But the other day, I stumbled upon this article written by none other then Men’s Health magazine. Here is the link.

The full article is not available online but the first page does a good job of describing what the article will talk about. Now Men’s Health is no subtle underground publication it is read by millions of men. I’m no doctor but when you block DHT by using Finasteride which also happens to alter how your endocrine system functions, things probably won’t go well, hormones are emotional regulators and DHT is a powerful male androgen. Obviously hair loss is slighty devestating at worse and dissapointing at best but is it worth sucking out the life of an increasing number of men just for hair? Men want hair to appear as if they are full of life and virility so isn’t it ironic that propecia kills that motivation for many men?

The basis for the article in Men’s Health seems to be the tale of a guy with side effects from Propecia. Then it references a study that says sexual side effects occurred in men 45 to 78 years old when taking 5mg of finasteride (to treat their prostate problems). That is 5 times the dose for treating hair loss, and the prostate problems themselves can lead to libido issues without any medication involved. The article fails to mention that.

The rest of the article is a story about a man named “Charles K”. There isn’t much science here, but rather, a story about an unknown man.

Dear Dr. Rassman,

I am a 31 year old male who has been on Propecia for 5 years. After getting bloodwork done, it was discovered that while my Total Testosterone was high, the percentage of Free Testosterone was proportionately low.

Then, I discovered an article from an Egyptian medical journal entitled “Effect of Oral Finasteride on Serum Androgen Levels and Androgenic Alopecia in Adult men”, which found that all men in the experimental group experienced a decline in free testosterone after taking Propecia relative to no change for those taking a placebo. Were you aware of this? Does this not add to the growing body of literature showing how dangerous Propecia really is?

The main point of why Propecia (finasteride 1mg) works is because it changes DHT hormone levels. DHT is the result of testosterone catabolism (it is a byproduct of testosterone metabolism). So to say Propecia affects testosterone in some way is valid, but I cannot say what this really means. The study you refer to included only 30 men and it does not go on to state what the implication is or what the significance is of the findings.

For those interested, the study can be found here (PDF file).

These are the type of articles that can cause confusion and add fuel to the never-ending debate on Propecia depending on how you parse the information presented. Anyone can quote articles and infer what they want, but the real meaning or significance is unclear. At least this is interesting reading. Let the debates begin… or rather, continue!

Doctor,
Took Dr. Lees 5% non PG formula for years. After FDA shutdown switched to Minoxidilmax non PG form. After ran out of that tried Rogaine Foam and had a terrible shed in within 10 days. I know you don’t see much shedding in your practice, but why would I have such a dramatic shed switching from one 5% formula to another? Could it be the other formulas weren’t the real formulas? People swore by Dr. Lee so its possible Minoxidilmax wasn’t the proper formula. i just can’t handle PG. Even the women’s 2% form have PG.

I’ve read doctors who say stay the course during a shed, but if minoxidil is causing dramatic frontal shedding and the general wisdom is it doesn’t regrow hair in front, Seems like a losing prop to keep going. Would it shed hair that it doesn’t regrow?

Have to try something soon before I’m off minox too long.. Already on Propecia..

Thanks..

I would not know what is going on with your hair loss. It could be a problem with the formula, or maybe there’s another ingredient in there that you’re having an allergic reaction to, or it could be that the Dr. Lee product you used was stronger than 5%. Without an examination and follow up it is just a guessing game.

Typically it is my understanding Rogaine Foam is better absorbed than other formulations and does not contain the propylene glycol, so to have an opposite reaction is strange.

I’ve read back 30 pages, but could not find a former instance of my question. Apologies if it is a chronic repeat.

I’ve been taking Propecia for one year, and recently accepted a lower-paying job. As such, I am interested in switching to the quartered 5mg generic Proscar method. I would like to know that the doctor is willing to prescribe the 5mg prior to scheduling an appointment – is there a way to politely obtain this information?

Thank you in advance for your response.

I can’t tell if your question is about another clinic or doctor at NHI. If it’s elsewhere, just call the doctor and ask. Most patients we treat with finasteride at NHI are prescribed the 5mg dose to save costs, and they are instructed to take 1/4 pill a day.