Category: Drugs

Hello Doc, following is a brief summary of finasteride experiment on myself, maybe you share it.

Age: 25
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Hair: Light Brown / Fine hair
Hair Loss: Norwood 2

Treatment: Propecia (3 months just finished), Minoxidil (Over a year), Nizoral Shampoo

Sides: Watery Semen and decreased volume of ejaculate, slightly weight gain. No loss of libido. I think watery semen is much more common than %2, at least %40 in my opinion.

Recovery During Medication: After 3 months semen is looking dense as before, volume increased. Body weight is back to normal. These are my observations however, i dont exactly know drug effect and my body reaction to it detailed.

Hair loss: I believe this drug works. I dont see hairs in my hand as before. I dont think i even shed 100 hairs a day which is even normal. However my expectation is high and i expect new hair growth. With the help of minoxidil there is slight but visible hair growth on my corners(hairline)

Thank you for sharing your experience.

You are correct in stating the “watery semen” phenomenon probably occurs more than 2% of the time. I suspect it is in the 20% range. I’m sure you’re still losing the normal amount of hair daily as your hair cycles (perhaps in the shower or even when you walk down the street), though.

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Hello, Dr. Rassman. I’ve read your blog for a while and am always impressed with your frankness and professionalism. I don’t see a lot of people that have had good results using finasteride posting, probably because once the problem is corrected you stop endlessly searching for answers on the internet. I started noticing hair loss about four years ago, and decided to control it a couple of years back.

From my experience, when I started finasteride I was looking for any of the side effects that might come with it under a microscope, but there were none. The only noticeable difference I saw (besides the shedding almost disappearing) was that I started getting morning erections again (I’m 31 and hadn’t really noticed I had stopped getting them for a few years). I would probably have been scared away from it if I hadn’t read your blog and your professional opinions. Good work, Doctor.

There are some who are vocal about Propecia’s negative side effects and you will find their thoughts readily on various forums and even the comments section on BaldingBlog. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same few men that write comments on nearly every Propecia related posting leave a comment on this one.

As you state, the many who are pleased with the results will almost never write about their experience… as they will stop reading this blog or spend countless hours on the Internet on the topic. The happy ones just move on and find other topics of interest. Those that feel slighted will spend an awful lot of time trying to drown out the rest.

Good luck, good morning to you, and thanks for your kind words of support.

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I’m a 22 year old suffering from hair loss. I was using 5% Minoxidil at the advice of my local physician for the past 2 years with limited sucess as it managed to slow my hair loss but not reverse it. After seeing a dermatologist recently, he advised me to use propecia once a day for a month and then take it every other day afterwards.

He said that after a month Propecia will lower DHT levels in my system and will be effective for 72 hrs which is why he said I only need it every other day as this will save me money. Do you believe that by taking propecia this way it will have the same effect as using it once a day?

The recommended dose of Propecia is one pill a day for treating hair loss. I do not understand you doctor’s logic, but I will defer the treatment to your doctor as you are under his care… not mine.

I do know that Propecia’s half life in your blood stream is 4 to 6 hours, which means most of the drug will be gone from your blood stream in one day.

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Hello,
Just a quick question about the 2011 Alaska meeting. You spoke briefly about Minoxidil and spironolactone used together by a doctor in Thailand with good results. Can you elaborate on this?

Thanks a lot

Not much more info than is already all over the web separately on each medication. The study in Thailand was with systemic minoxidil, which is clearly not suggested for treating hair loss.

I am a 46 year-old male and a loyal reader of your blog. Based upon the positive results you have seen with Propecia, I decided to try it, after consulting with a hair-loss surgeon. I have taken 4 pills thus far. I was more than willing to tolerate the side effects reported by Merck if it meant stopping my hair loss. However, I have began to experience possible side effects not reported by Merck, including difficulty sleeping, mental fogginess, breaking out in sweats, along with the more common side effects of decreased energy and drive.

After experiencing these, I began doing some research and ran across sites you may be familiar with, such as Propeciahelp, on which users complain of side effects such as these along with others (e.g., hypogonadism) even after stopping the drug. There are various reports that the drug alters the brain (e.g., mood and thinking) by affecting neurosteroids and can permanently alter the neuroendocrine system.

Obviously, I am freaked out about this and will probably stop taking the drug. I would like to know your opinion on the reports of these side effects, the possibility of permanent alterations of various bodily systems with use of this drug, and your opinion on websites such as these (Propeciahelp) in general. Thank you for your trusted advice.

Suggestions can produce side effects (see “placebo effect” and “power of suggestion”). Your gonads will not shrink in a few days. It is possible (albeit very remote) that there are brain effects, but you should discuss this with your physician and that is why a doctor’s prescription is required for this drug in the United States and many countries. Have an open line of communication with your doctor. If you’re unable to sleep and you think it is related to the drug, talk to your doctor about stopping it.

While forums can be helpful, one must remember that many times they are full of unverified claims and feed into irrational fears. I’ve written about this before here.

As rogaine is intended for hair regrowth and not to combat hair loss, can it be effective on regrowing hair lost from anything other than male pattern baldness, i.e. traction alopecia, or even a mature hairline?

I wouldn’t expect Rogaine (minoxidil) to regrow either frontal hairlines or hair loss caused by traction alopecia. It’s possible that it could cause hair growth in areas where there wasn’t significant hair previously, though.

Hello Doctor,

Thanks for maintaining such a great blog.

I am a 20-year-old student who started taking Propecia about a month ago. Since then, I’ve broken out in hives about once every two weeks. The breakout lasts for about 3 days.

I have three questions for you:
– Do you think that this is an allergic reaction to Propecia?
– If I am indeed allergic to Propecia, do you think that it will be less effective?
– I have experienced a noticeable increase in shedding since starting Propecia. The Internet tells me that this could be a good sign, but we both know there’s a lot of misinformation out there.

Again, thanks for the great blog.

First of all, if you are breaking out in hives I would see a doctor. This is not a place to get a medical diagnosis or treatment. Any medications can cause a reaction or side effects, but I do not know anything about your medical history or health or habits to even guess why you are breaking out in these two week intervals. Are you doing something different every two weeks?

In general, patients do not shed after taking Propecia. Patients lose hair with or without the medication from natural genetic causes. The “increased shedding” people refer to is very abstract and hard to quantify. This is one of the main reasons you need to see a doctor before you start Propecia and have some form of documentation of where you are starting from (such as a picture of your hair, miniaturization study, or even a bulk measurement). Without anything objective to compare to, it is just anyone’s guess.

Finally, I would guess there are people who are allergic to Propecia, but I have not met anyone face to face at my medical practice who have these allergies people write about on the Internet.