I was prescribed 0.25mg oral minoxidil for hair loss. I stopped taking Finasteride and topical Minoxidil. I lost much of the benefits I had, including my gains from my previous treatments such as my frontal hair, my temples, and the hair in the crown, which had regrown with the topical Minoxidil. I regret ever switching the original treatment approach.
2018-07-12 06:49:482018-07-19 05:37:04Patent Switched from Topical Minoxidil and Finasteride to Oral Minoxidil with Regrets
I have been taking gabapentin for years and just started to notice increased hair loss, more than would come out naturally. I’ve had chemo and all my hair came out, but that was about 6 years ago and my hair came back, but not all the way. A lot of women told me that when their hair came back it was their natural color, most women color their hair so didn’t even know what their natural color was, plus their hair came back thicker and glossier. They were all delighted.
Mine didn’t come back like that. I was taking gabapentin then and ever since. My hair came back weak, very fine, some gray in natural ‘mouse brown’, limp, awful looking and very easily broken. It was workable but I didn’t really notice it being really thin. Just in the past year and a half it has really been disappearing. I’m now wearing the wigs I used when my hair all came out with chemo.
I’ve had both knees replaced, one last July,2011 and the other last January, 2012. I thought it might have been caused by the anesthesia or the high doses of demeral? or the oxycodone I was taking for back pain. Also, beside the demerol? in the hospital the first time and then morphine the second time. But I don’t take any of that stuff since about April, 2012, around eight months ago and my hair seems to be coming out worse now. I’ve checked out all of those drugs and none of them seem to have hair loss as a side effect. Then I accidentally came across this blog and I have been enlightened. I never would have thought of gabapentin, but it sure makes sense. Is there a different medication to take the place of gabapentin? Someone help me out here?
I’m female, 64 years old, some baldness in the male side of the family, none on the female side. I take gabapentin, prilosec, atenalol?, effexor, Flexeril, Claratin, metformin, and Lantus, oxycodone/acetaminafen? when my back goes out. I take a multivitamin, vitamin C, magnesium, and iron beside the other prescription meds. What am I doing wrong? Can I be helped?
I really think you should see your doctor for your issues. Based on your medication list, you have a significant number of medical issues. You cannot just point to one drug as the source of hair loss. I wish it was that simple, but it does not work that way. In most cases the medical condition itself may be the cause (not the medication). Your issue is beyond the scope of a simple blog post. Sorry.
This patient is a doctor and appreciates the radical change in his hair over the past 9 months since he had his hair transplant. He told me that no one specifically noticed the change as his hair was growing in, but knew there was something going on that made him look around 10 years younger.
Some thought he was just exercising and eating better. He said that even when friends looked at his head, it wasn’t apparent to any of them that he had been growing hair where he was previously bald. But comparing his current look to his before photos, the change is quite apparent now.
Click the photos to enlarge.
After (2781 grafts in 1 procedure):
Before:
2012-10-19 14:30:432012-10-19 12:56:26Patient Results – Amazing Change in Just 9 Months After 2781 Grafts (with Photos)
I know I’m weird. But I just can’t get off the thought that one day I’ll go bald. I’m so worried that I keep touching and feeling my hair everyday to check for any signs of baldness. This is so crazy and disturbing to the point that I can’t concentrate on the task ahead but giving myself unnecessary worries if it were to happen one day. Even though I don’t see any noticeable changes on my hair line, thickness, or strands of hair on the floor. I guess this is strictly a psychological problem. But each time, when I’m trying hard to concentrate, I’ll feel as if, my mind is suggesting to me that I’m placing undue ‘stress’ on my head which will ultimately result in hair loss in the future. lease tell me something assuring.
I think you answered yourself when you said, “I guess this is strictly a psychological problem.”
If you are that worried about hair loss go see your doctor or find a doctor who can examine your hair to see if there is any miniaturization or patterns developing that would suggest that you are balding. Your family doctor can also address the obsession you have over your hair, possibly with appropriate medications. Stress can contribute to hair loss, so don’t get yourself into a neverending loop.
2008-10-01 13:32:332008-09-29 14:43:34Could Obsessing Over My Hair Cause Stress Resulting in Future Hair Loss?
I was thinking of going on Propecia but found this article: Effect of androgen deprivation on penile ultrastructure
I was wondering why Merck hasn’t mentioned this as a side effect. Is this claim true in humans?
This may occur in humans at doses of finasteride much higher than the 1mg dose level that is the therapeutic dose for hair loss. The study doesn’t say how much finasteride was administered or the frequency of dosing, but as the study is in rats, I wouldn’t know how it could apply to humans. Merck likely hasn’t mentioned it as a side effect, because it hasn’t been proven to be a side effect in humans. I don’t know how else to comment on this question.
For all of us desperately following the advances in hair multiplication, do you think that any information would be available before the ISHRS annual meeting (September)in Alaska if discovered or is that venue the most likely outlet for bringing advances to the public? (So I can stop my daily obsessive searches.)
While anything is possible, if a company had a big announcement to make (such as hair multiplication being available to the general public), I doubt they’d wait to announce it just for the ISHRS meeting. These companies are usually looking for financial investors or commercial interest, so it wouldn’t necessarily make sense to hold back any good news just for an annual meeting of doctors. Now if a physician had a presentation for the meeting, that’s a different story.
Though new information could and hopefully will come out from the meeting in Anchorage, I wouldn’t expect a new hair multiplication procedure to be announced as available to the public this year. I guess we’ll find out in September.
Dr. Rassman, et. al, the Journal of Sexual Medicine has recently published an article describing the permanent sexual side effects of using finasteride. I quit taking propecia approximately 2 weeks ago and am terrified that I have permanently damaged myself. What are your thoughts on the article?
Many of my patients have been taking Propecia for over a decade without side effects. I have yet to meet a person in my practice who complains of permanent side effects associated with Propecia after they stopped the drug. The few that do have side effects at all elect to stop taking the medication and the side effects have subsided as their hair tumbles to the ground. But that is just my humble experience.
The article itself doesn’t provide anything new, just reviewing previously published reports from a subset of men that raises the possibility of a casual relationship. They did report a single case of a man with total sexual function loss, but that sounds peculiar and I’m not convinced. I would wait for confirmation by other investigators on claims of permanent damage from finasteride. The Journal article was digested by the Boston Globe here and even mentions what we’ve been saying for years about the percentage of those that saw side effects:
“In one trial, about 1.9 percent Propecia takers who took the drug for up to two years experienced a loss of libido compared to 1.3 percent of placebo takers; 1.4 percent of Propecia users had erectile dysfunction and 1 percent had an ejaculatory disorder compared to 0.9 and 0.4 percent of the placebo takers.”
For most of the frightened men, I wonder what they’re so terrified about. Did they actually have side effects? Are these men willing to risk balding over a 1-2% chance of side effects? As I’ve often said, the medication is completely elective. You don’t have to take it and I am not trying to convince anyone to do so. I am just presenting my opinion based on experience. The Mayans predicted the world will end in 2012, so I would be more terrified about what will happen in 11 months!
2011-01-12 15:00:402011-01-12 08:34:55Permanent Finasteride Side Effects Article in Journal of Sexual Medicine
In this published article, Creatine was taken by a Rugby player and his serum DHT levels went up. Although the article did not relate this to hair loss, we have seen men who take Creatine as a supplement and find that they notice more hair loss if they have the genes for balding present: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19741313/.
2020-08-12 02:56:062020-08-08 11:12:26Creatine increases DHT
This shows that hair loss is clearly not stable over time. This is a remarkable demonstration of hair loss daily with sequential photographs.
Hello Dr – I read with interest your answer about MRI scans and how there is no link from them to hairloss as they use magnets. What then, would be your opinion on CT Scans? Could these cause hairloss and if so over what time period? i.e – a few days after the scan or a few years? Thank you for your time.
The amount of radiation that a CT scan (also known as a CAT scan) will administer is not sufficient to cause hair loss. It takes much, much more radiation to cause radiation sickness and have the side effects to cause hair loss.
For more information about CT scanning, please see: Wikipedia – Computed tomography
2006-10-11 11:32:492006-10-10 16:15:41CT Scan and Hair Loss
