There are sexual side effects in 2-4% of men who take Finasteride. Over 99% of these men who stop the drug find that the sexual side effects go away. Possibly less than 1% find some persistent sexual side effects.
The reason why so many men afraid of finasteride from tressless
I’ve been on generic finasteride 0.5mg for 6 weeks now and have experienced a week of low libido which went away within the first few weeks. I have not experienced any noticeable amount shedding so far. I’ve been considering upping the dose to 1mg. If I were, will I experience a shed within the next 3 months as if I were only just starting the medication or would it continue alongside the last 6 weeks of 0.5mg? Will there be a noticeable effect? The only reason I am taking 0.5 is for financial reasons, so if it’s best to stay on that then I might do so.
I doubt that you will experience shedding at the 1 mg dose considering that you are on it now. The libido is another story. If you should see an impact on libido on the 1 mg dose, go back to the half dose as it is 80% as effective. A recent study shows that there is far less sexual side effects than the public believes, see here: https://baldingblog.com/new-report-that-finasteride-does-not-cause-sexual-side-effects/
Say if, hypothetically, finasteride would be effective for me between the ages of 20 and 30, would starting propecia at the age of 30 mean that it’d be effective until I’m around 40, or would the age of 30 just be the definite age where the drug stops working? I was wondering because I am unsure if I am losing hair or not, but thought that taking propecia would be a good precaution. However if it turned out I wasn’t experiencing any hair loss, but then later in my life started to thin out, would I have wasted my ‘effective propecia years’?
I have had some patients on finasteride (Propecia) for more than 13 years with benefits that still haven’t subsided since they first began. There’s no definitive timeline that you’ll see benefits, but the best time to start it is when the hair loss is in the early stages. Some men notice some hair loss again sometime after the 5th year of taking Propecia, and maintaining all of the regrowth for a decade or longer isn’t guaranteed… but each person is different. If you took the medication for years, saw benefits, and then stopped the medication once you thought it wasn’t working anymore, your hair loss would accelerate to the point that you would’ve been at had you not taken the drug at all.
If you are uncertain if you are balding, you should see your doctor. Propecia is a prescription medication, and your doctor will be able to determine if you’re losing hair and are a candidate for the medication. Otherwise, taking a hair loss drug if you don’t have balding makes no sense to me. You shouldn’t take it for preventive measures.
I have heard and read much about such problems over various hair forums. However, I have never had any patient complain about this to me, nor do I see this reported in the Finasteride literature.
2018-06-11 06:25:552018-05-22 09:37:33Does Finasteride Cause Penis Atrophy or Girth Loss (Peyronie’s Disease)?
If you are a female taking Spironolactone 100 mg can you take propecia too?
If you are taking spironolactones, you must be managed by a doctor. As I do not have experience with it, I can not answer this from direct knowledge, but I would suspect that it would be reasonable to take Propecia, provided that you are past child bearing years. There is no long term studies on safety in women for Propecia, but there are certain conditions that cause a woman to make a great deal of male hormones and as such, may actually develop a male patterned hair loss. Having these diseases and being past child bearing years, a trial of Propecia may be indicated, but be aware of the possible appearance of conditions that ‘theoretically’ may develop which could impact the breast, uterine and ovarian organs. For example, cancer risks have never been studied when a women is placed on Propecia and those women who are genetically prone to breast, uterine, or ovarian cancer may find themselves at greater risk.
I have been on 1/5 proscar for 2 months now and it has actually caused a massive increase in my sex drive. Is this because of the medication!? I have only read about it causing a decrease in libido. However it is a side affect I think I can live with 🙂
Finasteride will often increase the testosterone levels and I have heard reports of an increased sex drive. Few men have complained about it, but when it happens to an older married man, it is oftentimes the wife that will do the complaining.
2007-12-11 09:34:142007-12-10 08:39:35Finasteride Has Increased My Sex Drive After 2 Months
Dear Dr. Rassman,
Thank you very much for maintaining this very informative and detailed website. I would sincerely appreciate your advice regarding my propecia therapy. I am 21 years old and have been taking propecia since July 2007. After the first 6 weeks on the drug, I noticed a complete cessation of hair loss. I subsequently discontinued the drug on the very poor advice of my father, an internist with little experience with finasteride treatments for MPB. I then restarted the drug about 2 months later, and again noticed complete cessation of hair loss within several weeks. I stopped taking propecia a second time, again on the advice of my father. Once again the hair loss returned within a few weeks.I went back on propecia in late December, and have been taking it for the past 8 weeks. Unfortunately I have not noticed any change in the amount of hair I am losing. I am wondering if you would kindly explain the mechanism of this phenomenon. Have I induced resistance or tolerance to propecia in my hair follicles? Have I upregulated the expression of DHT receptors on the follicles? Is it possible that my estrogen levels or testoterone levels are relatively higher than they were when I started treatment several months ago?
I realize that I have committed a very grave error in discontinuing my propecia on two separate occasions. Have I irrevocably lost my responsiveness to the drug, or will it likely prevent further hair loss? Fortunately my hair loss is still not noticeable, and I would be happy simply to retain what I have.
With best wishes,
A stressed-out medical student.
It is often surprising how little doctors tend to understand about hair loss and its treatment. If you are playing with this drug, you allow the hair loss to continue its downhill course each time you stop taking it. The hair that you lose when you stop taking it may be lost forever, so stopping the Propecia intermittently may just set you up to a progressive lower hair count over time. Perhaps you were just in a rapid state of hair loss. Whatever is the cause of your situation, from a mechanistic point of view, you MUST continue on this drug for life. Stopping it allows you to play catch-up hair loss and eventually you will just progress further down the balding road.
2008-03-06 13:32:342008-03-06 17:08:02Starting and Stopping Propecia Multiple Times
I am 33 years old and I have been on Finasteride since 2006 (I took a 10 month break in 2009) and have had great success. In the last 10 months, I have been losing ground though. My hair has started thinning a lot as the result of two massive sheds. I was wondering how you go about assessing whether an increase in dose is appropriate when Finasteride starts to lose effectiveness? I have also been looking at Rogaine foam as an option — but as I am constantly traveling for work, pills are much easier to fit into my routine.
You can try to increase the Finasteride dose and see if that helps. I tend to view the use of Finasateride as a tug of war – the genes and the stressors on your life pulling on one side, and the drug Finasteride pulling on the other side. Maybe an increase in Finasteride dose will weigh more on the pulling against the genes and stress side.
2018-04-06 07:30:082018-06-21 09:29:21Finasteride Is Losing Its Potency, Should I Increase the Dose?
Transplantation of the bioengineered, 3D integumentary organ system using mouse iPS cells labeled with GFP© RIKEN, TAKASHI TSUJI
This is important because these stem cells were taken from the gums of mice and were able to grow a full thickness skin with hair follicles on it.
Scientist at Japan’s Riken Centre for Developmental Biology published their results on Science Advances.
Is this a view of the future?
Be patient as Finasteride may take a year to see results. If it only slows down the hair loss, you won’t know if it is working until you stop, and then it could be too late.
2018-08-01 09:52:402018-08-15 08:38:49Finasteride Did Not Impact My Sex Drive, But I Don’t See It Working.
