Balding Blog

There was some reference in the 7-year Proscar study to a statistically significant increase in male breast cancer among the participants taking 5mg of Proscar daily.

Any thoughts or perhaps you have seen further research?

By the way, your visit from Jimmy and Adam on the “Man Show” was hysterical. You handled those guys with style. Well done!

Thanks for your comments on the Man Show. I fully enjoyed doing this as well as many other similar programs.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine (Volume 349:1569-1572 October 16, 2003 Number 16, Prevention of Prostate Cancer with Finasteride) there was only one case of male breast cancer in this study group of almost 19,000 men (see CNN article: Baldness drug may reduce prostate cancer risk).

Gynecomastia (breast nodules in men) is more common and is often painful when it occurs, but this is not cancer. There is no evidence that cancer is a risk, but if there is a history of breast cancer in your family, I might consider finding out if the gene for breast cancer susceptibility (BRCA1 on chromosome 17 and BRCA2 on chromosome 13) is carried in you (see Do We Know What Causes Breast Cancer in Men?). If you carry the gene, then you might avoid Propecia. The good news is that you can test for BRCA1.

I’m 20 years old, have naturally fine hair, and my hair started miniaturizing/thinning when I was 17. I have recently started Propecia and have been taking it for approx. 4 months. The shedding stage of Propecia has pretty much stabilized and I have noticed a significant improvement in my hairline as well as improvement in thickness of hair. My crown, however, seems to not be improving other than stopping hair loss (I could be wrong it’s hard for me to see that area on my head). Am I likely to grow new thicker hair in hair in the crown, given that I already have in the temporal area? I know you’ve said that Propecia is generally more effective in the crown, so if I’m already growing new hair at the hairline it would seem logical to conclude that I should expect improvement in the crown. Is this assumption valid? Is improvement likely in another 6 months?

Thank you

I generally tell men to take the drug for at least a year to see the benefits. At 4 months, you have not been waiting long enough. As the impact of Propecia on the crown is reported to be more frequent than the impact on the frontal hairline, I would expect that if you had a good response in the frontal area, that you will have a good response in the crown if you wait long enough.

Thank you for listening. I have been taking Propecia for a little over 10 months now, and it seems as if it is having a strange effect. It seems that it has started to rebuild my hairline, which was receding somewhat with moderate miniaturization. Alas, it has not shown any results in the vertex/top of scalp. Have you heard of this before? I’m merely curious as to whether this is common. Thanks for your time.

What you are experiencing is not common, but it does happen. Hair loss varies in individuals and by location in the scalp. Experience has shown that the drug works best in areas where the hair loss is most recent. Is that what you are seeing?

I’m 22 years old with early frontal hair loss confirmed with a miniaturization test. Right now I’m a NW2 but going up if I don’t stop this. I’m 5 ½ months into treatment with Propecia and nothing got worse since being on it. For the past 2 months I see way less hairs in the shower and during styling. And now I noticed a little thickening in the left side of my mid anterior which is good. But at the same time I noticed very little loss in the right side of my mid anterior as well. What is going on? Is this normal or very bad? This got me totally freaked.

We do not bald evenly, and if you are experiencing regrowth from Propecia it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that it isn’t thickening the hair perfectly even, either. Don’t get freaked out, this is normal.

Hi
I sent you the fake Propecia press release a month ago. Here is another short article dating back to 2007 about people stopping finasteride thinking it didn’t work for them when they were taking a placebo after all.

Thousands Of Men Sold Fake Propecia

The article states, “Propecia is one of the world’s most copied drugs and it is an extremely easy drug to sell online as many men to feel embarrassed to go to a doctor to speak about their hair loss problem. The Propecia drug works for about 90 percent of men.”

And it continues, “It is estimated that thousands of men around the world have stopped using Propecia believing that it doesn’t work for them when in fact if they had used a real version of Propecia made by the drug company Merck they would have experienced good results and possibly hair regrowth.”

I’m not sure where those estimates came from, and seeing as how the article is a couple years old by now, the problem might even be worse, regardless of attempts to thwart it. Thanks for sending this in, along with the previous article you sent.

Hello,

What do you know about the connection between finasteride (or DHT inhibition in general) and reduced collagen production, or premature aging and wrinkle formation? I have browsed some studies that seem to suggest inhibiting DHT also inhibits collagen production, leading me to believe Propecia could be responsible for my hollow, prematurely aging 23 year old face. (I’ve been taking finasteride for almost 5 years).

I realize this is a site to discuss and post hair loss related topics and its treatments, but Propecia is not the root of all your problems. You are 23 years old and you think Propecia is causing you to have premature aging?

To be clear, I am not suggesting Propecia is or is not the cause of what you are experiencing. However, I think there are many other factors that would definitely cause MORE symptoms of an aging look other than Propecia. Such factors include excessive sun exposure, drinking, smoking, marijuana use, drug use, partying too much, not enough sleep… in other words, many of the things a young man in their 20’s would be partaking in. I don’t know enough about your routine or habits to speculate further.

Hello dear doc,

I’ve been studying www.propeciahelp.com for a while and I must say I’m a bit worried about finasteride.

The users of that board have got side effects from finasteride use that won’t let go, even though the treatment has stopped.

If these side effects are due to finasteride or other factors, I do not know, but I think it’s worth a discussion.

When one hears or reads that with the drug stopped, sexual dysfunction continues for weeks or months, I just do not know how to respond to your probe here. I would think that if it were a common problem, I would see it in my practice and I can report that maybe one patient talked about sexual dysfunction taking about a month to get back to normal. That is one out of thousands of patients I’ve personally seen. So I wonder if there is a secondary agenda suggested. Did any of these men with sexual dysfunction (real ED or libido problems) have these problem before they started with finasteride? I am not saying that it does not happen, but I can respond to my experience, which is substantial.