Balding Blog

I have been taking propecia for about 6 years. I also have Primary Scholerosing Cholangitis (PSC), a liver disease. Do you know of any studies or have any other knowledge about the impact of propecia on the liver? Thank you.

There are warnings on the use of Propecia for those people with liver disease, however, it is not clear if the drug can negatively impact the liver directly in those with active liver disease. What I suspect is that the metabolism of the drug may be affected by active liver dysfunction. I will ask Merck, the makers of Propecia, about it and get clarification from them, getting back to you in the very near future. They are usually responsive to my questions.

UPDATE (May 3, 2005): Please see the response from Merck here.

Hi,
I am 6 weeks post op. I received 1500 fu’s and earlier punch graft work repaired. Other than some minor shock loss in the donor area, I seem to be healing fine for 6 weeks. My question is this; I have never used Propecia or Minoxidil before. I am curious if 5% Minoxidil would speed up and/or enhance grafts. It states that Minoxidil only works in the vertex area. Would that not apply to recipient area on the top of my head? After all, the grafts were taken from below the vertex. Also, I’m using Mederma for scarring from old plug extraction on crown. Is it wise or safe to use Mederma and Minoxidil at the same time? I have purchased the Minoxidil, but have not used it yet. Any information would be appreciated. Thank you.

The donor hair will not be affected by Minoxidil so I do not recommend its use after a hair transplant. I generally put people on Propecia if they are young and in the balding process at almost any stage, as hair transplants can accelerate any hair loss process that is active. Mederma is an over-the-counter herbal medication that is recommended for (1) old scars, and (2) new scars. Its claims include that it softens the scars. It has no defined scientific benefit that I know of. I suspect that it is safe, but I do not have first hand knowledge about it.

Dan wrote…

a website called consumer-review.net/hair-loss.html rates a product called procerin higher than propecia, procerin’s website, procerin.com elaborates on their product. I was getting ready to order some procerin, when my wife heard your ad on the radio and I checked out your website, and read about dutasteride. Are you familiar with procerin ? Also could a dermatoligist prescribe dutasteride to patients before it has fda approval ? please advise

The product you described, like many other similar products, adhere to a very loose standard for the health food additives which are naturally found in the environment. There are many natural herbs that are poisonous as well. There is no requirement for any of these products to prove effectiveness or safety, unlike those that go through the rigorous FDA process. This is the reason that I maintain what I believe is a healthy skepticism for these ‘natural’ products. The same is true for my attitude for prescribing dutasteride for hair loss, which has not been shown to be both safe and effective for hair loss. I am familiar with hearsay reports that the libido impact is greater for dutasteride than with Propecia and the drug has a very long half life, which means that it takes months to get out of your system. If you should take dutasteride and develop a libido problem (for example), it may take 6-12 months for it to rectify, while with Propecia is would disappear in days. I personally would not be against prescribing dutasteride, but I have not done so yet. My motto, like any good doctor’s philosophy must be “Above all, do no harm”.

Also, it should be noted that the link on that consumer-review.net site you mentioned is an affiliate link to the Procerin site, meaning that Procerin pays that site if people use their link to buy the product. In that regard, it would seem that it’s in that site’s best interest to highly recommend Procerin.