7-8 years propecia...what can you expect?

[Michael24]

Hello Everyone,

Ive been using propecia for about 6 to 7 years now. From the age of 17 I began noticing the male baldness. It runs in the family. A doc gave me the advice to take propecia and for about 5 years my hair has remained the same. Some thickening and even regrowth. Allmost reaching the 7 year mark I began noticing increased hairloss on my temples and front. My hair seems to be thinning and the hairline receeding.

My question to you guys....how much can you expect afer 7/8 years? Are there any other long-term propecia users here?

Greetz,

Michael

[Layercake]

haha yeah, I'm curious about this too, I started on finasteride nearly 2 months ago and the hair loss is starting to slow At 20 years old I'd love to know roughly how long I've got.

I'm only taking it every other day though, so maybe if things start to go south again I can just go to taking it every day.

in anycase I've got my fingers crossed for that hair cell cloning stuff, as I'm sure you all are. it would be ideal if they could perfect it around time the drugs stop working for me.

[Mark Baxa, MD]

Reference: Propecia effectiveness [Michael 24]

Hello Michael 24 & Layercake-

Your question is one that I am well aware of in my practice. As you should know, Propecia [Finasteride] is approximately 89.9% effective ... for 're-growth' of any 'vellus' hair.

By that, I mean that you must have vellus hair for it to decrease the DHT and thereby stimulate a 'better' hair shaft/follicle [called: Terminal Hair].

But I will tell you that in my practice I find Finasteride to be VERY effective.. especially at maintaining the patients current hair count. But alas, usually after about 6 -7 years ... I do see that it either loses some of its effectiveness ~or~ I believe that you just can not stop the stronger 'genetic' factors from taking hold.

So what you are seeing is probably the best results you can get from Finasteride alone!

You may want to also add both Selenium & Biotin as a supplement to your finasteride!!!

I started doing this about five years ago with my patients and I have seen less of this 'genetic' decrease in effectiveness of Finasteride alone.

Therefore, I started compounding a formulation of Finasteride, Biotin & Selenium for my patients.

You can do basically the same by going to a GNC store and getting both as a supplement, alone with your Propecia [Finasteride].

Otherwise, you may be looking at a more definitive solution if you do not see a better response in 12 - 18 months .... That being of course a surgical Hair Restoration procedure!

If you don't want to take three different pills each day ... Finasteride + Biotin + Selenium .... You can contact me for further advice and recommendations.


Best Regards,

Mark D. Baxa, M.D.

[Layercake]

cool thanks for the response Doc! i look into Biotin + Selenium

[Jon]

Selenium & Biotin

Dr. Baxa,
Can you please explain why Selenium & Biotin helps Propecia users maintain hair after 6-7 years?

[heynow1234]

hey doc where do you get Biotin & Selenium , is that like a vitamin or something?

[Mark Baxa, MD]

Finasteride - Biotin + Selenium

I use Biotin [which is a Vit B comples - you can get this at any GNC store ... I order it from a supplier] and Selenium [which is a mineral essential to metabolism - again this is available at GNC stores as well].

The primary reason for utilizing these two products with Finasteride is the fact that they are shown to be beneficial for growth of hair and fingernail [both are made from keratin].

As far as if it will help keep your hair after 7-8 years with Finasteride ... Unknown.

Best Regards,

Mark D. Baxa, MD

[Paolo]

I think Dr Baxa is giving great advice. The problem with many medical problems (I'm a medical scientist although not a doctor), is that the body seems to fight against things which are doing it good, sometimes with autoimmune diseases it is set on a path of self destruction.

How doctors overcome this, is by giving a ****tail of drugs each working by a slightly different mechanism to supplement and support the original drug. Alternatively they stop the original drug and replace it with another until that stops working, then another and sometimes they can go back to the original and it works again.

This will be true of hair loss, if you are using finasteride or minoxidil and after 7-8 years it starts losing its effectiveness, then begin by supplementing it as Dr Baxa suggested, you can also try a hair loss shampoo/conditioning system (there are many on the market, I've used American Crew, ProFusion and Schwarzkopf Bonacure, although I thought the Schwarzkopf one made the hairloss slightly worse), so try a hair loss shampoo in addition to the Finasteride. Incidentally I also used Nizoral (Ketonazole) but suffered some pretty awful effects due to its anti-androgenic qualities, so proceed with caution with that one!