Taking .05mg finasteride effective with fewer side effects?

[JJacobs152]

Dan, to answer your question that you asked earlier in this thread...I took FIN at the recommended 1mg dose for 8 months and then lowered it to 0.5mg once the sides became noticable and unbearable. I lowered it to 0.5 mg before I cut myself off completely during my 11th month.

How was the hair progress during those 11 months? Did you notice any changes?

Secondly, fellas I've had a question for those who have been on propecia for quite sometime. Is this a pseud-ED in the sense that it takes more arousal for you guys to get erect, or it's just not physically possible. I'm hoping it's the former and not the latter. Just curious, as to how a naked woman may be in front of you and still not possible to get erect.

[StayThick]

Dan, to answer your question that you asked earlier in this thread...I took FIN at the recommended 1mg dose for 8 months and then lowered it to 0.5mg once the sides became noticable and unbearable. I lowered it to 0.5 mg before I cut myself off completely during my 11th month.

[Dan26]

Hey Desmond what do you think about dissolving the fin tablet in an alcohol? Also, could a 1mg fin pill be cut 8 ways by a pill cutter? I may just take little bites off the pill, I recall a member saying he still got mild sides from doing that. For me, as long as I take between 0.05-0.2 mg every 3-5 days I would be good. Im using RU on the front of my scalp and hairline so all I am really hoping for with fin is some stability in the crown and to knock my DHT down a little.

[Benzzro]

Benzzro to be honest with you, it is more than likely to still affect your erections. My personal opinion is that weaker erections and libido problems which is generally reported with Propecia is most likely due to its potential to cause prostatitis.

In some ppl, its a very mild case, so they only complain of weaker erections, while in more severe cases ppl have difficulty urinating, pain during ejaculation and testicular pain. It is a prostate drug after all.

Is there danger to continue usage? Because I can deal with it since it's only effected my erections by like 10%.

Thanks for the reply btw!

[Desmond84]

Do you even think taking .25 EOD can work? I've started this week, in hopes my slight weaker erections will come back. Or is it a waste of time.

Benzzro to be honest with you, it is more than likely to still affect your erections. My personal opinion is that weaker erections and libido problems which is generally reported with Propecia is most likely due to its potential to cause prostatitis.

In some ppl, its a very mild case, so they only complain of weaker erections, while in more severe cases ppl have difficulty urinating, pain during ejaculation and testicular pain. It is a prostate drug after all.

[Benzzro]

Yeah, there's a lot of confusion about the difference between plasma half-life and biological half-life:

Plasma half-life is the rate of elimination of a drug from the body by your kidney and liver. For Finasteride that is approximately five to six hours in men 18 to 60 years of age, and eight hours in men more than 70 years of age.

Biological half-life however refers to how long the pharmacological effects of a drug remain before another dose is required. Now, finasteride is an irreversible inhibitor of 5-Alpha reductase, meaning until your body produces more 5-alpha reductase, DHT levels remain low. The body generally takes 3-5 days to form sufficient amounts 5-alpha reductase to start converting Testosterone to DHT and damaging your hair again. So as long as you dose yourself before the third day, you should still be keeping your DHT levels pretty low.

Do you even think taking .25 EOD can work? I've started this week, in hopes my slight weaker erections will come back. Or is it a waste of time.

[Desmond84]

Desmond but here ppl are talking about the halflife being 24hrs...? http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthr...?t=4809&page=3

Yeah, there's a lot of confusion about the difference between plasma half-life and biological half-life:

Plasma half-life is the rate of elimination of a drug from the body by your kidney and liver. For Finasteride that is approximately five to six hours in men 18 to 60 years of age, and eight hours in men more than 70 years of age.

Biological half-life however refers to how long the pharmacological effects of a drug remain before another dose is required. Now, finasteride is an irreversible inhibitor of 5-Alpha reductase, meaning until your body produces more 5-alpha reductase, DHT levels remain low. The body generally takes 3-5 days to form sufficient amounts 5-alpha reductase to start converting Testosterone to DHT and damaging your hair again. So as long as you dose yourself before the third day, you should still be keeping your DHT levels pretty low.

[freddiegemini]

Desmond but here ppl are talking about the halflife being 24hrs...? http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthr...?t=4809&page=3

[Desmond84]

So just to clarify though, If I were to take fin 1mg say 3-4 days a week instead of everyday, It would still have the same effect? or is it a lesser affect?

Hey rdawg,

It would have exactly the same effect I have a few patient's that have been doing it for over 2 years and their hair is still the same!
I mean, worse comes to worse if you did have an aggressive case of MPB and your hair started shedding again you can always go back on to once daily again

[freddiegemini]

thank you for your info/help Desmond

[Desmond84]

Now, the trouble with 0.05mg is that there's still some amount of DHT roaming around in your blood and might bind to your hair! So, it may not be as effective as 0.2-1mg. Nevertheless, 0.05mg would most definitely slow down your hairloss to a great extent.

On a side note though, as you all would agree we are all different. Some will experience sides and that's just a fact of life. So, if you're one of the ppl that have experienced sides already while on propecia, I beg you not to try and reduce the dose just to prevent side effects. I have seen ppl attempting it before and ended up getting very nasty sides (prostatitis) for up to 6 months. So please think about the risks. Unfortunately, because of the pharmacological properties of this drug, it is almost impossible to play with the dose. You will experience sides no matter what dose you take and that would only put your health at risk! So please guys, the only reason I'm here helping you out is because I personally believe that the dose Merck is putting in propecia is incredibly high and unnecessary. So, if you wanna cut down the dose and frequency just to save money and give your body a break, you can do so. That's all.

and to all the guys who HAVE experienced sides, don't worry. It's NOT ALL OVER In feb 2013, Aderans will be releasing their final results for Phase II trials. If its positive, it means we have managed to make hairs DHT resistant making Propecia obsolete. Not only that, they can grow a significant amount of hair back. So, let's keep our fingers crossed and don't throw in the towel YET

Cheers

[Desmond84]

With regards to what dose should be sufficient here's a few graphs that shows what happens to DHT at different doses! These are all from Merck's trial results submitted to FDA and is now available through freedom of information act! Sorry about the size btw, I'm not sure why they came out so small!

[Desmond84]

Desmond thats a ridiculously good post! thanks

So i'm finished with topical treatments - effective but over applying stuff to my scalp. Means i obsess daily.

My plan now is to quarter 1mg of propecia creating 0.25mg tablets.

I plan on taking one of these every 3 days.

Dosage aside (im happy with not putting as much finasteride in my body) is this infrequency ok?

I mean every 3 days - will this play around too much with my body? Is 3 days too long a gap meaning my body will be going up and down like a yo-yo?

(sorry for the lack of scientific jargon)

Hey Freddi,

Merck tested to see what happens if they dose you once and realised that it took 5-7 days for DHT levels to come back up to normal! so dosing 3 times a week should definitely bring your scalp DHT right down

Here's the graph for you to check out. Pretty impressive

[rdawg]

Hey guys,

Just read your thread and realised you were looking for a pharmacist's advice on dosing. So here's what I can tell you guys for sure:

Finasteride has a flat dose response curve meaning taking 0.05mg, 0.2mg and 1mg daily would have exactly the same impact on your scalp DHT profile (which you guys have already realised)

Now, what that means is if you're going to experience sides on 1 mg, you're most likely going to experience sides on 0.05mg. Now, that being said, it may take a bit longer to surface, since its taking a longer period of time to reach a steady state (stabilise in your body). But if its going to happen, it will eventually happen!

So if you're just scared of getting sides and think that taking such a miniscule dose is going to stop that I can promise you that is not the case.

So, my honest opinion is that if you're desperate to try it but scared of sides, break a 1mg tablet into 4 pieces using a tablet cutter and take it 3 times a week (Mon, Wed, Fri). This should give you a good picture of how your body is going to react to this drug. AND BELIEVE ME IT"S STILL VERY EFFECTIVE

Dissolving it in ethanol and all that is fine, but why do it when there's no difference in your body's response. On top of that you're ingesting industrial grade alcohol for no reason at all!

With regards to taking it every other day or 3 times per week, it's safe to do so because of Finasteride's "pharmacological half-life". Now, please note that is different to the plasma half-life which is a measure of a drug's elimination from the body. (50% of finasteride is generally eliminated from your body within 2 hours)

The biological half-life on the other hand, is the point where its pharmacological effect (DHT reduction) is reduced by half. Now, for finasteride that is about 3-7 days, which allows you to take it 2-3 times a week rather than daily.

The reason why it has such a long biological half-life is because it is an IRREVERSIBLE inhibitor of 5-alpha-reductase, meaning that any alpha-reductase it binds to is pretty much deactivated and will no longer serve any purpose. Generally your body takes approximately 3-7 days to reproduce the same amount of 5-alpha-reductase and bring your DHT levels back up to normal. So, you can definitely take advantage of that and take it less often!

Hope that helps you guys out and let me know if you need any help with anything,

Cheers.

So just to clarify though, If I were to take fin 1mg say 3-4 days a week instead of everyday, It would still have the same effect? or is it a lesser affect?

[thechamp]

Yep

Yep but I'm deticated to gym 4 times a week lots of running my face is bloated more