Proscar for hairloss worked for 8 years then stopped - now what?

[varonil]

Hi all,

I began to take Proscar to control hairloss and it worked great for 7 or 8 years. Proscar as I understand it is a generic alternative to Propecia whose active ingredient to control hair loss and regrowth is Finasteride. I took about 1.25mg per day by chopping 5mg tablets into 4.

For the past two years however it has stopped working and I've experienced dramatic hairloss. It seems like I've developed an immunity or something to what I thought had been the cure and I'm now "certifiably" bald.

This situation is aggravated as I had a transplant that didn't work before discovering proscar which left me with a visible scar (I've authored another thread on that one).

Does anyone know of any treatment options for when Proscar stops working? Again I understand that Proscar is similar to propecia, so I'm guessing Propecia would not work either.

Many thanks,

Adam

[SpencerKobren]

Hi all,

I began to take Proscar to control hairloss and it worked great for 7 or 8 years. Proscar as I understand it is a generic alternative to Propecia whose active ingredient to control hair loss and regrowth is Finasteride. I took about 1.25mg per day by chopping 5mg tablets into 4.

For the past two years however it has stopped working and I've experienced dramatic hairloss. It seems like I've developed an immunity or something to what I thought had been the cure and I'm now "certifiably" bald.

This situation is aggravated as I had a transplant that didn't work before discovering proscar which left me with a visible scar (I've authored another thread on that one).

Does anyone know of any treatment options for when Proscar stops working? Again I understand that Proscar is similar to propecia, so I'm guessing Propecia would not work either.

Many thanks,

Adam

Hey Adam,

Actually Proscar is a the brand name benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) drug manufactured by Merck and Co., the same company that manufactures Propecia. The only difference is that Proscar is a 5mg dose of finasteride, and Propecia is a 1mg dose.

I have been in contact with several guys in your exact situation who began to see positive results again after asking their physicians to up their dosage of finasteride. Some guys do well with 2.5 mg and others claim to see benefits from raising their dosage to 5mg, an entire Proscar tablet. You can also ask your doctor about Avodart (Dutasteride )if upping your dosage of finasteride doesn’t put you back on track. Avodart is a dual 5 alpha-reductase inhibitor that for some men is more effective than finasteride in stopping the progression of hair loss and regrowing hair. The drug is currently approved for the treatment of BPH just like Proscar.

Hope this helps.

[Spartan]

Is it common for men to develop a "tolerance" for Propecia? I'm just wondering because I took it for a year, took two years off because I couldn't afford it, and now I want to take it again.

[tbtadmin]

Propecia Tolerance

Is it common for men to develop a "tolerance" for Propecia? I'm just wondering because I took it for a year, took two years off because I couldn't afford it, and now I want to take it again.

Here's a link to a blog post that discusses your concerns written:

http://blog.americanhairloss.org/hair-loss/hair-loss-drug-tolerance/

[Spex]

Propecia is the best proven way to prevent further loss. If for some reason your not a responder over time theres Dutasteride/Avodart.

FYI -

Dutasteride and finasteride (PROPECIA) are both 5-alpha-reductase (5AR) inhibitors. Both treatments work by inhibiting 5AR, the enzyme responsible for converting testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT is the primary androgen in the prostate. It is a primary factor in the development and progression of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and other prostate diseases and is also a major cause of hair loss.

.5mg - 2.5mg of Dutasteride provides better results in hair maintenance/regrowth as opposed to Finasteride

However, the benefit likely comes from its higher inhibition of type II 5ar not its suppression of type I 5ar. Merck tested a specific type I 5ar inhibitor called "MK386" in a human trial and found it had no effect on balding.

Jumping on the Dutasteride bandwagon before the Finasteride bandwagon is not a good idea. For most men Finasteride is enough to halt and even reverse MPB... In the off-chance your body becomes tolerant of Finasteride (over the years) you always have Dutasteride to fall back on...

Side-effects on Dutasteride may be more common, any such sides would last longer as the half-life of Dutasteride is much longer then Finasteride, and unlike type II 5ar type I 5ar *is* present in brain tissue. Finally, keep in mind that DHT is not an evil androgen that just causes hairloss. Various bodily functions benefit from DHT. Finasteride inhibits 65% overall DHT levels leaving 35% for your body to use (most of that 35% is from the type I 5ar that isnt a big factor in hairloss). Dutasteride inhibits 90% or more overall DHT levels leaving 10% or less for your body...

Basically, use Finasteride **first** and only resort to Dutasteride if you must - This is just my opinion

[varonil]

Hi guys, thanks for all your responses and sorry for getting back so late (didn't check for awhile). I have doubled my dose of proscar for now; its been about 4 months and I don't notice much yet, but I will report back. At the same time I'm looking to fill in my old strip-scar some more so I can keep shaving my head short - the ladies seem to like it ...

[Larence]

Didn't Propecia go generic so no need to do proscar? I been buying the generic online though for awhile now without a prescription here validonlinepharmacy.com and it's worked ok for me so far.