Finasteride Pill Cutting

[redy]

I've been worried over the past few weeks after switching from the 1mg format to the 5mg cutting into 4ths format that there is potential for uneven distribution in the pill sections.. meaning that I could hypothetically be taking a sugar pill 3 out of 4 days and not notice it at all, then take a 5mg slice on the 4th day.

Is this possible or no?

Has anyone experienced any issues switching from 1mg to the 5mg format?

[ge77inhigh]

Is this possible or no?

No

Has anyone experienced any issues switching from 1mg to the 5mg format?

i started with 5mg. Divided it into 4 = 1.25 mg. Took everyday for most part and forgot to take it often.

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Finasteride suppresses DHT up to 4 days according to it's half-life. You don't need a lot of finasteride. Even such as .1 mg has similar effect to 1 mg of finasteride according to studies in hair count.

I think more finasteride you are taking then more chances of sides you may have will increase. Of course, you may not have side at all or they may come down the road. It is really hard to predict. I took finasteride for over a year. My sides came down at every end when i was returning from my deployment. I have been having issues with brain fog, physical fatigue, joint pain, and depression. Some of those sides may have gotten worse due to nature of my deployment, but now i am off finasteride i can tell the difference like day and night.

I am not trying to discourage you regarding finasteride. It worked great for my hair, i would keep taking it if it didn't do so much harm to my body. Hope i gave you some of the information you were looking for. Good luck.

[redy]

Thanks for the reply - It's really discouraging to ask a question on here and see the 100+ lurker views and no replies.

I didn't think it was possible - as the way they manufacture these pills would make no sense economically and scale operational wise if it were possible for each pill to be unevenly distributed. That would imply the chance of any pill having not 5mg exactly since they don't mix each pill individually, which would be horribly inefficient.

I'm doing fine with side effects so far. Anything that happens or doesn't happen, I'm chalking up to a state of mind for me. I know it's messing with hormones but in the end I like to think I'm the captain of this ship.

[frankzukini]

Any regular poster who came by your thread and didn't post very much likely agree with what ge77inhigh has said. If this can reassure you in any way, let me repeat that, yes, there is absolutely no chance that Finasteride wouldn't be homogeneously distributed and, even though that would be the case, as mentioned, that would probably not even be a problem, considering Finasteride's biological half-life.

[goldbondmafia]

the only thing I am worried about is when I cut my 5mg pills it doesn't always end up too good. Sometimes I get two big pills and 2 smaller ones. Im just hoping even the small ones contain up to at least 1mg while others may be closer to 2mg...

[SolarPowered Man]

the only thing I am worried about is when I cut my 5mg pills it doesn't always end up too good. Sometimes I get two big pills and 2 smaller ones. Im just hoping even the small ones contain up to at least 1mg while others may be closer to 2mg...

Make sure your knife is super sharp. And cut in one motion from top to bottom. Then cut the half from outside edge to centre. I would cut just before I was due to take one. I would take the smallest quarter and the crumbs left on the bench. Then the three following days, I would take from smallest to largest. I would follow this regime every 4 days. I figured having the largest quarter on the fourth day and then the smallest on the new 1st day cycle would even itself out.

[goldbondmafia]

Make sure your knife is super sharp. And cut in one motion from top to bottom. Then cut the half from outside edge to centre. I would cut just before I was due to take one. I would take the smallest quarter and the crumbs left on the bench. Then the three following days, I would take from smallest to largest. I would follow this regime every 4 days. I figured having the largest quarter on the fourth day and then the smallest on the new 1st day cycle would even itself out.

I just cut it into 4 pieces at once then 4 days later do it again. The last few times Ive made some bad cuts.

Do you think its bad cutting 4 days worth leaving the pills split open? - maybe they could lose their effectiveness being in small chunks/pieces. Probably a stupid question regardless

[SolarPowered Man]

I just cut it into 4 pieces at once then 4 days later do it again. The last few times Ive made some bad cuts.

Do you think its bad cutting 4 days worth leaving the pills split open? - maybe they could lose their effectiveness being in small chunks/pieces. Probably a stupid question regardless

I just put them in clip-lock bags.

[redy]

I'm still kind of nervous about how effective everything is even about a month later from starting the cutting 5mg pills.. I don't know if I'd rather just buy the really expensive 1mg pills to know exactly what I'm getting.. but I'm still a student and it's just a lot of money...

There's really no way for me know if if it's working better or worse than the 1mg pills not cut though..

Is there any sort of evidence/study showing how the pills are distributed?

Or is it just a logic argument and that other people do it so it must be fine type of thing.

Just need something so I can stop this constant back and forth in my mind...

[frankzukini]

Finasteride has a half-life of 4 days. If you do as the previous poster does (taking pieces in a consistent order), Finasteride level in your blood plasma will be identical no matter what the size of the piece you took is. Finasteride is evenly distributed in your Proscar tablet. You shouldn't be worried about having prefect quarters each time. I have a major degree in chemistry, if that can help back my statement.

[redy]

Finasteride has a half-life of 4 days. If you do as the previous poster does (taking pieces in a consistent order), Finasteride level in your blood plasma will be identical no matter what the size of the piece you took is. Finasteride is evenly distributed in your Proscar tablet. You shouldn't be worried about having prefect quarters each time. I have a major degree in chemistry, if that can help back my statement.

I'm doing the generic 5mg tablets from cvs on a script,

what I am worried about is the distribution of the active ingredient of the pill itself - so that I know that each day I am taking around 1mg, not like .25 one day, 1.5 one day, 2.0 one day, etc - not the physical sizes.

I'm just wondering at this point if there is any sort of study on pill active ingredient distribution for the generic tablets or any sort of tablets so that I can say I knew what I was doing in hindsight.

[akai]

"In the tablet pressing process, the main guideline is to ensure that the appropriate amount of active ingredient is in each tablet. Hence, all the ingredients should be well-mixed. If a sufficiently homogenous mix of the components cannot be obtained with simple blending processes, the ingredients must be granulated prior to compression to assure an even distribution of the active compound in the final tablet. Two basic techniques are used to granulate powders for compression into a tablet: wet granulation and dry granulation. Powders that can be mixed well do not require granulation and can be compressed into tablets through direct compression."

Giant pharmaceutical companies, especially in the United States, aren't running some shoddy illegal operation in a basement, lol. There are strict guidelines, standards, and procedures that have to be followed. Search around on google, there are threads on this topic on various hair loss forums that are over a decade old. The general consensus is that they're evenly distributed and any difference is minuscule. There is also a minority that thinks the opposite. If you are truly worried about the distribution of the medication I'd switch to the 1mg tablets.

[redy]

"In the tablet pressing process, the main guideline is to ensure that the appropriate amount of active ingredient is in each tablet. Hence, all the ingredients should be well-mixed. If a sufficiently homogenous mix of the components cannot be obtained with simple blending processes, the ingredients must be granulated prior to compression to assure an even distribution of the active compound in the final tablet. Two basic techniques are used to granulate powders for compression into a tablet: wet granulation and dry granulation. Powders that can be mixed well do not require granulation and can be compressed into tablets through direct compression."

Giant pharmaceutical companies, especially in the United States, aren't running some shoddy illegal operation in a basement, lol. There are strict guidelines, standards, and procedures that have to be followed. Search around on google, there are threads on this topic on various hair loss forums that are over a decade old. The general consensus is that they're evenly distributed and any difference is minuscule. There is also a minority that thinks the opposite. If you are truly worried about the distribution of the medication I'd switch to the 1mg tablets.

Not really truly worried - it's more just paranoia like everything involved in hair loss. Logically speaking, it would be pretty impossible for them not to be evenly distributed. But I need something to worry needlessly about - right...

Thanks for that post though. For all I know, if I switched back to 1mg tablets I'd start telling myself if I was taking the 1.25mg tablets it would work better anyway... haha..

[lukis]

Also, youre not supposed to cut it into fifths...youre supposed to cut it into fourths which equals 1.25mg. Skipping a day wont hurt you but not getting enough fin in you could possibly skew your results. I use a sharp knife to cut mine into fifths, it's not problem.