learn Finasteride
Popular 5-alpha reductase inhibitor that lowers DHT, taken as a pill or used topically
- Finasteride for alopecia: the definitive guide to using it correctly. Finasteride 1 mg daily blocks DHT and, in trials, slowed hair loss in most men over 6 to 12 months, though some men do not respond and the benefit lasts only while the drug is taken. It is prescription-only, carries a pregnancy contraindication, and has reported sexual, mood, breast and semen side effects, some of which men report continuing after stopping.
- Is finasteride safe? In one-year trials most men tolerated finasteride 1 mg, but its risks are not only sexual: US, UK and EU regulators warn of sexual dysfunction, depression and suicidal thoughts, and of sexual and mood symptoms that have continued after stopping, and men also report cognitive, anxiety and physical symptoms. How often lasting problems happen, and how much of that the drug causes, is not known; finasteride is prescription-only and must not be taken, or handled as crushed or broken tablets, by women who are or may be pregnant.
- Does hair strand thickness decrease in men with androgenic alopecia? Can finasteride help restore it? Androgenic alopecia thins hair strands by miniaturizing follicles. The pivotal finasteride trials (1,553 men, 1 mg/day, two years) report increased hair counts and improved assessed appearance, but they measured density, not the diameter of individual strands, so the effect on thickness itself is not established.
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