Finasteride for hair loss

What is Finasteride? How does this medicine work?

As you know, scientists associate such a common phenomenon as male pattern baldness with the effect on the body of androgens – male sex hormones, one of the main of which is testosterone.

Testosterone plays a physiological role in the body as a shaper of traits inherent in men:

• Accelerated muscle growth

• Bone compaction

• Stimulation of body and facial hair growth.

As it turned out, the hair on the head of most men reacts to androgens in the opposite way. On the parietal and frontal areas, the scalp produces a special enzyme 5-alpha-reductase of the second type, which is able to transform testosterone into dihydrotestosterone. This stronger hormone inhibits and gradually negates the formation of new hair roots.

Finasteride, on the other hand, directly affects the enzyme, therefore it is not a hormonal drug. 1 mg of Finasteride is able to block 5-alpha-reductase in the amounts necessary to reduce the concentration of dihydrotestosterone by 70%.

How long should I take Finasteride to treat hair loss?

Unfortunately, with the help of Finasteride it is impossible to completely eliminate the causes of androgenetic alopecia. The drug only temporarily protects the hair follicles from the action of dihydrotestosterone. If treatment with Finasteride is stopped, the body gradually restores type 5 2-alpha reductase, and after a year, new regrown hair will fall out, and the baldness process will start again and progress.

Men who want to slow down baldness, or who have already tried the product and were satisfied with the effect of restoring the hairline, need to use Finasteride regularly.

How quickly will the treatment work?

The effect of Finasteride can be detected after at least three to four months of continuous use of the drug. This is due to the gradual suppression of the enzyme, which is produced by very small doses of the active substance of the drug.

It follows from this that the full restoration of hair does not occur immediately, without surprises and magic. It is detected first by several new hairs in areas that have recently become bald, then by overgrowth of these areas with sparse young hair. At first, they still experience the effect of the work of dihydrotestosterone residues, so they grow faded and thin. taking Finasteride from 6 months to a year in most cases gives the desired result in the form of new, healthy and thick hair, actively growing and occupying bald areas. According to statistics, two years of regular use of the drug is enough to trace the maximum effect of the treatment.

The expediency of using Finasteride is monitored one year after the start of therapy. Due to various reasons related to the individual biochemical system of the body, some patients receive an unsatisfactory result. Another option used to restore hair, if Finasteride did not help, is Minoxidil treatment or hair transplant.

If the patient is quite satisfied with the speed of hair restoration, therapy should be continued.

Contraindications: when should Finasteride not be taken?

Like any other medicine, Finasteride should not be taken if an individual allergic reaction to the active substance or components of the drug is detected.

In addition, a relationship has been found between taking Finasteride and the concentration of prostate-specific antigen, or PSA. PSA is a substance of a complex protein nature, the degree of release of which is an indicator of the functioning of the prostate gland. In some cases, a urologist prescribes an analysis for PSA, since with an increase in the volume of its production, the likelihood of prostate cancer is high. In order to avoid misunderstandings, in this case, it is necessary to inform the doctor about the use of Finasteride in advance, since this drug usually significantly reduces the concentration of PSA in the blood.

About the PSA itself and the analysis of its concentration can be found in various articles about the detection and treatment of cancer or prostate adenoma.

Taking Finasteride does not interfere with becoming a blood donor, but for this, the patient must indicate in the registration card the fact of regular use of this drug. This is necessary to avoid blood transfusions with Finasteride to pregnant women. The fact is that Finasteride provokes disturbances in the development of the fetus, and this should never be allowed.

Does Finasteride affect a man’s ability to conceive a child?

Finasteride is a substance that can penetrate semen, but there is not enough data to study its effect on the quality of seminal fluid and the ability to conceive children by a man. Therefore, the manufacturer is obliged to warn men that the conception of a child is not recommended during the period of use of the drug. Although there is no information on the negative impact of Finasteride on the course of pregnancy or the health of a child conceived by sperm with a small amount of this substance, no.

With a planned conception, even the smallest risk will be avoided by refusing to take Finasteride for three months before fertilization. If this happened without prior preparation, you can once again not worry – not a single child has yet suffered from the father’s medication for baldness.

Can a man taking Finasteride have sex with a pregnant woman?

Finasteride negatively affects the intrauterine development of the child. Given that the full cycle of excretion of the drug lasts about three months (depending on the metabolic rate and other individual factors), even for those women who are just planning a pregnancy, it is strictly forbidden to take the drug.

Men in this regard have nothing to worry about, since Finasteride penetrates the sperm in such small doses that they have no effect on the unborn child. In this regard, men have no barriers to having sex with a pregnant woman without a condom.

How to take Finasteride correctly?

Baldness is treated with Finasteride by taking one tablet per day. The mode of reception is tied to food intake. The medicine can be taken both before and after meals – the main thing is that during the stay of the tablet in the gastrointestinal tract, digestion processes are started. Each tablet contains 1 mg of the active substance, the amount of which in the body increases every day due to the cumulative effect.

What side effects can Finasteride cause?

Clinical studies involving a large number of volunteers have shown that the vast majority of male patients perfectly tolerate the effects of the drug with a long course of use.

Finasteride usually does not cause side effects, but in some patients, a decrease in libido, disturbances in the genital area, pain in the scrotum and a decrease in the amount of sperm released during ejaculation have been noted in some patients while taking the drug.

The number of such cases is only from 1,2% to 6% in different groups. The presence of such side effects is the reason for refusing treatment, after which all the above effects cease to bother patients.

Will taking Finasteride cause more hair growth in other areas of the body?

In other areas of the skin, there is no type 5 2-alpha reductase, so Finasteride is unable to affect hair growth anywhere except the frontal and parietal parts of the head.

How effective is Finasteride for male pattern baldness?

A double-blind, placebo-controlled study shows that Finasteride has a pronounced effect that differs from the placebo effect. The first year of clinical trials showed that 99% of the volunteers experienced the cessation of baldness, i.e. getting rid of the main symptom of androgenetic alopecia. Unfortunately, in 1% of patients taking Finasteride, hair continued to fall out a year after treatment.

Restoration of hairline on the bald area was found in a third of patients, and in 18% of the subjects, the changes are pronounced, and the hair becomes much larger. Finasteride therapy shows the greatest effectiveness in the treatment of alopecia in the early stages, when the disease lasts less than 10 years.

In order to enhance the effectiveness of the drug, trichologists recommend combining Finasteride with topical Minoxidil treatment.

Author of the article: Herman Olga Leonidovna, trichologist, specially for the site ayzdorov.ru