Reducing dosage of finastride

[sandy221981]

Hi,

I am 30 years old and I have been using Finastride for the past couple of years. I take it five days a week and do not take it on Saturday and Sunday. I wanted to check if I can take it every alternate day and thus reduce the dosage further. Will this impact my hair loss. I have read that 1 mg finastride lasts in the body for close to 3 days. I am not sure if this is true and hence expecting some responses.

Between..the real reason why I want to reduce the dosage is because I have been experiencing hives for the past 3-4 months. I was not aware that one of the side effects of finastride is hives until I read about it some days ago. My doctor does not see any other reason for hives from my blood tests and he suggested that I stop finastride completely. Honestly I am little worried on stopping finastride as I really want to maintain the current hair that I have. Also I have been taking finastride for past 2-3 years and the hives started just 3-4 months ago..I have been using minoxidil 5% for more than 5-6 years now but I feel the real player in combating hair loss is finastride...

So please advise if I can reduce the dosage from 5 days a week to 3 days a week.

Regards,
Sandy

[TakingThePlunge]

Sandy,

Lots of guys take finasteride on alternating days. When I was using it I eventually settled on a MWF schedule.

[jclenz30]

Is that 1mg MWF?

[TakingThePlunge]

I was quartering a 5mg pill so roughly 1.25mg MWF.

[zenmunk]

Deleted, because I noticed my questions answered in another thread. Glad your hair is hanging in there, TakingThePlunge!

[TakingThePlunge]

zenmunk,

It's been about 9 months and things seem to be holding up pretty well. Thanks for asking. I've updated my original thread and added some pics.

Stopping Finasteride for Now

[zenmunk]

sandy,

In human clinical trials, the pharmacokinetic half-life of finasteride was found to be 6 - 8 hours. However, the pharmcodynamic lifetime of finasteride action, measured in terms of the drug's ability to reduce the systemic concentration of DHT, after a single oral dose of between 0.04 and 5mg, was greater than or equal to 7 days. See the chart below:



You can see the how a single dose of the drug reduces the systemic concentration of DHT over a 7 day period. That leads one to believe that taking finasteride daily is probably not necessary to maintain one's hair. However, it also leads one to believe that taking one dose every 5 - 7 days is probably unwise as well, because while the DHT remains reduced over the 7 day period it does slowly rise over that time.

Then the question is how often should one take finasteride? Based on the above chart, I'd say it would probably be pretty safe to take it every other day or even three times a week (MWF) as TakingThePlunge has indicated. You may even get away with twice a week (MTh).

The next question is how much (as in mg) should one take? Take a look at the charts below:



You can see from the Serum DHT graph above that from doses of 0.2mg all the way through 5mg, the amount of inhibited DHT was about the same.



You can see from the Scalp Skin DHT graph above that from doses of 0.05mg all the way through 5mg, the amount of inhibited DHT was about the same.



You can see by the above graph that the dose dependence appears also in the accompanying rise in T, one-onehundredth the 5 mg dose being identical in its effect on the scalp skin testosterone.



The above graph indicates how the following dosages of finasteride inhibit DHT:

- 0.2mg = 61.7%
- 0.5mg = ~65%
- 1mg = 68.7%
- 5mg = 69.2%

I'm no scientist, but the first plasma DHT graph seems to contradict the rest of the graphs somewhat:

- 0.2mg reduces DHT to ~ 55 ng/dl
- 0.5mg reduces DHT to ~ 42 ng/dl
- 1.5mg reduces DHT to ~ 32 ng/dl
- 5.0mg reduces DHT to ~ 25 ng/dl

The first graph deals in blood serum levels. The rest in percentages of inhibited DHT. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to compare the two. Perhaps plasma DHT levels of 55 ng/dl are not much different than levels of 25 ng/dl when it comes to preventing MPB? I welcome someone(s) more expert in these matters to chime in.

Regardless, I conclude:

It's probably pretty safe to take finasteride every other day or even three times a week (MWF) as TakingThePlunge has indicated. You may even get away with twice a week (MTh).

Dosage is a matter of personal experimentation. Merck recommends 1mg daily for optimal results. Maybe they are right, but when you consider the above information; the personal testimonials of many forum members who have successfully reduced dosages; and, the fact that Merck is a pharmaceutical company interested primarily in profits, then I think a healthy bit of skepticism is warranted.

If you want to save money and/or reduce side effects, I'd suggest tapering down slowly, and paying very close attention to any changes, until you reach a regimen which preserves your hair and eliminates sides. Keep a hair loss journal complete with weekly photos if it helps.

Perhaps something like this (if you're splitting 1mg Propecia tablets):

- 1mg every other day for one month. If still experiencing sides, but not losing hair, then -
- 1mg MWF for one month. If still experiencing sides, but not losing hair, then -
- 1mg TTh for one month. If still experiencing sides, but not losing hair, then -

- 0.5mg MWF for one month. If still experiencing sides, but not losing hair, then -
- 0.5mg TTh for one month. If still experiencing sides, but not losing hair, then -

- 0.25mg MWF for one month. If still experiencing sides, but not losing hair, then -
- 0.25mg TTh for one month. If still experiencing sides, stop the meds.

If one month at each dosage doesn't work for you, adjust to a time period which does. Obviously, if you start losing hair anytime during the tapering-off period, then you've gone too low and you have an important decision to make - do I up the meds again to preservation levels and deal with sides or just stop completely? Only you can answer that.

z