Propecia's longevity

[andy79]

Is it true that Propecia stops working for most patients after 5 years?

[andy79]

Is it true that Propecia stops working for most patients after 5 years?

[arfy]

No, it's not true. In a controlled study, after 5 years, patients who used Propecia had maintained their hair count. If Propecia had stopped working they would have lost hair.

 

The non-propecia patients continued to lose hair.

 

There are some people who think that Propecia may gradually become less effective over a long period of time... that's a lot different than Propecia "stopped" working.

 

http://www.ishrs.org/sciarticle.html

 

If Propecia does gradually lose some effectiveness over time, I don't think that is any reason not to use it. It's still a whole lot better than doing nothing at all, in my opinion.<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>At the end of the fifth year, 65 percent of men taking Propecia (n=219) maintained or improved their hair count compared to their hair count at the start of the studies, while all of the men on placebo (n=15) lost hair count.

 

[andy79]

That was a bad choice of words...I had heard that the effectiveness of finesteride slows down and many men re-experience hairloss (sometimes dramatically) after the five year mark. My concern is that I started propecia when I was 24...so far so good, but I want to be prepared in a few years for a major turn for the worse.

 

Thanks again Arfy!

[arfy]

I think if Propecia does actually diminish in effectiveness, it will be a very subtle and gradual change. You're probably not going to notice anthing drastic. You may not even notice at all.

 

It should still accomplish your long-term goals if you responded to begin with.

[Guest]

Thursday, December 18, 2003

 

Drug pair works well in treating prostates

 

By Jeff Donn

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

BOSTON- Two workhorse drugs can be combined to strike a doubly powerful blow against symptoms of an enlarged prostate, an irritating and occasionally dangerous condition widespread in older men, a study found.

 

Researchers say up to 7 million men might benefit from the combined drugs, which act in different ways on the body to ease such symptoms as weak or urgent urination.

 

"I can't think of many combination therapies where two drugs work by different mechanisms and jointly work so much better. It's a beautiful outcome," said one of the study's leaders, Dr. Claus Roehrborn, a urologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

 

The study was published today in The New England Journal of Medicine. The five-year experiment with 3,047 patients at 17 hospitals coast to coast was the most ambitious study yet of drug treatments for enlarged prostate. It was backed by the National Institutes of Health.

 

The two drugs in the study, doxazosin and finasteride, are now widely used, but not normally combined, to treat an enlarged prostate. The study was designed to decide if they can be teamed up for a stronger effect. Often, such a drug combination fails to greatly boost effectiveness.

 

This time, though, it succeeded. On its own, each drug reduced the risk of worsening symptoms by about a third. Together, they worked twice as well, cutting the risk by two-thirds.

 

Over five years, the condition worsened in about 10 percent of patients on only one drug, but in only 5 percent of those who took the combination. Without either drug, the condition deteriorated in 17 percent.

 

"Although we had predicted that combination therapy would be more effective than either drug alone, the magnitude of risk reduction was surprising," said chief researcher Dr. John McConnell, also at Southwestern Medical Center.

 

Doxazosin relaxes muscles that tend to choke off the flow of urine. It is usually the first drug given for an enlarged prostate. Finasteride, which also goes by the brand name Proscar, slowly shrinks the prostate gland itself. It is contained in smaller amounts in the baldness drug Propecia.

 

The two-drug combination can cost about $3 a day.

 

Half of men ages 51 to 60 and up to 90 percent of those over 80 have enlarged prostates, according to the American Urological Association.

 

The prostate, a semen-secreting gland, lies under the bladder. In middle age, it is about the size and shape of a chestnut. Over a man's lifetime, it might typically double in size, and can sometimes grow tenfold to the size of a baseball.

 

An enlarged prostate - medically known as benign prostatic hyperplasia - tends to squeeze off the flow of urine from the bladder, making it more difficult to urinate or causing an urgent need to urinate. Much more rarely, the flow is totally blocked, requiring quick surgery.

[Freaky D]

I've been on Propecia for 5 1/2 years. I 've been taking photos of my crown for the whole time, and at one year I saw the best of the results-- lots of hair regrown in the crown, and the front hairline standing firm. After five yearw, much of the new regrowth in the crown is gone, and it looks just like it did five years ago (most of the4 regrown hairs fell out when I gave rogaine a six month lease of terror, big mistake!!!) and the front still looks good as it did five yeras ago, actually alot stronger. propecia works, rogainge is poison!!!

[andy79]

Did you stop taking Propecia and switch to Rogaine? Is that why you lost your regrown hairs? I'm confused.