Finasteride dosing

[heelz]

What is the general consensus on finasteride dosing? Speaking with Dr. Cooley, he recommended using Propecia on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to decrease overall cost and reduce possible side effects should you be prone to them. Speaking with SMG, they seemed to recommend using Propecia daily, but also admitted that Dr. Cooley was on the cutting edge of the pharmacology of finasteride and really knows his stuff when it comes to dosing finasteride. Obviously, you will not find a study done by Propecia, because they want to sell more drug, and if everyone started dosing 3 days/week vs. 7 days/week, then their sales and profits would decrease. Anybody else have any thoughts from their respective physicians or seen any literature to back up dosing Propecia 3 days/week.

 

Also, I know a lot of people are going to suggest just breaking a generic Proscar 5mg tablet into fifths or fourths, but that is still not the answer I'm specifically looking for. Cost is not the only thing being considered here. I'm just wondering if there is any efficacy data to back up Dr. Cooley's dosing method in comparison to the manufacturer's recommended dosing method.

[Maxxy]

I have read of a few people taking Finasteride every other day, I believe Bill does this now, however, from what I've read the half-life of the drug is only 5-6 - so personally, I'd feel more comfortable taking it every day (which I do).

[diamondlight]

The textbook answer is everday with Propecia being it is 1mg a tab and its given half-life as mentioned.

 

Proscar you chop into quarters which roughly gives you 1.25mg a quarter. The cuts wont be perfect obviously and the amount will differ from each quarter. I take a quarter everyday as I dont have any sides present to make me look to split it up. Some people do 4on1off with proscar feeling the 1.25mg in each quarter will equate to 5mg in 4days hence the 5th day off. This isnt a bad idea if you have sides your not to fond of.

[phil mascallpen]

I split proscar into 4ths (1.25mg) and take it MWF mornings and Sat. evening. This averages about .75mg a day.

 

I had sides before at 1.25 a day and this seems to keep them to a minimum and still give me a good dosage.

 

And if you're not taking it everyday this is an easy way to remember when to take it because it's always the same days.

[Maxxy]

Hey Phil,

 

That's the thing though, due to the drugs short half-life you are not getting an average of 0.75mg per day, you're simply getting 1.25mg - Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The other days you're getting nothing.

[phil mascallpen]

Maxxy my understanding is the reason that a dose once every two-three days works reasonably well is that the 5a-reductase type II enzyme that finasteride blocks takes a while to be regenerated, even with no finasteride at all in the blood or tissues. (credit to Bryan, a very knowledgeable poster on HLH)

[Maxxy]

That may be the case, to tell you the truth I'm not sure. I'm going to look into that now, thanks. You're still not averaging 0.75mg per day, on the days that you're not taking it, there is none in your system.

 

Edit:

 

Phil, do you know where I can find any studies showing the above?

[phil mascallpen]

Maxxy I do not know where you would find those studies. I'll ask Bryan for you though.

 

You are correct that I am getting zero on the off days but I'm still averaging .75 per day. That is the definition of average. Kobe Bryant averages 30 points a game. On a day off he scores zero, in a bad game he might score 10 but he still averages 30. Now whether or not it is as an effective treatment is the question.

[Maxxy]

Yeah, I see what you're saying. The way I read your post, I thought you were saying that by taking 1.25mg one day and then missing the next day, it would have pretty much the same effect as you would still have just under half of that in your system the day after blocking the DHT. I've been looking for some studies but haven't found any yet. If you could ask, that would be great.

[phil mascallpen]

Maxxy, the following is from Merck's product info page (link posted below). I believe the first quote shows that days after discontinuing usage DHT is still inhibited. The second quote shows that prolonged usage would give a slow accumulation that would also contribute to this effect. I realize that the study dosage is much higher but two weeks is obviously much longer than the half life.

 

"In healthy male volunteers treated with PROSCAR for 14 days, discontinuation of therapy resulted in

a return of DHT levels to pretreatment levels in approximately 2 weeks."

 

"There is a slow accumulation phase for finasteride

after multiple dosing. After dosing with 5 mg/day of finasteride for 17 days, plasma concentrations of

finasteride were 47 and 54% higher than after the first dose in men 45-60 years old (n=12) and ?‰?70 years

old (n=12), respectively."

 

http://www.merck.com/product/u...oscar/proscar_pi.pdf