Generic propecia - Finasteride

An Italian research program to investigate hair loss in women has come up with some interesting results. Propecia or finasteride, the hair loss drug that is licenced to be used in men for male pattern hair loss may also be beneficial for women. Hair loss can effect up to 50% of females over the course of their lives.

The researchers said that finasteride might be good for those women who found that they didn’t agree with minoxidil, which is often used to treat female pattern balding. Some women said that they reacted badly to the use of minoxidil. Female hair loss has a tendency to be of a uniform overall balding pattern rather than in specific places in the scalp as with men. Women get hair loss for a number of reason such as hormonal fluctuations after pregnancy or when they finish using birth control pills.

In the clinical trial thirty seven females were evaluated and given Propecia. Finasteride can be extremely harmful to unborn foetuses and so is at present banned for use in women. The drug works by preventing the male hormone testosterone changing into DHT or dihydrotestosterone, that actually causes hair follicles to shrink and thus causes the hair loss.

For the research the women between the ages of nineteen and fifty all of whom had varying degrees of hair loss were administered two and a half mg of the finasteride and also a birth control pill. The birth control drug was important as finasteride is animal testing caused foetus abnormalities and is thought to be extremely dangerous to pregnant women. The contraceptive drug used was one that reduces male hormones that could also be part of the reason for the hair loss.

The recording equipment for the hair loss or gain was a very sophisticated high resolution video procedure known as computer light videodermoscopy. The study was done over the course of a year and the recording of the hair patterns was done at the beginning and the end.

The results showed that more than sixty percent of the women had a better head of hair after the use of finasteride. The rest showed no apparent change except for single woman whose hair loss got worse.

Women who have what is known as Christmas tree balding, that appears as hair loss in the middle and top of the head appear to respond better to most hair loss treatments. The females on being questioned were of the opinion that the finasteride had been better than the actual clinical data recorded. One of the advantages of using Propecia is that it is is a simple to use medication that only involves taking a small pill each day, whereas many other treatments involve time consuming lotions and liquids.

More research is needed on finasteride and women it almost certainly would have benefits for post menopausal women who had no chance of getting pregnant. The research at the moment has only looked at a small section of women and needs to have many more controlled, placebo using tests before the effect of finasteride or Propecia on women can really be evaluated properly. There is also the ever present danger to the unborn child with finasteride and so great care must be taken with women and Propecia use.

Are you aware that if you use certain medications you should inform doctors or nurses about it before you donate blood to a blood bank? Some medications are absolutely fine to use if you are considering donating blood but others can have negative repercussions on patients that end up using the donated blood.

For example the hair loss medication Propecia made by the drug company Merck is one of those drugs which you should not use if you are going to donate blood.  You must stay off Propecia for a minimum of one month before it is OK for you to go to a blood bank. The reason for this is that Propecia contains a compound called finasteride which can be extremely harmful to an unborn child in that it hinders the development of the male sexual organs. If a woman was to require a blood transfusion and either was pregnant or became pregnant she may end up with tiny traces of the finasteride ingredient of Propecia in her blood which could harm her child.

Men who use Propecia must be aware that Propecia is only for them and must never be used by women who suffer from thinning hair as it is not clinically approved for their use. In testing done on animals it was seen that when finasteride was administered that male offspring ended up with under developed male sexual organs. Obviously this has never been tested with humans but it could give the same result and for the sake of safety men who use Propecia must not donate blood.

Propecia is the most popular hair loss drug in the world and is used by millions of men. To date there has not been one report of a male child being born with undeveloped sexual organs due to Propecia contamination.

Probably the single largest reason why men do not take the hair loss drug Propecia is it that they are concerned about the sexual side effects of using the drug.  For the vast majority of men having a good sexual function is far more important than having a full head of hair and thus when they read the small print that accompanies Propecia many of them get a little bit scared.

At Ukmedix News we want to remind you that this sexual side effect occurs in less than one percent of men and in every single case ever reported the reduction of erectile function went away immediately when the man stopped taking the drug. So look at it like this; if by an extremely remote chance you felt that your erectile function was not up to its usual standard when using the Propecia medication all you have to do is stop taking it and you are back to where you were before.

We have also noticed that manufacturers of products selling other hair loss treatments are keen to highlight this sexual side effect of Propecia in order so that they can increase the liklihood of themselves making a sale. It is worth remembering that the Propecia drug is the most effective drug treatment in the world by far to stop the process of genetic male pattern baldness and that with the exception of minoxidil there is no other properly tested and clinically proven way of reducing and preventing this type of baldness.

The other reason why men choose not to use Propecia is that they have read the accompanying literature with the drug which tells them they must not take it if they are trying to have children. It is felt by many doctors and scientists that Merck have merely decided to be overly cautious and that it is impossible for a foetus to be harmed by a man taking Propecia. It is worth knowing that 4 million men are using Propecia and the drug has been on sale for eight years now and that not one case of abnormality of a foetus has been reported to date. You should speak to your doctor about this. It is extremely dangerous for women of a child bearing age to take the Propecia drug.