0.25 mg Finasteride

[Townes]

The search didn't turn up anything for "0.25 mg," so I apologize if there's already threads on this.

I'd like to hear from anyone who currently takes 0.25 mg (1/4 a Propecia tablet) per day. How is it working?

Thanks.

 

[Timi]

here
http://www.alopezie.de/fud/index.php/fa/3742/0/

Timi

 

[maverickf-14]

its in german ?? im just started on .25, 3 weeks in all is good so far ! but i would like to know if anyone has had good results from .25??

 

[juststarting]

its in german ?? im just started on .25, 3 weeks in all is good so far ! but i would like to know if anyone has had good results from .25??

See my sig

 

[guybrush]

1 month into 0.25mg finasteride EOD + 4 months into 0.25mg finasteride ED. No changes so far.

Last year I achieved visible regrowth after nearly 6 months on 0.5mg finasteride ED but had to discontinue it.

I'll give you an update in a few weeks.

 

[guybrush]

UPDATE:

I'm approaching the 6th month mark and things are definitely going better:

- My hair is looking thicker and thicker everywhere, specially the crown.
- I would say I've had no regrowth so far (just thickening) but I can see plenty of new hairs popping up in my hairline. I guess it must be the same all over my scalp.

0.25mg seems to work slower than 0.5mg but it can be just because I started taking it EOD.

I take finasteride alone, nothing else. Hope this helps ;-)

 

[nohawk]

i took .25 for a year ish and it didn't work as well for me as .5mg did. In my opinion half a pill is ideal. Definitely eliminated sides with .25, but then again it also eliminated gains. My suggestion to everyone starting finasteride is to start at .25 and increase to .5 after a year, that way u can assess the situation urself.

 

[Canuck2001]

I've been going back and forth between 0.25 and 0.5 mg since July with mixed results. I was on 0.25 for Jully/Aug with Min and then dropped Min (hair was pretty thick and just wanted to maintain) and went to 0.5 for Sept/Oct but dropped back down to 0.25 in Nov.

I can't take the full 1mg (or the 1.25 mg on proscar) because of the sides. I was noticing the sides when I took 0.5 and dropped it down (they weren't as bad as on 1mg), however I've gone through a massive shed in the last couple weeks and whatever I may have saved appears to have been gone (or it is doing its job).

The weird part is that I'm starting to notice some of the sides now at 0.25 mg so I have no idea what is going on with my body now. I might just stop everything until the new year, let my body reset a bit and then start on 0.25 mg again.

I honestly think that the ideal dosage for me is 1/3 of a mg - but there is no way to get that with a pill cutter (if there is please let me know). I'm not sure if mixing in 0.5 mg on certain days will help.

 

[Wuffer]

Has anyone considered taking .25mg every 12 hours? I cant remember who posted it, but in about 14-16 hours of taking .25mg, the level of finasteride drops below effective levels, leaving roughly 8 hours out of your day with effectively no dht reduction. If you take .25 every 12 hours, it keeps this level up throughout the day. In theory, it sounds like it would work.

 

[mashang]

i have considered taking 0.5mg every 12 hours also, as i have not seen results that i am happy with, can anyone confirm that .5mg will be as good as 1mg ed or better >

 

[Bryan]

Has anyone considered taking .25mg every 12 hours? I cant remember who posted it, but in about 14-16 hours of taking .25mg, the level of finasteride drops below effective levels, leaving roughly 8 hours out of your day with effectively no dht reduction.

Baloney. Let me repeat that: BALONEY. B-A-L-O-N-E-Y. As I've said over and over and over and over on these hairloss sites too many times to count, it takes a week or two for levels of DHT to get back to "normal" after the last dose of finasteride! The reason for that is that the enzyme that actually synthesizes DHT from testosterone (5a-reductase type II) itself takes a pretty long time to be synthesized.

So here's what basically happens: finasteride is an irreversible inhibitor of 5a-reductase type II. When you knock it out with finasteride (or dutasteride, for that matter), it's GONE. Kaput. Fini. Sayonara. Your body has to wait for more 5a-reductase type II to be synthesized, just to replace what used to be there. So DHT takes a while to be freshly produced, too (a week or two)!

 

[keepinthehair]

I used 0.25mg per day for a year with excellent results. It was based on the clinical trials. However, I found that I had to increase the dose to 0.5 mg for the next 8 months to maintain same level followed by 1.0 mg for another 4 months to complete a full year. I then began to have Hot flashes and expressive aphagia (lost for words) as well as the sexual decrease. I stopped for about two weeks, and interestingly (as one poster reported the time for DHT to resume) all sides were gone, nothing permanent. Wer are taught that all hormones are kept in balance by a "negative feedback mechanism", meaning a trigger is turned on/off. It appears, for me, when tough gets going the testicles get working harder to make more testosterone (ie DHT). Back to story, So I decreased dose back to 0.25 for two weeks, noticed heavy shed, freaked and increased dose to 0.5, for 1 week, still shed, 0.75 1 week then 1.0 No shed. I may be stuck with full dose now. Damn big testicles :shock:

 

[Ende]

Has anyone considered taking .25mg every 12 hours? I cant remember who posted it, but in about 14-16 hours of taking .25mg, the level of finasteride drops below effective levels, leaving roughly 8 hours out of your day with effectively no dht reduction.

Baloney. Let me repeat that: BALONEY. B-A-L-O-N-E-Y. As I've said over and over and over and over on these hairloss sites too many times to count, it takes a week or two for levels of DHT to get back to "normal" after the last dose of finasteride! The reason for that is that the enzyme that actually synthesizes DHT from testosterone (5a-reductase type II) itself takes a pretty long time to be synthesized.

So here's what basically happens: finasteride is an irreversible inhibitor of 5a-reductase type II. When you knock it out with finasteride (or dutasteride, for that matter), it's GONE. Kaput. Fini. Sayonara. Your body has to wait for more 5a-reductase type II to be synthesized, just to replace what used to be there. So DHT takes a while to be freshly produced, too (a week or two)!

I never thought I was going to say this to you, but you're wrong. Finasteride and dutasteride aren't suicide inhibitors, which means that once the serum concentration drops below a certain point, most of the enzymes are free to produce DHT. The body produces DHT mainly where it's needed, but when all the receptors in that area are saturated, the excessive DHT travels throughout your body until it finds something to bind to. Serum concentration of DHT is suppressed for more than a week after 1 mg finasteride, if I remember correctly, but don't confuse it with local DHT availability. 0.05 mg finasteride is as effective as larger doses, but obviously not for as long. Since half life is 6 hours, 0.25 mg twice a day, 12 hours a part, is theoretically as effective as 1 mg a day.

 

[Bryan]

I never thought I was going to say this to you, but you're wrong. Finasteride and dutasteride aren't suicide inhibitors, which means that once the serum concentration drops below a certain point, most of the enzymes are free to produce DHT.

Provide me with a citation that proves that. I'm surprised that you would make such a claim, since BY NO MEANS is this a new idea. The irreversible nature of drugs like finasteride and dutasteride has been discussed for YEARS on these hairloss sites. Are you part of the 10% that didn't get the word?

Here's a BIG study that supports what I said, and there are others, too: "A model for the turnover of dihydrotestosterone in the presence of the irreversible 5a-reductase inhibitors GI198745 and finasteride", Gisleskog et al, Clin Pharmacol Ther 1998;64:636-47.

The body produces DHT mainly where it's needed, but when all the receptors in that area are saturated, the excessive DHT travels throughout your body until it finds something to bind to.

As I've been pointing out for YEARS on hairloss sites, DHT doesn't have much of a role as an endocrine hormone. It's mostly an autocrine or paracrine hormone. That's why the application of topical 5a-reductase inhibitors can have a "local" effect on sebum production, in both animals and men.

Serum concentration of DHT is suppressed for more than a week after 1 mg finasteride, if I remember correctly, but don't confuse it with local DHT availability.

I'm not sure what you mean by that.

0.05 mg finasteride is as effective as larger doses, but obviously not for as long. Since half life is 6 hours, 0.25 mg twice a day, 12 hours a part, is theoretically as effective as 1 mg a day.

Again: as I pointed out before, the half-life of finasteride in the bloodstream isn't nearly as important as the slow regeneration of the 5a-reductase type 2 enzmye that converts testosterone into DHT. Once that's irreversibly blocked by finasteride or dutasteride, it takes a while for the cells to produce more 5a-reductase type 2. It takes a week or two for DHT to get fully back to normal.

 

[Ende]

Thery're not marketed as suicide inhibitors, and I've never heard anyone claim that they're SI's, before you. I don't know what an auto- or paracrine hormone is, but I can tell you, from personal- and others experience, that there is a lot more to DHT than most people know. It affects you both physically and mentally. I belive that the most important role it has in a grown man, is to maintain the testosterone/estrogen ratio.

Serum concentration of DHT is suppressed for more than a week after 1 mg finasteride, if I remember correctly, but don't confuse it with local DHT availability.

I'm not sure what you mean by that.

Finasteride only suppresses enzymes efficiently for a given time, according to the half life, and when the time is out, those enzymes will begin producing DHT again. That DHT will bind to the receptors which are close, and only when all the receptors in that area are saturated, DHT will move on, and the serum concentration raises.

 

[Ende]

CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY
Finasteride is a competitive and specific inhibitor of Type II 5?-reductase (...)

 

[Bryan]

Thery're not marketed as suicide inhibitors...

There are a great MANY specific aspects of finasteride and dutasteride that aren't "marketed" to the average consumer, and that's one of them. But you can find out all about that by reading any of numerous medical journal articles and studies. It's common knowledge, if you've done much research on them at all.

...and I've never heard anyone claim that they're SI's, before you.

I'm your first? Are you no longer a virgin about finasteride and dutasteride??

I don't know what an auto- or paracrine hormone is...

An autocrine hormone is one that has an effect ONLY on the local tissues where it's actually produced. A paracrine hormone affects cells or tissues in the nearby, surrounding area. Testosterone is obviously an endocrine hormone, because it's produced by cells in the testes (and other places), but gets into the bloodstream, where it's carried THROUGHOUT the body to numerous other places. DHT has long been considered by endocrinologists to have mainly an effect on tissues only where it's physically produced (like the prostate, hair follicles, sebaceous glands, etc.). That's why it's generally considered to be more of a paracrine or autocrine hormone, not so much an endocrine hormone.

Finasteride only suppresses enzymes efficiently for a given time, according to the half life, and when the time is out, those enzymes will begin producing DHT again.

Not if they were ever bound to finasteride or dutasteride in the first place! If that ever happened at all, they are OUT OF THERE. They're just cellular debris. They'll never produce DHT again. The cell will have to wait for more of the 5a-reductase enzyme to be synthesized.

That DHT will bind to the receptors which are close, and only when all the receptors in that area are saturated, DHT will move on, and the serum concentration raises.

DHT doesn't "move on", except to an insignificant extent. It's not really much of an endocrine hormone.

 

[Ende]

By the definition, I think I've been more fucked by finasteride, than you. If what you said was true, people wouldn't notice increased shedding if the daily dose is cut. 1 mg finasteride a day, wouldn't be superior to 0.2 mg a day, in terms of visible results. I will agree that DHT is mainly paracrine hormone, but it obviously has endocrine properties. When all the receptors in the local area are saturated, it'll travel around your body, and it counters estrogen and its effects. Hence, I believe that its most important role in a man, is to maintain the testosterone/estrogen ratio.

It's stated that finasteride is a competitive inhibitor, and that 0.05 mg is the smallest effective dose regarding hair loss, and you say it's not?

 

[Bryan]

By the definition, I think I've been more f***ed by finasteride, than you.

I've never used finasteride at all.

If what you said was true, people wouldn't notice increased shedding if the daily dose is cut.

I'm not sure about that, for the simple reason that I've never really understood what other people mean by the term "shedding". This is probably the first time you've ever seen me even USE that word!

But why don't you think it's possible that a harmful effect on hair could occur if you dropped your finasteride dose considerably? I guess I don't understand what you're saying.

1 mg finasteride a day, wouldn't be superior to 0.2 mg a day, in terms of visible results.

Sure it would. Why wouldn't it? The early "dose-ranging" study of finasteride by Merck clearly showed that the larger the dose, the better the haircounts were. Up to a certain point, anyway.

I will agree that DHT is mainly paracrine hormone, but it obviously has endocrine properties. When all the receptors in the local area are saturated, it'll travel around your body, and it counters estrogen and its effects.

DHT doesn't "travel around the body" very much. Read that Gisleskog et al study that I cited for you ealier; it'll tell you more about why it isn't much of an endocrine hormone. One of the important reasons seems to be that the body eliminates it from the bloodstream fairly rapidly; more rapidly than testosterone, for example.

It's stated that finasteride is a competitive inhibitor, and that 0.05 mg is the smallest effective dose regarding hair loss, and you say it's not?

I pretty much agree with that figure. An early study with finasteride on human test-subjects found that 0.04 mg/day of finasteride was the lowest dose which provided relatively consistent reductions in serum DHT. There's no doubt that that dose wouldn't be AS effective as larger ones at helping hair, but it does show a minimum cut-off point of what dose to start with.

 

[Ende]

Those studies you're referring to, how where they done? Since finasteride and dutasteride are known to reduce the prostate size, which probably is the place where most DHT is produced, I assume a reduction in the amount of enzymes is possible, but only in that area. The enzymes which are located at the top of your head, are only blocked for a certain time - and they're the main concern regarding hair loss.