0.5mg finasteride VS 1mg/1.25mg finasteride

[let-it-grow]

It's a fact that many people still get great results while only taking 0.5mg of finasteride everyday. Is there any study which shows the effects of 0.5mg of finasteride and 1mg of finasteride on the DHT level in the body? Are the side effects less common while taking 0.5mg instead of 1mg or 1.25 mg?

I was thinking about cutting Fincar to 8 pieces are taking 0.625mg of finasteride everyday, is it even possible to cut Fincar to so many pieces?

 

[thebump98]

i do 5 and its not always easy .. so 8 woooof , good luck haha

 

[TEDDYRUXPIN]

It's a fact that many people still get great results while only taking 0.5mg of finasteride everyday. Is there any study which shows the effects of 0.5mg of finasteride and 1mg of finasteride on the DHT level in the body? Are the side effects less common while taking 0.5mg instead of 1mg or 1.25 mg?

I was thinking about cutting Fincar to 8 pieces are taking 0.625mg of finasteride everyday, is it even possible to cut Fincar to so many pieces?

I don't know where I read this but I believe studies state that 0.25mg is the minimum amount you actually need daily for treating male pattern baldness (I think this was part of the merck studies).

As the above said! Good luck in cutting up proscar in smaller pieces. I don't see any point in doing this at all.

 

[Lux]

the point is to save ur money while u may have the same results.
i think it's a good reason.

 

[BitchBoy]

I've been doing this for about a month now. It's easy. The only thing I worry about is the distribution of finasteride in the pill.

 

[let-it-grow]

It's also about getting the same effect for less money and also about getting less side effects. I know that some people get side effects with 1mg and then they go down to 0.5mg and get none.

bboy, do you cut Fincar to 8 pieces? Cutting it to 4 is easy so I thought about cutting if to 4 and then cutting every 1/4 to half. But I don't know if it's possible because I don't know how big the Fincar pill is.

 

[let-it-grow]

I was just thinking about it also. How can we know if 1/5 of Fincar is exactly 1mg? Maybe 1 quarter of Fincar contains 4mg and the other 3 quarters contains 0.33 mg each? Lets say we take Finepcia which is 1mg of finasteride and we split it to two equal parts, one part could contain 1mg and other one 0mg.

How can we know the distribution of finasteride in the pill? Merck are not stupid, so probably 1/5 Proscar (Merck) is not 1mg because then no one would buy the expensive Propecia and they'll lose money. That actually makes a lot of sense that they don't distribute the finasteride equally in the pill.

Is there any way to find out the distribution of finasteride in Finepcia/Fincar/Proscar? Another point to think about is even if each 1/5 of Fincar contains exactly 1mg of finasteride, who says that in 3 days when we'll take the fourth part of the pill it would still contain 1mg of finasteride? After we cut the pill does Finasteride stays there without losing it's strength? For how long?

 

[timbo]

It's also about getting the same effect for less money and also about getting less side effects. I know that some people get side effects with 1mg and then they go down to 0.5mg and get none.

bboy, do you cut Fincar to 8 pieces? Cutting it to 4 is easy so I thought about cutting if to 4 and then cutting every 1/4 to half. But I don't know if it's possible because I don't know how big the Fincar pill is.

I don't believe that any competent hair loss professional will tell you that you are getting the "same effect" from 0.5 mg compared to 1mg.

 

[Bryan]

It's also about getting the same effect for less money...

Let's be very careful what we say here! We should say: "It's also about getting nearly the same effect for less money."

...and also about getting less side effects. I know that some people get side effects with 1mg and then they go down to 0.5mg and get none.

I think it's probably just as likely that someone could take a lower dose of the drug and get the same side effects, but none of the desired effects.

 

[Bryan]

How can we know the distribution of finasteride in the pill? Merck are not stupid, so probably 1/5 Proscar (Merck) is not 1mg because then no one would buy the expensive Propecia and they'll lose money. That actually makes a lot of sense that they don't distribute the finasteride equally in the pill.

Explain to us all how they would go about making each Proscar pill unevenly distributed with finasteride. Keep in mind that we're talking about huge machines that probably pump these tablets out by the thousands or tens of thousands at a time! So how do you think they do it? :dunno:

By the way, you're British, aren't you? Who else would say "Merck are not stupid"?

 

[let-it-grow]

In the way you explain it that actually makes sense that Merck has no control about the distribution of Finastraide in the tablets. But do you think that those machines distribute the Finastraide equally in the tablet and that if I cut a tablet to 5 pieces then every fifth would contain about 1mg of finasteride? :dunno:

Do you think that cutting a Proscar/Fincar to fifths is a good idea? Because then the other 4 parts would just sit there waiting for me to take them and a few days would pass by then, couldn't it damage the quality/quantity/effectiveness of the drug?

You have a lot of knowledge and if you say that the finastraide is distributed equally in Proscar/Fincar and it's fine to take a fifth of it and letting the other 4 pieces just sit there for a few days before taking them is fine, then I'll do it.


Going a little off topic now.
The thing that worries me the most is getting gyno. If gyno does occur, does it occur in the first month or two taking finastraide? If I take it for a month and no gyno by then, could I stop worrying about developing it from finasteride? I swear, I only think about it and I feel tenderness. :laugh:

 

[let-it-grow]

Oh and I'm no where near British. I'm originally from Israel

 

[BitchBoy]

Well I guess they make a giant paste and mix it up enough that they can say with quite a confident amount of certainty that each pill contains 5mg. There will be some deviation but I'm sure it will be very small, probably less than 0.1.

In terms of side effects you're always best going straight to studies to see what's been found during the clinical trials. Trails aren't perfect and I think sides are more common then they seem to suggest.

I was talking to my doctor about the reduction labido on finasteride and he was saying how even 5mg is not anywhere near enough to lower your T levels to the point that it would have any effect. Except clincal trials show that it is a side effect and not only that but 5mg showed a higher incidence of sides meaning that there is a direct correlation between the amount of finasteride and the amount of people who had sides in the study. But as to why no one knows.

When it comes to pharmacology we seem to know very little when compared to what we don't know.

http://www.drugs.com/sfx/finasteride-side-effects.html

Regarding cutting 5mg into 8ths, I just cut the pill in half again. I'm using fincar which is a bit annoying because it has this blue film on which doesn't seem to cut too easy. I think proscar would be easier. Saying that i'm going to start disolving my tablets so I won't have to worry about the distribution of finasteride as much.

 

[let-it-grow]

How do you divide the Fincar? Do you use a pill cutter? Have you noticed any side effects? Erection problems? Brain fog?

I'm thinking of going on finasteraide soon if there won't be an improvement from the vitamins I been taking (I had a big vitamins deficiency and the doctor said that it might be the cause of thinning), but if I'll get any negative side effects then I'm flushing it all down the toilet. It's unbelievable how it's possible to cure cancer and it's still impossible to cure a condition like male pattern baldness.

 

[BitchBoy]

I use a pill cutter.

I have a flacid penis, low labido and very small amounts of clear watery semen.

I don't really believe in the brain fog thing. It's just too subjective. People report things like panic attacks and depression and "brain fog" and anything is possible, I suppose, but I always seem to find the people who report those kind of sides are oftern quite hysterical.

I don't want to sound harsh because sides do occur, as I know first hand, and I understand how emotional people can get about them, especially sexual sides. But it's always best to try and remain calm and objective.

 

[let-it-grow]

So you see yourself taking this drug even for the next 10 years as long as it's effective? Even that you get flacid penis and low labido? Maybe I could deal with those two side effects for a few weeks but I know that I won't be able to live with them for many years. That sucks..

 

[Bryan]

In the way you explain it that actually makes sense that Merck has no control about the distribution of Finastraide in the tablets. But do you think that those machines distribute the Finastraide equally in the tablet and that if I cut a tablet to 5 pieces then every fifth would contain about 1mg of finasteride? :dunno:

Yes. There's no doubt at all in my mind that they simply make a big slurry of finasteride in a vat, then stamp it into pills of the appropriate size to make Propecia and Proscar. It's astonished me for years that people are so paranoid about all this that they believe that Merck would go to the incredible expense (not to mention the amount of extra time it would take) of individually constructing each tiny little pill (out of tens of thousands) just so that it has an uneven distribution of finasteride!

Do you think that cutting a Proscar/Fincar to fifths is a good idea? Because then the other 4 parts would just sit there waiting for me to take them and a few days would pass by then, couldn't it damage the quality/quantity/effectiveness of the drug?

Yes, I think it's a good idea. A VERY good idea. Of course, I would also use a little common sense when doing that, like cutting only a very few pills at a time, and keeping the cut pieces in a COOL, DARK, DRY area while you're waiting to use them.

 

[Bryan]

Well I guess they make a giant paste and mix it up enough that they can say with quite a confident amount of certainty that each pill contains 5mg. There will be some deviation but I'm sure it will be very small, probably less than 0.1.

Exactly!

I was talking to my doctor about the reduction labido on finasteride and he was saying how even 5mg is not anywhere near enough to lower your T levels to the point that it would have any effect.

Finasteride doesn't lower testosterone levels. It actually RAISES them a bit, on average.

Except clincal trials show that it is a side effect and not only that but 5mg showed a higher incidence of sides meaning that there is a direct correlation between the amount of finasteride and the amount of people who had sides in the study. But as to why no one knows.

I've never seen that claim documented anywhere, and I find it difficult to believe. One thing that might explain such a claim is that 5 mg is typically used by much older men for BPH, compared to younger men who are using lower doses like 1 mg for hairloss. Obviously older men are a lot more likely to get sexual dysfunction than younger men, so if that's all they're using to make that claim, it's obviously not fair.

 

[let-it-grow]

Finasteride actually raises testosterone levels? Really? So theoretically it's easier to gain muscle weight while out in the gym and taking Finasteride? And if Finasteride raises testosterone levels then why many men who take it get decreased libido side effects and not the other way around? If it raises testosterone level then professional sport should ban the use of Finasteride for hair loss.

I've read on Propeciahelp and I'm now I'm a little freaked out about the side effects. Considering my hair loss is male pattern baldness and it's not that brutal then maybe a lower dose would be fine and cause much less side effects if any? I really want to keep my hair and regrow some in my crown but if it would give me breasts and no libido then it's a big NO. It's hard for me to believe that only 2% suffer from side effects. Bryan, do you believe the studies that says that only 1 out of 50 men would suffer from side effects using 1 mg daily of finasteride?

 

[timbo]

Finasteride actually raises testosterone levels? Really? So theoretically it's easier to gain muscle weight while out in the gym and taking Finasteride?

The increase in testosterone is generally only temporary and is regulated back to baseline levels by the pituitary within weeks.

And if Finasteride raises testosterone levels then why many men who take it get decreased libido side effects and not the other way around? If it raises testosterone level then professional sport should ban the use of Finasteride for hair loss.

Everybody responds differently to the drug. But increased libido is a common effect of finasteride, especially during the first few weeks of treatment.