Anybody swear by less than 1mg finasteride a day?

[sonicthehedgehog]

I'm thinking about dropping down to .5mg a day. It would be good to here of others taking less than 1mg a day and why.

I'm doing it for sides. And I realise that if I'm going to get pretty much the same DHT inhibition on .5mg then I will probably get the same sides. But...you can but try.

 

[Resultsnottypical]

that is what Dr. Lee said in response to my inquiry on that matter...propecia is found to work almost as good, even at the 0.20 mg level...however, he advised that if you are getting results at that level, you may STILL get the sides.

My conclusion (although I am not on propecia) is that you could significantly cut down on costs if you either did .25 a day, or even .5

I think cutting that small pill into quarters would be difficult however.

 

[stillnotbald]

Well I actually experimented and monitered results very very carefully.

I was on Proscar 1.25mg, minoxidil 5%, Retin A to the front hairline, and Nizoral every day. Had good results.

Did have side effects from finasteride. I dropped to .5 then to .25 (propecia now) then to nothing.

At .5 I had just as good a result. It was not possible for me to tell a difference in two months. The side effects were less without a doubt. At .25 I did start to loose more hair especially at the crown. The front did not seem to be affected. When I stopped all the side effects disappeared within 7 days. I was amazed how quickly the side effects went away. Alas the hairloss also came back. I started loosing a lot of hair. So now I am back to 1.25mg. I will continue for 3-4 months until my hair is restored. Then I will cut back to .5mg

In any case finasteride. works and is the most important part of the treatment. That is the basis. Everything else builds on that.

 

[HairFreak]

Im using .5 mg
So far so good....i think

 

[HairlossTalk]

I had 100% results at 1mg and lost most of my results at 0.5mg so for me, that was insufficient.

HairLossTalk.com

 

[Resultsnottypical]

interesting

I started 0.25 of Propecia on April 1st. I have been on minoxidil for more than 6 months...so...I will keep yall posted on how it goes. If it worked even a little, I think I would be lucky.

HairLossTalk.com: When you dropped to the lower dose, are you saying you started to actually notice hair loss again? From your previous known gains? Did the side-effects go down as well?

I have gotten two zits in the last day...I maybe had 30 zits my entire life (including my teens)...and I have not noticed other differences yet. Last time I tried 1 mg for five weeks (in 2000), I noticed a drop in my motivation, I was a little more mundane, less aggressive.

 

[HairFreak]

I had 100% results at 1mg and lost most of my results at 0.5mg so for me, that was insufficient.

HairLossTalk.com

WOW HairLossTalk.com u for real man!?
THis really scares me cause im not sure If I would get better results with 1mg as I pretty much started with .5mg. You think that I should increase my dosage??

 

[HairlossTalk]

Of course. Always use the clinically tested amount. It makes no sense to do your own thing in the face of millions of dollars of clinical testing. These guys who hang around forums making their own rules and dosages and telling others to do that are rather frustrating at times. Don't listen to them, do what science has proven.

HairLossTalk.com

 

[Healthy Nick]

There are studies out there that say the smaller dosage is just as effective. Everybody is differant and not everybody needs the same dosage. I would recommend that anybody starting off on finasteride start off with smaller doses first. It's the smart way to do things.

 

[HairlossTalk]

Unfortunately you're wrong. There is 1 study out there that showed it was slightly LESS effective at a lower dose.

1mg is the recommended dosage for finasteride. The microdosing study was a single study, was not tested on as many people as the FDA trials were, and did not span as long as the FDA trial study did. This is why knowing the significance of clinical trials is important. You can't just look at the conclusions. There are several inherent differences between the two studies. They're not comparable based solely on conclusions, but we do use them to give side effect sufferers a little bit of assurance that they may still see results at lower doses.

I would never, ever start advising people to start lower than 1mg unless you get your rocks off watching people get zero results. Its those same people who come back here 6 months later upset that its not working and wondering why that 83% number doesn't apply to them.

I personally and many others have not seen results at lower doses.

Lower doses mean 0% assurance of results. 1mg provides at least 83% assurance of results. If you cannot tolerate the side effects at 1mg, then lower dosage. Not the other way around.

HairLossTalk.com

 

[HairFreak]

Well i did start off with 1mg.
How i figure that it works the same is because of the side effects.
Side effects that i experience (pretty much only no wood in the moring) have remained exatcly the same with .5mg.
SO i thought if the side effects remained exactly the same, the lower dosage has the same effect.

 

[HairlossTalk]

Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. Put your faith in the hair counts and the clinical data. Side effects are not a way to gauge the effectiveness of a treatment.

HairLossTalk.com

 

[Matgallis]

exactly, so far I have the side effects but still hairloss...