Hi,
This is my first post here.
I'm a 40 year old male who prior to one month ago really had no discernible hair loss. My two older (only by a year and 18 months) brothers do have considerable thinning and recession of frontal hairline, so as a preventative measure I've been taking minoxidil 10 mg orally for the last two years - it also keeps my mild hypertension under control. On minoxidil I saw hair grow everywhere! Ears, neck, body, back and my frontal hairline advanced about 1 cm back to where it was when I was 18.
One month ago a new barber suggested that my vertex was thinning. I actually don't think it was any different than it has been for years, but I started taking finasteride as another preventative measure. Within 2 weeks I went from losing 5-10 hairs when showering to losing 50-200 hairs when showering. I don't really want to hear that this is "normal" daily loss- it's radically abnormal for me. I saw a leading dermatologist and he diagnosed Telogen Effluvium. He, as every other physician I consulted did not believe this was due to Finasteride ( in part because there are no reports of this), but in my mind, and after reading the posts here it seems hard to believe that it is not. Collectively, we should really make Merck, and physicians aware that this is a serious potential side effect of their drug. Many times side effects not noticed in the original trials are picked up by so called post marketing adverse event reports.
What do I do? This clearly isn't a rapid progression of male pattern baldness, I'm losing hair from all over my scalp - it probably is more prominent in the frontal hair line and vertex but it's everywhere. There has been noticeable hair loss in the last two weeks and the shedding shows no sign of abating. Do I stay on finasteride or abandon it? My dermatologist has advised staying on it - he says the hair will grow back. Easy for him to say. On my own initiative I've reduced to .5mg finasteride daily. Help!
This is my first post here.
I'm a 40 year old male who prior to one month ago really had no discernible hair loss. My two older (only by a year and 18 months) brothers do have considerable thinning and recession of frontal hairline, so as a preventative measure I've been taking minoxidil 10 mg orally for the last two years - it also keeps my mild hypertension under control. On minoxidil I saw hair grow everywhere! Ears, neck, body, back and my frontal hairline advanced about 1 cm back to where it was when I was 18.
One month ago a new barber suggested that my vertex was thinning. I actually don't think it was any different than it has been for years, but I started taking finasteride as another preventative measure. Within 2 weeks I went from losing 5-10 hairs when showering to losing 50-200 hairs when showering. I don't really want to hear that this is "normal" daily loss- it's radically abnormal for me. I saw a leading dermatologist and he diagnosed Telogen Effluvium. He, as every other physician I consulted did not believe this was due to Finasteride ( in part because there are no reports of this), but in my mind, and after reading the posts here it seems hard to believe that it is not. Collectively, we should really make Merck, and physicians aware that this is a serious potential side effect of their drug. Many times side effects not noticed in the original trials are picked up by so called post marketing adverse event reports.
What do I do? This clearly isn't a rapid progression of male pattern baldness, I'm losing hair from all over my scalp - it probably is more prominent in the frontal hair line and vertex but it's everywhere. There has been noticeable hair loss in the last two weeks and the shedding shows no sign of abating. Do I stay on finasteride or abandon it? My dermatologist has advised staying on it - he says the hair will grow back. Easy for him to say. On my own initiative I've reduced to .5mg finasteride daily. Help!
