Questions about finasteride Dosage, and Splitting Pills

[Nex]

So first about the dosage, after reading a lot of material and weighing the pro's and con's of starting finasteride I finally decided to start it today (21 year old with Norwood 2.5 and diffuse thinning) I felt it was the right decision, but I am taking a cautious approach taking only 0.25 mg per day. Now my question is, I have read from several people on here that finasteride isn't dose dependent, meaning that 0.25 will suppress almost as much dht as 1 mg. My question is then why did doctors decide to make a 5mg finasteride pill for enlarged prostate? I have seen graphs and I do understand that 0.25 is almost the same as 1mg, but is 1mg almost the same as 5mg? Thanks for the input

Next question is about splitting pills. So because I am splitting 1mg propecia into 4 pieces there is some powder, how dangerous is this for pregnant women/women wanting to become pregnant. I try to clean it up as much as i can by always splitting on top of a paper towel and then throwing out the paper towel, how dangerous is trace evidence of finasteride for women wanting to be pregnant or who are already pregnant? Thanks alot.

 

[Nex]

One more quick question, do I have to watch my intake of alcohol now that I am on finasteride? it is st patty's day, and I kind of want to get lit up.... let me know what you guys think

 

[Bryan]

Now my question is, I have read from several people on here that finasteride isn't dose dependent, meaning that 0.25 will suppress almost as much dht as 1 mg. My question is then why did doctors decide to make a 5mg finasteride pill for enlarged prostate? I have seen graphs and I do understand that 0.25 is almost the same as 1mg, but is 1mg almost the same as 5mg?

Merck is well aware of finasteride's relatively "flat" dose-response, but nevertheless 5 mg/day _does_ work slightly better than 1 mg/day for prostate problems. I imagine that they have 5 mg of finasteride in Proscar simply because BPH is a more serious medical condition than simply losing one's hair.

 

[Nex]

In your opinion Bryan, what percentage of dht is suppressed at 0.25 mg? I remember seeing a chart and for 1mg it was like 60% suppressed, and 0.25 was around 50%, have you seen the chart I am speaking of? Think I saw it on another forum

 

[Bryan]

Do I assume correctly that you're referring to blood serum levels of DHT? The values you mention are reasonably close! There's a bunch of published studies that have graphs of those values, and they don't even all agree perfectly with each other.

 

[Nex]

Yes, sorry I was referring to the blood serum levels. Of course they don't all agree with each other that would be to simple... haha

 

[Bryan]

Here's an interesting graph from an early finasteride study (out of the three of them, graph "A" is the one I'm talking about):

It's interesting that the 1 mg dose had an IMMEDIATE effect, lowering serum DHT to its lowest value after only the first day, while the 0.2 dose required about four days to do that! The 0.12 and 0.04 doses were still slowly going down, even after 14 days!

 

[Nex]

Not the graph I was thinking of, but was along the same lines at the one I was looking at. Basically shows that 0.2mg is as effective than 1mg, makes me think that I should take 0.25mg EOD. It's weird that many people don't see results on lower doses, and when people lower their dose when experiencing sides from 1mg down to 0.5 or lower the sides sometimes subside (Alot of time's the side effects do continue as if the user was still taking the higher dose).