Every second day = waste of time?

[khan]

I've been taking 1.25mg of finasteride every second day for something like 9 months now, and recommended it to a friend. He did a little research and was informed that as it has a halflife of 4 hours there's effectively nothing left after a day so you need to take some daily to get results.

So as of today i'm now cutting my Proscar up into EIGHTS!! and taking it daily. It's not quite as difficult as you might think after all the practice i've had.

Anyway, the above theory makes sense to me, but i'd be very interested to hear any thoughts on whether my every second day efforts to date have been a waste of time or not.

 

[Goingat20]

finasteride takes 1 or 2 days to leave you system. Just a question why done you just take 1.25 daily?

 

[khan]

Because it's too much! I'm starting off slow & steady, and everythings going fine so far. If the situation deteriorates then i'll seriously consider taking a higher dosage but have no need or desire at the moment.

 

[Goingat20]

Because it's too much! I'm starting off slow & steady, and everythings going fine so far. If the situation deteriorates then i'll seriously consider taking a higher dosage but have no need or desire at the moment.

Sounds like a good plan. Goodluck and keep us updated

 

[KiLLuMiNaTi]

man ive spoken to dr martinick shes a doctor and she says 3 times a week is fine she also told me that the best dose is 0.5 a day

 

[khan]

I've been taking 1/8th (0.6125mg) a day since I wrote this and using minoxidil and my hair is going fantastic, no complaints there whatsoever. But i do have diminished erections, say about 15-20% less hard which is very annoying and can be a problem at times.

I'm thinking of giving finasteride up for a few months to make sure everything comes back, and then going back on it at a lower dose, something like 0.6 every second day or maybe even every third.

I know it's easy to just focus on the immediate problem and if I start to lose my hair again i'll probably change tunes quickly but I'm not happy worrying and having to work & concentrate to maintain wood.

 

[MPBWarrior]

you'll regret going off finasteride. it'll set u back... just stay on it until it's untolerable. just think of the reasons u started-hair loss obviously means a lot to u!

 

[Guest]

you'll regret going off finasteride. it'll set u back... just stay on it until it's untolerable. just think of the reasons u started-hair loss obviously means a lot to u!

who are you to tell him that hair is more important than getting an erection? and he said that he'd try it again at a smaller dose in a few months.

 

[Bryan]

I've been taking 1.25mg of finasteride every second day for something like 9 months now, and recommended it to a friend. He did a little research and was informed that as it has a halflife of 4 hours there's effectively nothing left after a day so you need to take some daily to get results.

Anyway, the above theory makes sense to me, but i'd be very interested to hear any thoughts on whether my every second day efforts to date have been a waste of time or not.

If that theory makes sense to you, then please explain to me why it is that it takes 1-2 WEEKS for blood levels of DHT to return to normal after a single dose of finasteride! :wink:

Bryan

 

[Guest]

Yes by his theory you'd have to take finasteride twice a day to get any results.

 

[khan]

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I think I’m just going to lower the dosage, and see if that helps. I think 15-20% is an exaggeration, it’s probably about 10%. I just had one ‘floppy’ experience with someone (in far from ideal circumstances) and that’s never happened to me before and I freaked out about it.

I’ve been on finasteride since July ’05 (with about a months break when I was o/s and lost it), and they say the really benefits only really kick in around this period so it would be a shame to throw all that away without a very good reason.

I currently take 1/8th a proscar each day, which is 0.6125mg. I’m planning on halving that to 1/16th each day, or taking 1/8th each second day. I’m really interested to hear if anyone has an opinion on if there’s something bad about taking it every 48 hours instead of 24.

Hopefully halving the dosage will improve my psychology / confidence at least and if things go well sexually for a while or my hair worsens then I’ll consider going back up.

 

[MPBWarrior]

jayman, can u please stop putting down everything i say... if u disagree with me, then just politely say why and explain your view. no one is here to take avantage of anyone else or to create fights. we're all in the same boat trying to talk about hairloss and i'm sure my views will contradict yours (and many others') lots of times but creating a hostile environment isn't exaclty going to help. i appreciate different viewpoints and hope they continue, since if they didn't exist there wouldn't be much point to this forum. but i think u could be a bit classier in your answers to me.

khan, if you're going for 1/16 proscar, i recommend u split propecia in 4ths. getting a 16th of a proscar pill will be tricky and quarter propecia or better yet, finpecia, will be pretty cheap.

 

[Bryan]

I’m really interested to hear if anyone has an opinion on if there’s something bad about taking it every 48 hours instead of 24.

Didn't I make my opinion implicitly clear with my previous post?

Bryan

 

[Skaff]

I’m really interested to hear if anyone has an opinion on if there’s something bad about taking it every 48 hours instead of 24.

Didn't I make my opinion implicitly clear with my previous post?

Bryan

Bryan, my dermo orginally prescribed that I take 2.5mg finasteride twice a week but I've switched to about 1mg daily after reading some stuff about half-life and all that. What are your thoughts on 2.5mg twice a week? Can you think of any reasons why it wouldn't be good?

Cheers

 

[joseph49853]

The half-life of finasteride in a young healthy male indeed is something like 4-6 hours depending on the dosage. However, DHT levels can return to normal after discontinuation of the drug between 5-14 days, again depending on the dosage. Of course, the prostate would take almost 3 months to return to pre-finasteride size.

I personally wouldn't take any dose higher than 1mg for hairloss. I think the side effects make anything above this amount an unnecessary risk.

 

[khan]

Bryan your post was interesting but far from definitive.

Say i'm looking to average 0.5mg a day. Is there any medical difference in taking 0.5 each day, 1mg each second day, or 3.5mg once a week?

Maybe, maybe not, I no expert but I can't see how you can go wrong with the daily option.

The ever second day choice would be better for me, since chopping those little pills up into 16ths is fiddly and approximate at best.

 

[Bryan]

Bryan, my dermo orginally prescribed that I take 2.5mg finasteride twice a week but I've switched to about 1mg daily after reading some stuff about half-life and all that.

Do you understand why finasteride's half-life isn't particularly relevant in this context? I've discussed that numerous times on all the hairloss sites.

What are your thoughts on 2.5mg twice a week? Can you think of any reasons why it wouldn't be good?

That should be ok. Taking finasteride less frequently seems like a legitimate way to reduce the effective dose, in lieu of trying to cut the pills into smaller and smaller pieces. However, I wouldn't go any less frequent than about what you said (twice a week).

Bryan

 

[Bryan]

Bryan your post was interesting but far from definitive.

Say i'm looking to average 0.5mg a day. Is there any medical difference in taking 0.5 each day, 1mg each second day, or 3.5mg once a week?

I think the difference between the first two options would be insignificant, but the third option is starting to push things a bit. Twice a week should be about the minimum frequency, in my opinion.

Bryan

 

[joseph49853]

Yeah this is kind of what I'm dealing with too. I've reduced to 1/8 a proscar pill every day and I'm still at like 80-90% as far as side effects.

I'm going to try 4 days on, skip a day, 4 days on, skip a day. That would average out to .5 per day and skipping days seems to alleviate side effects for me.

Also, I wonder about taking a bigger pill but skipping more days. Wouldn't that pill produce more side effects on the day that you take the pill -- or are side effects more of a culmulative thing, developing over time.

I think you could definitely get away with skipping days with dutasteride than finasteride. Dutasteride keeps serum DHT levels fairly level for a far longer period of time, we're talking hours and days vs. weeks.