Taking Propecia While Starting a Family

I am consuming propecia for the past 6 month and i can see good results. My question is, i and my wife would like to have a baby. Is it safe to have a baby while i am on this medication because i have been told by a pharmacist that i should stop consuming propecia for at least 1 month before planning to do so. He said that it will probably do damage to a newly born child.

The half life of Propecia is 4 hours. That means that in 4 hours, there is 50% of the dose remaining, in 8 hours 25% remaining, in 12 hours 12.5% remaining, in 16 hours 6% remaining, in 20 hours, 3% remaining and in 24 hours 1.6% remains in your system.

Now the official answer from Merck is that you can continue to take Propecia while you are trying to get you wife pregnant. Different opinions from different doctors who are generally skeptical, tell their patients the following:

1. Stop taking the drug while you are trying to get your wife pregnant.
2. Stop taking the drug while your wife is pregnant.
3. Stop taking the drug the month you are trying to get your wife pregnant and when successful, go back on it.
4. Stop taking the drug for the one week a month when your wife is in her fertile period.

Clearly, this is your decision. I tend to recommend #4, not because I believe it, but because it is reasonably safe and will minimize the time off the drug. I am always concerned about losing the benefits of the drug, and running the risk of a dramatic hair loss.