Asking the Readers — Body Hair Loss and Propecia
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m part of an email group of hair doctors where we share patient experiences, share medical knowledge, and discuss various advances in hair loss treatments. Recently a doctor in the email group reported that one of his patients lost all of his body hair on Propecia.
For whatever reason, I’ve received a few emails via BaldingBlog lately about body hair growth or body hair loss where the writer assumes it is related to Propecia, so I was particularly interested in what other physicians in the email group had to say.
Medical literature and even Merck (the maker of Propecia) did not validate that body hair loss is a known side effect, and many doctors responded to the email with the opinion that this finding seemed isolated with the one patient who reported it. I have seen this side effect once in my own practice, so as unusual as it seems, I am posting this here to ask the readers out there if they’ve experienced body hair loss with Propecia or finasteride. If you have had this experience, please send me a note privately or leave a public comment.
William – How old are you now?
Hi Dr. Rassman. I have posted before that I have seen about a 40% decrease in Body hair and a thinning of what hair remains.
I took 5mg of Proscar for about 14 yrs or so until I switched to Avodart about 5 yrs ago give or take. So in total about 19yrs of DHT supression.
In fact, when Proscar first came out, insurance companies didn’t realize (at least mine didn’t) that it could be used for hairloss. So for the first two yrs on Proscar, they paid for it and I was dosing around 20mg a day.
Once they caught on that a kid in his late 20’s doesn’t have BPH, they stopped paying for it and I cut my dose back down to 5mg a day.
I’m 45 now by the way.
I personally believe that I would have more body hair loss if it wasn’t for the fact that I am using a 15%minoxidil solution, which I think is getting a little absorbed into my blood stream possibly causing body hair growth…….
On another note, I have had zero side effects expect for a little groin ache the first year but went away. Thanks!
I am now 33. To be clear, it was not as if I was totally hairless and then sprouted Tom Sellek’s chest hair. But the there is definitely more hair growing there now after stopping Finasteride. I do not believe it stunted my development but rather just suppressed it, because most of the men in my family have pretty sparse chest hair.
I’m a 23 year old male, and I’ve been taking 1 mg Proscar for about 2 years now. I’ve also noticed a decrease in body hair (though I didn’t have very much to begin with). Furthermore, my body hair seems to grow more slowly while also coming in thinner than before. Honestly as far as side effects go, this is one I wouldn’t dare complain about!
I am a 33 year old man and have been on 1.25mg Finnasteride (1/4 Proscar) for just over two years and haven’t noticed a decrease in body hair and I’d say being European, I am moderately hairy. I did grow some crown hair back which was great. I can still also grow a nice full beard, and if anything, I would say my libido is slightly higher than before the meds. So its all been a positive experience for me with regards to finnasteride.
I am 34 years old and started using 1mgm finasteride 1.5 years ago. Yes my body hair reduced a lot in growth and thickness. Before finasteride, my wife would trim my back hair once a week. Now my wife trims my Bach hair once every other week and she comments that I don’t even really need it that often. Hair loss stopped and the hair got thick but only small amounts of new hair regrowth.
I have been on finasteride for 7 months and have seen significant loss of body hair. That and it is softer and lighter in some areas. I first noticed the top of my thighs were completely bald. Thought it was odd. Then I began thinking my eyebrows were thinning. Then I noticed my arm hair was more red than dark and sparse. My chest and belly hair is thinning too. Cant say my head hair is thicker. Not sure if this is the massive shedding phase or if it is blocking dht to all andrgenic hair follicles. Will decide soon to let my head go bald and be a natural man or wait it out and risk looking like a eunuch vegan…