So Could There Be Birth Defects If I Get Someone Pregnant While Taking Finasteride?
Dear dr rassman
I have currently been researching the side effects of Finasteride online, on one site it stated that your sperm while using finasteride may effect your partners health, it was not very clear on the subject, perhaps you could shed some light on this for me?If my partner was to get pregnant while I was using finasteride is there a chance of birth defect? She is currently using birth control and we are not planing to have another child yet. And I have not started using the drug. If I were using finasteride and wanted to have a child how long would it take to get out of my system to ensure healthy baby development.. Cheers
For personal medical questions, you need to speak with YOUR doctor – don’t just search for information online that can be erroneous or confusing.
In general, as long as your partner is not taking finasteride or handling finasteride herself, there is really no risk of birth defects. You can take finasteride while trying to conceive and there should be no issue. If you are still concerned about it, the simple solution would be to stop taking finasteride.
There’s an interesting article at WebMD regarding pregnancy and Finasteride here https://www.mayoclinic.com/health/drug-information/DR600655
The fact that finasteride causes birth defects when taken by women is well established in the medical literature and summarized in the extensive product label (as noted in the WebMD link above).
To clarify for readers, there is NO evidence that sperm taken by men receiving finasteride causes birth defects in women, which was the basis of the bloggers question and Dr R’s correct response.
Even the most teratogenic drugs (those that cause birth defects in women taking the drug), which regulators classify as Pregnancy Class X, usually have no effect on birth defects when taken by a male.
Every drug, however, is unique and info should be sought from a physicisn or the voluminous scientific literature. Rarely do blog sites do justice to the issues.