Propecia Time Effectiveness And Statistics

Thank you very much for your posts and the great help that you are offering to your readers and far beyond. You have stated in previous posts that Propecia halts the loss of hair but at the end the gene will win and the outcome will be as it should have been without taking Propecia. This is in a way depressing but do you have any statistics to what period of time Propecia remains effective. You mentioned previously 5 years for Propecia to peak. What will then happen after this 5 years period, will it lose its loss of hair benefits and hair starts falling again. Will it still beneficial to take it then. Thank you

Everyone is different in the way they respond to medication (any medication). Some patients rapidly lose hair despite being on Propecia. Some patients hold on to their hair for many years on Propecia. You won’t know unless you try. The younger you are, the better you will see the impact of this drug. If you are over 40, the drug impact may be less.

Taken from my colleague Dr Bernstein’s site:
Studies have shown that after five years of treatment, 90% of men taking finasteride maintained their hair or increased hair growth. At five years, 48% of men treated with Propecia demonstrated an increase in hair growth, 42% were rated as having no change (no further visible progression of hair loss from baseline) and 10% were rated as having lost hair when compared to baseline. In comparison, 6% of men treated with placebo demonstrated an increase in hair growth, 19% were rated as having no change and 75% were rated as having lost hair when compared to baseline.

In the “Hair Count Clinical Study,” hair counts showed an average gain of 277 hairs per one-inch circle at the end of five years. These hairs were significantly larger than the fine, miniaturized hair characteristic of balding. In the “Hair Weight Clinical Study, 34% mean hair mass/weight difference was observed between Propecia and Placebo at 96 weeks.