I seem to have many problems with Rogaine including occasional dizziness and erectile dysfunction which appeared when I started Rogaine. What should I do about this?

This type of question is really for your doctor… and that’s not me. Dizziness can be the result of Rogaine (minoxidil) and if it came on with your starting the drug use, then it is highly suggestive that the symptoms and the drug are connected. The easiest thing is to stop the drug and see if the symptoms go away, but you might have some heart problem underlying these symptoms and the Rogaine brought them to light.

Rogaine has many reported side effects, including dizziness, headaches, nausea, selling of the extremities (hands, feet), rash, chest pain, blurred vision, etc, etc. So as you can see, nothing about taking medications is simple. The right thing would be to see a doctor and stop treating yourself.

I noticed severe dark circles after using rogaine 5 perc i was only using it once a day and i noticed my veins under my eyes became more pronounced. I dont know if its related to minoxidil or the seasonal allergy that attacked me this season around. Could you please tell me if its possible for minoxidil to cause this symptoms.

Thank you so much !

Could you have stayed out too late or haven’t slept well lately? I realize those are the obvious questions to ask, but they’re probably the more common causes of dark circles under the eyes. Did you rub your eyes after applying the medication? How long were you using the medication before you saw these circles start?

I just don’t know how dark circles under your eyes can be related to the Rogaine (minoxidil) you use on your scalp. Perhaps it’s blood circulation related, but if this is a side effect it’s not well documented. It seems like a stretch to think that your veins under your eyes can be dilated to produce dark circles because of Rogaine. I haven’t heard about this from any of my patients, though I have seen a few posts about it on the web and have even had people mention it to me via email. Nothing conclusive, though. Maybe it is just coincidence. If there’s real information about this phenomenon, I haven’t seen it.

Hello Dr. Rassman and contributors,

I am almost positive that tretinoin increases hair growth, at least on the face. I have never had unibrow in my life but i can grow one in a week by applying tretinoin there, and it stops growing if i stop applying. My eyebrows can also grow higher and further along the temples when applied. I have done this many many times. I was thinking since tretinoin in part possibly works by preventing hyperkeritinization that hyperkeritinization could be synergetic in balding by allowing to DHT to “stay” longer in the follicle. Also I am very certain for me that it increases eyebrow growth, however I would be very skeptical, and would not try it on my head, are their different factors that influence hair growth on eyebrows vs scalp?

Thank You

I will assume that you are not experimenting on yourself because you are trying to grow a unibrow, but if you noticed that hair grew between your eyebrows when you used the medication, it makes sense that this could be a side effect. What else can I say?

Tretinoin (also known as Retin-A) has been said to cause hair loss for some people and grow hair for others.

I have used Minoxidil for 2 years with no results as my hair is not very thin will I start losing more hair than I was before using this product or has Minoxidil kept me from losing more hair and would my hair then become thinner. I would really like to stop.

What can I tell you? You won’t know until you try. There’s simply no way for me to know if you’ve seen any benefits. If minoxidil is helping with hair growth, then if you stop using it you will suffer the consequences (you’ll lose the hair the medication had grown).

If you are determined to stop using minoxidil, then try slowly weaning off of it (rather than abruptly stopping it).

My question is about the use and effectiveness of topical finasteride. Are there any recent studies as to the effectiveness or safety of such a treatment? I have read both previous posts about “Xandrox Sales Stopped by the FDA”. From what I understand about the use of topical finasteride, it appears to me that the jury is still out and it is not so easy to dismiss altogether. Granted Dr. Lee may have had no “proven” scientific basis for claims about the effectiveness of his topical finasteride treatment, Xandrox, however that does not preclude its viability as a hairgrowth alternative to the popular propecia pill just because its effectiveness is simply not known.

Topical finasteride has already been studied. For example: 1997 JOURNAL Of DERMATOLOGICAL TREATMENT 8(3):189-192
mazzarella f; Loconsole f; Cammisa A; Mastrolonardo M; Vena GA.

The use of topical finasteride is also discussed at length in the original patent application for propecia by Merck:

[0033] For the treatment of androgenic alopecia including male pattern baldness, acne vulgaris, seborrhea, and female hirsutism, the 5.alpha.-reductase 2 inhibitor compounds may be administered in a pharmaceutical composition comprising the active compound in combination with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier adapted for topical administration. Topical pharmaceutical compositions may be, e.g., in the form of a solution, cream, ointment, gel, lotion, shampoo or aerosol formulation adapted for application to the skin. Topical pharmaceutical compositions useful in the method of treatment of the present invention may include about 0.001% to 0.1% of the active compound in admixture with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.

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So the topical concept does not seem like some radical idea to me but rather more of a potentially common sense alternative. Is there some known fundamental chemical problem that prevents the drug effectiveness when it is administered topically? If not, I can see no reason to discount it. Am I wrong?

I understand the medication has not been FDA approved this way, but I don’t understand what could happen from topical use that could not already happen from taking a finasteride pill orally?

Drug delivery through the skin is not as simple as making a drug topical. I’m not a pharmacologist, and to be honest, I do not know more than you summarized for the readers.