Cutting Proscar and Even Distribution

Dear Dr. Rassman,
Congratulations on the new NHI site. Very nice and user-friendly. I noticed however in the frequently asked questions section on Propecia you recommend against doctors prescribing 1/4 Proscar, as it is not certain that the active ingredient is distributed evenly. In past posts you have referred to the use of 1/4 Proscar without mentioning such risks. Would it be possible to clarify this? Thanks for your insight

For treating hair loss, the daily finasteride dosage should be close to 1mg when you cut the Proscar (5mg finasteride) tablet into quarters. Finasteride fixes (attaches) to the tissues, so blood levels which are relatively short (under a day) will not be impacted by varying the dose from (let’s say) 0.75mg to 1.5mg/day.

You are safe with the 5mg dose divided into four pieces. The information you found on the NHI site about not cutting up the generic finasteride is outdated and we will update the old reference. There’s more recent info about this here.