Doctor Refusing to Prescribe Finasteride

I am a 23 year old guy. I have been using minoxidil solution for past 6 months. I keep my hair short coz i feel my roots will have to bear lesser weight. Minoxidil 5% once a day was helping me for 5 months, then suddenly since in the past month my hair has become rough and has started falling out again. One of the dermatologist says that you should use minoxidil for 3 months… then stop usage for 1 month… then again use for 3 months… then again stop for 1 month. Does this sound ok to you?

He is not allowing me to use Finasteride 1 mg, because he says it can give impotency problems. And I’ve been losing hair from sidelocks too. I never knew this happened in male pattern baldness.

My dad is bald. He became bald at 28 due to side effects of medicines, but he always had thinning hair. My mothers side… all have thick hair, but on my dad’s side, although people are not bald, they have very thin hair (and many have cancerous disease on my dads side). My doctor still maintains I have male pattern baldness. Is there a way to test if this is male pattern baldness or something else?

I am having problems with your dermatologist’s opinions. All doctors have a right to a medical opinion, but I am going to take a contrary view to his recommendation, because what he is telling you is not supported in the literature. Finasteride (Propecia) has to be the best hair loss medication for a young man (read the many blog questions and answers on this very subject). The decreased libido sexual side-effect is relatively rare (less than 2%) and if it were to happen, you could stop the drug and the problem would be gone in a matter of days. I strongly disagree with his opinion on Minoxidil and Finasteride.

The diagnosis of male patterned genetic balding is easily made with a densitometer (magnifying instrument used on the scalp) which will show the miniaturization of hair in the balding areas affected by the ‘defective’ genes. Diagnosis is first and foremost in your overall MASTER plan for your hair loss. A good doctor needs to perform this test and then outline the plan with you.