I’m Still Confused About Propecia Efficacy in the Long Term

Hi Doc

I’ve been reading that forum for quite a time, and i am still a bit messed when it comes to long term propecia (finasteride) efficacy. In one of your last posts you wrote ‘The problem is that many people who see it stop may find that it picks up again years ”

when you say ‘many’ i guess you take it from your practice over the years, do you keep firm statistics about that like what percentage of your patients is that. Another important thing is when you say ‘picks up’ does it mean that there are people who went completely bald while on finasteride or they just lost some small percentage of their hair? thanks

The quote you’re referencing is from this post, which wasn’t about finasteride. I was answering a question about final hair loss patterns. So what I was talking about was that for those men with hair loss that has seemingly stopped on its own, they may see additional hair loss as time goes on.

I don’t have firm statistics to share regarding my patients that have seen their hair loss halt and then eventually start again while they maintained finasteride use over years. Not every patient comes back in for follow-ups. As I’ve written before, you can look at it like a tug-of-war between finasteride and your genetics. Eventually, the genetics will win out. To what degree and when, I have no idea. If you stop finasteride, the tug of war will end faster in the direction of more balding.