My Doctor Said I May Have Finasteride Induced Telogen Effluvium
Dear Dr Rassman,
I am a 21 year old male and have been aggressively losing my hair for just over 2 years. Since February, I have been taking Propecia daily to combat the loss. However, after about 1 month on propecia I have been heavily shedding my hair and this has been confirmed by a dermatologist who said I had a strongly positive pull test and a very high amount of telegon hairs. He stated that I may have finasteride induced telegon effluvium as well as accelerated phase male pattern balding considering my very heavy hair loss (have gone from a norwood 2 to norwood 4 in about 9 months).
Do you believe this could explain this heavy loss and is there anything else I can do to combat such such aggresive balding at such a young age? After 6 months on the drug, Propecia appears to make me lose more hair, minoxidil causes an inflammatory response on my scalp and a transplant is out of the question given my loss and age. I am at a loss as to what to do and it is severely impacting upon my life.
Many Thanks for your time
I would have to see and examine your scalp to understand what you are reporting. This could be just rapid hair loss from your genetic pattern and have little to do with the drug. Or it could be a shedding process that some people have reported after starting Propecia. It is a rare occurrence, but we’ve written about it before.
I’m not sure what you’re going on about this time, but no post was removed.
Your accusatory tone didn’t go unnoticed, but since you feel that there is a grand conspiracy, I will repeat — no post was removed. Perhaps you clicked a link to an older post from within a more recent post and then forgot where you clicked? Check your browser history.
As for professionalism, you will note that this is a blog. This is not a medical journal nor is it hard-hitting reporting. The doctors answer patient questions, but I moderate comments. Your latest conspiracy is without merit.
I’ll make it easy for you. There are 4 posts a day published here each weekday. That is 20 posts a week. There are 20 posts up on the site from last week. No post was removed. Count your fingers and toes, comparing that number to the amount of posts from last week if you’re still having a problem. This is the last time I feed you.
If you look at the tone of my initial comment, a neutral observer will easily tell I was merely asking a question. There were no conspiratorial allegations or aggression in my question, but you seem to be rather defensive.
It is also pretty rich that you have adopted a condescending attitude to me regarding numerical issues. I am quantitatively astute and would like to remind you that you had the mathematical difficulties in a previous post.
The ‘Balding Blog’ may not be a medical journal, but you are a representative of Dr. Rassman and your response in this post indirectly reflects poorly on him.
Knowing your past history of making ridiculous accusations, I doubt that your intent was strictly curiosity as a “neutral observer”. I answered your question and you refused to accept it. I don’t know how I can help you further.