When not to prescribe finasteride

I perform HAIRCHECK tests on most patients who want to start finasteride because I want to be able to follow their progress and if the drug is halting or reversing the hair loss., The HAIRCHECK test gives me a metric which allows me and the patient to know with reasonable certainty what is happening to them and with my experience I can often predict long-term hair loss patterns allowing my patients to build a Master Plan for future planning both for financial reasons and for hair growth reasons. If the HAIRCHECK shows no balding, I don’t prescribe finasteride. Also if a patient is depressed and I feel that there will be a link between finasteride and his depression, I might not prescribe it. My assessment of the patient is always one-on-one and then I have the priveledge to prescribe it or not.

In addition, I take a careful history, get to know the patient and try to understand their sexual history and if they may be good a candidate or not go good candidate for this drug. I have turned people down based upon these discussions.