Rogaine, Propecia, Avodart, and Other Basics

Hey doc, Great site!
Here is my background: I’m 30 yrs old; have been on Propecia for about 5 years now; the hair on the crown of my head is full; but I have a pretty good widow’s peak and am starting thin pretty severly along my hairline. I just wanted to fact check a few things:

1. Is Rogaine my only viable option at this point to stop the thinning in front?
2. If I up the dosage if Propecia from 1mg to 2mg will that work? Will it still take 8mos to see new growth given that I’ve been on the product for 5 yrs?
3. At what age would you advise I look into hair transplantation?
4. Should I even consider Avodart since it’s not approved by the FDA? Has it been shown to be more effective with re-growing frontal hair?

Tks for your advisement

The questions that you asked have been answered separately on multiple posts in the pasts, but I’ll briefly answer them here again…

1. Rogaine is recommended mostly for the top and crown area, based on the several studies that were performed on its effectiveness. There is more and more testimony from doctors who recommend it that minoxidil does work in the front and when combined with Propecia shows reasonable results in the frontal area. This is more a subjective call by doctors who know, rather than the type of objective data that the FDA requires.
2. There is no evidence to show higher doses than 1mg can improve hair growth, but trying it at say twice the dose, may be reasonable provided that you do not experience negative sexual side effects.
3. At your age, if you have male pattern baldness and are in stage 3 or above on Norwood classification, you can be a hair transplant candidate.
4. I would probably not consider Avodart. At this point we can not recommend Avodart (dutasteride), because there is not enough medical evidence to show its advantage over Propecia (finasteride), which has much less side effects. Now with that said, it is presently being tested in Korea under an FDA protocol. I would be interested to see the side effects on this drug as well as its effectiveness as reported in scientific formats.