Stopping Propecia Before Conceiving

Dear Dr Rassman, I would really appreciate your response to this question. I cannot find the answer anywhere. You say that “if you are concerned about finasteride and its impact on your unborn child, you can stop using finasteride for about 1 week prior to conceiving a child as the medication should be cleared from your body.”

I was told by my Dr. that the semen which you ejaculate was produced 60 – 90 days ago in the body. Assuming you took finasteride in the 60-90 days prior to stopping for one week, surely the sperm you produce will still contain / be affected by finasteride because it was made well before you stopped taking it?

You make a good point. The drug company Merck has not reported any deformities (sexual identification of the fetus) with the use of finasteride and many of the men that take it are in their 20s and 30s. The real answer is there is safety in numbers and the lack of medical or fetal complications with finasteride (Propecia) indicates that this is not a problem.

Of course, you will have to be the final judge on whether you feel it is safe for the unborn child. The FDA would have made it known if this was a problem and they would have forced publication of such complications if they occurred.