What Would You Do if Propecia Was Hypothetically Pulled from the Market?

Always great to see this site up and running. Thank goodness you did not pull a “Merck.” Let me segue then into the question: Let’s say that you were practicing HT’s ten years from now and it turned out data showed that finesteride’s long term effects were more detrimental to libido, erectile issues, etc. than previously reported, and the drug was pulled from the market as a hair loss fighter. All things being equal to today’s other hair loss products, would this alter your approach to certain patients?

There was no Propecia on the market in the early 90s, so young men would get hair transplants anyway and many would suffer from shock loss (especially those under 25 years old). Then the doctors chased the hair loss as the eventual pattern of each patient emerged. I guess the same would happen in 10 years or hair transplants would become a dying industry. Knowing some of the less honorable doctors, denial of the accelerated hair loss might be a pattern to keep up payments on big houses and expensive cars, but for the most part, I suspect that the demand for many repeat procedures will become the trend in the long term.

As long as we’re playing with hypotheticals, I’d hope that in the next decade there would be advances in treating balding that might make medication unnecessary.