Will Finasteride Work for 30 or More Years?

Doc, I really appreciate this blog which I consider, by the way, the funniest blog on the Internet about hairloss. My question is about maintainance. You have written many times that baldness will catch up all of us sooner or later but, on the other hand, some people, mostly in their early twenties are still maintaining after ten years, their benefits of Finasteride. According to these: you think that those who are taking Finasteride will lose most of their retained hair, maybe at their late thirties or fourties? Or perhaps these people could get to keep their hair until they reach their fifties or sixties?

I know very well that you don’t like the guessing game but I am sure your professional experience gives you a better perspective about these topic.

You’re right in that I don’t like to guess, so I’m not going to do so here. The data is just not there. Finasteride hasn’t been around long enough to say whether it’ll maintain hair loss treatment benefits 30 or 40 years after you start taking it. What I do know is that it does still provide benefits after the 10 year mark for some men, because the medication has been available for about that long. Finasteride was around in a larger dosage (5mg) since 1992 to treat the prostate, but I don’t have data about hair loss treatment benefits in those that took the drug back then for prostate health.

The drug company Merck shows a slow loss of effectiveness over the first 5 years, but there is no published data beyond 5 years. I have had many patients starting this drug in their early to mid-twenties and over the 10 or so years the drug has been on the market, many of the men who reversed the balding in the crown have maintained all of the benefits. Unfortunately, I can not project this out for the length of time you are asking about.