February 21 2006, 2:30 pm PT | Posted in: Drugs
What is your opinion on a lower dose of Propecia. I have heard that some doctors recommend every other (or every 3) days dosing. What is your stance on this?
Propecia has a half life of 4 hours. That means within a day, it is essentially gone from your system. Taking it every 3 days makes no sense, for you are undoing the DHT block that Propecia impacts. If you are going to reduce the dosage, then take a half tablet a day. I am under the impression that 1/2 tablet is 80% as effective as one tablet and 1/4 tablet is basically ineffective. I would want to know why you want to reduce the dosage from the most effective dose? The goal here is to grow hair, not see how little Propecia you can take.
The Idea of taking a lower dose would be to have less potentional for the undesirable side effects,,right?
I have just found this paper from Sherman Frankel of U of Pennsilvania. He used the Freedom of Information Act to examine the FDA files on Propecia. The conclusions he draws from looking at the data sent to the FDA from Merck is that 0.2mg of Propecia is almost as effective as either a 1mg or 5mg daily dose. He also concludes that the potential side effects (loss of libido) may be reduced on a significantly lower dose. The study can be found at:
http://www.physics.upenn.edu/facultyinfo/frankel/papers/propeciafda2/index.html
Any comments?
“The goal here is to grow hair, not see how little Propecia you can take”.
Well considering the “ass raping” consumers take with the rising cost of Propecia compared to the cost of Proscar…the same damn ingredient, it’s no f*cking wonder people want to find the “real” dosage they can get away with…scumbag.
Temper, temper, zuel. Your “scumbag” comment was uncalled for. The “real” dosage is 1mg, just as has been approved by the FDA. If you want to take less, that is up to you as an adult — I just go by what my patients are taking and what I’ve seen work. There is a reason this medication is by doctor’s prescription. If you chose to not take it as prescribed, that isn’t my call to make. I do not set the prices. Direct your anger elsewhere.
I apologize. My anger is directed towards the F.D.A., the A.T.F, D.E.A. Not you. In fact it’s awesome that you take the time to actually help people online like this. :}
Let me put it this way 0.5mg of propecia once a day was enough to set my labido through the floor ie from a very healthy sex drive to getting no life at all from it and also a nice case of gyno that luckily was caught in time by my doctor so i didnt need an operation to remove the hard lump under my nipple.
The bottom line is approach this stuff with caution its more potent and dangerious than you can ever imagine…..trust me I know
i’m taking .25 a day and have heard it is effective. i’ll let you know in a few months if it works on me. it makes sense to take less a day if it works- a .25 dose was never adequately studied… and if it works you could be saving your prostate from a more malignant form of cancer. why are you under the impressiong that 1/4 is completely ineffective? from the studies, the dht reduction in the scalp was as significant as a 1 mg dose.
Well James, is it Working?