November 16 2006, 2:31 pm PT | Posted in: Drugs
hi doc, i just had a quick question for you. im 23 and i started losing or at least noticing my hair loss this year, so i have been taking propecia for 2 months now, my question is does propecia cause acne, because for some reason my acne has got really bad, but my sex drive seems to be normal, should i continue to take propecia and hope that my acne is from other causes? because i dont want to go to my doctor and waste time if you can help me? please respond back, thank you.
I do not believe acne is a common side effect of Propecia (finasteride 1mg). Your question is very peculiar though. You are obviously concerned about your thinning hair and have hair loss to a degree that has made you desire to invest time and money in taking Propecia. Acne and early hair loss have a common thread — they happen to occur at about the same age. I believe that if there is a connection, it is with the age of the patient. According to a published study titled 5 alpha-reductase and finasteride in pattern alopecia and acne, “There remains debate whether 5 alpha-reductase will additionally also prove beneficial for acne”
This research is still ongoing, but if Propecia is a source of your acne, are you willing to stop taking it to halt your acne? In other words, are you willing to lose hair for clear skin? That’s entirely up to you.
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Before medicines are approved, they must go through several clinical studies in which thousands of people are given a particular medicine and compared to a group of people not given the medicine. In these studies, side effects are always documented.For people taking Propecia, acne was not reported as either a common or rare side effect.
Some people claim that the drug helped their acne, whereas others blame it for causing their skin condition. Therefore, it may come down to hormonal and personal genetic differences between individuals.
Isn’t this relatively straightforward? Finasteride increases the amount of testosterone in the body, by inhibiting its conversion into DHT. And increased testosterone will increase acne.
After I started taking Propecia, my acne, which has been pretty bad since around 17 or so, gradually faded away completely. At first I thought I just grew out of it, but then I noticed that whenever my Propecia prescription ran out, if it took me a couple weeks to get it renewed, my acne would come back with a vengence. Then when I would get the propecia renewed, it would go away again quickly. The effect was dramatic. It is unquestionable to me that there is a definite link, at least for what ever type or cause of acne I have. Different people’s acne may have different causes and may respond differently to the same treatements. But in my case, Propecia has clearer and greater impact on my acne than anything I ever took before that, including tetracycline (which had no effect whatsoever) and accutane (which cleared up major acne, but did not completely clear my skin and caused really dry skin).