AboutPeter J. Panagotacos, <B>M.D.</B> Expertise I have 30 years experience in the field of medical and surgical Hair Restoration and am Board Certified
in Dermatology and Hair Restoration Surgery.
Experience I have 30 years experience in the field of medical and surgical Hair Restoration and am Board Certified
in Dermatology and Hair Restoration Surgery.
More information can be found at my website
www.hairdoc.com
I am a 24 yr old male. I have had diffused thinning for almost 6 months now. At first i thought it was telogen effluvium, but after numerous dermatologist visits, i am convinced its early pattern hair loss.
My hairloss is not male pattern, but more of a diffused female patter. I have much thinning all over the top, and more noticible thinning right behind the hairline and on the back sides. All these changes happend so fast and what suprises me is that my entire head of hair has become much thinner(diameter of each hair), including the sides and back.
I recently started propecia last week. I have a few questions,
1. Do you think propecia is the best choice at this point? I ofcourse want hair to grow back and to thicken back up, but i also want to make my hairs thicker in diameter.
Do you think i should use minoxidil in conjunction with the propecia, or wait the propecia out?
2. I have been using tazorac .1 cream which is a retinoid for acne for the past 2 years (1 time daily). Is it possible that this prolongued use could cause more hair loss from the doses of vitamin A? or is this amount of vitamin A absorbtion insignificant.
and lastly, I along with every male on propecia out there, am worried about the sexual side effects. Reading about propecia i get the sense that every male deals with some libido loss or negative sexual effect, in your Personal experience, are there many males that have the same sex drive and performance on the drug?
Thank you so very much for your time and advice
ANSWER: Even males can get thin all over without a shiny bald spot. This kind of loss in a young man frequently is the beginning of baldness which will be shiny bald in another 20 years. The best treatment for this is Propecia. Tazorac in small doses will not cause hair loss and the amount of Vit A is insignificant. Using a small amount of Tazorac may help and may help the minoxidil lotion to stimulate the hairs. You can use Propecia and minoxidil and even add a little tazorac too.
Only one person in 200 had symptoms of sexual dysfunction after two years of taking Propecia and only one in 400 stopped taking Propecia because of side effects. That is a rare side effect and Propecia is considered very safe. In the placebo group 2% had sexual dysfunction side effects after only one month and after two years. In my study 15 years ago I found 3% of men had an increased sex drive due to an increase in testosterone and only one person in 500 reported side effects of decreased sex drive. The problem is that there are too many people looking for something to blame for not having as much sex drive as they would like. I have found Propecia very safe with few patiens complaining of any side effects.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thank you so much for your advice doctor.
I have one follow up question.
For propecia, I have read that if i do experience some side effects, they should disappear if i stop taking the drug. If i take the drug for say, 3 years, will the side effects take longer to go away because of my prolongued use? as opposed to stopping if i experienced something during the first month.
Answer Propecia only has a 8 hour half life in your blood so that in a matter of a few days it is completely out of your system and your DHT is back to normal causing thinning of hair again. The longer men are on Propecia the fewer men say they have side effects so that in the first two months about 3 to 4% had side effects--at the end of a full year it was only 1% and after two full years it was only 1/2 % When those men were asked if they wanted to stop taking Propecia half of them said no and the side effects were minimal compared to the increased hair they had. If someone had erectile dysfunction the problem is corrected by Viagra today which was not available at the time Propecia was first studied. If the problem persists 3 years without trying to correct it using Viagra or Cialis then I do think it would take a longer period to get back to normal.
