Generic Propecia

It is a side effect that doesn’t appear in the labelling and packaging of Propecia and one that your doctor is unlikely to warn you about but Propecia can actuallycost you your career. In a recent case Mark Nielsen from New Zealand is now unable to play tennis professionally for two years and all because he used Propecia to cover up his thinning hair. At the age of 29 it may mean that he’d better just retire and find something else to do.

Propecia’s active ingredient finasteride as well as being a DHT blocker also is a very efficient masking agent for other drugs. This means that if you take Propecia, other drugs in your bloodstream that may or may not be forbidden to professional sportsmen by the drug testing authorities may be hidden and will not show up in testing.

Nielsen was tested at the Australian Open at the beginning of 2006 and was found to be positive to the finasteride. He is at present ranked 413th worldwide and is the highest ranked player in New Zealand. Whe he appeared before the tribunal he explained that he was using the Propecia to stop his hair line receding and this was accepted by them but this did not mean that they could free him from the ban.

The tribunal stressed the importance of all sportsmen being responsible for all the drugs that they took and checking with the relevant authorities before any drug use no matter how trivial they might seem. Mr Nielsen is not the first player to be banned for using Propecia and it is becoming inconcievable that professional tennis players are not aware of the dangers to their careers of using Propecia.

Propecia is only available with a prescription and is a men only hair loss remedy. Propecia is taken in the form of a small tablet daily and prevents the formation of DHT in the scalp that kills hair follicles. Propecia is used by millions of men worldwide and is considered to be one of the most effective hair loss remedies for men by trichologists and hair and scalp professionals.

When the hair loss drug Propecia was tested it required extensive detailed study. All in all the doctors who organised the trial looked at over 1800 men over a year from the age of 18 to 41 all of whom reported mild up to moderate amounts of continuing hair loss. Out of these men around 1200 who had hair loss on the top of the head also took part in extra clinical studies so that overall the complete study period for the Propecia was 5 years.

In short it was seen that the men who used Propecia maintained or sometimes actually increased the amount of visible hairs on the scalp and saw a marked improvement in hair sometime in the 1st year. The hair loss continued to stop and in somecases the improvements were seen to continue right to the endof the study that went on for 5 years. A control group who dod not take Propecia continued to see more hair fall out. The study showed that Propecia would only grow hair on the scalp and not in any other part of the body.

The Propecia results are not the same for all men and it is important to know that Propecia will not regrow bald spots but it is likely to slow down the hair loss and stop it getting worse.  Propecia seems to work best with balding on the top of the head and the evidence that Propecia stops a receeding hairline has not been verified.

There are a few side effects for Propecia but they were seen very rarely and it was seen that some men had sexual side effects like a reduced desire for sex, a decrease in the semen amount and in very rare cases a difficulty in getting an erection however these side effects were seen in less than 1 man in 50 (2%) and went away when the Propecia tablets were not administered anymore. Interestingly and to the relief of some of the participants they also went away in the majority of the men who carried on taking Propecia. Because Propecia can affect the blood levels of various hormones that cause hair loss it is important that you tell you docor about the fact that you are using it and especially if you have a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) for the checking of prostate cancer.

Other rare side effects noted were a few allergic reactions like a rash, itching, swelling of the lips or face, breast tenderness or enlargement and sometimes testicular pain. If you see any changes in your breasts like lumps or nipple discharge tell your doctor about it. These side effects are very rare will go if you stop using the Propecia hair loss drug. On the whole the vast majority of men had positive results when using Propecia.

More and more doctors are becoming aware that when their patients are using Propecia the anti baldness drug their Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) readings will be affected. PSA readings are used by doctors to see if a patient could have cancer of the prostate gland, but the Propecia drug artificially reduces these readings to levels that may make a man with the cancer get a reading that appears to be OK. This is obviously very dangerous and Ukmedix feels that more must be done to warn doctors of this problem.

It is probable that the vast majority of doctors know about the Propecia PSA lowering effect but unless your doctor knows that you are using the Propecia he will not be able to adjust the PSA readings accordingly.

So the message is clear…. Tell your doctor if you are using Propecia even if you reckon that it is not important for him to know. Some men are embarrassed about their hair loss and so they get a prescription for Propecia from some other doctor than their usual doctor and thus a confusion regarding PSA readings can arise. It could be that your doctor will be doing a routine check up on you and will not tell you that he is checking your PSA blood level readings and thus this is where the fact that you haven’t told him about the Propecia could be dangerous. Doctors are used to people who have embarrassing conditions and you really should not worry about telling your doctor about any medical problem or medicine use at all.

The basic rule for men using Propecia is that the PSA readings should really be doubled to get an accurate reading of the situation. A high PSA reading only means that there is a likelihood of prostrate cancer and further testing will then be needed to confirm it. Those men who use Propecia may slip through the net so you must tell your doctor is you are using this anti baldness medicine.