I would be grateful if you folks can post your opinions
and experiences regarding this medication.

Does it stop hair loss?
Does it help new hair growth?
Side-effects?

So on,

Thanks,

Satya Prabhakar

My personal suggestion is not to start using minoxidil and either resign
yourself to life with less hair or buy a toupee.  Either way, I think you'll
be alot happier.

Pat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patrick Crawford                             Snail Mail:13 Fountain Dr.

phone:(902)894-8095(home)                               Canada   C1A 6L9
      (902)894-8553(work)

What do you recommend? Is it that once I stop using Minoxidil
I will lose all hair fast or just the new hair that grew thanks
to it? Please clarify.

Regarding cost, in US it is about $50 per month and $600 per
year if usage is twice daily. I think I may be able to save
pre-tax for it, so the cost comes down to about $300-400. And
if I use it once a day, it comes to about $150-$200, a small
cost over a year for what it can do.

Also, I think it should be going off patent sometime soon when
the prices will drop precipitously, no?

Satya Prabhakar

This stuff works best in men who still have a fair amount of hair.
You can think of minoxidil as increasing the growth cycle of the
hair follicle.  It keeps growing for a longer period of time and
doesn't rest as long.  In a sense, it superimposes a phenomenon
which tends to facilitate hair growth on top on another one
(androgenic alopecia) which tends to do just the opposite.
Eventually, the inevitable will happen--after a few years
you'll get less and less of an effect, but it will likely
keep your hair around longer than if you didn't use it.
Whether that's cosmetically (and financially) acceptable
is really only something you and your dermatologist can
determine.

Using the drug only once a day to save money isn't a good idea,
since its modest effects are seem only with twice-daily use.

   >What do you recommend? Is it that once I stop using Minoxidil
   >I will lose all hair fast or just the new hair that grew thanks
   >to it? Please clarify.

Stopping the drug will eventually cause new growth to fall out,
and it will no longer have the same effect on your follicle's
growth cycles.  This effect is pretty slow--you're not going
to wake up and suddenly lose all your hair.

   >Also, I think it should be going off patent sometime soon when
   >the prices will drop precipitously, no?

Hard to say.  This drug has been a real disappointment to Upjohn
shareholders (or should I say "hairholders"?), since its effects
are so relatively modest.  Add to that that it's still only avail-
able by Rx, and you have a small market.  I wonder if generic firms
would even bother to step in to produce a generic topical solution.

There is research underway to see whether the drug Proscar
(finasteride), a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor, works against
male pattern baldness.  5-alpha-reductase converts testosterone
to dihydrotestosterone, the active androgen in target tissues
like the skin and prostate.  Blocking this should prevent
some of the effects of androgens on the hair follicles.
Of course, taking a drug like this orally seems like a rather
draconian thing to do for what is essentially a cosmetic problem.
I believe that a topical formulation is also being studied.
I have no idea of the status of this research right now.
It may or may not pan out.

--
Steve Dyer

What terrible things do trace amounts of Proscar do to fetuses?  Thanks.
--

f p=2,3:2 s q=1 x "f f=3:2 q:f*f>p!'q  s q=p#f" w:q p,?$x\8+1*8

        What terrible things do trace amounts of Proscar do to fetuses?  Thanks.

The issue is that trace amounts of the drug may be found in {*filter*}.
I'm not sure how serious a threat this actually is (as opposed to
women taking it orally during pregnancy, a clearly illegitimate
application), but it's obvious that Merck doesn't want to take any
chances.

DHT may be involved in the {*filter*} differentiation of fetuses,
and by blocking its formation from testosterone, you could end
up with hypospadias, pseudohermaphroditism and other malformations
of the male reproductive tract.  This seems to occur in animal
studies.

--
Steve Dyer

For God's sake, before you spend a small fortune on Minoxidil, why not
give Polysorbate 80 a try?  It's a hell of a lot cheaper and may work
just as well!  Only one way to find out!

                          Bryan Shelton

: Also, I think it should be going off patent sometime soon when
: the prices will drop precipitously, no?

In Canada, it's open to generic companies already. Apotex markets it as
Apo-Gain at 2/3 to 1/2 the price I believe.

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