07/10/2016
Do Hair Loss Medications Have Side Effects?
Medications for hair loss can slow thinning of hair and increase coverage of the scalp by growing new hair and enlarging existing hairs. However, they need to be taken continuously. If the medications are stopped, any hair that has grown in will gradually be lost, and within 6 to 12 months your scalp will most likely appear the same as before treatment.
Your hair is thinning and you're considering medication.
Is it worth it?
Propecia and Rogaine are the only two drugs that are approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of hair loss. Propecia (finasteride) and Rogaine (minoxidil) work in completely different ways. Propecia is a pill taken once daily, while Rogaine is a liquid that is applied to the scalp twice daily. Neither Propecia nor Rogaine have been proven to restore hair in the frontal areas. For reasons yet unknown these drugs only generally work in regrowing thinning hair in crown area of the scalp. Also, Propecia has not been proven effective in women and is not approved for women.
How do they work?
Propecia helps regrow visible hair and reduces further hair loss. If you start taking Propecia you may see a decrease in hair loss beginning in as little as 3 months. And by 6 to 12 months, you may see new hair growth. If it doesn’t work for you after 12 months, it is unlikely to be of benefit. If you stop taking Propecia, you will likely lose any hair you’ve gained within 12 months of stopping treatment.
Propecia has been demonstrated effective in most men. In fact, in FDA-reviewed clinical trials, 2 out of 3 men on Propecia regrew hair, as measured by actual hair counts.
Clinical tests showed Propecia was very well tolerated.
Rogaine is available without a prescription
Rogaine (Minoxidil) was originally developed in tablet form as a drug for high blood pressure. Doctors noticed that people on minoxidil sometimes grew new hair, so the drug was reformulated for this purpose. Rogaine was the first FDA approved drug for the treatment of male pattern hair loss and still the only FDA approved treatment for women with hair loss.
Minoxidil is a over-the-counter medication approved for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia and alopecia areata. Minoxidil is available in a 2 percent solution and in a 5 percent solution. The makers of minoxidil recommend women only use the 2% concentration of minoxidil because they have not received FDA approval for promoting 5% minoxidil or minoxidil extra strength for use by women.
Minoxidil is typically applied twice a day to the area of the scalp being treated. The exact way that Minoxidil works to promote hair growth is not fully understood. The medicine is known to be a potent "vasodilator", which means that it causes the walls of blood vessels to relax and widen, thus allowing more blood flow to pass through them; but it is generally agreed by most experts that there is some other additional way that the drug works in relation to hair growth, which remains somewhat mysterious.
Topical minoxidil is much more effective at treating baldness that occurs on the top, or crown, of the head than it is at causing hair growth on other parts of the head. Clinical tests on the effectiveness of topical minoxidil in men with baldness on the top of the head showed that 48% of men who had used minoxidil for one year reported moderate to dense re-growth of hair within the treated area, 36% reported minimal re-growth while 16% reported no re-growth. Similar percentages have been reported in women.
Minoxidil is a treatment for hair loss, it is not a cure. If regular application of topical minoxidil is stopped, all hair grown in response to the therapy will be rapidly lost over the next 3 to 6 months.
Side effects of topical minoxidil are rare and generally minor. Most common is scalp irritation or itching. The blood pressure lowering effect of oral minoxidil does not occur with the topical formulation. There is a small risk for facial hair growth associated with use of minoxidil - a finding that may be a side effect of the drug or may be due to accidental application of the topical solution to the face.
Rogaine is available without a prescription.
The only PERMANENT solution for hair loss is a hair transplant.
Courtesy
Pioneer Advanced Hair Transplant center.
