Any transgendered women know of the effectiveness of Proscar?

Question

This would be used with an anti-androgen.

Answer 1

It worked great for me.  It was expensive and my insurance did not cover it, but when I was on it, it was still better  than Spiro

But I no longer need it as I had SRS a few years ago

Answer 2

Nobody's answered this EASY question.  Many medicines have multiple names and this is no different.

Proscar=Finasteride=Finpecia=Propecia

They are all the same thing.  The only difference is that Proscar come in 5mg sizes, whereas the others usually come in 1 mg sizes.

Just to cover all the bases: Proscar is NOT an anti-androgen.  What it and it's clones do is block one type of DHT.  DHT is what causes male pattern baldness.

Back in the old days (70's&80's) docs tried using Proscar as an anti-androgen simply because they had nothing else.  Today we have Spironolactone (Spiro, Aldactone, Spirotone same thing) and Androcur.  Here in the US we use Spiro because the FDA (for whatever reason) refuses to approve Androcur.  Androcur is widely used outside the US.

Proscar is good at doing what I mentioned earlier: Blocking one kind of DHT.  The problem is there are two kinds of DHT.  So if you need a lot of help in the hair department you should consider Avodart (aka Dutasteride, Dutas).  Although more pricey it blocks both kinds of DHT and can help restore hair that has recently been lost.

Many people use both Proscar and Spiro simultaneously; I did when I was pre-op.  I took 1mg of Finasteride 4 years.  Did it work?  Hard to say.  My hair thinning was reversed, but I can't say for certain if it was the Finasteride or the estrogen.  And I don't care, whichever it was it worked!

One last word: Early on I asked my endo about using a higher dose of Finasteride.  My regular doc had started me on 0.5mg and I was reading sites on line that were saying 5-6mg should be part of my regimen.  My endo said that dosages above 1mg were really overkill and not really more effective.  That's why I upped my dose to 1mg and stayed there.  And as I said it worked for me.

Oh one last thing: Price.  Most insurers do not cover the cost for hair  restoration.  However, they will pay for the same drugs (Proscar and Avodart) if prescribed for prostate issues.  If you are not covered I would suggest using an on-line pharmacy to get cheaper prices than offered at a retail pharmacy.

Good Luck!