Continuing finasteride when new treatment arrives?

[dontleave]

Hi, i had a question...

Ive recently started finasteride. I wondered, when a new treatment comes, will it be necessary to continue finasteride TO KEEP THE HAIR YOU GAINED ON IT...or will the new treatment be sufficiently advanced that whatever it does somehow means even hair gained on finasteride will not be dependant on the finasteride anymore? apologies if this is a really dumb question...but I just wondered, as ideally id like to be able to think of finasteride as a short term delaying tactic, until something new is out there!

 

[slurms mackenzie]

It depends how the new treatment works,

for example a topical anti androgen such as cb 03 01 or a systemic anti androgen without sides (stop snickering at the back) would replace finasteride entirely.

I can't see any reason why other treatments, using a different mechanism, would cause you to lose hair restored on finasteride.

finasteride *is* hopefully a short term delaying tactic.

 

[Johnx]

If new treatment arrives at all...

 

[Wuffer]

Yep, chugalot is right. It all depends on how the new treatments work.

It seems a lot of the new topicals work by reducing DHT in the scalp, which is exactly what we need.

However, finasteride is nice in that it is extremely convenient, and affects your entire scalp at once. CB-03-01 seems like a great alternative, but the only problem I can see is that like minoxidil, you would only be applying it to the actively balding areas on your head. However, all the other areas susceptible to balding would still be affected by DHT, since the topical is just effective in the direct area you apply it to. This would mean to have it work as well as finasteride, you would need to apply it to the ENTIRE top of your head, which might be very costly and inconvenient.

But yes, I don't expect to have to be on finasteride for more than 5 years, hopefully closer to 2 or 3 before something better comes out. I am confident in the safety and effectiveness of the stuff, but I still don't want to have to take it if an effective topical comes out!

 

[Johnx]

It's funny, none of the most successful "BIG 3" were specifically developed to battle hairloss (finasteride - for prostate, Min - for blood pressure, Keto - for fungal infections), and only accidentally it was found they were effective against hairloss. And I think, nothing more effective came out in 30 years or so...
So, in conclusion, there's still no cure successfully developed specifically for hairloss...

I guess the next possible promising thing that could become a part of "BIG 4" might be Astressin-B...