|
 Dr. Alan J. Bauman is the Founder, Medical Director and Chief Surgeon of the Bauman Medical Group, P.A. located in Wharfside at Boca Pointe in Boca Raton, Florida. His practice is dedicated exclusively to treating male and female pattern hair loss. Dr. Bauman uses state-of-the-art medical and surgical techniques to help his patients maintain and/or restore their scalp hair.
Stacy
2005-11-16
Propecia
Dr. Bauman,
You preformed my husbands transplant surgery in February & he is now on propecia. I have noticed a siginafiant drop in his sex drive. (Which I remember you warning him about) How can I bring this up? I have mentioned it once and he said I was stretching it and neither where related to the other.
Any suggestions?
Stacy Leach
Stacy,
Decreased sex drive from propecia is a very rare side effect. It happens in less than 2% of patients--quite low. The good news is that it is reversible. If he stops the Propecia, the sex-drive will return to normal. However, I have found that the longer patients stay on the medication, the lower the incidence of side effects. Also, I've found that changing the timing of the dose (PM instead of AM, for example, or vice-versa) also decreases side effects. I'm not sure why this works. More than half of the patients who experience some side effect tend to get to a point where the side effect resolves. Sometimes we go to an every-other-day dosing schedule, although this can reduce the effectiveness of the propecia.
Of course, stopping the medication is an option, but, again, you'll lose the effectiveness of the propecia and male pattern hair loss will continue. During your husband's next follow up visit we can discuss the options available. If keeping his hair is important to him, he's going to want to continue the propecia and work to 'get past' the side effects. Please feel free to have him call the office anytime and we can discuss it...
Sincerely,
Dr. B.
doctorb@baumanmedical.com
Click here to return to Dr. Alan J. Bauman, MD's Q&A page.
|
