FDA Approved Generic Propecia, Delivered To Your Door

Two-thirds of men will experience some degree of hair loss by age 35. If you decide to fight to keep it, we can help with a treatment plan and prescription (if appropriate).

If appropriate, Roman-affiliated doctors and nurse practitioners can prescribe generic Propecia and send you a hair loss treatment plan designed by Roman’s physician advisors.

Finasteride (generic Propecia) is an FDA-approved medication used to treat male pattern hair loss, also known as androgenetic alopecia. Finasteride slows or stops hair loss, and, in some cases, it may even regrow hair. Individual results will vary.

Propecia is the original brand name for 1 mg finasteride tablets for the treatment of male pattern hair loss. Most people who say they use Propecia today are actually taking generic finasteride 1 mg tablets, which have the same active ingredient as Propecia. The FDA requires that generic drugs demonstrate bioequivalence to the brand-name drug, which means they act the same way in the body and are expected to produce the same effects as the original brand-name drug.

Finasteride is part of a family of drugs called 5-alpha reductase inhibitors. These drugs work by blocking the activity of 5-alpha reductase, which is an enzyme that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT is a potent androgen (male sex hormone). It causes male pattern baldness (aka androgenetic alopecia) in men who are genetically predisposed to it, growth of the prostate leading to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Using 5-alpha reductase inhibitors to block this enzyme can slow or reverse hair loss and shrink the prostate over time.

• Take finasteride exactly as your healthcare provider tells you to take it.

• You may take finasteride with or without food.

• If you forget to take finasteride, do not take an extra tablet. Just take the next tablet as usual.

• Finasteride will not work faster or better if you take it more than once a day.

Short answer is yes. The same study from above that summarized the findings of 3 studies that evaluated the effects of finasteride showed that some men in the finasteride group has hair regrowth. The authors noted, “Based on standardized clinical photography, the chances of mild to moderate visible regrowth are 61% on the vertex (with an additional 5% achieving great visible regrowth) after 2 years and 37% on the frontal area after 1 year.” In the 2 studies done on hair loss at the crown of the head, 72% of men had further hair loss after 2 years. For clarity, vertex is the crown of the head and frontal area is the frontal or receding hairline.

The most common side effects of finasteride include:

• decrease in sex drive

• trouble getting or keeping an erection

• a decrease in the amount of semen

Please click here to see the full Important Safety Information.

Oral finasteride 1 mg is one of two FDA-approved treatments for male pattern hair loss, the other one being topical minoxidil 2% or 5%. Since oral finasteride has been shown to cause sexual side effects in a small number of men (3.8% of men who took finasteride vs 2.1% of men who took placebo in phase III clinical trials for finasteride), researchers have been interested in whether topical finasteride applied to the scalp may be effective in treating male pattern hair loss with a lower potential for side effects.

A 2018 systematic review of the results of seven different studies concluded that topical finasteride is effective for the treatment of male pattern hair loss but also lowers plasma (blood) DHT levels which can lead to undesired side effects like low libido. Still, it appears that the incidence of side effects was lower with topical finasteride than oral finasteride. Also, some researchers found that plasma DHT levels were only minimally decreased with topical finasteride.

At this time, topical finasteride is not FDA-approved for the treatment of male pattern hair loss and must be specially compounded by a compounding pharmacy and requires a doctor’s prescription. For this reason, compounded topical finasteride is not available through Roman.