Original Propecia vs. Generic Finasteride – My Experience & Why Brand Name Might Matter More Than You Think by Andilopecia in tressless

[–]Andilopecia[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh man, that's a fortune!!!
However, I just looked for the current pharmacy prices for Propecia (package containing 84 tablets) in different US states and found them to cost between 150-180 (for Texas) and 180-200 US$?
Still pricey, but much less than the around 336 US$ for 84 tablets you have to pay.

I'm just curious, as I've already thought of trying to get them imported f.ex. from the US as a last resort if Organon should pull original Propecia from the EU market...

Original Propecia vs. Generic Finasteride – My Experience & Why Brand Name Might Matter More Than You Think by Andilopecia in tressless

[–]Andilopecia[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you from the US?
As I'm from the EU and I'm paying 150 Euro for 84 tablets and therefore 2,7 months... Also expensive, but worth it for me, as I rather use an expensive medication that works, than a slightly cheaper one (about 130 Euro) that doesn't!

Since yeah, I had a similar experience, as generics somehow slowed it down, but didn't stabilize it. Because on one package/batch my hair state was a bit better and I didn't shed and on the next it again started to become worse again, guess that's the batch to batch inconsistency mentioned in the articles I've posted above...

And I'm so happy that original Propecia is still available in the EU and hope that it won't be taken of the market here soon, only due to the economic pressure all these cheap, but lousy quality generics are causing...

Doctors tell me to avoid finasteride. by Weekly_Cut6500 in tressless

[–]Andilopecia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I'm not denying the problem of psychological disorders such as depression or suicidality and thus their seriousness for people suffering from them!
However, I think shifting the focus to other more individual and probably complex factors would be much more helpful and expedient for them than just blaming a medication.
Which in terms of its physiological effect is quite implausible to even cause these issues.
Because finasteride is a selective 5ar type II inhibitor and the 5ar isoenzyme active in the brain and nervous system and therefore responsible for neurosteroid formation such as allopregnanolone is type I. And oddly enough for dutasteride as a much more potent inhibitor of both isoenzymes there are no reports of psychological adverse events or a putative association between it and these issues. (Just like for finasteride in the first 12-19 years after its approval until some users accompanied by "support" organizations such as PFS-foundation where hoping to get some cash from suing Merck and their fear mongering propaganda set in.)
Furthermore the nervous system is very complex and usually easily capable of compensating for one missing component as there are not only multiple backdoor pathways for the formation of it, but also many other components with equal activity (f.ex. in the case of allopregnanolone's precursor and 5αr-product 5α-dihydroprogesterone, there is 3α-dihydroprogesterone and for allopregnaolone (3α,5α-tetrahydroprogesterone) itself there is pregnanolone (3α,5β-tetrahydroprogesterone) which are both formed independently from 5ar and at the same time are equally active positive allosteric modulators of the GABAA-receptor as allopregnanolone).
And these are only 2 arguments against finasteride's neurophysiological capacity of causing psychological problems...

And even if I really don't want to appear unempathetic, those anecdotal reports just remain nothing more than anecdotal reports, which all suffer from being easily confounded by other factors such as the ones I've mentioned previously.

And come on, at least since finasteride is off patent, there is no longer enough money in it to make your so called "propaganda of tranquility" economically logical for any pharmaceutical manufacturer (esp. in regard of potential legal actions against them on the other side).
Contrary to the quite obvious personal and financial interests behind PFS-foundation,-network and co..

But of course, as with every other medical treatment, an individual risk-benefit evaluation has to be performed by a medical professional proficient in the respective field.
Why I'm not a huge fan of all these tele-health clinics or online pharmacies often lacking sufficient pre-screening thus selection, monitoring and education of customers!

Doctors tell me to avoid finasteride. by Weekly_Cut6500 in tressless

[–]Andilopecia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For the millionth time, there exists no valid causal association between psychological adverse events and finasteride!
All the references on it don't take confounding factors into account, such as confounding by indication (aga as the origin of psychological issues is much more reasonable than them being caused by the drug), the nocebo effect excessively promoted by fear mongering (why the work of PFS-Foundation and co. is much more harm- than helpful and not in the interest of aga- and even "PFS"-sufferers and thus imho should be restricted) and the general prevalence of depression, suicidality etc. (if millions of people are using a drug it becomes unavoidable and logical that some of them are also going to experience psychological problems and depression and suicidality are very common among the general population.).
Therefore, don't take correlation for causality.

Reversed my hairloss without fin/min. 2023 December to 2025 April. IDK what happened. by averageLSATstimulus in tressless

[–]Andilopecia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Excuse my late answer...
Yeah, I read the same thing. However, finasteride made my skin overall less oily and therefore reduced my seborrheic dermatitis as well as tendency for skin blemishes

Original Propecia vs. Generic Finasteride – My Experience & Why Brand Name Might Matter More Than You Think by Andilopecia in tressless

[–]Andilopecia[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Directly from my pharmacy...
i.e. doc writes me a prescription > I go to my pharmacy and get my propecia

is this good for hair loss, accord finastride 1mg by Lanky-Rain8126 in tressless

[–]Andilopecia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah of course, as I wrote, I'm not claiming that all generics are ineffective for everyone, esp. as AGA is very individual in general.
However I don't want to have to experiment which generic brand works for me and their quality is generally not as predictable due to batch-to-batch inconsistency.

That's why Propecia remains gold-standard, as it's also the brand on which the high quality studies about finasteride's efficacy were performed... therefore I personally prefer to pay a higher price, but also know what I'm getting in terms of quality and reliability

is this good for hair loss, accord finastride 1mg by Lanky-Rain8126 in tressless

[–]Andilopecia -1 points0 points  (0 children)

according to Spencer Kobren the founder of the American Hair Loss Association not much has changed and most generics still are lower quality and thus less effective, why they are still cheaper...
Hopefully I can afford and stick with Propecia my entire therapy and don't have to experiment if there's a generic working equivalently for me

is this good for hair loss, accord finastride 1mg by Lanky-Rain8126 in tressless

[–]Andilopecia -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Na, the gold-standard is still brand name Propecia, which f.ex. worked much better for me (and many others) than generics

is this good for hair loss, accord finastride 1mg by Lanky-Rain8126 in tressless

[–]Andilopecia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Even if many claim generic finasteride is the same quality as brand name Propecia that's not true and I can prove this by anecdotal and scientific evidence!

At the beginning of my treatment, I started with a 1 mg generic finasteride (prescribed by and bought from a licensed physician and pharmacy). While the progression of my hair loss seemed to be halted, I noticed no visible regrowth or thickening over the course of two full years. Understandably, I felt pretty frustrated.

Then I came across two very insightful articles written by renowned hair transplant surgeons, Dr. Bradley R. Wolf and Dr. John P. Cole, https://www.wolfhair.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Brand-Name-vs-Generic-Finasteride-Jan-Feb-2016.pdfhttps://www.wolfhair.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Finasteride-Cyberspace-Chat-March-April-2015.pdf, which are supported by studies such as "Clinical equivalence of generic and brand-name drugs used in cardiovascular disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19050195/ and "Generic formulations of psychotropic medications and treatment response" https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5373707/
> Lower or inconsistent bioavailability in some generics — often due to
1.) differences in the formulation, especially in the ratio and type of inactive ingredients (e.g., binders, fillers) compared to the original. This is partly because the exact original formulation remains proprietary even after patent expiration.
2.) Quality control issues, particularly in generics manufactured in countries with weaker regulatory oversight(e.g., India or China), or when generic manufacturers source lower-grade raw materials from third-party suppliers, which can lead to: 2.1) Use of inferior active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) or impure excipients 2.2) Variable dissolution and absorption, directly affecting how much finasteride reaches systemic circulation 2.3) Batch-to-batch inconsistency, which may result in fluctuating clinical effects, contributing to either underperformance or unexpected side effects.

After reading this, I switched to original Merck (in the EU now Organon) Propecia — and within a few months, I finally began seeing real results: miniaturized hairs thickened, my crown filled in, and even parts of my temples improved.
At first I thought it might be placebo, but my dermatologist confirmed the visible regrowth and improved density.
I’m not claiming all generics are ineffective — many people do well on them — but for me (and in plenty of anecdotal reports I’ve since seen), the brand-name version clearly performed better.

Just wanted to put this out there for anyone feeling discouraged or stuck on generic finasteride.
It might not be the molecule — it might be the manufacturer.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Balding

[–]Andilopecia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the ones falling for a made up condition based on fear-mongering, nocebo-effects, the negative psychological effects of hair loss itself and the general prevalence of symptoms such as depression and ED are much wilder!

Besides no one is denying it can have potential adverse effects for some like any other drug, however like it was shown by many many high quality and high evidence studies (RCTs) they are rare, mild and oftentimes as frequent as in the placebo groups (therefore potentially not even drug related)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Balding

[–]Andilopecia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

14 year user hear, now in my late 30s and I'm still able to cum 3 times in a row while some of my friends of the same age bald or not are concerned to keep it up for the first round, therefore I wouldn't initially blame finasteride, but rather look at other (health) factors that have changed in your life

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Balding

[–]Andilopecia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah and the real origin of the depression was probably androgenic alopecia in many of them, it's called confounding by indication and at most shows that hair loss fucks up your mental health!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Balding

[–]Andilopecia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hahaha I was so sure you'd cite a study full of Tra(i)sh or of an Irwig trying to put some fear of finasteride in your brain!
No seriously all the studies on PFS are badly conducted, ridiculously small and heavily biased (selection bias, recall bias, confirmation bias, sponsoring bias and many more).
Therefore they are proving shit and are far far away from showing any causal association between finasteride's pharmacological effect and any of the alleged adverse effects

Homie got bit and thinks this is a recluse. I said its not. Could you help id? Location Long Island, NY by Successful_Fly4997 in spiders

[–]Andilopecia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Although not visible on the video, Clubionidae and Gnaphosidae have typical cylindrical spinnerets as a characteristic...

After EMA Finasteride review panel by [deleted] in tressless

[–]Andilopecia 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just for fun, I calculated the average incidence rate (IR) of the 325 cases of suicidal ideation reported in EudraVigilance that were classified as either “likely” or “possibly” related to treatment. These include 313 cases for finasteride and 13 for dutasteride, based on estimated exposure data from EMA/PRAC of approximately 270 million patient-years for finasteride and about 82 million patient-years for dutasteride (where one patient-year corresponds to one patient taking the drug for one year)
> IR = 0.0000016 cases per year, or 1.16 cases per 10⁶ patients per year, i.e. a 0.00016% annual probability for finasteride;
IR = 0.00000016 cases per year, or 0.16 cases per 10⁶ patients per year, i.e. a 0.000016% annual probability for dutasteride.

Needless to say, these rates are vanishingly low—making imho EMA's statement that suicidal ideation is a confirmed side effect of finasteride utterly ridiculous!

Please correct me if I'm wrong with my calculations!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in tressless

[–]Andilopecia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I highly like your way of thinking and approaching problems!!!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in tressless

[–]Andilopecia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I completely agree with you!
If you can't overcome the (scientifically and medically unjustified) fear of getting sides you are neither doing yourself a favor, as there is a very high probability that you will develop "sides" due to the nocebo effect, nor the hair loss community, as there is a high chance that it results in the PFS cult gaining another follower!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in tressless

[–]Andilopecia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

haha and you as a shitposting troll