Why would my doctor double my dosage of Propecia?

[Heath H]

I asked my doc to prescribe generic Proscar for hair loss instead of Propecia to save money. He instructed for me to take half of the 5 mg pill every day. Propecia is a 1 mg pill. Why would he have me take 2.5 mg?

[tinmuning]

Some doctors prescribe Proscar and instruct the patient to cut the pill into half so he'd get 2.5mg per dose. This is to lower tha chances of having adverse or side effects which are dose-related. So far, this is the only reason I know. You can always discuss this with your prescribing doctor, should he have any other reasons.

[TamQ]

The FDA says that 1mg finasteride is all you need to treat hair loss, but perhaps 2mg or 2.5mg for those people who are losing the effect of the drug may be better (discuss this with your prescribing physician). Side effects must be titrated. Try it and see. If there is no increase in side effects (and with your doctor’s knowledge), you might go for it.

As "tinmuning" said, adverse effects are dose related, the more Finasteride you take, the higher the risk of side effects.

[ladypam]

Just to add my two cents to this matter, it may be possible that the equivalent of 2.5 mg of Proscar is 1 mg Propecia. I know that they are both Finasteride. However, there are times when preparations vary for each medication and sometimes, and the constitution of the Finasteride in Proscar may not be as pure and of USP grade as compared to Propecia, (which is sometimes the case of generic medications, which is why it is cheaper).

In any case, your doctor will definitely know what he is prescribing to you, thus I suggest you just follow what he has said.

Hope this helps.