{"id":31631,"date":"2025-07-11T21:07:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T21:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=31631"},"modified":"2025-07-11T21:28:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T21:28:49","slug":"hair-loss-medication-finasteride-comes-with-fertility-issues-for-some-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=31631","title":{"rendered":"Hair Loss Medication Finasteride Comes With Fertility Issues for Some"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The medication finasteride has become popular among young men. But for those struggling to conceive, it could be the reason.<\/p>\n

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Soon after Will Stone and his wife, Brittany, got married in 2021, they started trying to have a baby. But early attempts didn\u2019t pan out, and by the next year, they went in for testing.<\/p>\n

Ms. Stone\u2019s results came back normal. But Mr. Stone\u2019s were more disappointing.<\/p>\n

His sperm count was about 2 million per milliliter, far below the 10-million threshold his doctor told him was optimal for the couple to try intrauterine insemination<\/a>, or I.U.I. He was referred to a urologist, who asked what medications he was taking.<\/p>\n

When Mr. Stone, a data analyst in Austin, Texas, mentioned he took a 1 milligram dose of finasteride, a daily pill for hair loss, the urologist interrupted him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me to stop taking it immediately,\u201d Mr. Stone, now 32, said.<\/p>\n

Finasteride, sometimes sold as Propecia, is the most widely used prescription medicine<\/a> for male-pattern baldness. Prescriptions have reportedly tripled in recent years<\/a> alongside the rise of direct-to-consumer telehealth companies popular among young men.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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For many, the medication comes with no issues and can provide newfound confidence, but it does carry side effects. Mr. Stone had known there was a small possibility of reduced libido and erectile dysfunction (between 1 and 2 percent), but he didn\u2019t know that the drug might be linked to his fertility struggles.<\/p>\n

Finasteride is prescribed at higher doses to treat enlarged prostates and has been known to mildly affect sperm counts<\/a>. But Dr. James Kashanian, a urologist and the director of male sexual health at Weill Cornell Medicine, said the drug has also \u201csignificantly affected\u201d some patients\u2019 sperm quality, even at 1 milligram<\/a>, the dose typically prescribed for hair loss.<\/p>\n

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The medication finasteride has become popular among young men. But for those struggling to conceive, it could be the reason.Soon after Will Stone and his wife, Brittany, got married in 2021, they started trying to have a baby. But early attempts didn\u2019t pan out, and by the next year, they went in for testing.Ms. Stone\u2019s results came back normal. But Mr. Stone\u2019s were more disappointing.His sperm count was about 2 million per milliliter, far below the 10-million threshold his doctor told him was optimal for the couple to try intrauterine insemination, or I.U.I. He was referred to a urologist, who asked what medications he was taking.When Mr. Stone, a data analyst in Austin, Texas, mentioned he took a 1 milligram dose of finasteride, a daily pill for hair loss, the urologist interrupted him.\u201cHe told me to stop taking it immediately,\u201d Mr. Stone, now 32, said.Finasteride, sometimes sold as Propecia, is the most widely used prescription medicine for male-pattern baldness. Prescriptions have reportedly tripled in recent years alongside the rise of direct-to-consumer telehealth companies popular among young men.For many, the medication comes with no issues and can provide newfound confidence, but it does carry side effects. Mr. Stone had known there was a small possibility of reduced libido and erectile dysfunction (between 1 and 2 percent), but he didn\u2019t know that the drug might be linked to his fertility struggles.Finasteride is prescribed at higher doses to treat enlarged prostates and has been known to mildly affect sperm counts. But Dr. James Kashanian, a urologist and the director of male sexual health at Weill Cornell Medicine, said the drug has also \u201csignificantly affected\u201d some patients\u2019 sperm quality, even at 1 milligram, the dose typically prescribed for hair loss.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31539,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31631"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31633,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31631\/revisions\/31633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}