An Italian research program to investigate hair loss in women has come up with some interesting results. Propecia or finasteride, the hair loss drug that is licenced to be used in men for male pattern hair loss may also be beneficial for women. Hair loss can effect up to 50% of females over the course of their lives.

The researchers said that finasteride might be good for those women who found that they didn't agree with minoxidil, which is often used to treat female pattern balding. Some women said that they reacted badly to the use of minoxidil. Female hair loss has a tendency to be of a uniform overall balding pattern rather than in specific places in the scalp as with men. Women get hair loss for a number of reason such as hormonal fluctuations after pregnancy or when they finish using birth control pills.

In the clinical trial thirty seven females were evaluated and given Propecia. Finasteride can be extremely harmful to unborn foetuses and so is at present banned for use in women. The drug works by preventing the male hormone testosterone changing into DHT or dihydrotestosterone, that actually causes hair follicles to shrink and thus causes the hair loss.

For the research the women between the ages of nineteen and fifty all of whom had varying degrees of hair loss were administered two and a half mg of the finasteride and also a birth control pill. The birth control drug was important as finasteride is animal testing caused foetus abnormalities and is thought to be extremely dangerous to pregnant women. The contraceptive drug used was one that reduces male hormones that could also be part of the reason for the hair loss.

The recording equipment for the hair loss or gain was a very sophisticated high resolution video procedure known as computer light videodermoscopy. The study was done over the course of a year and the recording of the hair patterns was done at the beginning and the end.

The results showed that more than sixty percent of the women had a better head of hair after the use of finasteride. The rest showed no apparent change except for single woman whose hair loss got worse.

Women who have what is known as Christmas tree balding, that appears as hair loss in the middle and top of the head appear to respond better to most hair loss treatments. The females on being questioned were of the opinion that the finasteride had been better than the actual clinical data recorded. One of the advantages of using Propecia is that it is is a simple to use medication that only involves taking a small pill each day, whereas many other treatments involve time consuming lotions and liquids.

More research is needed on finasteride and women it almost certainly would have benefits for post menopausal women who had no chance of getting pregnant. The research at the moment has only looked at a small section of women and needs to have many more controlled, placebo using tests before the effect of finasteride or Propecia on women can really be evaluated properly. There is also the ever present danger to the unborn child with finasteride and so great care must be taken with women and Propecia use.