OK, so if you are reading this Propecia and Proscar article and are suffering from hair loss, or perhaps even if you have never been concerned with it, you probably have heard about the revolutionary drug Propecia. As you may know, Propecia was approved by the FDA and entered the market to the delight of men suffering from alopecia in 1997. Since that time, millions of men who have stressed over falling hair have been rescued by Propecia. What you may not know is that Propecia already existed in the market prior to 1997. The exact same drug of which Propecia is made, the drug Proscar is also composed. Both Propecia and Proscar are composed of finasteride. Both Propecia and Proscar are manufactured by Merck and Co. in England. The absolute only difference between the two is dosage. Propecia is a 1 mg dose and Proscar is a 5 mg dose, that's it.

Many balding men are unaware that Propecia existed before 1997 and was called Proscar. In fact, for nearly 10 years Proscar was available before any one even heard of the word Propecia. You see Proscar or finasteride 5 mg, was first approved for a condition called BPH. BPH is also known as benign prostate enlargement. Researchers discovered that Proscar could block the hormone DHT from being formed in the male body. DHT is primarily responsible for BPH. What many scientists did not realize at that early time, was that DHT also causes male pattern hair loss. Many patients that were taking Proscar to treat BPH, were seeing an amazing side effect of hair ceasing to fall and even growing back where it was previously lost. Proscar showed promise as the elusive first proven oral medication to halt hair loss. Many Proscar tests were conducted and the drug of which Proscar is composed was submitted to the FDA for testing and approval for the treatment of male hair loss.

The makers of Proscar, Merck and Co. determined that a lower dosage of Proscar was necessary to treat hair loss and registered the name Propecia for this purpose. After years of testing and study, the FDA finally approved Propecia in 1997. Propecia hit the market by storm and has enjoyed astronomic sales since.

OK, so now you know that Proscar and Propecia are the same drug, made by the same company. So you may be asking yourself about any possible difference in price between Propecia and Proscar. Well, if you were not previously aware of this fact, it may come to save you a lot of money in the future on your Propecia expense. You see, Proscar is priced by Merck at about the same value per tablet as Propecia. So initially, you may think that they both cost the same. If so, you have forgotten that the only difference between Propecia and Proscar is the dosage. Remember, Proscar is a 5 mg dose of finasteride and Propecia is a 1 mg dose. In other words, 1 pill of Proscar contains 5 times the active medication as 1 pill of Propecia. Cost conscience consumers long ago learned that they could save up to 65 percent on daily Propecia treatment by buying Proscar tablets and cutting them into 4ths or 5ths. This task can easily be accomplished using a pill splitter which you can find online or at most drug stores.

Many men suffering from male pattern hair loss are now enjoying the benefits of Propecia at nearly one 5th the cost by buying Proscar and cutting the tablets. What's more, they can rest assured that they are taking the genuine name brand medication manufactured by Merck and not some junk Propecia generic made by some unknown or sub standard laboratory in the third world. In fact, the cost of monthly finasteride using Merck Proscar is about the same as most generic Propecia brands. For these reasons and benefits, Proscar should be the clear choice for all men suffering from hair loss.