If you have already tried Finasteride and have been advised to consider an alternative, we recommend either GnRH blockers (puberty blockers) or Spironolactone.
The GnRH blockers are the gold standard blocker, but are quite expensive at between £180 and £300 every 12 weeks depending on the option chosen. Some of the nasal sprays are cheaper than the injections.
If you opt for the nasal spray, we will arrange a paper prescription for this if you live in the UK. However, you should be aware that many UK pharmacies have difficulty obtaining the nasal spray due to manufacturing shortages. If you opt for the injections then we will need to ensure that appropriate arrangements for them to be administered are in place.
You can find the Patient Information Leaflet for Leuprorelin (Prostap) injections here (recommended
for UK)
You can find the Patient Information Leaflet for Triptorelin injections here (recommended for EU)
You can find the Patient Information Leaflet for Synarel nasal spray here
Spironolactone is taken as a tablet and is significantly cheaper, but we will need to have kidney function (U&Es) including potassium and blood pressure reading from you before we can add this to your treatment, and then with every set of three-monthly monitoring tests whilst you are taking this.
You can find the Patient Information Leaflet for Spironolactone here
If you choose any of these options you will no longer need to take Finasteride 5mg, we can either remove this from your treatment completely, or we can reduce the dose to 1mg a day if hair loss is something that you are concerned about.