Q:

Good Afternoon Dr. Mohebi,

I recently was recommended to go on a medication for body building purposes by my trainer. The medication that I am planning on starting is called ANAVAR (an anabolic steroid). Because I am currently taking Propecia, as prescribed by you, I just wanted run ANAVAR by you to make sure it would be OK to take in conjuction with Propecia.

I appreciate all of your help, Thanks!

A:

Anavar (oxandrolone) is a weak androgen and is considered an anabolic steroid.  It is indicated as adjunctive therapy to enhance weight gain after weight loss due to an extensive surgery, infectious disease, trauma and so on.  Anavar has also been prescribed to some patients who for no reason fail to gain weight despite of proper nutrition and work out schedules.  It may also be used to maintain normal weight or to prevent the catabolism due to prolonged administration of corticosteroids.

There have been some online reports of hair loss with Anavar’s use and some exagerated hair loss reports in patients who take both Propecia (finasteride) and Anavar (oxandrolone) in conjunction. Although my personal searches in medical publications have never revealed any studies supporting this information, reports can be found online by its claimed users.

Overall, my general recommendation is: unless there is a strong medical indication for its use, people with any evidence of male patterned baldness should stay away from anabolic steroids.  Although you may find some anabolic steroids over the counter, your family doctor should always be involved and aware of any anabolic steroids that you take as part of your body enhancing plan.

Following a hair transplant surgery, hiccups may develop due to several factors. Some of the main factors to cause this are: the medication that patient takes, possible local irritation of some nerve endings in the donor area (especially in strip technique hair transplant) and lastly, a patient’s diet.

These three possible causes are each explained in depth below.

Medication: Some medications that are given to the patient after a hair transplant surgery (i.e. – steroids) may increase the chance of developing temporary hiccups.

Diet: In the case that a patient develops hiccups due to his/her eating or drinking habits, his/her diet needs to be controlled. Alcoholic beverages, carbonated beverages or taking in large volumes of food may also increase the chance of developing hiccups.

Local nerve irritation: The local irritation of some nerve endings, such as the posterior auricular nerve or other branches of the cervical plexus may stimulate the phrenic nerve thus also causing hiccups.

If hiccups persist severely or beyond a few hours you are urged to contact your hair transplant surgeon for medical evaluation and treatment.  Your doctor may prescribe you chlorpromazine (Thorazine) and advise you to continue taking these pills for a few days to avoid re-occurance of the hiccups.

Dr. Mohebi is the medical director of US Hair Restoration’s hair transplant centers in Southern California. With offices centrally located amongst the major cities of Encino, Beverly Hills, Orange County, San Diego, and San Francisco, CA, Dr. Mohebi has made himself available to almost every major part of the California’s population. In addition, Dr. Mohebi is the author of Hair Restoration Blog where he responds to the questions/concerns of many aspects of hair loss and hair restoration.  In addition to his blog where Dr. Mohebi answers basic questions regarding hair loss and hair restoration, the doctor has also been interviewed (for the second time) by Hair Care Beverly Hills of Buzymoms.com

Below you can see some of Dr. Mohebi’s main responses to questions posed by the interviewer.

In response to the question of whether or not clients are eligible whom have already had hair restoration and are unhappy with the results, the doctor responded: Yes, hair transplant repairs are possible and are a good portion of the hair transplant surgeries performed in our Southern California offices (mainly located in Beverly Hills, Encino,Orange County, and San Diego hair transplant consultation). Many people may have unnatural results from previous hair transplants due to the older techniques (such as plug surgery), but some may even have problems with recent hair restoration procedures due to technical issues or lack of proper judgment on the part of the hair transplant surgeon. In most situations, the repair is easy and can be done in one to two sessions.