Hair Transplant > Hair Transplant Surgeon Interviews > Hair Transplant Surgeon Dr. Paul McAndrews Interview

Hair Transplant Surgeon Dr. Paul McAndrews Interview

Contact Information for Dr. Paul McAndrews
(877) 424-7362 / 626-405-1155
http://www.hairgrowthdoctor.com
960 E. Green St., Ste 102
Pasadena, CA 91106

Regrowth: First off, please give us some background about yourself and your practice. What is your medical background and how long have you been practicing?

McAndrews: Dr. Corbett and I are Board-Certified Dermatologists and instructors at USC/LAC Medical Center, teaching the residents the latest advances in the medical and surgical treatments in hairloss. If we had to use two words to describe our practice, it is 1) conservative and 2) quality. We perform only one hair transplanta day, in order to give our patients our undivided attention and to protect the patient's privacy.

Dr. Corbett performed his residency training at the University of Pennsylvania. He is one of the pioneers in the field of hair restoration, performing hair transplants since 1962. He is an Associate Professor at the U.S.C. School of Medicine.

I did my undergraduate studies at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, graduating Magna Cum Laude. I graduated from the USC School of Medicine in 1990 earning Dean's Scholar every year. I was elected to the National Medical Honor Society, Alpha Omega Alpha and I scored in the top 4 percentile of all interns in teh nation on the National Board Medical Exam. I performed my Dermatology residency at USC/LAC Medical Center and was honored with the distinction of Chief Resident. In my residency, I received extensive training in the art of hair restoration by some of the most renowned hair transplant surgeons in the nation. I was privileged to join Dr. Corbett's practice in 1996. Dr. Corbett's practice has been successful because of its focus on hairloss and hair transplantations. Throughout 1998 and 1999 I have been fortunate to be interviewed and filmed performing hair transplants by CBS News, ABC News, FOX News, UPN News, and Good Day LA.

Regrowth: Do you prescribe Propecia to your patients and if so do you find its effects match the results of the clinical studies?

McAndrews: Our practice revolves around hair transplantation and hairloss. However, when it comes to hair transplantations, we are conservative and at times hair transplants are not the answer. Our philosophy is to use as little of the "Hair Bank" as possible to accomplish a patient's goal (just like you do not want to use up all your financial life savings when you're in your 20s or 30s). Therefore, Propecia fits in perfectly with our philosophy. We place most young males and patients with vertex balding on Propecia. If Propecia does not work for the patient, we can always consider hair transplants on him in the future.

Propecia can do something I cannot do as a Hair Transplant Surgeon, and that is stop the progression of baldness and cause regrowth in the genetically predisposed areas. Therefore, we do prescribe Propecia to many of our hairloss patients and we find the results do match the results of the clinical studies performed by Merck. We have seen good regrowth in many patients with vertex balding, however we have not seen much results in the mid and frontal forelock.

Regrowth: What do you say to people about the side effects of Propecia?

McAndrews: Propecia is one of the safest medications we have ever prescribed. We have over 300 patients on Propecia and have had only a few patients that have experienced side effects. The side effect profile is incorrectly and deceptively "blown out of proportion" by unethical hair transplant surgeons and the "snake oil" hairloss product companies.

Propecia, like any medication, may cause side effects, however side effects are uncommon. In matter of fact, more people discontinued the placebo (1.6%) compared to Propecia (1.4%) secondary to adverse experiences. We think the biggest side effect is to the wallet, it costs approximately $50 a month. Any side effects that a patient experienced while on Propecia resolved with discontinuation of the medication.

Regrowth: Do you ever prescribe Propecia to women who are not planning to have children or are past their childbearing years? If so, how effective has it been for them?

McAndrews: Yes, we have prescribed Propecia to women. We feel our role as Dermatologists specializing in hairloss is to educate our patients about the cause of hairloss and the treatment options available, and then make sure that expectations meet reality.

After we completely educate a woman on the PROS and CONS of Propecia and we make sure her expectations are realistic, we will prescribe Propecia.

We have seen improvement in some women, but the results have not been as dramatic as in men.

Regrowth: Have you heard reports from any patients on Propecia of excessive shedding of hair and what results do these patients generally end up having?

McAndrews: We have never had a patient with excessive shedding after taking Propecia. We have only heard about reports published over the Internet. Theoretically, medications can cause what is called a Telogen Effluvium, where you can see an excessive shedding. This form of shedding is almost always temporary and the hair returns to its normal state over 3-6 months.

Regrowth: Have you ever had patients using Propecia for whom it was effective for initially but then it lost its effectiveness?

McAndrews: We have had many patients who initially have had significant regrowth of hair but then they plateau at 1-2 years. We do not think Propecia loses its effectiveness, it just raises a patient's baseline of hairloss to a higher level (if the patient were to stop using Propecia, he would see Propecia was actually maintaining some hair that would not have been there without the use of Propecia).

We do have patients that are considered "perfect candidates" who do not get any results from Propecia, unfortunately we cannot predict whom will get good results and who will not. Propecia is not the "Gold Bullet" of hairloss treatments (but then again, there is no "Gold Bullet" treatment for hairloss), however we do believe Propecia is the best medical treatment for androgenetic alopecia.

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