I've held off posting this message for several weeks to insure that the
results I've experienced aren't either imagined or short-lived.

Okay, here it is:  I'm 70 years old and have been taking Proscar for
almost ten years.  I have an enlarged prostate.

When I started on the Proscar, I was waking up at night urgently
needing to urinate and often found myself blocked.  After pacing the
floor in agony for several minutes, I would then be able to pee.  My
doctor wanted me to undergo a TURP.  After weighing the risks, which
included impotence, incontinence and death, I declined and switched to
a doc who agreed to let me try the Proscar.

Within a few weeks of taking the Proscar, the blocking experience came
to an end.  I haven't found myself blocked from peeing in ten years,
and that in itself was a triumph. However, I continued to wake up two
to three times every night (on a good night) and hourly on a bad one.
Also, I needed to go frequently during the days and was a "toilet
mapper" as those of us with frequency needs are often called.

My neighbor had a relative who worked for Merck, the manufacturer of
Proscar, who told him that he had spoken to an expert at Merck and was
informed that Proscar users shouldn't expect a rollback but rather a
"putting on the brakes" as regards worsening of one's BPH symptoms.  As
a lay person, I took this as gospel and continued on the Proscar these
last ten years, noting little change in either direction.  It was
something I could live with, though inconvenient, but a condition that
fortunately wasn't geting worse.

All this time, I've been watching and waiting for a product that would
give me back my old life and enable me to attend theater, opera and go
out on a boat.  All of these have been impossible because I need to be
near a restroom.  In that time, I also tested Flomax for six months.
It had no effect.  I've read everything there is to read on PVP and
concluded that if I found myself blocked on a regular basis, I would do
the PVP in a moment as I believe it carries none of the risks
associated with TURP.  However, it's still a surgery and I've seen no
evidence that it holds the magic key that I'm seeking.

So, I plodded along with Proscar . . . until . . . until six months
ago, when I made an unsual discovery.  I had read that many
prescription pharmaceuticals are rendered less effective if they are
taken together with certain foods or fibers or grapefruit, etc.

Well, when you're 70 years old, you don't usually get by without some
of the ravages of old age, one being constipation.  So, in battling
constipation, I found myself consuming lots of fiber in my foods and
supplements.  Also, I usually took my Proscar in the morning either
before, during or immediately after a breakfast high in fiber.

Could the inclusion of the fiber be reducing the efficacy of the
Proscar, I asked myself?  I had read in some articles that individuals
reported that Proscar often shrunk their enlarged prostates.  I had no
such experience.

So, I decided to begin taking my Proscar in the middle of the night
when my stomach was completely empty.  I would wake up every couple
hours anyway to pee, so why not take the Proscar then?

For the last six months, I 've been religiously taking the Proscar at
around 4 a.m. or near that time, whenever I'd wake up to pee, and at a
time when my stomach would be completely empty.

Within a month, I found that I was waking up fewer times.  Now, only
once or twice a night at most.  During my waking hours, especially in
the afternoons and evenings, I found that I could go without needing to
urinate for as long as two to three hours.  Heretore, it was no more
than an hour.  Mornings betwen 10 and noon are still busy times when I
must urinate at least hourly, but the other times have been vastly
improved.  Has my enlarged prostate begun to shrink as a result of
improved efficacy of the Proscar?  I can't say and I'm not interested
in seeking out any invasive procedure that might tell me.  However,
I'll continue to take the Proscar at 4 a.m. and continue to monitor its
progress.  So far, I'm more than pleased.

My conclusion:  For me the Proscar has been most effective if taken on
an empty stomach in the middle of the night with water and no food.

I'm posting this here because I hope it might help someone who's
already taking Proscar and not aware of this possibility.  I had
thought about writing to Merck, but I'm sure some of you who have
written to large corporations and have received canned "thank you for
your interest" replies are as I am, not inclined to spend the time
writing.  I figure that they can read it here.

I'd be pleased to answer questions.