Dutasteride is used to treat voiding symptoms; its impact on storage symptoms is unclear.
We reviewed 8122 men in the placebo and dutasteride arms from the REDUCE trial. Lower urinary tract symptoms outcomes were measured with international prostate symptom score and subscores.
At 2-year follow-up, dutasteride significantly reduced the total International Prostate Symptom Score and voiding subscore versus placebo (both p < 0.001), but not storage symptoms (p = 0.09) or nocturia (p = 0.2). By 4 years, improvements in the total score and voiding subscores remained, but now extended to storage symptoms (p < 0.001) and nocturia (p = 0.003), though the impact on storage symptoms was modest (0.62 points improvement).
While dutasteride reduces storage symptoms, it takes several years, and the overall effect is modest and unlikely to be clinically meaningful. Timely, comprehensive lower urinary tract symptoms management may require additional therapy.
The aging male : the official journal of the International Society for the Study of the Aging Male. 2026 Apr 21 [Epub]
Alexander Hernandez-Tirado, Renning Zheng, Eman Dadashian, Farnoosh Nik-Ahd, Daniel Moreira, Stephen J Freedland
Department of Urology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA., School of Medicine, Tsinghua Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China., Department of Urology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA., The University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA.