Who should not handle finasteride tablets?

Finasteride carries a handling warning that goes beyond who takes it. People who are pregnant or may become pregnant are advised not to handle crushed or broken tablets, because the medicine can be absorbed through the skin and can cause abnormalities in a male foetus.

Whole tablets are coated, and the coating is what makes ordinary handling of an intact tablet different from handling a crushed or broken one. This is why the warning is written around damaged tablets specifically rather than the medicine in general.

This is one of the clearest examples of why the leaflet inside the box is worth reading even for a medicine someone else in the household takes. If a tablet is damaged, or if you are unsure how to store or dispose of them safely, your pharmacist can answer that directly.