Recent content by Michael1986

Wow that is tough. Their family obviously has ultra strong male pattern baldness genetics. In the literature, male pattern baldness has been known to start as early as age 12. I know a guy who also reached Nw6 in his late teens. He's in his early 30s now, and has been a hat prisoner for most of his adult life.

This is a recent 12-month study that I don't believe has been mentioned on these forums so far, which further demonstrates what previous studies have shown, that dutasteride is an extremely effective treatment for hair loss: Effectiveness and safety of oral dutasteride for male androgenetic alopecia in...

I myself have used oral dutasteride continuously before, during, and after having two children with no problems. There is some evidence that oral antiandrogens can mildly negatively affect some men's fertility, though clearly that was not a problem in my case. Oral dutasteride should not pose much of a risk to...

Topical dutasteride is very unsafe to use if your wife is pregnant or if you are trying to conceive. If your head touches something, some of the dutasteride will get transferred. It will get on your pillow, sofa cushions, etc. And if your wife touches your hair, it will be on her hands. I would not risk it.

I've discovered that there is one other known enzyme that finasteride directly inhibits, which is the 5-beta reductase enzyme. This enzyme produces 5-beta DHT, which has some important functions in our bodies and which doesn't seem to play any role in hair loss. Interestingly, dutasteride...

What I was trying to say is that the 5AR inhibition is the only thing that finasteride does directly (at least as far as I'm aware). The other things it causes such as its effect on neurosteroids are still a result of the initial 5AR inhibition. Therefore, since finasteride inhibits virtually the same amount of...

What else does finasteride do directly besides inhibit 5AR?

Topical finasteride seems to always go systemic, and it might be that the main reason it has a chance of working is due to it going systemic to begin with. Finasteride is a smaller molecule than dutasteride, which is why it is thought that topical dutasteride has a better chance of not going systemic. Topicals are also...

Yes, but as you say, that still happens as a result of the DHT suppression. I was just trying to say that finasteride's only direct mode of action is suppressing DHT by inhibiting 5AR.

That's not how it works. The side-effects are caused by the DHT suppression itself, and there is no evidence that finasteride does anything else other than suppress DHT. All doses of around 0.2mg and upwards suppress DHT by almost the exact same amount, due to the fact that finasteride has an essentially flat...

I'm 34 now and I've been on dutasteride for seven years so far, and I've tolerated the drug fine. It seems unlikely to me that anything should happen or change that will make me regret using dutasteride in another seven years, but I'm not psychic and so I can't say for sure how things will be by then. Every now...

It is mostly genetics, but it could also be partly epigenetics. Their diet and other environmental factors could cause epigenetic alterations, which in turn could alter the balding process. But epigenetic factors would be less significant than genetic factors. As is known, full-blooded Native...

There certainly is a lot of information to go through in this thread. As I see it, there are pluses and minuses to 5AR inhibitors. Yes, they may pose some degree of risk to our bodies and our brains, but at the same time, they might also have some beneficial effects, and likely not just in terms...

For what its worth, several mouse studies have shown 5AR inhibitors to have neuroprotective properties. I know they are just mouse studies, but it is still evidence. For example, the following two studies provide evidence that Dutasteride has neuro-protective properties in Parkinson's disease...

I'm 34 and my hair is just starting to grey a little. Do I care? Not at all. I don't care about my hair losing its colour. I just care that I have hair.