Bit Of A Crazy Story - Dutasteride: Reflex? Androcur...

[Chris123]

Ok so this is going to be a bit of a strange story about my battle with hairloss - many of you will probably think im pretty crazy to try what i did but desperation called...

Background: been on propecia (generic) 7 years with maintanence (ish)

• Started losing ground badly in Jan 2017.
• Tried out dutasteride 0.5mg for 1 week - libido went sky high and male pattern baldness itch started with a vengence.
• Next 2 months hairloss become much more agressive - losing density badly in temples and crown despite remaining on propecia (reflex hyperandrogenicity - if it exists)
• Libido was so ridiculously high i could not concentrate on work - so i had to try systemic antiandrogens just in order to function

Now: 1 month on androcur ~100mg - libido is still incredibly high, hair still falling out. BUT got my testosterone checked and it is incredibly low.

I have a hard time trying to explain this with any of the current science surrounding hairloss. Dont think its Telogen Effluvium as im losing in balding areas (temples and crown). Why is my libido still so high?

Plan was to remain on androcur until all dutstasteride out of my system and hope that any "reflex" might have settled down.

Any thoughts/ ideas appreciated....btw my doctor has no clue.

 

[WMQ]

Even when you're T is low, if your receptor level massively goes up, you can still be flooded with androgen signal all over. It's more than blood test can show mate.

 

[Chris123]

Well lets put it this way - this slightest brush in that area would cause problems if i were to stand up... Whilst most doctors will have heard of finasteride, they certainly are puzzled by this...

So, as an update, 6 weeks on androcur (lower doseage) and no change in libido with hairloss still very bad. My theory is that the receptors have become massively upregulated, so even the slightest amount of T is causing my symptoms (just as a note - no loss of muscle strength, increased body hair growth, faster facial hair growth).

What to do now?
I see my options as carry on like this - hopefully eventually the receptors will become downregulated again and i can come off the androcur
Try another anti-androgen to further increase androgen blockage - not the greatest fan of this
Stop it all right now (tapering androcur slowly) and let rip to my hair but at least hormones might eventually balance....