can someone please help with topical finasteride sexual side effects

[badnewsbearer]

Hey! I have experimented quite a lot and I try to help people here where I can so id be happy if someone with experience could chime in.

i have tried oral finasteride 1mg for 4 months and after 2 weeks I got severe sexual side effects, mostly ED and loss of libido. then I tried oral 0.25 mg for a few weeks and got sides after 2 weeks as well.

I think tried topical a small percentage of 0.025% topical in a 1ml solution with 3% minoxidil. on this solution I again got sides after 2 weeks and the crazy thing is, they did not even differ much in intensity. that is, I have severe erectile dysfunction on the topical finasteride. libido is lower but I think if the erection was good this amount of libido would be within normal range. however my erections have become so bad I cant even masturbate anymore even after long breaks. morning erections are totally eliminated also.

i am not sure what to do. I will be getting a hormone test next week to see how much my DHT is actually suppressed. I have baseline values and my guess is that I am seeing these sides due to garbage baseline hormones and low systemic 5 AR activity.

total T 420ng/dl range 300-900

free T 13ng/dl range 9 - 20
**estrogen 55 nd/dl range 20-55**
**DHT 28nd/dl range 27-80**

i have the suspicion that the problem is my low baseline DHT? it is much lower than for most guys who are on finasteride 1mg. it is that of an 80 year old man. this coupled with my low free T and very high estradiol is causing problems I think. but can I do anything about this garbage hormone profile? my 5Ar activity seems rather low, my doctor said usually about 10% of T is converted to DHT and for me it is 6.5%. it is so strange that I bald very aggressively although I have this strange old man profile. I know its about local 5Ar activity but then this means everywhere in my body 5AR is barely active but on my scalp its highly expressed? wtf. and why do I have such high estrogen despite being muscular and not much body fat.

I cant understand any of it. has anybody denounced this for themselves? could I have better success with an anti androgen like RU which does not affect DHT? could a liposomal solution with even lower concentration work?

the 0.025% works very well for me so my guess is that systemic DHT is suppressed significantly. however id rather have less regrowth and no sides than this. I cant work with this.. any advice?

 

[mooreu]

You ought to try a liposomal cream as the vehicle for your topical finasteride.

 

[badnewsbearer]

You ought to try a liposomal cream as the vehicle for your topical finasteride.

is there any evidence this helps the finasteride stay localized vs ethanol vs minoxidil?

 

[mooreu]

is there any evidence this helps the finasteride stay localized vs ethanol vs minoxidil?

From my own experience yes. I had previously used a 0.5% solution but I currently use a 0.025% cream. I still have sides (i.e. lower libido and minor ED) but they are far less noticeable than with the solution. Unfortunately after three months I've not noticed a benefit so I doubt I will continue with finasteride.

 

[badnewsbearer]

From my own experience yes. I had previously used a 0.5% solution but I currently use a 0.025% cream. I still have sides (i.e. lower libido and minor ED) but they are far less noticeable than with the solution. Unfortunately after three months I've not noticed a benefit so I doubt I will continue with finasteride.

0.5% is 5mg per ml which inhibits DHT more than 1mg oral finasteride so its not a good comparison tbh. also the idea of the liposomal is that it is better absorbed locally so it should be working for hair. it makes no sense that it goes systemic enough to reduce libido but not local enough to reduce dht and prevent hair loss. that defeats the entire purpose of the liposomal topical application doesn't it? like might as well apply it on the *** cheeks if the local application does not work. also what do you mean three months? have you continued to lose hair? if you have no sides why not just continue. finasteride takes a long time to work and potentially with this low dose it takes even longer. the idea of liposomal to me is that you can get away with using very low dosage because it will accumulate in the tissue anyway, however not systemically.

 

[Mustang]

Your estrogen is too high
What is your Body Fat?
Your TT is also on the lowish side.

If you don't want sides from finasteride you better be below 12% body fay, the lower the better.

 

[mooreu]

0.5% is 5mg per ml which inhibits DHT more than 1mg oral finasteride so its not a good comparison tbh. also the idea of the liposomal is that it is better absorbed locally so it should be working for hair. it makes no sense that it goes systemic enough to reduce libido but not local enough to reduce dht and prevent hair loss. that defeats the entire purpose of the liposomal topical application doesn't it? like might as well apply it on the *** cheeks if the local application does not work. also what do you mean three months? have you continued to lose hair? if you have no sides why not just continue. finasteride takes a long time to work and potentially with this low dose it takes even longer. the idea of liposomal to me is that you can get away with using very low dosage because it will accumulate in the tissue anyway, however not systemically.

Sorry I previously used 0.05% not 0.5%.

In the three months since I began using the 0.025% liposomal I still have sides. My libido is noticeably lower and I've found that my erections are not quite what they were. In terms of tangible benefits to my hair, I'd say that I'm at baseline or perhaps slightly below baseline.

 

[badnewsbearer]

Sorry I previously used 0.05% not 0.5%.

In the three months since I began using the 0.025% liposomal I still have sides. My libido is noticeably lower and I've found that my erections are not quite what they were. In terms of tangible benefits to my hair, I'd say that I'm at baseline or perhaps slightly below baseline.

this is so weird to me. what is the purpose of the liposomal part if it does not stay local? its not enough to give hair regrowth but enough to affect the dick. then might as well apply it to the penis? it means that the level for DHT to give ED is much lower than to regrow hair. in theory with a liposomal solution most of the finasteride would accumulate in the scalp, what would travel to the penis would be much less than that. however the penis gets affected and the hair does not. kind of a meme product

 

[badnewsbearer]

Sorry I previously used 0.05% not 0.5%.

In the three months since I began using the 0.025% liposomal I still have sides. My libido is noticeably lower and I've found that my erections are not quite what they were. In terms of tangible benefits to my hair, I'd say that I'm at baseline or perhaps slightly below baseline.

also you tried to make an argument that liposomal makes sense but you said you still had sides on it. who is to say that the fact they were more mild is because of the liposomal vehicle instead of you using only half the dose now?