I do have one some stats for users who think about using it. Please correct me if im wrong. The % does not really matter when its about sides. Its about the total amount of mg you use over your scalp.
Per 1ML you apply 5mg Daro (0.5%). If you only apply like 1ml at first a day on frontal part it lasts you 200 days and costs €2.5 dollar a day.
1ml (0.5%mg) is 5 times stronger dan 5%RU.
@IdealForehead uses 2ml a day, which is 10mg a day and costst €5 a day (without the other ingredients)
I'll try to delve into this a bit briefly then I'm going to try to take a break from here if I can compel myself to do so.
The main issue that we must be careful here is of realizing that dose-response curves for medications are not linear. That is to say, 5 mg finasteride is not 5x stronger than 1 mg finasteride. In fact, 5 mg finasteride is only slightly more effective, because both doses nearly max out this medication's potential effect.
The same applies when we are trying to compare RU with darolutamide. It becomes very difficult to create direct comparisons for a number of reasons.
For reference, most dose response curves look like this:
I posted the math I used to try to compare RU and daro
here. It was difficult as we don't have any studies that directly compare the two, but there was enough data to reconstruct what a direct comparison might look like. This data is based on the IC50 concentrations of various anti-androgens. IC50 concentrations are the amounts required for 50% inhibition of a given number of androgen receptors. So any comparison has to be very specific to that hypothetical condition.
To extend the math there, this is what I think we can reasonably state:
- In a hypothetical condition where a certain volume of 5% RU58841 inhibits half the androgen receptors on a scalp, equal inhibition could likely be provided by an equal volume of darolutamide at a concentration of 0.028% to 0.087%.
- In a hypothetical condition where a certain volume of 7.5% RU58841 inhibits half the androgen receptors on a scalp, equal inhibition could be provided by an equal volume of darolutamide at a concentration of 0.042% to 0.13%.
- In a hypothetical condition where a certain volume of 10% RU58841 inhibits half the androgen receptors on a scalp, equal inhibition could be provided by an equal volume of darolutamide at a concentration of 0.056% to 0.17%.
I know those sentences sound ridiculous and tortured, but they have to be.
The data we have is only regarding the IC50 concentrations (concentrations for 50% androgen receptor inhibition), and there is a curved response above and below that. Daro and RU will "curve" to different extents based on their individual properties.
So I don't actually know how much stronger 0.5% daro would be than 5% RU58841. I am sure it would probably be much stronger. But we can't really quantify that. The above bulleted statements are as far as I am aware we can state with any degree of confidence, and even that's reaching.
I know it's a bit confusing. I've rattled it through my head many times and that's the best I can do though.
Given these limitations, I think a better and more useful guideline for the practical topical dosing of darolutamide would be to adjust the dose to the maximum tolerated amount and compare to the oral castration dose.
Ie. 0.5% 2 mL twice a day is only 10 mg twice a day. The oral castration dose is 600 mg twice a day (a high dose is needed for oral castration due to daro's low half life when in the blood). So this topical application of 10 mg twice a day is only 1.6% of the castration dose. This is a tiny amount and likely to be tolerable for most people, even if it all absorbs into the blood. A 2% solution would be 6.7% of the castration dose, which might cause side effects or might not.
We would need major studies on the topical administration of darolutamide with real men to figure out what the maximum dose most guys could get away with before side effects kick in or where the maximum ceiling effect is reached. If any well financed hair researchers or PhD candidates are by any chance reading this and looking for a new project, I think this would be a good one! One can hope. I'd love to read that study. In particular, a study of 1 mg oral finasteride vs. various topical daro doses would be fascinating.
