Does Dutasteride cause liver damage?

[JWM2]

I've been reading recent studies about Dutasteride possibly causing liver damage as well as raising cholesterol and increasing the risk for diabetes. Has anyone heard about this? Is there validity to these claims?

 

[Nebula74]

I've read about the liver damage too, would like to know

 

[JWM2]

Gonna bump this, as I've read quite a few stories from long term dutasteride users who have reported elevated liver enzymes. Anyone care to weigh in?

 

[Manochoice]

Gonna bump this, as I've read quite a few stories from long term dutasteride users who have reported elevated liver enzymes. Anyone care to weigh in?

I've read some user reports of cholesterol spiking

 

[user394587]

There's evidence to suggest that both finasteride and dutasteride increase the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes, though it only increases said risk by a modest amount (https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1204).

When it comes to liver damage, DHT is produced locally in the liver as it is primarily a paracrine hormone. Since dutasteride inhibits both type 1 and type 2 5AR, a substantial amount of DHT is prevented from being produced in the liver tissue. I would imagine that this would have negative implications on liver health, but this is speculation as we don't have any studies that provide evidence of this in humans. Finasteride probably does something similar but to a lesser extent because it only inhibits type 2 5AR.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

There's evidence to suggest that both finasteride and dutasteride increase the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes, though it only increases said risk by a modest amount (https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1204).

When it comes to liver damage, DHT is produced locally in the liver as it is primarily a paracrine hormone. Since dutasteride inhibits both type 1 and type 2 5AR, a substantial amount of DHT is prevented from being produced in the liver tissue. I would imagine that this would have negative implications on liver health, but this is speculation as we don't have any studies that provide evidence of this in humans. Finasteride probably does something similar but to a lesser extent because it only inhibits type 2 5AR.

Those weren't rats in that study; those were men.

 

[BaldingDude]

For everything liver toxicity related, the Liver Tox website through the NCBI is your friend:

Dutasteride - LiverTox - NCBI Bookshelf

Dutasteride has been associated with a low rate of serum aminotransferase elevations that, in controlled trials, was no higher than with placebo therapy. These elevations were transient and rarely required dose modification. There have been no published reports of clinically apparent liver injury due to dutasteride therapy.

Likelihood score: E (unlikely cause of clinically apparent liver injury).

In terms of the diabetes risk, this conclusion was based off of a UK population based cohort study:

Incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in men receiving steroid 5α-reductase inhibitors: population based cohort study

To investigate the incidence of new onset type 2 diabetes mellitus in men receiving steroid 5α-reductase inhibitors (dutasteride or finasteride) for long term treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia.Population based cohort study.UK Clinical ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

There was a modest increased risk of type 2 diabetes for dutasteride (adjusted hazard ratio 1.32, 95% confidence interval 1.08 to 1.61) and finasteride (1.26, 1.10 to 1.45) compared with tamsulosin.

The risk of developing new onset type 2 diabetes appears to be higher in men with benign prostatic hyperplasia exposed to 5α-reductase inhibitors than in men receiving tamsulosin, but did not differ between men receiving dutasteride and those receiving finasteride

Do you have benign prostatic hyperplasia? That usually affects men who are much older and who have more risks for diabetes. Plus if you maintain a healthy weight it's almost impossible to get type 2 diabetes. I wouldn't worry about the diabetes risk personally.