My hairloss has progressed on 10mg oral minoxidil, 100-150mg Bicalutamide (I take it from 2 sources, I know for sure that 100mg of it is legit, not sure about the other 50mg), 25mg CPA, and 0.5mg dutasteride. I have no idea how. I’m going to be adding 2-3 pumps of estrogel as is recommended in the other thread about regrowing hair while maintaining as much masculinity as possible. I know I’m going to get side effects, I just hope they’re tolerable. My hair is very important to me and I don’t want to feel disgusting. I’m only 19 but I’m 5’11 with broad shoulders and I haven’t grown in years. The regimen I’m currently on has been relatively well tolerated side effect wise but in the past I’ve proven to be extra sensitive to excess estrogen (particularly breast wise). I plan to get gyno surgery before I begin since I already have gyno from when I was taking Bicalutamide alone and let the T and subsequent E increase run wild. The surgeon is famous in his field and has claimed that he can remove the entire gland so that recurrence is impossible even if I take drugs like dutasteride and Spironolactone (which are several magnitudes of strength below what I’m taking but he’s one of only a few surgeons who will even make that claim). I hope that will mitigate the gyno or at least decrease it’s capacity for growth. I’m also debating whether it would be better to let the estrogen run its course and let it max out my breast growth capacity at that dosage before I get surgery since breast reductions seem to work permanently unless there’s a hormone fluctuation. I’m going to get really strict with my diet and workout regimen so hopefully I don’t lose too much muscle. I think if I’m very devoted to the gym I should at least be able to maintain a normal looking body. A body builders physique may no longer be possible but I’d rather have hair with an average body than be bald and fit. Obvious sexual sides depend a lot. We’ll see what happens but I’ll have some v**** on hand to take periodically to avoid penile shrinkage if my ED is really bad. Sucks that I won’t be able to have kids but realistically I don’t want to pass on my sh*t balding genetics that start at 17 and don’t stop even with a heavy anti androgen regimen. I really hope this works but I’m dubious. If what I’ve done up to this point hasn’t worked against all odds, why should I expect relatively low doses of estrogen to give me what I want? I don’t know though. I’m getting pretty desperate. At the very least starting estrogen can give me some glimmer of hope and purpose for a little while, which I lose when I realized that my hair was deteriorating on my current regimen.
Jesus christ dude, be careful on those levels of bicalutamide and CPA. Not to mention that high dose of min. That'd be real rough on your liver. That amount of drugs should be excessive. Get your blood levels checked for androgen and estrogen levels. Along with liver enzymes to make sure you're not giving yourself liver failure.
How long have you been on these medicines? And have you been taking pictures of your hair to be sure that your balding is progressing? Judging by counting shedding hairs or just looking in the mirror is a very unreliable way of determining hairloss, photographs are much more sure. With antiandrogen medication, the goal is just to stop further hairloss. Not necessarily regrow lost hair (other medications have that effect). Make sure that you have clear photographic evidence of your hairloss getting progressively worse over an extended period of time while on those medications. And show pics to close friends and family to see if they can tell progression.
If you really are losing hair that quickly at that young of an age on that many medications, I'd say that its likely that you have something other than androgenic alopecia going on, and I'd try and rule out other causes of hairloss.
Anyway, on the topic of medications - I can't suggest antiandrogens to someone under 18, especially that many at that strength. Essentially you'll be stopping much of your further pubertal development. If you want to risk that, then that's your choice, though, I guess.
If I were in your situation, I would add a topical AR inhibitor (dutasteride or finasteride) and a topical AR blocker (RU or CB) before adding other medications. It's possible that even if your serum DHT/test levels are low, the levels in your hair follicles are still significant and additional topical medication could help that without systemic side effects
If I were you, I'd want to get off of bicalutamide and CPA due to potential liver issues. Or at least reduce the dosage. If you want to nuke your systematic T levels, antigonadotropins are the way to go ("chemical castration") instead of just blocking. Progesterone can be used as an antigonadotropin, also lupron. If you use estrogens, the goal is to use the estrogens to suppress androgen production to the point that you don't need additional AAs. The idea is to get your FSH and LH levels to hit close to zero. This will cause testicular shrinkage and possibly permanent infertility. Personally, if I were in your situation, I would get off all of those AAs since you're still very young. Permanent infertility and aborting puberty is a lot to deal with at age 17.
Also know that its generally a bad idea to have low testosterone levels AND low estrogen levels. Generally people need some type of sex hormone in their body. Without either, long term effects include loss of bone density and short term effects can be mood swings, depression, "brain fog," hot flashes - basically menopause. If you're blocking or nuking all your T, especially if you're going to be on these drugs long term, you need to add in some estrogens or SERMs
Estrogens are one of the strongest types of chemicals we have to fight androgenic alopecia. They act both as an anti-androgen to stop balding and as growth stimulants to regrow hair. As you know, estrogens have very significant side effects in men. Personally, I am using estriol, which is a weaker form of estrogen. I think you should try weaker therapies with less chance of sides before moving on to the strong stuff. Fixing male pattern baldness takes a long time, you won't see changes overnight.
