finasteride - Skin and muscles.

[wstef]

I have been on finasteride for just over a month and it seems to have reduced my oily skin to a point where it's not really a problem anymore. This is a bonus for me because I have always had to be careful with my skin to prevent break outs.

However, more recently I have noticed my muscles are more toned.

I haven't done anything different. I'm stick thin, eat the same type of stuff, and if anything I do less exercise now than I did 2 months ago (demanding job at the moment).

Does finasteride have positive effects like this? I have read around that some people think it might reduce muscle mass, but it seems to be the opposite for me.

My theory is that less testosterone is converted into DHT, so there's more for my body to use (and T builds up muscles)?

Could it be that I was simply producing too much DHT?

I'm just hoping it fixes my hair!

 

[MGZ]

Good question, but it's nice to see you're not having any negative effects.

 

[wstef]

Good question, but it's nice to see you're not having any negative effects.

I had issues with pleasure - there was very little - for the first week, but since everything is fine.

There seems to be mismatching information all over about these issues. People say that DHT causes excessive oil (since it hangs around in the follicles), but some say it has no effect.

 

[MadMartigan]

Been on finasteride for 10 months.

I had the same feeling wih my muscles in the beginning of my finasteride career. I got a leaner look, less puffy cheeks and my joints also hurt a bit. Very strange since I have expected the opposite.
After about three months or more, the side effects showed their ugly face.

I had weaker libido, less motivation to do every day routines, lost a lot of strength (been working out in the gym for five years). Probably less CNS-connection.
I had also packed on some fat in female areas, thigs and also (some) in the chest area. The worst side effect is loss of initiative.

I did bloodwork and had a 50 % increase in estradiol.

My skin condition improved a lot with finasteride in the system.

It has halted my hairloss on the vertex but some hair has recessed on the temples during the finasteride medication.

I have stepped down to about 0,5-0,7 mg finasteride ED and also medicates with an AI to suppress the excessive estrogen. Side effects are now less severe.

 

[kehcorpz]

I've been weight lifting for a good 11 years and I'd say that my biggest gains were at 2 points in my life. At one time I decided to try Andro which was the legal prohormone at the time available at GNC. I made impressive gains on that but it probably didn't help with the male pattern baldness. The next most impressive gains came after I started finasteride. I have been making impressive gains at the gym ever since. I'm actually quite thrilled with this

Oddly enough the World Anti-Doping Agency once banned finasteride in sports but I believe they allow it now.

 

[Wuffer]

MadMartigan, you say your E levels went up 50%, do you have baseline results to compare these to and when were they taken? Immediately before starting on finasteride? If this is the case, I would suspect something else is causing the issues. Have you been drinking more, for example? Eating a lot of soy? finasteride shouldn't increase E levels by more than around 15%. If you are at 50% I would suspect something else is going on.

I haven't been consistently working out ever since starting finasteride, but when I do I am able to put on muscle and lose weight just as easily as I ever have. Never experienced exercise intolerance or anything close to it.. In fact I went on a 5-hour cross country bike ride yesterday and was able to keep up better than guys 5 years younger than me.

There isn't any evidence that suggests finasteride would either help or inhibit muscle growth. There was a study done (i'm too lazy to dig it up) that showed men who take dutasteride along with T injections experience the exact same level of muscle growth as men who didn't take dutasteride. This suggests that DHT is not needed for muscular development, and the slight raise in estrogen doesn't cause any problems either.

 

[oldmpber]

Been on finasteride for 10 months.

I had the same feeling wih my muscles in the beginning of my finasteride career. I got a leaner look, less puffy cheeks and my joints also hurt a bit. Very strange since I have expected the opposite.
After about three months or more, the side effects showed their ugly face.

I had weaker libido, less motivation to do every day routines, lost a lot of strength (been working out in the gym for five years). Probably less CNS-connection.
I had also packed on some fat in female areas, thigs and also (some) in the chest area. The worst side effect is loss of initiative.

I did bloodwork and had a 50 % increase in estradiol.

My skin condition improved a lot with finasteride in the system.

It has halted my hairloss on the vertex but some hair has recessed on the temples during the finasteride medication.

I have stepped down to about 0,5-0,7 mg finasteride ED and also medicates with an AI to suppress the excessive estrogen. Side effects are now less severe.

I think I may have similar issues. Can you recommend a good AI? Thanks...

 

[MadMartigan]

MadMartigan, you say your E levels went up 50%, do you have baseline results to compare these to and when were they taken? Immediately before starting on finasteride? If this is the case, I would suspect something else is causing the issues. Have you been drinking more, for example? Eating a lot of soy? finasteride shouldn't increase E levels by more than around 15%. If you are at 50% I would suspect something else is going on.

I haven't been consistently working out ever since starting finasteride, but when I do I am able to put on muscle and lose weight just as easily as I ever have. Never experienced exercise intolerance or anything close to it.. In fact I went on a 5-hour cross country bike ride yesterday and was able to keep up better than guys 5 years younger than me.

There isn't any evidence that suggests finasteride would either help or inhibit muscle growth. There was a study done (i'm too lazy to dig it up) that showed men who take dutasteride along with T injections experience the exact same level of muscle growth as men who didn't take dutasteride. This suggests that DHT is not needed for muscular development, and the slight raise in estrogen doesn't cause any problems either.

Yes, I do have baseline results to compare with.

I took the first test a few days before I began my treatment. The latter test, I took some 5 months later.

Although I have a different idea of ??muscle growth and DHT so I will not argue with you. However, you lose definitely nervous system stimulation, and has difficulty lifting the same weight as before. I do not want to be rude, but you're still packing on muscle easily even if you are taking finasteride so I guess that you still have a long way to your genetic maximum. I think you had developed even faster without finasteride where you can lift more because of better contact with the CNS.

I think I may have similar issues. Can you recommend a good AI? Thanks...

Arimidex/Anastrazole or Letrozole/Femara. Do not use Aromasin/Exemestane since it's working via a different pathway and in fact is a mild androgen.