How do you go about doing this? I am dubious as to whether Proscar is working for me, even though I have only been taking it for 2 or 3 months. Would testing my DHT levels prove if finasteride is having the desired effect? If so, how do I have them tested?
Getting DHT levels tested (UK)
- Thread starter Plan C
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Will they really do this if I ask? Won't I need to provide some legitimate medical reason before they agree to such a thing?
I.D WALKER
Senior Member
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I would guess that your AA diagnosis itself should be a sufficient enough reason. The last I looked it is still a recognized medical disease. Btw JohnE is right, a blood test for your baseline is always most helpful. All The best and thanx for sharing!
Can you clarify what AA is? How would I go about getting a blood test for my baseline?
My only concern is the negative effect stopping finasteride for a week might have on my hair.
The Far Side
Established Member
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- 35
So did anyone go to their GP (UK) and ask for a blood test (DHT, maybe test too)? Apparantly testing DHT levels is "really expensive", the site I saw was charging £179 to check DHT on it's own. Just curious if any of you have gone to the doctor saying you're interested in starting finasteride and want blood tests. I'd imagine getting a "no" from most GPs on both the finasteride and blood test fronts. I'm just curious if any of you ended up getting the test done and where you ended up getting them (GP, private, abroad?).
I'm not sure on the whole serum DHT vs scalp DHT thing either though. I've seen a couple of remarks (including one from Bryan I think) which were a bit dismissive of serum DHT levels being of much importance.
I'm planning to go to the GP soon to ask about trying finasteride and about blood tests prior to doing so. I have this very bro-sciency suspicion that I might have generally high DHT levels (horriffic amounts of body hair, male pattern baldness, skin problems that have continuied into my mid 20s etc.). I'd like to think perhaps it's high DHT in general causing these, rather than being unlucky in each individual respect. I'm not particularly confident on the science front but from what I gather the DHT has a large part to play in all 3 of the things I mentioned. I know bodybuilders always complain about getting acne out of nowhere when they're on a cycle and that many of them take dutasteride for the duration to counter the elevated DHT related skin problems. As far as body hair is concerned I know reduced body hair is a fairly common side effect with finasteride and dutasteride, and that DHT is largely responsible for the growth of body hair. The male pattern baldness aspect of DHT has been debated to death.
I guess the dream scenario is getting a blood test, finding out I have "high" DHT then killing 3 birds with 1 stone using finasteride. Wishful thinking
I'm not sure on the whole serum DHT vs scalp DHT thing either though. I've seen a couple of remarks (including one from Bryan I think) which were a bit dismissive of serum DHT levels being of much importance.
I'm planning to go to the GP soon to ask about trying finasteride and about blood tests prior to doing so. I have this very bro-sciency suspicion that I might have generally high DHT levels (horriffic amounts of body hair, male pattern baldness, skin problems that have continuied into my mid 20s etc.). I'd like to think perhaps it's high DHT in general causing these, rather than being unlucky in each individual respect. I'm not particularly confident on the science front but from what I gather the DHT has a large part to play in all 3 of the things I mentioned. I know bodybuilders always complain about getting acne out of nowhere when they're on a cycle and that many of them take dutasteride for the duration to counter the elevated DHT related skin problems. As far as body hair is concerned I know reduced body hair is a fairly common side effect with finasteride and dutasteride, and that DHT is largely responsible for the growth of body hair. The male pattern baldness aspect of DHT has been debated to death.
I guess the dream scenario is getting a blood test, finding out I have "high" DHT then killing 3 birds with 1 stone using finasteride. Wishful thinking
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If you want start with finas, a PSA test (relating prostate) can be useful.
And, I should bet that your blood DHT level are correct.....
And, I should bet that your blood DHT level are correct.....
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- 18
I can answer a few of the questions here at least.
I'm from the UK and visited my GP some months ago about starting finasteride, he didn't know the drug very well and refreshed himself on it right then and there as I sat in his office.
Anyway I asked for a DHT test at that visit and my GP pretty much laughed at that request, saying that the NHS don't really perform DHT blood tests unless there's highly warranted reason for it. I'm not sure if 'I'm trying to find out if finasteride is really working' would constitute as being a 'highly warranted' reason in a GP's book!
DHT blood tests are expensive which personally I believe is due to the fact that it's not a commonly required test for discovering the majority of health issues, hence not many labs bother to aquire the necessary equipment to do the test, hence the ones that do, charge a pretty penny.
I had my DHT tested (baseline i.e. before starting finasteride) privately, and I paid £99 as I had other blood tests done at the same time so I got a multi-buy discount (the DHT test being discounted down from the full price of £119 if I recall correctly). It was done with a well known UK testing lab who have the website: medichecks.com
My DHT was in normal range but in the 'low end' of said range. Being at the low end in terms of DHT whilst still having hair loss, cements the fact that the sensitivity of your androgen receptiors counts for a lot in the world of balding.
As regards testing whether or not finasteride is working with only a 1 week break-off from it, hhmmm that might be tricky as I'm not sure how many days/weeks it takes for DHT levels to rise back up to their normal pre-finasteride state - any takers?
It would be quite a bit easier to test whether or not finasteride is working as regards DHT inhibition if you had some baselines result to go off of, but to be honest I think it would be fairly pointless, I mean if the tablets are legitimate and/or not damaged in any such way, then I would be pretty certain that they will be lowering your serum DHT.
A PSA test is recommended to all men prior to starting finasteride, well at least that's what it says on the leaflet within the pack of 1mg finasteride tablets that I have. However It's my assumption that this refers mainly to men over the age of 40 as that's when PSA testing starts to become more of an annual necessity.
I had my PSA done privately too but I would of been able to get it done on the NHS for free if I wanted to, but for the sake of making appointments to request it and then getting it done, I thought it easier to just get it done from the same blood samples as taken for my DHT test, as the PSA test is relatively cheap anyway. PSA score can be used as another indicator that the finasteride tablets in which you are taking are actually doing what they should be doing, but again without baseline scores to go off of, it might not prove all that much, and once again I can't imagine why any genuine licensed finasteride tablets would not be working in terms of their effect on both your PSA and DHT levels.
As regards if it's working for your hair loss, well it seems that for most men it does work for hair loss, with only 1 to 2 men out of 10, not seeing any benefit.
But (and here's the clinch), once you start finasteride, unless you get obvious 'above baseline' regrowth, you can never truly say if it has or has not benefited your hair loss, as you will never know how 'bad' or 'not so bad' your hair loss would have been without it. Of course balding can halt, slow down or speed up and any given time, albeit it's the not knowing which of those variables it will take, that has us taking finasteride for the hope of some stability.
For myself I got a wide arrray of blood tests for the following 3 reasons:
1) I wanted a good overall picture of my serum health prior to starting what could be a life-long oral hair loss treatment.
2) If I get good results from finasteride without any side effects, then I'd like to re-test my blood again to make sure that nothing other than my DHT and PSA are showing any 'out of normal range' scores.
3) If I do get sides and have to stop finasteride, then I'd like to know that my DHT goes back to relatively near where it was pre-finasteride and doesn't either remain either very low or suddenly sky rocket and remain there.
Then again knowing too much can be a curse in itself and so I end this lengthy ramble by saying that; for the majority - ignorance really is bliss.
I'm from the UK and visited my GP some months ago about starting finasteride, he didn't know the drug very well and refreshed himself on it right then and there as I sat in his office.
Anyway I asked for a DHT test at that visit and my GP pretty much laughed at that request, saying that the NHS don't really perform DHT blood tests unless there's highly warranted reason for it. I'm not sure if 'I'm trying to find out if finasteride is really working' would constitute as being a 'highly warranted' reason in a GP's book!
DHT blood tests are expensive which personally I believe is due to the fact that it's not a commonly required test for discovering the majority of health issues, hence not many labs bother to aquire the necessary equipment to do the test, hence the ones that do, charge a pretty penny.
I had my DHT tested (baseline i.e. before starting finasteride) privately, and I paid £99 as I had other blood tests done at the same time so I got a multi-buy discount (the DHT test being discounted down from the full price of £119 if I recall correctly). It was done with a well known UK testing lab who have the website: medichecks.com
My DHT was in normal range but in the 'low end' of said range. Being at the low end in terms of DHT whilst still having hair loss, cements the fact that the sensitivity of your androgen receptiors counts for a lot in the world of balding.
As regards testing whether or not finasteride is working with only a 1 week break-off from it, hhmmm that might be tricky as I'm not sure how many days/weeks it takes for DHT levels to rise back up to their normal pre-finasteride state - any takers?
It would be quite a bit easier to test whether or not finasteride is working as regards DHT inhibition if you had some baselines result to go off of, but to be honest I think it would be fairly pointless, I mean if the tablets are legitimate and/or not damaged in any such way, then I would be pretty certain that they will be lowering your serum DHT.
A PSA test is recommended to all men prior to starting finasteride, well at least that's what it says on the leaflet within the pack of 1mg finasteride tablets that I have. However It's my assumption that this refers mainly to men over the age of 40 as that's when PSA testing starts to become more of an annual necessity.
I had my PSA done privately too but I would of been able to get it done on the NHS for free if I wanted to, but for the sake of making appointments to request it and then getting it done, I thought it easier to just get it done from the same blood samples as taken for my DHT test, as the PSA test is relatively cheap anyway. PSA score can be used as another indicator that the finasteride tablets in which you are taking are actually doing what they should be doing, but again without baseline scores to go off of, it might not prove all that much, and once again I can't imagine why any genuine licensed finasteride tablets would not be working in terms of their effect on both your PSA and DHT levels.
As regards if it's working for your hair loss, well it seems that for most men it does work for hair loss, with only 1 to 2 men out of 10, not seeing any benefit.
But (and here's the clinch), once you start finasteride, unless you get obvious 'above baseline' regrowth, you can never truly say if it has or has not benefited your hair loss, as you will never know how 'bad' or 'not so bad' your hair loss would have been without it. Of course balding can halt, slow down or speed up and any given time, albeit it's the not knowing which of those variables it will take, that has us taking finasteride for the hope of some stability.
For myself I got a wide arrray of blood tests for the following 3 reasons:
1) I wanted a good overall picture of my serum health prior to starting what could be a life-long oral hair loss treatment.
2) If I get good results from finasteride without any side effects, then I'd like to re-test my blood again to make sure that nothing other than my DHT and PSA are showing any 'out of normal range' scores.
3) If I do get sides and have to stop finasteride, then I'd like to know that my DHT goes back to relatively near where it was pre-finasteride and doesn't either remain either very low or suddenly sky rocket and remain there.
Then again knowing too much can be a curse in itself and so I end this lengthy ramble by saying that; for the majority - ignorance really is bliss.
Did finasteride work for you since your DHT is already on the low side which you pointed out may mean your hair is very sensitive to DHT therefore lowering dht might not work. Interested to find out.
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You are correct, it appears that finasteride is not very effective if at all for me. I could possibly of stabilised. It's hard to tell as it's very gradual crown balding so the immediate hairline was not my issue and not seeing my crown too often makes assessing it quite difficult at times.
Definitely no regrowth that's for sure. If I can confirm further balding by means of my own assessment of my crown/photos I had taken, then I will soon be tempted to try dutas a last ditch attempt.
What's your story out of interest anyway?
I noticed my hairloss has started advancing a lot more in the last 6 months and have started to get worried. I'm 35 at the moment. Noticed my hair was getting lighter in terms of weight maybe 3 years ago. Temporal recession.
I got my blood test via medichecks after 2 days of propecia at 0.5mg/day, and my dht was at 0.27 nmol/L which is very low. i should've done the test before taking anything. Stupid me.
But after 8 days I started getting dry eyes and mouth, I think 0.5mg per day is way too much for me given my low dht level.ive been off it about 2 weeks and back to normal now.
I'm thinking about micro dosing to see how it would affect my hairloss while balancing dht level so as to not drop t too low.
I got my blood test via medichecks after 2 days of propecia at 0.5mg/day, and my dht was at 0.27 nmol/L which is very low. i should've done the test before taking anything. Stupid me.
But after 8 days I started getting dry eyes and mouth, I think 0.5mg per day is way too much for me given my low dht level.ive been off it about 2 weeks and back to normal now.
I'm thinking about micro dosing to see how it would affect my hairloss while balancing dht level so as to not drop t too low.
Forgot to mention, I'm only looking to stabilise and not regrow
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You can for sure only try my man. I'm also 35, my balding has been occurring very very gradually for the past decade, but mainly so at the crown which I never really noticed until recent years when people would mention it if I was sitting or crouched. I really didn't believe them so that would be referred to as being 'in denial', something which has cost me my crown unfortunately.
I started taking 0.5mg for a couple of weeks initially and had zero side effects so though sod it, I'll just take the full 1mg and no change in terms of side effects between the two doses.
The way I see it is as follows:
At 0.5mg, it's almost the same in terms of inhibiting DHT as 1mg, therefore so too would be the potential side effects.
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Nope, I am based in the UK and I used Medichecks UK for my blood work.
Cool thanks. It's pretty expensive with medichecks, but have no choice but to redo my DHT and Hormone profile before I decide to try finasteride again. This hairloss thing is depressing, never gave this stuff much thought until it started happening.
- Reaction score
- 18
Yeah it's a total bummer, it frustrates me daily too. Sometimes on a good hair day I forget about it for that day, but those days are few and far between.
At Medichecks I got the "Dihydrotestosterone" blood-test and also got the "Sports Hormone Check Plus (male)" blood-test package too. Wasn't cheap by any means, however as an understanding of myself overall and how finasteride may or may not help, I'm glad I did get them done now.
At Medichecks I got the "Dihydrotestosterone" blood-test and also got the "Sports Hormone Check Plus (male)" blood-test package too. Wasn't cheap by any means, however as an understanding of myself overall and how finasteride may or may not help, I'm glad I did get them done now.
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