Giving up finasteride after 21 months of hair destruction

[Sensie]

So its been 21 months since i started and ever since day one my hairloss went into overdrive.

Had sides but just ignored them for the first year and they subsided (except for watery sperm which never left)

I'm at the point now where my scalp is completely visable and cant go a day without a pound of concealer in.

I'm completely desperate now and feel like im backed into a corner, did the minoxidil foam for 6 months as well and shed bad.

Ive never been more aggrivated in my life, blowing so much money on fighting hairloss for the past 8 years to have no results at all.

So thats my awesome story.

 

[psyhotria]

Androgen receptor antagonists (RU, spironolactone, flutamide) are more effective than 5-ar inhibitors (finasteride, dutasteride). I think this is true for topical as well.

 

[beaner]

So its been 21 months since i started and ever since day one my hairloss went into overdrive.

Had sides but just ignored them for the first year and they subsided (except for watery sperm which never left)

I'm at the point now where my scalp is completely visable and cant go a day without a pound of concealer in.

I'm completely desperate now and feel like im backed into a corner, did the minoxidil foam for 6 months as well and shed bad.

Ive never been more aggrivated in my life, blowing so much money on fighting hairloss for the past 8 years to have no results at all.

So thats my awesome story.

What have you been doing to fight it for 8 years? So far you've only indicated 21 months of finasteride treatment and 6 months of minoxidil.

 

[WarLord]

What have you been doing to fight it for 8 years? So far you've only indicated 21 months of finasteride treatment and 6 months of minoxidil.

Probably the same like the majority of "fighters" against hairloss: He tried bogus shampoos and lotions from a local drugstore. A typical "fighter" against hairloss never starts with minoxidil and 5-AR blockers.

However, it doesn't matter at this moment. He obviously needs to jump to something that gives him a guarantee of success - a high dose of dutasteride. Furthermore, he also needs to know, if he really suffers from male pattern baldness. And he needs to know his hormonal levels (which he hasn't bothered to measure almost with 100% certainty).

 

[Sensie]

Yes for the past 8 years i wasted money on creams, shampoos, procerin at like 60$ a month per bottle which i gullably bought.

So i should switch to dutasteride? I do have minor sides on finasteride that would probably be intensified would it not?

 

[WarLord]

Yes for the past 8 years i wasted money on creams, shampoos, procerin at like 60$ a month per bottle which i gullably bought.

So i should switch to dutasteride? I do have minor sides on finasteride that would probably be intensified would it not?

What other chances do you have? But first of all, let your DHT and total testosterone measured. Otherwise you won't know, how effective the treatment is.

Furthermore, if you used minoxidil foam and then quitted, it is possible that the state of your hair even temporarily worsened. Hair becomes quickly dependent on minoxidil.

And yes, your side effects on dutasteride will intensify by 50%. It's something like 2% vs 3%. LOL

Nobody can predict, how you will react to this drug, but you must reckon with that all the internet fearmongering is exaggerated. Both finasteride and dutasteride are very safe drugs. Furthermore, if your hair loss is really androgenic, then your chances with dutasteride are very high, because it will basically return your DHT levels to children's levels. I am a big advocate of dutasteride, because I was frustrated from finasteride as well. It was an utter joke. It can be a great drug for the average user, but not everybody is average. In fact, the suppression of DHT on finasteride has a very large standard deviation (something like 70 +/- 18%), which means that there is a very large range between "lucky bastards" and "unhappy poor fellows". In 1 out of 6-7 people, the suppression of DHT is lower than 50%, which means that the stuff basically does nothing. This explains, why 10-15% people don't succeed on it in the long-term.

In contrast, dutasteride suppresses DHT to much a larger extent (90+ %), and individual differences in this regard are very small. In fact, you only need ca. 80% suppression to have a very high guarantee of success. But remember that some people can go through unpleasant sheds on dutasteride. It may not work so easily.

To sum it up, I would recommend you to measure your DHT, total testosterone and possibly SHBG and free testosterone. Then you can add 1-2 dutasteride pills a week to your finasteride regime, and if it works (which you recognize from your decreasing DHT levels), you can slowly increase the dosage and one day you can quit finasteride completely. Or you can stay on the combined finasteride+dutasteride treatment.

 

[Sensie]

Would taking 2.5mg of finasteride a day be of any benefit? Its gonna be months before i can get a doctors appointment around here, and i'm losing ground fast.

I truly cannot believe how horribly thin my hair is all over on top, its like I can see the end of the line coming up within the year. Before finasteride i could leave it dry and messy and it looked decievingly thick, but now, oh my god i have huge bald spots if my hair is sticking up in just the slightest position.

 

[WarLord]

Would taking 2.5mg of finasteride a day be of any benefit? Its gonna be months before i can get a doctors appointment around here, and i'm losing ground fast.

I truly cannot believe how horribly thin my hair is all over on top, its like I can see the end of the line coming up within the year. Before finasteride i could leave it dry and messy and it looked decievingly thick, but now, oh my god i have huge bald spots if my hair is sticking up in just the slightest position.

I think that it won't help (on average). The curve of efficiacy in finasteride is very flat. Beyond 1 mg you can get little benefit (although from time to time, you can read stories that it helped). The problem is that the suppression of DHT on finasteride has a very large standard deviation (close to 20%). There are large interindividual differences. As I said, you need to know your DHT levels. If you want to buy some dutasteride, it is available from internet pharmacies, but I don't know, what of them are fake and what are not. I have Avodart on prescription.

This dutasteride seems to be legit, but it is not much cheap:
http://www.drmpharmacy.com/section.php?xSec=12&xPage=1&jssCart=c2fdd60e42bd80a7011d79a47b0b77d3

 

[Wuffer]

Theoretically anyway, finasteride should 'work' for everyone. In your case, it just may not have been strong enough to counteract the progression of your male pattern baldness. After stopping, your loss will probably increase, not decrease.

If you are 8 years into the process, you can't pull any punches. I agree; you should go on a high dutasteride dosage and hope for the best. You won't necessarily get worse sides, or any sides for that matter. I've heard many cases where people have sides on finasteride but not on dutasteride.

Best luck! Hope you find something that works.

 

[WarLord]

Theoretically anyway, finasteride should 'work' for everyone. In your case, it just may not have been strong enough to counteract the progression of your male pattern baldness. After stopping, your loss will probably increase, not decrease.

If you are 8 years into the process, you can't pull any punches. I agree; you should go on a high dutasteride dosage and hope for the best. You won't necessarily get worse sides, or any sides for that matter. I've heard many cases where people have sides on finasteride but not on dutasteride.

Best luck! Hope you find something that works.

finasteride doesn't work for everyone, unfortunately. I can illustrate it on my case. I was on finasteride for half a year, but my blood DHT levels were 25-32 ng/dl, i.e. like if I were not taking anything. Or sugar pills. Furthermore, I experienced incessant shedding in my temples. Since I couldn't handle it anymore, on 9th February I decided to add dutasteride, starting on 0.5 mg every 4th day. After 8 weeks, my lab results were 17,7 ng/dl! Still more than the average finasteride user (ca. 15 ng/dl), but finally a significant drop. Moreover, the shedding stopped and my hair finally stabilized after 6 months of a hellish ordeal. I can't say, if it had anything to do with the jump on dutasteride, but it doesn't matter at this moment. I see that finasteride was an utter joke, it did absolutely nothing and I must go the dutasteride route. And I was lucky that I didn't start it as the first treatment (I have been on minoxidil for 16+ years), otherwise I would be frustrated and disgusted like colleague Sensie. I will increase my dutasteride dosage even further (currently I take 0.33 mg/day, besides finasteride), and I won't stop, until I reach prepubertal levels (10 ng/dl).

 

[Sensie]

WarLord: How are you sexually after dutasteride? I don't know how old you are, but I'm 25 and finasteride did affect a few things down below (watery semen, weak erections (not always) , no morning woods (at all, ever), trouble keeping erection for more than 30 seconds without stimulation.

I've been dealing with these since day 1 and haven't really been bothered by them much at all, but my number one fear obviously is these sides being magnified to the point of impotence.

Also I'm in Canada, do any sites deliver here without a prescription? My doctor was really, really hesitant about giving me finasteride, I almost had to beg.

 

[WarLord]

WarLord: How are you sexually after dutasteride? I don't know how old you are, but I'm 25 and finasteride did affect a few things down below (watery semen, weak erections (not always) , no morning woods (at all, ever), trouble keeping erection for more than 30 seconds without stimulation.

I've been dealing with these since day 1 and haven't really been bothered by them much at all, but my number one fear obviously is these sides being magnified to the point of impotence.

Also I'm in Canada, do any sites deliver here without a prescription? My doctor was really, really hesitant about giving me finasteride, I almost had to beg.

If I can give you any advice, it would be better to contact some general practitioner, not a dermatologist. I wanted a prescription for finasteride as early as 10 years ago, but derms discouraged me from this, citing various potential side effects. My general practitioner gave me a prescription for both finasteride and dutasteride without any problems. She didn't know, what the stuff is But I had to subscribe a proclamation that I take all the risks.

Alternatively, you can order dutasteride powder from China. I plan to do the same, because I see that the dosage, with which I would achieve my goals, would be a big burden on my vallet. I know reliable suppliers. The price is usually around 250 USD for 5 grams, including shipment, so dosing wouldn't be an issue anymore. The only potential problem is, if it goes through customs.

My only side effects after 11 weeks on dutasteride are an increased libido and acne on my back. Both actually worried me, because I was afraid that they reflected some hyperandrogenic reaction. Nevertheless, my testosterone is below average, SHBG is exactly average, DHT is very low and my FAI index is very low as well, so there is no indication that I would suffer from high androgen levels (to the contrary, all numbers indicate androgen deficit).