Hi everyone. I am a 32 y. o. male with a Norwood 1.5. Started balding at 27 (diffuse thinning), but jumped on finasteride right away and recovered all my density. However, in the last 2 years, finasteride stopped working for me and also gave me gyno, so the Dr tried other drugs, such as:
- Topical finasteride
- Dutasteride (tried for only a month)
- Dutasteride mesotherapy
They all doubled my estrogen levels and gave me gyno as well, and on top of that, only oral dutasteride was strong enough to halt hair loss. I am struggling a lot in my personal life due to a crippling chronic pain condition that has me practically bedbound, and one would think that hair is the last concern of someone in my situation. While that may be true, it's still a terrible blow. Disease fucked up my worklife, and the physique that I had built after years of exercise, Androgenetic Alopecia now destroys my hair, and my self-steem might be approaching an all-time low (and I have gone through some serious sh*t).
I shared a photo where you can see my receding hairline. It's not too much but please bear in mind that 80% of that thinning has taken place in the last 3-4 months, since Androgenetic Alopecia is now reaching godspeed without any antiandrogens in the way.
My pattern is diffuse thinning all over the scalp, but I'm specially worried about the hairline. I have a big forehead and any recession would mean I'd have to shave it all right away, as the forehead would look extremely unnatural. I can bear temples receding, but not the widow's peak.
I'm using only topical minoxidil now but I don't think it's ever done much, used oral in the past but it made me dizzy even at 0.5 mg, so I had to stop it after 2 weeks. I don't know what other options I have left. CB sounds like an overpriced treatment atm and very weak. RU sounds stronger, but I don't know about the cardiovascular sides. Fluridil may be the weakest treatment of all, I haven't heard of anyone having positive results with it. Alfatradiol is also weak and I've heard it has a higher chance of causing gyno, so that's off the table.There's also the possibility of adding tretinoin to minoxidil, but I heard that this would be ineffective by itself (without antiandrogens).
Of course I can also keep taking dutasteride and add an aromatase inhibitor such as exemestane to keep my estrogen at bay, but no Dr recommends to do this long term...
I'm also having an evaluation of my donor area in order to see if I'm a viable candidate for a hair transplant in the future. I know I will be a Norwood 7 eventually (my father's gift), so, assuming my follicles will be limited, I wouldn't mind having some temple receding and crown balding, as long as everything else looks decent.
Any comments or opinions would be highly appreciated. Thank you all for putting up and amazing community.
Photos: hairy one is right after my dutasteride mesotherapy session, the other one is from last year when I shaved it all during the pandemic (I was still on finasteride, the hair looks a lot worse now but I haven't shaved).
- Topical finasteride
- Dutasteride (tried for only a month)
- Dutasteride mesotherapy
They all doubled my estrogen levels and gave me gyno as well, and on top of that, only oral dutasteride was strong enough to halt hair loss. I am struggling a lot in my personal life due to a crippling chronic pain condition that has me practically bedbound, and one would think that hair is the last concern of someone in my situation. While that may be true, it's still a terrible blow. Disease fucked up my worklife, and the physique that I had built after years of exercise, Androgenetic Alopecia now destroys my hair, and my self-steem might be approaching an all-time low (and I have gone through some serious sh*t).
I shared a photo where you can see my receding hairline. It's not too much but please bear in mind that 80% of that thinning has taken place in the last 3-4 months, since Androgenetic Alopecia is now reaching godspeed without any antiandrogens in the way.
My pattern is diffuse thinning all over the scalp, but I'm specially worried about the hairline. I have a big forehead and any recession would mean I'd have to shave it all right away, as the forehead would look extremely unnatural. I can bear temples receding, but not the widow's peak.
I'm using only topical minoxidil now but I don't think it's ever done much, used oral in the past but it made me dizzy even at 0.5 mg, so I had to stop it after 2 weeks. I don't know what other options I have left. CB sounds like an overpriced treatment atm and very weak. RU sounds stronger, but I don't know about the cardiovascular sides. Fluridil may be the weakest treatment of all, I haven't heard of anyone having positive results with it. Alfatradiol is also weak and I've heard it has a higher chance of causing gyno, so that's off the table.There's also the possibility of adding tretinoin to minoxidil, but I heard that this would be ineffective by itself (without antiandrogens).
Of course I can also keep taking dutasteride and add an aromatase inhibitor such as exemestane to keep my estrogen at bay, but no Dr recommends to do this long term...
I'm also having an evaluation of my donor area in order to see if I'm a viable candidate for a hair transplant in the future. I know I will be a Norwood 7 eventually (my father's gift), so, assuming my follicles will be limited, I wouldn't mind having some temple receding and crown balding, as long as everything else looks decent.
Any comments or opinions would be highly appreciated. Thank you all for putting up and amazing community.
Photos: hairy one is right after my dutasteride mesotherapy session, the other one is from last year when I shaved it all during the pandemic (I was still on finasteride, the hair looks a lot worse now but I haven't shaved).