how much dht inhibition is .125mg?

[abcdefg]

Might starting at a very low dose of propecia be a good idea to gauge how you handle it? would .125mg be enough. I want to use propecia but im pretty scared of lowering it to much or raising all the corresponding hormones.

 

[sammo]

i started on 1mg but got freaked out when the sides hit around 1.5 month in. im on 0.5 now and they seem to have slowed. 0.25 is according to the fda study supposed to be just as effective but ive decided to play it safe and do 0.5.

sam

 

[beaner]

. 0.25 is according to the fda study supposed to be just as effective but ive decided to play it safe and do 0.5.

sam

Did you actually read this study or are you going by the misinformation you see posted all over this forum? .25 mg was not shown to be just as effective, but only about 80% as effective as 1mg when it came to haircounts. Anything lower than .25 and you're really pushing it as far as effectiveness goes.

 

[nydheart]

I just started yesterday and am going at 0.25 I fugure if you are going to be a responder and that rate is only 20% less effective than the standard 1mg, you can always bump it up if you find you really want that 20% more hair count. In any case, if your like me and worry about the sides, why not start low? If it is going to work for you it will work at that dose and if you think you need more then you can start to bump it up.

 

[RaginDemon]

if you are experiencing some bad sides, then drop it to .5mg, otherwise 1mg will be the most well balanced amount to halt hair loss.

 

[abcdefg]

Im pretty scared by stories about liver problems, but also the changes in estrogen, estradiol, and testosterone. Thats pretty scary stuff when you think about it. I mean hormones make women like women and men like men and we screwing around with it without really understanding it. I mean I love my hair too but is it really worth it? I mean propecia wont even keep the hair your have for 10 years most likely anyways

 

[1750]

If you're scared start on 0.5mg a day........
Finasteride won't turn you into a woman.....
Give it a whirl... if you start experiencing sides for an extended period of time stop using it.... simple.

 

[RaginDemon]

I don't believe finasteride increases the estrogen level. At least we havent had a study reported that finasteride does that as a side.

 

[Pondle]

The Propecia product monograph states, "Finasteride produces a rapid reduction in serum DHT concentration, reaching 65% suppression within 24 hours of oral dosing with a 1-mg tablet. Mean circulating levels of testosterone and estradiol were increased by approximately 15% as compared to baseline, but these remained within the physiologic range."

 

[paximperia]

You have to keep in mind that DHT suppression is a range based on dosage. For example, 1mg Propecia will block 70% DHT in some people, and more/less in others. All drugs affect different people to varying degrees. When they selected 1mg as the dose for Propecia, they looked at this range and tried to pick the amount of Finasteride that would affect the most people in the most beneficial way. In other words, even if a study shows that .125mg of Finasteride blocks an AVERAGE of 40% DHT, there will be better/worse responders. There is simply no way to know how any given individual will respond. If you look at most charts directly from the clinical trials, you will notice a box-plot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_plot) demonstrating this fact.

 

[Pondle]

Good point about the range. I drew a graph of the average, you can read off the mean inhibition with 0.125mg from that.

 

[Bryan]

The Propecia product monograph states, "Finasteride produces a rapid reduction in serum DHT concentration, reaching 65% suppression within 24 hours of oral dosing with a 1-mg tablet. Mean circulating levels of testosterone and estradiol were increased by approximately 15% as compared to baseline, but these remained within the physiologic range."

Cool. I'd never even seen anything from the Propecia package insert before!

It makes perfect sense that estrogen levels would be slightly elevated with finasteride usage, because a slightly higher level of the substrate for aromatase (testosterone) would reasonably be expected to cause a bit more estrogen production.

Further support for that are the pseudohermaphrodites, who also average slightly higher testosterone and estrogen levels than normal men.

 

[abcdefg]

Wow they werent kidding with the effectiveness to dose thing. .125 would still inhibit it like 60 percent or something like that. Maybe ill take a very small amount realizing it might not stop my hairloss but it will help me and be cheap and hopefully safer. Im worried about that sky high estrogen many men get. Our current scientific understanding is if any hormone is really high you should try to lower it because its not good.