Hyperandrogenism reaction to finasteride?

[donkeykong]

Hey guys first of all I'm pretty much brand new to this forum and would just like to say thank you for all the advice I've indirectly received from other people's threads, it really helped me to decide to fight my hair loss instead of just giving up.

Anyway I've been thinning since I was 17/18 (I'm 20 now) mostly around the crown but also around the temples. I've always had really thin hair and even when I was 14/15 you could see my scalp around my crown area in bright light.

I recently started taking finasteride 1mg a day, for the last 7 days and have started noticing that my head had started itching when it hadn't before I started.

I read up a lot on hyperandrogenism reactions and the symptoms being oily face, increased libido and itchy scalp. I'm not seeing any of the other symptoms but am worried because I've never had that male pattern baldness itch before. I'm also getting spots again although this might be because I decided to stop my dose of accurate. Shedding has pretty much remained the same but I am shedding a lot more whispy hairs than before.

My question is should I stay on finasteride and risk suffering accelerated hair loss or should I stop now and cut my losses before I loose too much?

 

[eenrak]

Asking such a question in this forum does not make sense. To this post will attract the people who think finasteride destroyed their hair and the ones who know finasteride to work, will mostly not reply. Look at the studies. Check if there are cases of that happening. The answer is certainly not going to come here in any conclusive manner. Just know, that almost 90% are at or above baseline on finasteride. The 10% who do not respond often have a slower balding rate. Now, do the research for yourself.

 

[Dench57]

Hi Donkeykong,

I had the same reaction you're describing to finasteride. Itchy/tingly scalp which I never had before, oily hair/skin and acne, increased libido, accelerated hairloss. Most of the people here will tell you you're imagining it because it didn't show up in the studies.

I wish I could advise you whether dropping finasteride or continuing it would be a good idea. I tried to ride out the scalp inflammation for 2 months before dropping it, its now 10 months since I dropped it and I still have bad inflammation. I've spoken to various people with the same reaction - many people say the itching/inflammation subsided after several months on, others subsided only when they dropped finasteride. Sorry I can't be of more help.