Increased dihydrotestosterone while taking finasteride

[AlexCross]

Hello all! In November, I found out that I had the first stage of androgenetic alopecia and without waiting for the condition to worsen, I immediately decided to take minoxidil and finasteride. Before starting to take finasteride, I tested for dehydrotestosterone and the mark was -1493. And now, after almost 4 months, I re-tested and saw a very strange situation. The level of dehydrotestosterone increased and amounted to 1715.

How is this possible and should I increase the dose?

I want to note that I took finasteride intended for the prostate gland. That is, I divided the 5mg tablet into 4 parts.



UPD 06.04.2022:


I recently finished taking finasteride 5mg a day (and have already switched back to taking 1mg a day). That's why I'm updating my thread. Two days ago I passed tests for dihydrotestosterone as promised. And to my surprise, I found that the tests improved. New analyzes showed - 884 pg / ml.

The figure is still high as for a person taking finasteride, but at the same time, in just a month, DHT has decreased by half. Maybe the tests are wrong? The results came very quickly, a little more than a day. Do you think this is cause for concern?

I live in Kyiv and unfortunately we are at war, so I can’t visit a trichologist at the moment. Can anyone tell me if this is real? (I mean that I got the tests so quickly). And what should I do now? Like I said I went back to 1mg a day. Do I need to increase the dose back to 5?



UPD 11.05.2022:


So, a little more than a month has passed since the end of taking finasteride 5 mg and my testing for dihydrotestosterone. As I already wrote, I switched back to taking 1 milligram per day (a little more, since I divide the pill into 4 parts).
Today I received new test results and they not only do not please me, but also confuse me. Now the result is 1312. I don't understand why this is happening. Does anyone have any thoughts?

I really don't know what to do. I could say finasteride doesn't work for me, but April's test results say otherwise.



UPD 21.06.2022:



Has handed over the next analyses. Let me briefly remind you of the situation: I took finasteride 1 mg for 3 months, DHT did not decrease, but even increased, I started taking 5 mg each - the result was 884, I returned 1 mg, again there is an increase.

And now I have been taking finasteride 5 mg for a month and a half, the results again showed a decrease in DHT levels - now the test result is 877. This is very strange, despite the fact that many on the forum say that is no difference between taking finasteride 1 mg or 5 mg, my example shows clearly the opposite.

But let's move away from the topic of hair. After all, elevated levels of DHT are obvious health and hormonal problems. What can cause this and how to deal with it? I also want to note that I have chronic prostatitis, and at first I thought that because of it I had increased DHT, but an ultrasound scan showed that everything was normal.

Apparently finasteride is clearly not enough for me. Yes, given that a result in the range of 250 - 990 is considered the norm, I'm still on the edge. In addition, I want to lower the DHT to 400 - 500.

I also want to note that this is clearly not some kind of mistake, there is a clear trend.

So what should I do? Are there any thoughts? For now, I will continue to take Finasteride 5mg for another 1.5 to 2 months before I have another test. But what should I do next? After all, even if I had no problems with hair, then as soon as I stop taking finasteride, the DHT level rises sharply to 1300+ and this is a warning sign for my health.

 

[AlexCross]

UP

 

[NW9000]

sure there

 

[jamesbooker1975]

Hello all! In November, I found out that I had the first stage of androgenetic alopecia and without waiting for the condition to worsen, I immediately decided to take minoxidil and finasteride. Before starting to take finasteride, I tested for dehydrotestosterone and the mark was -1493. And now, after almost 4 months, I re-tested and saw a very strange situation. The level of dehydrotestosterone increased and amounted to 1715.

How is this possible and should I increase the dose?

I want to note that I took finasteride intended for the prostate gland. That is, I divided the 5mg tablet into 4 parts.

Same lab ? try in another laboratory to be sure. And are you sure you are getting real Finasteride ?

 

[AlexCross]

Same lab ? try in another laboratory to be sure. And are you sure you are getting real Finasteride ?

what does real mean?) I buy finasteride in a pharmacy. why would they deceive me? especially, as I said, I buy finasteride intended for prostate adenoma, a rather serious disease.

 

[AlexCross]

Same lab ? try in another laboratory to be sure. And are you sure you are getting real Finasteride ?

No, I took the tests in different laboratories

 

[Mr. Slap Head]

How is your hair? You never said if it got better or worse. That is what is really important. Perhaps you should try dutasteride.

 

[AlexCross]

How is your hair? You never said if it got better or worse. That is what is really important. Perhaps you should try dutasteride.

I can't say anything clearly. I have the first stage according to Norwood, and therefore there were no strong changes. There was thinning and everything seems to be the same.

 

[marmot]

You are one of these rare individuals or maybe not so rare because there are more and more people online who post a similar posts about finasteride/dutasterid not being able to decrease their dht. I have a similar situation dht 1700 without any treatment and on duta and fina due to increased T it increased to 2400. The question is there is any chance that finasteride decreases scalp dht but does not decrease serum dht it would be only possible to know if you would do a scalp biopsy. If you type phrases as extremely high dht or something like this google will show you a similar post for example on reddit. Check my post I've described my situation which is similar to yours.

 

[Foids_Bane]

Hello all! In November, I found out that I had the first stage of androgenetic alopecia and without waiting for the condition to worsen, I immediately decided to take minoxidil and finasteride. Before starting to take finasteride, I tested for dehydrotestosterone and the mark was -1493. And now, after almost 4 months, I re-tested and saw a very strange situation. The level of dehydrotestosterone increased and amounted to 1715.

You are one of these rare individuals or maybe not so rare because there are more and more people online who post a similar posts about finasteride/dutasterid not being able to decrease their dht. I have a similar situation dht 1700 without any treatment and on duta and fina due to increased T it increased to 2400.

What units are we talking about? pg/mL?

 

[AlexCross]

What units are we talking about? pg/mL?

yes

 

[AlexCross]

You are one of these rare individuals or maybe not so rare because there are more and more people online who post a similar posts about finasteride/dutasterid not being able to decrease their dht. I have a similar situation dht 1700 without any treatment and on duta and fina due to increased T it increased to 2400. The question is there is any chance that finasteride decreases scalp dht but does not decrease serum dht it would be only possible to know if you would do a scalp biopsy. If you type phrases as extremely high dht or something like this google will show you a similar post for example on reddit. Check my post I've described my situation which is similar to yours.

OK. so be it. how in such cases to lower the level of dihydrotestosterone. when I studied the forums about hair loss, I did not come across this.

I understand there are situations in which finasteride does not help stop hair loss, since hair receptors are very sensitive to dihydrotestosterone, and even a small part of this hormone provokes hair loss. But my situation is quite different. Dihydrotestosterone simply does not go down. Finasteride should block 5α-Reductase. There are no studies in which this does not work.

Or maybe I'm wrong and there are studies in which finasteride does not interact with 5α-Reductase in any way

 

[AlexCross]

You are one of these rare individuals or maybe not so rare because there are more and more people online who post a similar posts about finasteride/dutasterid not being able to decrease their dht. I have a similar situation dht 1700 without any treatment and on duta and fina due to increased T it increased to 2400. The question is there is any chance that finasteride decreases scalp dht but does not decrease serum dht it would be only possible to know if you would do a scalp biopsy. If you type phrases as extremely high dht or something like this google will show you a similar post for example on reddit. Check my post I've described my situation which is similar to yours.

I have now tried to find information on the Internet confirming that there are cases when finasteride does not work and does not reduce the level of dihydrotestosterone but I found absolutely nothing.

perhaps there are some factors provoking excessive production of dihydrotestosterone even with finasteride treatment.
I have already increased the dose to 5mg per day on the advice of a doctor. and I will drink finasteride at this dose for about a month.
but judging by the studies, the difference between taking 1mg and 5mg is small, which means that it is unlikely that anything will change:

" Scalp skin DHT levels declined significantly by 13.0% with placebo and by 14.9%, 61.6%, 56. 5%, 64.1%, and 69.4% with 0.01, 0.05, 0.2, 1, and 5 mg doses of finasteride, respectively. Serum DHT levels declined significantly (P <.001) by 49.5%, 68.6%, 71.4%, and 72.2% in the 0.05, 0.2, 1, and 5 mg finasteride treatment groups, respectively."

 

[Foids_Bane]

yes

damn, son, thats a lot

 

[Moz5x]

what does real mean?) I buy finasteride in a pharmacy. why would they deceive me? especially, as I said, I buy finasteride intended for prostate adenoma, a rather serious disease.

Are you taking generic 5mg finasteride or brand name Proscar? There are instances where some generic drugs do not work as effectively for some as the brand name version. The retail pharmacy will also switch generic manufacturers without telling you for economic reasons (not to deceive you per se).

 

[losingbattle88]

Are you taking generic 5mg finasteride or brand name Proscar? There are instances where some generic drugs do not work as effectively for some as the brand name version. The retail pharmacy will also switch generic manufacturers without telling you for economic reasons (not to deceive you per se).

Thats anecdotal bs.

 

[Mr. Slap Head]

due to your genes, finasteride might not work. Apparently dutasteride can work for finasteride non responders though since it interacts with different genes

 

[AlexCross]

Are you taking generic 5mg finasteride or brand name Proscar? There are instances where some generic drugs do not work as effectively for some as the brand name version. The retail pharmacy will also switch generic manufacturers without telling you for economic reasons (not to deceive you per se).

yes it is generic. but there is a difference between "wrong effect" and "no effect at all"

 

[AlexCross]

due to your genes, finasteride might not work. Apparently dutasteride can work for finasteride non responders though since it interacts with different genes

uh...I don't quite understand what the genes have to do with it. Does finasteride and dutasteride interact with genes?

 

[AlexCross]

due to your genes, finasteride might not work. Apparently dutasteride can work for finasteride non responders though since it interacts with different genes

So, should I try dutasteride if 5mg finasteride doesn't make a difference?did you mean it?

P.S. sorry, I'm not strong in English and sometimes it's hard to take sarcasm and a serious message