is Gynecomastia the hope killer for those taking oral finasteride?

[Briandesigns]

I had light gyno from puberty. If I keep my body fat percentage low it is almost undetectable unless you examine it with your fingers by pinching the hard mass underneath. If I pack on some fat then it would become puffy and slightly cone like to the point that you can see it through a t shirt.

higher body fat looks like this

lower body fat looks like this

To be clear I'm totally okay with this level of gyno.

I started generic finasteride 1mg/day on april 25 2022 and kept daily diary. I noticed slight ball discomfort on day 1 as well as this migraine where my brain feels really heavy and no other sides. The testicle discomfort is completely gone but the migraine stayed(I may be able to tough this one out). On April 27th(2 days later) I noticed that my nipples started to become sore 24/7. This is particularly noticeable at night because I'm a stomach sleeper and ever since the nipple soreness started sleeping on my stomach became painful to the point that I started to sleep on my sides and back. This has never been a problem before even with my pre-existing pubertal gyno.

I want to continue this drug long term but I'm not sure if I have a solution for the gyno. Ideally I would like the nipple soreness to go away and the gyno stay the same size and not grow any bigger as I continue finasteride. Is this at all possible?


Some ideas I'd like to try:

- stay the course with finasteride 1mg/day and see if the nipple soreness resolve it self
- reduce finasteride dosage to 1mg MWF
- further reduce finasteride dosage to 0.5mg MWF
- switch to a topical anti androgen like finasteride or RU
- take DIM + zinc to lower E2 (doubts about this as I don't like to mess with my hormones anymore than I need to)
- take an aromatize inhibitor to lower E2(doubts about this as I don't like to mess with my hormones anymore than I need to)
- male breast reduction surgery (doubts about this since some gland tissue is still left and resuming finasteride could cause the gyno to grow again?)
- mastectomy(doubts about this as a possible side effect is caved-in nipples)

If anyone had any success staying on finasteride long term after experiencing nipple sides please pitch in.

updates:

2022-05-20: I either gotten so used to the nipple soreness that I almost don't perceive it anymore or the gyno has calmed down significantly.
2022-06-27: backed down dosage to 1mg MWF for the entire month of June. headaches have reduced a lot. Nipple soreness remain the same as previous update.
2022-09-19: 1mg MWF still. nipple soreness is almost not noticeable now but still there. I consider this a pretty big improvement. The headaches are also still there but also very light. No visible change in my hair detected so can't speak of finasteride's effectiveness on me at this dosage just yet.
2022-12-02: at 1mg MWF the headaches and nipple soreness are pretty much unnoticeable. So for the past 2 months I updated my dosage to 5mg a week. however I suddenly started feeling nipple soreness and pain again. gonna take a week off and back it down to 4MG a week and see.

 

[Nebula74]

nope i've been dealing with this sh*t for like ages now after getting gyno now which forced me to stop finasteride, i didnt even get gyno from finasteride itself i got it from another medicine and finasteride made it worse. and i had none in puberty. The soreness feeling was terrible. I think the user who has been cursed for the longest time by gyno is @whatevr

I have tried most of the methods you have listed except surgery i will just tell you now dont waste your time trying to change your hormonal profile so that you wont grow tits on finasteride, u will either just end up f*****g your hair or making gyno worse. Gyno is more complex than test vs e2 ratio, everyone has different genetic sensitivity to these hormones and people who get gyno from finasteride are sensitive to e2 in breasts, but there are more hormones that stimulate breast growth like prolactin and progesterone, whilst androgens inibit it, which means we need a hormone with the androgenicity of dht to compete with these receptors. An AI ( i used anastrazole) will either probably hurt your hair and might not even stop gyno, because if you are not overweight, you probably have normal estrogen levels anyway. Dim and zinc is cope. You cannot try and microdose oral finasteride, even at 0.25mg it lowers your dht by 60% and finasteride is cumulative anyway.

Best hope is a serm, specifically raloxifene @90mg because it is quite hair safe and blocks estrogen receptors in the breast, i tried it with finasteride for a month and it slowed gyno growth alot, but i wasnt willing to take the risk of making it worse and end up with gyno getting to grade 1.

Surgery is a big hit or miss, i know some people say "remove the whole gland bro" but there's always gonna be some microscopic tissue that can grow back. Even Dr caridi, who is the biggest promoter of "removing the gland." Only literal way to guarantee it wouldn't come back would be with a brutal mastectomy like with breast cancer patients.

I'd recommend RU58841 100mg + oral min as that is what i'm using and it doesnt affect my gyno. If you respond to these two your hair should hold out till pyrilutamide becomes available.

So yeah, if you're a minoxidil non responder gynecomastia is a hope killer take it from me

 

[Nebula74]

best way to deal with it if you have the money is go for complete surgery and then try and use a topical formulation of finasteride which minimises systemic dht reduction

 

[Briandesigns]

nope i've been dealing with this sh*t for like ages now after getting gyno now which forced me to stop finasteride, i didnt even get gyno from finasteride itself i got it from another medicine and finasteride made it worse. and i had none in puberty. The soreness feeling was terrible. I think the user who has been cursed for the longest time by gyno is @whatevr

I have tried most of the methods you have listed except surgery i will just tell you now dont waste your time trying to change your hormonal profile so that you wont grow tits on finasteride, u will either just end up f*****g your hair or making gyno worse. Gyno is more complex than test vs e2 ratio, everyone has different genetic sensitivity to these hormones and people who get gyno from finasteride are sensitive to e2 in breasts, but there are more hormones that stimulate breast growth like prolactin and progesterone, whilst androgens inibit it, which means we need a hormone with the androgenicity of dht to compete with these receptors. An AI ( i used anastrazole) will either probably hurt your hair and might not even stop gyno, because if you are not overweight, you probably have normal estrogen levels anyway. Dim and zinc is cope. You cannot try and microdose oral finasteride, even at 0.25mg it lowers your dht by 60% and finasteride is cumulative anyway.

Best hope is a serm, specifically raloxifene @90mg because it is quite hair safe and blocks estrogen receptors in the breast, i tried it with finasteride for a month and it slowed gyno growth alot, but i wasnt willing to take the risk of making it worse and end up with gyno getting to grade 1.

Surgery is a big hit or miss, i know some people say "remove the whole gland bro" but there's always gonna be some microscopic tissue that can grow back. Even Dr caridi, who is the biggest promoter of "removing the gland." Only literal way to guarantee it wouldn't come back would be with a brutal mastectomy like with breast cancer patients.

I'd recommend RU58841 100mg + oral min as that is what i'm using and it doesnt affect my gyno. If you respond to these two your hair should hold out till pyrilutamide becomes available.

So yeah, if you're a minoxidil non responder gynecomastia is a hope killer take it from me



View attachment 179973

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it. My hairloss is not very aggressive. Do you think I could stop finasteride temporarily and start ralox until my gyno goes down as much as possible, then slowly re-introduce finasteride at a microdose and see if gyno flares back up? I definitely plan on trying topical finasteride and RU after that.

 

[Nebula74]

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it. My hairloss is not very aggressive. Do you think I could stop finasteride temporarily and start ralox until my gyno goes down as much as possible, then slowly re-introduce finasteride at a microdose and see if gyno flares back up? I definitely plan on trying topical finasteride and RU after that.

TBH, its only been a few weeks for u on finasteride so u might not be entirely doomed to the gyno curse yet, u could wait and see if it actually gets bigger depends if u wanna risk it or not.

I'd first get a hormonal profile to see what they look like on finasteride so you can see if there is anything out of range on there which is causing the gyno, for example e2, which there probably wont be but its worth checking.

I wouldn't bank on it succeding but you can try running raloxifene for 3 months. But bear in mind even if ur gyno was new ralox wouldnt do a lot to make it smaller, i tried ralox like a month after getting gyno and it basically made it less painful but lumps stayed the same even at 120mg . A lot of hype you see about ralox online in places like reddit is placebo imo, as unlike tamoxifen, it doesnt reduce breast density in women and there's only one clinical study on it which was badly designed but its hair safe and some trusted sources like MPMD say its good. But its worth a shot if you dont think surgery is worth it. SERMS for me just slowed the growth a lot while using concurrently with finasteride. But it shot my test from 19nmol/l to 30nmol/l in combination with finasteride so i think it negated the impact of finasteride

To be honest, I wouldn't really risk microdosing oral because it's inhibition curve just means u will probably still get gyno anyway and worse hair results but it might induce a placebo effect and u can see if ur gyno is actually getting worse or not.

Imo you should look into topical finasteride, but not basic formulas from hims, but ones which minimise systemic impact on dht. This study showed blood dht was reduced 36%, compared to 55% oral, but hair results were similar. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jdv.17738. That might be good if u can reduce it with ralox.

Also look into minoxidil and oral min because if your hair loss is non aggressive and you respond to them they will hold you out for a while.

Sorry to sound like a doomer, but if you are actually developing gyno on finasteride there's not really much hope with it, and the drug is not really for you unless you shell out on surgery even then ive seen people who took finasteride again and it grew back because its impossible to remove all the gland. Just remember that each time u go back on finasteride u r risking the gyno getting more and more visible, but trust me i have spent so much time trying to figure out a way to tolerate finasteride but i just cant.

Theres one user called g.i joey, look up his posts on letrozole, i have seen who had success with getting rid of finasteride gyno with letrozole, the most brutal ai but he used it within a month. His gyno didn't come back and he kept taking finasteride.

 

[Briandesigns]

TBH, its only been a few weeks for u on finasteride so u might not be entirely doomed to the gyno curse yet, u could wait and see if it actually gets bigger depends if u wanna risk it or not.

I'd first get a hormonal profile to see what they look like on finasteride so you can see if there is anything out of range on there which is causing the gyno, for example e2, which there probably wont be but its worth checking.

I wouldn't bank on it succeding but you can try running raloxifene for 3 months. But bear in mind even if ur gyno was new ralox wouldnt do a lot to make it smaller, i tried ralox like a month after getting gyno and it basically made it less painful but lumps stayed the same even at 120mg . A lot of hype you see about ralox online in places like reddit is placebo imo, as unlike tamoxifen, it doesnt reduce breast density in women and there's only one clinical study on it which was badly designed but its hair safe and some trusted sources like MPMD say its good. But its worth a shot if you dont think surgery is worth it. SERMS for me just slowed the growth a lot while using concurrently with finasteride. But it shot my test from 19nmol/l to 30nmol/l in combination with finasteride so i think it negated the impact of finasteride

To be honest, I wouldn't really risk microdosing oral because it's inhibition curve just means u will probably still get gyno anyway and worse hair results but it might induce a placebo effect and u can see if ur gyno is actually getting worse or not.

Imo you should look into topical finasteride, but not basic formulas from hims, but ones which minimise systemic impact on dht. This study showed blood dht was reduced 36%, compared to 55% oral, but hair results were similar. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jdv.17738. That might be good if u can reduce it with ralox.

Also look into minoxidil and oral min because if your hair loss is non aggressive and you respond to them they will hold you out for a while.

Sorry to sound like a doomer, but if you are actually developing gyno on finasteride there's not really much hope with it, and the drug is not really for you unless you shell out on surgery even then ive seen people who took finasteride again and it grew back because its impossible to remove all the gland. Just remember that each time u go back on finasteride u r risking the gyno getting more and more visible, but trust me i have spent so much time trying to figure out a way to tolerate finasteride but i just cant.

Theres one user called g.i joey, look up his posts on letrozole, i have seen who had success with getting rid of finasteride gyno with letrozole, the most brutal ai but he used it within a month. His gyno didn't come back and he kept taking finasteride.

I saved enough for gyno surgery as well as a transplant so I'm giving myself a few years to find a long term solution first. At the moment I'm trying to reduce my body fat and keep taking finasteride 1mg/day. Nipple soreness is slightly less noticeable now. I'm guessing i've been feeling the burning for so long and so consistently that my perception of it is less and less strong. Hopefully it can go away completely AND the gyno does not grow.

 

[infamousrodi]

Same story here, my gyno is coming back slowly while being on a micro dose of finasteride of shy of 6 months. It sucks idk what to do at this point .

 

[losingbattle88]

Same story here, my gyno is coming back slowly while being on a micro dose of finasteride of shy of 6 months. It sucks idk what to do at this point .

Topical finasteride

I had light gyno from puberty. If I keep my body fat percentage low it is almost undetectable unless you examine it with your fingers by pinching the hard mass underneath. If I pack on some fat then it would become puffy and slightly cone like to the point that you can see it through a t shirt.

higher body fat looks like this
View attachment 179878

lower body fat looks like this

View attachment 179880

To be clear I'm totally okay with this level of gyno.

I started generic finasteride 1mg/day on april 25 2022 and kept daily diary. I noticed slight ball discomfort on day 1 as well as this migraine where my brain feels really heavy and no other sides. The testicle discomfort is completely gone but the migraine stayed(I may be able to tough this one out). On April 27th(2 days later) I noticed that my nipples started to become sore 24/7. This is particularly noticeable at night because I'm a stomach sleeper and ever since the nipple soreness started sleeping on my stomach became painful to the point that I started to sleep on my sides and back. This has never been a problem before even with my pre-existing pubertal gyno.

I want to continue this drug long term but I'm not sure if I have a solution for the gyno. Ideally I would like the nipple soreness to go away and the gyno stay the same size and not grow any bigger as I continue finasteride. Is this at all possible?


Some ideas I'd like to try:

- stay the course with finasteride 1mg/day and see if the nipple soreness resolve it self
- reduce finasteride dosage to 1mg MWF
- further reduce finasteride dosage to 0.5mg MWF
- switch to a topical anti androgen like finasteride or RU
- take DIM + zinc to lower E2 (doubts about this as I don't like to mess with my hormones anymore than I need to)
- take an aromatize inhibitor to lower E2(doubts about this as I don't like to mess with my hormones anymore than I need to)
- male breast reduction surgery (doubts about this since some gland tissue is still left and resuming finasteride could cause the gyno to grow again?)
- mastectomy(doubts about this as a possible side effect is caved-in nipples)

If anyone had any success staying on finasteride long term after experiencing nipple sides please pitch in.

U r a hot gay guy. Mmmmmm.

 

[Briandesigns]

Topical finasteride

U r a hot gay guy. Mmmmmm.

debatable

 

[Nebula74]

Can u update?