Jumping straight to Dutasteride?

[Captain Hook]

I disagree. If you are buying online then you're always going to question whether or not you're getting legitimate medication. I have to wonder if the people who claim to lose ground on Dutasteride are actually using the real thing, as it just seems so unlikely considering how much DHT is being inhibited.

Perhaps in the broad scope of the matter, sure, but the people I know who have recommended AllDayChemist aren't people who have lost ground on dutasteride. It all depends on if the online pharmacy is legitimate itself.

That being said, I don't have to worry about such discrepancies as the pharmacy back home where I get pretty much all of my medication is well known in HK and recommended by my physicians. Their prices are extremely competitive too, hence why they are very busy most days.

I have quite a good relationship with some of the pharmacists there that I have grown to know and love over the past few years, whenever a medication I inquire about isn't available, they offer to order it online from either their supplier or a trusted source. So tell me, is the online pharmacy they consult with illegitimate too? We can't speak in absolutes on this matter.

 

[Pequod]

Also for some reason I've read a lot of anecdotal reports where people notice that dutasteride causes paradoxically less side effects compared to finasteride? Why is this? Since it inhibits not only Type II and Type III 5AR isoenzymes like finasteride, but also Type I, I've been conditioned to think the opposite for the longest time.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1472914/

Even this PubMed review confirms the anecdotal evidence. With dutasteride having a 17% incidence of adverse events compared to finasteride's 20%. In addition, dutasteride showed lower percentages in every category of side effects except for gynaecomastia, where it had a 0.1% higher incidence compared to finasteride (when controlled for with placebo), which is probably statistically insignificant.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24411083

As well as this study showing that dutasteride treatment results in higher hair counts.

In light of these two studies, in addition to my original fervour, part of me still wants to just start on dutasteride if my dermatologist approves. I'd much rather be on the strongest available treatment and then just have Androgenetic Alopecia out of sight and out of mind, without any worry if finasteride isn't enough.

I see they haven't deleted my account so I couldn't resist to reply here. I am not sure if you have read a lot of trial results when it comes to pharma but someone here should have pointed out that these two examples are not very good ones to use for your judgement of finasteride vs dutasteride other than dutasteride does give higher hair count vs finasteride. If I remember right you are a very young 20 years old, mostly everyone here seems to be between 18 and 27 or in that vicinity, so you guys probably should not be using trials done on benign prostatic hyperplasia as that is pretty far out of your age range, something you should all be happy about.

BTW did anyone notice that the placebo was blamed by 3.7% on the men in the one trial for impotence? I could point to a trial done that showed a very high placebo side effect rate in a trial done for finasteride too. All this proves is some have these things in their imagination and want to have side effects, or read online that their peepee would stop working and so it mysteriously happened.

They also say this in the first study linked- however, the trials were not comparative, and therefore, there may be significant differences in reported adverse event rates, which may reflect differences in patient populations, trial design, or even methods of collecting and coding adverse events.

IOW you can not use this study of trials to make any realistic determination on which dutasteride. vs finasteride. side effects are worse ( I can't imagine why they thought they could in the first place).

In order to get an answer to what you ask they would have to release all of the data on these trials with data on each individual patient, and as you can see they barely give out enough information to even draw basic conclusions. You guys being so young do not compare to trials on much older men when it comes to sexual side effects. Do you think it is fair to see what 65 year old men have when you are all in early 20's? I think young men should be very careful in choosing dutasteride first over finasteride as a first medication myself. Can I prove this? No, because the data has not been released that I have seen. But common sense says this and I would use that over some study done that is questionable at best.

Anyway the only reason I came back in here to post is I would hate to see you screw yourself up Captain Hook based on these studies that are not very scientific as it applies to you. I knew you would eventually have to resort to finasteride but I am surprised you are so quick to consider dutasteride. I think at your age there is a very low tipping point that these drugs create compared to my age, and finasteride may not hit it but dutasteride could for you. Some side effects are irreversible and if you hit that, well you know the consequences.

Anyway, this is meant as some friendly advice from an older poster, no one should send me nasty notifications as I am not going to debate this topic and am leaving again. I will add this though, i trust online pharmacies about as much as i trust online casinos, lol. Going back into hibernation now, all take care.

 

[Captain Hook]

Anyway the only reason I came back in here to post is I would hate to see you screw yourself up Captain Hook based on these studies that are not very scientific as it applies to you. I knew you would eventually have to resort to finasteride but I am surprised you are so quick to consider dutasteride. I think at your age there is a very low tipping point that these drugs create compared to my age, and finasteride may not hit it but dutasteride could for you. Some side effects are irreversible and if you hit that, well you know the consequences.

Anyway, this is meant as some friendly advice from an older poster, no one should send me nasty notifications as I am not going to debate this topic and am leaving again. I will add this though, i trust online pharmacies about as much as i trust online casinos, lol. Going back into hibernation now, all take care.

You lost me at irreversible. You really think the idiots on PropeciaHelp aren't victims of a nocebo effect? There are plenty of people my age and even younger I'm sure that have experienced no side effects while on either 5ARI. Smoke and mirrors, what is this 'tipping point' you speak of? Certainly you'd expect increased rates of adverse events with older populations, no? It's pretty difficult to follow your logic, or lack thereof. Small correction by the way, I'm 21, not 20.

Here's something a little more applicable, I'm on an array of topical ophthalmic medications to treat my ocular hypertension and believe me, one of them that I used to be on for 10 years (timolol) has a bunch of fear-mongering behind it as well, as it also has a small chance to cause sexual side effects. These medications are usually used by 50-70 year olds with glaucoma, not bloody adolescents. I experienced zero side effects while on that medication. Statistics don't lie.

Also, pertaining to the bolded text, you don't know me and hence that is why you are surprised. I'm no fool, I didn't think my current regimen would be the alpha and the omega, I simply wanted to see how far it could take me, which at this point it has only slowed my hair loss and not to an extent I am happy with. I'm shedding less but I'm still shedding and that is unacceptable for me, plus my temples are slowly fading. It'll be only a matter of time before I join Swissbrah in terms of the appearance of my temples (pre-treatment SwissTemples to be precise). I want to put an end to this Kafkaesque affliction once and for all...and what better way to do it than with the most powerful proven treatment we have available for Androgenetic Alopecia.

You're not a physician, you're just a spirited man on the internet. I'll listen to the advice my dermatologist gives me. If she thinks it's fine to begin treatment with dutasteride, then so I shall.

 

[whatevr]

@whatevr

It's not just the US that enjoys inexpensive dutasteride. Both generics and brand name Avodart are really cheap in HK too. Have you considered AllDayChemist? Their 1 mg finasteride is ~17 USD for 90 tablets, their 5mg finasteride is ~42 USD for the same amount and their dutasteride is ~59 USD for 90 capsules.

ADC and InHouse don't ship where I live, that's why I'm screwed. Customs issues, apparently.

My only hope of getting cheap dutasteride would be to ship it to someone in, let's say, Germany, and having them bring it to me.

 

[afferd]

...as someone who tried dutasteride but I did not take more than one per week along with finasteride the other days...I got gyno and weight loss was harder...I used dutasteride as my last resort and it failed.

DoctorHouse - I've read a lot of your posts on here and respect your opinion greatly. I've been on finasteride for 4 months now and am considering adding 0.5mg dutasteride (Avodart) once a week as a way of reducing some scalp DHT to hopefully lower my itch.

1) How long did you try dutasteride for?

2) And is it possible that it scared you by giving you a shed that was actually making way for some regrowth if you had stuck with it?

3) Lastly, what did you do about your gyno?