Microdosing on finasteride - Updates?

[caper0101]

I see all kinds of posts about plans to try microdosing, but never any updates. I'm thinking about trying 0.01 to 0.05mg daily, but would really like to hear from some others who've tried.

Reports from anyone who had sides with 1mg
Did you have sides with the microdose? Did it still help your hairloss?

This info would be greatly appreciated by the whole community!

I tried 1.25mg 5 years ago and had sides. If I work up the balls to try the microdosing, I'll be sure to post updates!

 

[crustav]

I'll give updates on my own microdosing. It's once a week for me at about .,25mg.

I had sides everyday. This way nothing so far. Maybe 10% weaker erections at times.

 

[shulk]

Im microdosing 0.04mg ED for about a month. Unfortunately i did not use finasteride prior to this, so its not super helpful regarding to sides.

Week 1: nothing to report
Week 2: Massive shedding of long hairs without pigment i did not know i had. Also shedding heavily tapered (thinning) hairs. male pattern baldness itch went away for 70%
sides: stinging pain in balls during ejaculation, this went away after a day. aching balls during the day for the whole week. Semen = water.
Week 3: Shedding slows down gradually. male pattern baldness itch is most of the time not present.
sides: sometimes sore balls and sometimes somewhat watery semen
Week 4: Now only shedding about 15-20 hairs a day. male pattern baldness itch is most of the time not present, and i think its related to minoxidil somewhat.
sides: sometimes sore balls and sometimes somewhat watery semen (same as week 3, maybe minor improvement)

Libido overal: not changed.
ED: not present.

So it seem to be working due the shedding and relief of the male pattern baldness itch.
I will go on with the treatment as the current sides don't bother me and will probably go away

 

[WangMQ]

Im microdosing 0.04mg ED for about a month. Unfortunately i did not use finasteride prior to this, so its not super helpful regarding to sides.

Week 1: nothing to report
Week 2: Massive shedding of long hairs without pigment i did not know i had. Also shedding heavily tapered (thinning) hairs. male pattern baldness itch went away for 70%
sides: stinging pain in balls during ejaculation, this went away after a day. aching balls during the day for the whole week. Semen = water.
Week 3: Shedding slows down gradually. male pattern baldness itch is most of the time not present.
sides: sometimes sore balls and sometimes somewhat watery semen
Week 4: Now only shedding about 15-20 hairs a day. male pattern baldness itch is most of the time not present, and i think its related to minoxidil somewhat.
sides: sometimes sore balls and sometimes somewhat watery semen (same as week 3, maybe minor improvement)

Libido overal: not changed.
ED: not present.

So it seem to be working due the shedding and relief of the male pattern baldness itch.
I will go on with the treatment as the current sides don't bother me and will probably go away

Two questions for you bro:

1. How do you make 0.04 mg finasteride to begin with? You can't be cutting pills can you! Forgive me if this is a stupid question and thanks for your patience

2. How can you be so sure that the improvements were caused by finasteride if you're on minoxidil too?

 

[shulk]

Updated

1. I bought a 70% drink, an empty 50ml glass bottle with measured dropper, and a 10ml syringe. Basically i put 20ml of the booze into the bottle and add powder from a 1mg finasteride pill, crushed with a little spoon. Now if you take 0.8ml you got 0.04mg of finasteride .

2. Its too early to see improvements hair wise, but that my male pattern baldness itch is gone seems promising.


Thats a nice shade of red btw, looks like B01C2E

 

[WangMQ]

1. I bought a 70% drink, an empty 50ml glass bottle with measured dropper, and a 10ml syringe. Basically i put 10ml of the booze into the bottle and add a whole 1mg finasteride pill. Shake it a bit after a hour and it should break/dissolve (apart from the binder and filler). Af few hours later i add 10ml of water so its easier to dose. Now if you take 0.8ml you got 0.04mg of finasteride .

2. Its too early to see improvements hair wise, but that my male pattern baldness itch is gone seems promising.


Thats a nice shade of red btw, looks like B01C2E

Damn that's fxxking creative...!

And it's kind of hard for me to believe that you actually went through shedding and then improvement of itch/inflammation on such a low dosage! Did you start minoxidil with microdosing at the same time, or have you always been on minoxidil? If you started the two at the same time its hard to tell cuz minoxidil can cause shedding too.

Also, I am little bit curious why you picked up microdosing? On what specific basis did you chose the 0.04 mg dosage? You said you never took finasteride before, why don't you start with the standard 1mg/d ? (this kinda concerns me because I had severe sides from finasteride)

Sorry for so many questions! And that was RGB 170,0,0 haha looks like you're a design guy too

 

[shulk]

I have been on minoxidil for about 10 months so my hair was already quite stabilized. In the second week of finasteride i went from combing out about 5 hairs a day to 100+ a day. minoxidil has never done anything to relieve the itch.

I started with micro dosing in the hopes of reducing the likelihood of sides and perhaps the severity if they would occur. The idea is based on this study its results: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10495374
Basically it says 0.05mg of finasteride has less total body DHT inhibition but almost the same DHT inhibition in the scalp (where it matters). My logic says that 1mg is a giant overkill on the drug. I started 0.04mg to see if i could get away with it, and giving me the option to increase the dose 0.01 when ever needed.

So far i feel pretty good and don't experience sides apart from the occasional nads. It would be far more interesting to you though to see if someone, with sides, was able to eliminate them by micro dosing. A lot of guys do reduce the dose but only to 0.5 or 0.2. According to the studies results, this would probably not do too much as the inhibition is almost the same.

i hope you find something that works for you

 

[Ramchops]

Hey forgive my ignorance but you drink the solution you prepare correct? I've tried finasteride a couple of times but it hit me with fairly immediate brain fog and was wondering if I were to try micro dosing like you are if it might mitigate the sides. I've never really stuck with finasteride longer than a week because I actually can't bear the fog and have always wondered if my body might just need an adjusting phase to the drug.

 

[Norwood One]

He drinks it. The reason he has it in a liquid solution is because it's impossible to cut a 1mg pill into 1/20's accurately. Unless you have a laser cutter at home or something.

 

[Ramchops]

Is there a way to do it without the alcohol? Would grinding it down and letting it dissolve in distilled water not work the same? Think I'll give this a go.

 

[WangMQ]

I have been on minoxidil for about 10 months so my hair was already quite stabilized. In the second week of finasteride i went from combing out about 5 hairs a day to 100+ a day. minoxidil has never done anything to relieve the itch.

I started with micro dosing in the hopes of reducing the likelihood of sides and perhaps the severity if they would occur. The idea is based on this study its results: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10495374
Basically it says 0.05mg of finasteride has less total body DHT inhibition but almost the same DHT inhibition in the scalp (where it matters). My logic says that 1mg is a giant overkill on the drug. I started 0.04mg to see if i could get away with it, and giving me the option to increase the dose 0.01 when ever needed.

So far i feel pretty good and don't experience sides apart from the occasional nads. It would be far more interesting to you though to see if someone, with sides, was able to eliminate them by micro dosing. A lot of guys do reduce the dose but only to 0.5 or 0.2. According to the studies results, this would probably not do too much as the inhibition is almost the same.

i hope you find something that works for you

That's really helpful. Thank you shulk!

I guess I'm among the guys you mentioned who tried to battle with sides at 0.5 or 0.2 mg.

Actually I just did a trial this morning. I've quit finasteride for a couple of days and I feel absolutely better now. Great energy, no brain fog, no fatigue, good sleep. On the other hand scalp itch is coming back. I cut a piece of around 0.2 mg finasteride this morning and took it in the middle of scalp itch peak (itch's most severe in the morning in my case). After around 30 min the itch was gone, however the brain fog came back too. Fatigue too after an hour or so. I had similar experience with RU regarding these immediate reactions before. I'm glad I didn't go up to 0.5 mg in this trial.

It amazes me how sensitive I am to AA drugs now, cuz obviously I wasn't before. I started finasteride like seven years ago and back then it was absolutely OK. Maybe my body changed and I need a different perspective.

The study you posted is interesting! But it's confusing that serum DHT level on 0.02 mg finasteride is reduced almost as much as when on 1mg...If that's true how could microdosing really help with sides? Maybe by reducing the time your body needs to clean finasteride off system? Anyway guess I might as well follow your steps in near future. Considering I'm just so super sensitive to AA drugs (itch went away in 30 min), it wouldn't be hard to tell if it works hair wise.

And I must say you're so right in being cautious with finasteride from the very beginning...The drug kills

- - - Updated - - -

Hey forgive my ignorance but you drink the solution you prepare correct? I've tried finasteride a couple of times but it hit me with fairly immediate brain fog and was wondering if I were to try micro dosing like you are if it might mitigate the sides. I've never really stuck with finasteride longer than a week because I actually can't bear the fog and have always wondered if my body might just need an adjusting phase to the drug.

Looks like we're on the same boat Ramchops, about the immediate brain fog haha. Maybe we can keep updating on each other.

 

[shulk]

Those are some fast and nasty reactions Wang. I'm happy the sides go away when you stop though...

The study you posted is interesting! But it's confusing that serum DHT level on 0.02 mg finasteride is reduced almost as much as when on 1mg.

Hmmm they did not trail for 0.02mg? Here is a visual representation of the study.


http://s23.postimg.org/iip5fa1pn/finasteride.png

There is a difference of 30% between 0.05 and 1mg Serum DHT. I would imagine that at 0.04 it would even be a bit more.

Please do a follow up post if you ever try it, would be interesting seeming you notice the effects so fast .


Greetings

 

[WangMQ]

Alright, some updates:

I did another trial three days after the first one. This time, approximately 0.07 mg finasteride (this is the lowest dosage I can get from splitting tablet).

Again, it made my scalp feel better after 30 min or maybe longer. I experienced sides concurrently too. Brain fog and fatigue. But this time, it was less severe. Well, let's say tolerable perhaps. But still not what I'd like to go through every day for the rest of my life.

After the first 0.2 mg trial, I noticed that I didn't really got those male pattern baldness itches. At least not to the previous level. But I noticed that my hair gets oily and my scalp feels unhealthy somehow. Maybe the drug response time is actually longer than I thought, and that even though the sides went away in just a few days, your body needs more time to replenish 5AR and get DHT level back to its baseline.

The fact that I didn't have noticeable male pattern baldness itch before this 0.07 mg trial also makes its effect questionable hair wise. But I guess it did made my scalp feel a bit more comfortable.

To go to a lower dosage I would need solutions. And it doesn't seem like I can maintain my hair on such a low dosage

 

[monoid]

Alright, some updates:

I did another trial three days after the first one. This time, approximately 0.07 mg finasteride (this is the lowest dosage I can get from splitting tablet).

Again, it made my scalp feel better after 30 min or maybe longer. I experienced sides concurrently too. Brain fog and fatigue. But this time, it was less severe. Well, let's say tolerable perhaps. But still not what I'd like to go through every day for the rest of my life.

After the first 0.2 mg trial, I noticed that I didn't really got those male pattern baldness itches. At least not to the previous level. But I noticed that my hair gets oily and my scalp feels unhealthy somehow. Maybe the drug response time is actually longer than I thought, and that even though the sides went away in just a few days, your body needs more time to replenish 5AR and get DHT level back to its baseline.

The fact that I didn't have noticeable male pattern baldness itch before this 0.07 mg trial also makes its effect questionable hair wise. But I guess it did made my scalp feel a bit more comfortable.

To go to a lower dosage I would need solutions. And it doesn't seem like I can maintain my hair on such a low dosage

I'm thinking of consuming finasteride solution too. I get brain fog even on 0.25mg every 3 days.

 

[crustav]

I'm thinking of consuming finasteride solution too. I get brain fog even on 0.25mg every 3 days.

what exactly is this brain fog?

 

[WangMQ]

There is a government study backing up liquid finasteride. It doesn't have side effects like oral Propecia.

At first, I really didn't believe it. But I use it myself. And liquid finasteride stops more scalp DHT than oral as
well.

If you can still find it, can you post the link of the study? Also, where do you get your liquid finasteride?

I saw people using topical finasteride (homemade) on other forums and it seems to work. Well, for a small molecular like finasteride there's no reason it doesn't. But I seriously doubt if that helps with the sides. Your scalp has so ambient blood flow and systemic absorption seems inevitable... When RU came into sight we assumed that topical usage could prevent this but it turned out to be a fairy tale. At least for a significant amount of people it didn't

- - - Updated - - -

what exactly is this brain fog?

Loss of concentration, tiredness, forgetfulness, cognitive dysfunction, etc. When you get it you would know that "brain fog" describes it so well haha (which i hope you never will)

I read else where that finasteride messes with your central nervous system. 5AR actually does more than converting T to DHT. It has a lot to do with other hormones. Inhibiting it causes trouble to the myelination of neurons. Terrible!!

 

[monoid]

Loss of concentration, tiredness, forgetfulness, cognitive dysfunction, etc. When you get it you would know that "brain fog" describes it so well haha (which i hope you never will)

Perfectly described.

 

[MicroDoser]

Anyone experience the compounding of the drug despite microdosing at .05? Because finasteride's effects last for a week, taking everyday would allow the drug's effects to stag so that it eventually would inhibit 70% of the DHT similar to a 1mg dose. If this is true, how would one counteract this? Take .05 EOD? At that point it just seems too low. Thoughts?

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

Anyone experience the compounding of the drug despite microdosing at .05? Because finasteride's effects last for a week, taking everyday would allow the drug's effects to stag so that it eventually would inhibit 70% of the DHT similar to a 1mg dose. If this is true, how would one counteract this? Take .05 EOD? At that point it just seems too low. Thoughts?

If you want less than a 70% reduction in DHT, you can do things that raise DHT, or raise 5-alpha reductase.

 

[MicroDoser]

I didn't even notice that, truly incredible. It amazes me how many people are still adamant on taking 1.25mg or 1mg tablets when doses this low can still be effective. My question is, why is microdosing as popular as it should be? The biggest reason why people quit finasteride is because of the sides, but at this dose, the sides are much weaker.