should i switch to dutasteride? advice is appreciated!

[returnoftheshedi]

I have been losing hair for over four years but it has only become noticeable (to me) for the past six months (general diffuse thinning- which i disguise with a buzz cut). For slightly more than 3 years i have been on some form of finasteride (real and generic) and for 2 years i have been using nizoral.

About 3 months ago I started using minoxidil 5 % (dr. lee's version) and have not noticed any changes. The most important thing to consider (in my opinion) is the fact that I have never stopped losing hair while on my treatments. No matter what I have used, there are always many hairs on my towel, in my sink, on my pillow, etc. To me, this shows that, even if finasteride has had some effect, i am still not a great responder.

These signs point me to Dutasteride. Does anyone have any advice they can offer?

 

[Johnny24601]

re:

dutasteride has unknown long term effects and is not approved by the American Gov't mostly because of safety concerns. It may be just fine and users on this forum do not appear to report an increase in side effects from dutasteride but I do not feel comfortable taking it as my sexual function and body chemistry are more important then my hairloss. People onthis forum appear to recommend dutasteride and b**ch about poor reuslts on dutasteride at about the same rate in which they do about finasteride so it is inconclusive in my opinion.
finasteride appears to at least be slowing down the rate of your male pattern baldness. It is very tough to gauge the effectiveness of finasteride without clear photos, do you have any? Otherwise I would be guessing that your hair is not as bad as you think and finasteride has helped. minoxidil results after three months do not provide enough evidence to conclude that it does not help.
Despite what you hear on this website, my opinion (based mostly on internet forums and research papers) indicate that finasteride effectiveness does increase with an increased dosage. The effectiveness is not exponential and you risk a huge potential for increased side effects, but I would up the dosage 0.5 mg and at least try that before even considering dutasteride. This is not a recommendation to others to up finasteride dosage because that is just dumb. The reality is that each individual has different levels of DHT and different abilities to tolerate finasteride. Of course in the end you could just fall in the group in which finasteride (and dutasteride for that matter) may just not be as effective on you as others. Good luck

 

[returnoftheshedi]

thanks for the reply. i tried upping the dosage to 2.5mg of finasteride a day - which is what i was on for almost two years when my hairloss first started becoming noticeable.

why do u think that if i am a bad responder to finasteride, the results will be the same for dutasteride?

also, is it true that dutasteride was not approved by the fda? or just not approved as a treatment for hairloss?



thank you for responding.

 

[Johnny24601]

re:

I didn't say I thought either way about the potential positive results you would get from dutasteride, however, you do understand that finasteride and dutasteride are very close to the same drug accept dutasteride claim to block both Type I and II alpha blockers (I believe).
dutasteride has not been approve by the US gov't for hairloss treatment but they have sure tried and to date have been denied. Why is that? Not sure, but again this is a risk not worht taking for me.
I think you have been around this forum and understand that dutasteride simply claims slightly better results then finasteride but clearly can come with increase risk of both short term and long term side effects. I am already not happy with having to mess with my normal body functions by taking an FDA approved drug taken by millions of men who report good results with little complications. I do not want to take any more risks on a drug that does not have gov't clearance for hairloss and moreover has not been taken by millions for many years. I truly believe that too manymen would be showing adverse effects from finasteride at this point if in fact it was harmful. dutasteride has simply not had enough guinea pigs in the general population. That is my opinion, for me.
You seem convinced to take the risk, so go for it. I just want to make it clear that I believe you will not be growing your hair back to the state it was in five years ago and I htin you should be happy to be taking a drug in finasteride that has a low risk and seems to at tleast be slowing your male pattern baldness.

 

[md2002]

Good Post(s) Johnny24601!!!

I have been on finasteride for about 6 years and after hitting the forums ( mostly because I want to try other things besides finasteride) I was thinking about going to dutasteride instead of finasteride to see if it helped more. After some evaluation, mostly reasons you stated, I didn't think my hair was worth the risk of screwing up my body. Even though I think the FDA is crooked, finasteride is still approved and has been taken by men for MANY years, in the form of Proscar.

returnoftheshedi -

I would take this advice into consideration, and do ALOT of homework before you start on the dutasteride.

 

[returnoftheshedi]

thanks guys, i appreciate your advice, but so far, the only negatives i have heard relate to the potential unknown side effects. i think i'll test the waters.

i think early diffuse thinners like myself are in a tough situation. in my case, i have been losing hair for over 4 years, however, the visual effect has been almost nonexistent for 3 1/2 years. the downside is that once it starts to show, the sh*t will hit the fan very fast (imo). contrast this type of loss with someone who has regular norwood loss. their visual hairloss is apparent from the get-go and they can see exactly how their treatments are working.

for all i know, finasteride could have done nothing for me over the past 4 years and my loss has just progressed naturally. the only thing i do know is that i have been losing hair all along. maybe dutasteride will lower the # of hairs i lose each day. to me, that will be results i can finally see.

 

[oni]

Johnny24601 where did you get this info from? please post sources!
:shock:

 

[Bismarck]

Re: re:

I didn't say I thought either way about the potential positive results you would get from dutasteride, however, you do understand that finasteride and dutasteride are very close to the same drug accept dutasteride claim to block both Type I and II alpha blockers (I believe).
dutasteride has not been approve by the US gov't for hairloss treatment but they have sure tried and to date have been denied. Why is that? Not sure, but again this is a risk not worht taking for me.
I think you have been around this forum and understand that dutasteride simply claims slightly better results then finasteride but clearly can come with increase risk of both short term and long term side effects. I am already not happy with having to mess with my normal body functions by taking an FDA approved drug taken by millions of men who report good results with little complications. I do not want to take any more risks on a drug that does not have gov't clearance for hairloss and moreover has not been taken by millions for many years. I truly believe that too manymen would be showing adverse effects from finasteride at this point if in fact it was harmful. dutasteride has simply not had enough guinea pigs in the general population. That is my opinion, for me.
You seem convinced to take the risk, so go for it. I just want to make it clear that I believe you will not be growing your hair back to the state it was in five years ago and I htin you should be happy to be taking a drug in finasteride that has a low risk and seems to at tleast be slowing your male pattern baldness.

I completely agree with you. The better effects of dutasteride aren't worth the possible side effects - especially long-term side effects.

 

[Bryan]

Re: re:

Despite what you hear on this website, my opinion (based mostly on internet forums and research papers) indicate that finasteride effectiveness does increase with an increased dosage. The effectiveness is not exponential and you risk a huge potential for increased side effects...

PHOOEY. I think you do everyone a disservice by making them think that a small increase in finasteride is going to have "a huge potential" for increased side-effects. For the love of god, drugs like finasteride and dutasteride produce side-effects BECAUSE THEY REDUCE DHT. If increasing the dose a little produces only slightly more DHT reduction, then the potential for side-effects is ALSO only slightly increased. It's just common sense.

Bryan

 

[kale]

maybe a reason why some people do not respond to finasteride is because finasteride blocks 1 set of 5ar molecules from joining to create DHT. dutasteride actually blocks both types. I've read about some odd side effects related to dutasteride, and reducing DHT to zero is not necessarily a good thing. DHT is comparible to cholesterol, your body needs it to perform daily functions, but too much = bad.