Something I Noticed With Dutasteride/avodart

[Georgie]

So I tentatively took my first ever 0.5mg avodart tablet around 3 weeks ago. I noticed the day after I took it, I had some increased PV bleeding and three days later a scary increase in shedding which took maybe a week and a half to reduce somewhat. I wanted to make sure that this wasn’t all coincidence, so Monday this week, I took another. The next night, not only did I bleed, but I was in excruciating pain for hours, and when I woke, I had actually soaked through my clothes to the bed sheets. This wasn’t just a bleed, it was a haemorrhage. Weirdly, the following day there was no bleeding, however once again, three days later, hair shedding increased dramatically. Still unsure about whether or not this was just a weird coincidence, I took my final stab and testing avodart, and took one yesterday. Today I am experiencing the same severe abdominal cramping, and the bleeding has once again returned. My hair shedding has also gone up even more which I didn’t even believe was possible. I feel like this is now more than just coincidence, and that the avodart has indeed caused some enormous hormonal/internal shift to cause extremely heavy bleeding and shedding VERY soon after taking it. The most frightening part is that i am actually taking the pill, and will spot occasionally, but will never ever bleed like this. It is actually extremely abnormal and when I told my family (doctors and nurses) was almost taken to emergency.
I will not continue to take avodart, and hadn’t planned to. Really I just wanted to check whether or not the initial things I noticed weren’t just total coincidence. I know that some women have said that it has worked well for them, but I think this just will not be the case for me. I wanted to put this post up in the event that other women experience a similar reaction to avodart and go looking for stories which match theirs. I will not say that anyone should avoid trying it, but only to be careful. Everyone reacts to medications differently.

 

[IdealForehead]

That's interesting. Your hormones are a delicate clusterfuck as I think you know. You have the unique situation of almost complete hormonal failure, so it stands to reason that you might be more sensitive to meds than most people would. Most people have natural regulatory systems that adjust their hormonal levels to compensate when there is a variable added.

But in your case you have no regulatory system, and the only sex hormones you have are the ones that are being added synthetically.

5 alpha reductase is involved in more than just DHT.

The following reactions are known to be catalyzed by 5α-reductase:[9]

• Cholestenone → 5α-Cholestanone
• Progesterone → 5α-Dihydroprogesterone
• 3α-Dihydroprogesterone → Allopregnanolone
• 3β-Dihydroprogesterone → Isopregnanolone
• Deoxycorticosterone → 5α-Dihydrodeoxycorticosterone
• Corticosterone → 5α-Dihydrocorticosterone
• Cortisol → 5α-Dihydrocortisol
• Aldosterone → 5α-Dihydroaldosterone
• Androstenedione → 5α-Androstanedione
• Testosterone → 5α-Dihydrotestosterone

In someone who is already as damaged hormonally as you are, who knows how that's throwing things off further. Obviously you are right to avoid it if that's your reaction. It didn't have a high likelihood of success anyway, if you are right as you've always believed that your problems have been more testosterone related anyway.

As we've discussed before, if it is an androgenic problem, topical androgen receptor antagonists are the cleanest way to address that. If they don't work then that's not the issue.

Be careful about panicking also every time you have a shed. Sometimes shedding is just telogen efluvium which can be a good response to treatment if you ride it out.

 

[Georgie]

That's interesting. Your hormones are a delicate clusterfuck as I think you know. You have the unique situation of almost complete hormonal failure, so it stands to reason that you might be more sensitive to meds than most people would. Most people have natural regulatory systems that adjust their hormonal levels to compensate when there is a variable added.

But in your case you have no regulatory system, and the only sex hormones you have are the ones that are being added synthetically.

5 alpha reductase is involved in more than just DHT.

The following reactions are known to be catalyzed by 5α-reductase:[9]

• Cholestenone → 5α-Cholestanone
• Progesterone → 5α-Dihydroprogesterone
• 3α-Dihydroprogesterone → Allopregnanolone
• 3β-Dihydroprogesterone → Isopregnanolone
• Deoxycorticosterone → 5α-Dihydrodeoxycorticosterone
• Corticosterone → 5α-Dihydrocorticosterone
• Cortisol → 5α-Dihydrocortisol
• Aldosterone → 5α-Dihydroaldosterone
• Androstenedione → 5α-Androstanedione
• Testosterone → 5α-Dihydrotestosterone

In someone who is already as damaged hormonally as you are, who knows how that's throwing things off further. Obviously you are right to avoid it if that's your reaction. It didn't have a high likelihood of success anyway, if you are right as you've always believed that your problems have been more testosterone related anyway.

As we've discussed before, if it is an androgenic problem, topical androgen receptor antagonists are the cleanest way to address that. If they don't work then that's not the issue.

Be careful about panicking also every time you have a shed. Sometimes shedding is just telogen efluvium which can be a good response to treatment if you ride it out.

The shedding on its own wouldn’t worry me as much if it weren’t accompanied by this beyond extreme bleeding and abdominal pain. I don’t like to use ad hoc ergo propter hoc reasoning without seeing an A causes B outcome more than once, which is why I took it three times to make sure these symptoms resulted from taking avodart.
I think I probably am a total freak case here, and have existing hormone issues which make further throwing hormone balance out a virtual f*****g nuke bomb inside my body. I saw extremely adverse side effects with spironolactone, I now see them with dutas, and hell even though I NEED the estrogen, I still get them with the pill.
Topicals seem to be my only option at this rate.

 

[Georgie]

Update: Took my last Avodart on Friday last week. It’s now Tuesday. My boobs are almost a full cup size bigger and I have.. a libido. Like. I don’t know what the f*** is happening but yeah.

 

[IdealForehead]

Update: Took my last Avodart on Friday last week. It’s now Tuesday. My boobs are almost a full cup size bigger and I have.. a libido. Like. I don’t know what the f*** is happening but yeah.

Hahahaha. Are you trying to trigger another 100 page thread?

Watch out Australian guys ... Georgie's on the prowl ...

Well I guess that's some sort of good news. Must be weird for you having a libido.

 

[Georgie]

Hahahaha. Are you trying to trigger another 100 page thread?

Watch out Australian guys ... Georgie's on the prowl ...

Well I guess that's some sort of good news. Must be weird for you having a libido.

Particularly bizarre mixed in with cramping pain and bleeding. It’s a bloody sh*t storm down there.

 

[IdealForehead]

Particularly bizarre mixed in with cramping pain and bleeding. It’s a bloody sh*t storm down there.

Well I guess that's the downer then. Nothing for free in this life, huh?

 

[valentina00b]

So I tentatively took my first ever 0.5mg avodart tablet around 3 weeks ago. I noticed the day after I took it, I had some increased PV bleeding and three days later a scary increase in shedding which took maybe a week and a half to reduce somewhat. I wanted to make sure that this wasn’t all coincidence, so Monday this week, I took another. The next night, not only did I bleed, but I was in excruciating pain for hours, and when I woke, I had actually soaked through my clothes to the bed sheets. This wasn’t just a bleed, it was a haemorrhage. Weirdly, the following day there was no bleeding, however once again, three days later, hair shedding increased dramatically. Still unsure about whether or not this was just a weird coincidence, I took my final stab and testing avodart, and took one yesterday. Today I am experiencing the same severe abdominal cramping, and the bleeding has once again returned. My hair shedding has also gone up even more which I didn’t even believe was possible. I feel like this is now more than just coincidence, and that the avodart has indeed caused some enormous hormonal/internal shift to cause extremely heavy bleeding and shedding VERY soon after taking it. The most frightening part is that i am actually taking the pill, and will spot occasionally, but will never ever bleed like this. It is actually extremely abnormal and when I told my family (doctors and nurses) was almost taken to emergency.
I will not continue to take avodart, and hadn’t planned to. Really I just wanted to check whether or not the initial things I noticed weren’t just total coincidence. I know that some women have said that it has worked well for them, but I think this just will not be the case for me. I wanted to put this post up in the event that other women experience a similar reaction to avodart and go looking for stories which match theirs. I will not say that anyone should avoid trying it, but only to be careful. Everyone reacts to medications differently.

This is probably old news now. It sounds as if the dutasteride induced higher free T which aromatased to E. Break through bleeding is consistent with increased, or high amounts of, estrogen therapy in menopausal women, especially in absence of sufficient progesterone.

 

[Plf]

So I tentatively took my first ever 0.5mg avodart tablet around 3 weeks ago. I noticed the day after I took it, I had some increased PV bleeding and three days later a scary increase in shedding which took maybe a week and a half to reduce somewhat. I wanted to make sure that this wasn’t all coincidence, so Monday this week, I took another. The next night, not only did I bleed, but I was in excruciating pain for hours, and when I woke, I had actually soaked through my clothes to the bed sheets. This wasn’t just a bleed, it was a haemorrhage. Weirdly, the following day there was no bleeding, however once again, three days later, hair shedding increased dramatically. Still unsure about whether or not this was just a weird coincidence, I took my final stab and testing avodart, and took one yesterday. Today I am experiencing the same severe abdominal cramping, and the bleeding has once again returned. My hair shedding has also gone up even more which I didn’t even believe was possible. I feel like this is now more than just coincidence, and that the avodart has indeed caused some enormous hormonal/internal shift to cause extremely heavy bleeding and shedding VERY soon after taking it. The most frightening part is that i am actually taking the pill, and will spot occasionally, but will never ever bleed like this. It is actually extremely abnormal and when I told my family (doctors and nurses) was almost taken to emergency.
I will not continue to take avodart, and hadn’t planned to. Really I just wanted to check whether or not the initial things I noticed weren’t just total coincidence. I know that some women have said that it has worked well for them, but I think this just will not be the case for me. I wanted to put this post up in the event that other women experience a similar reaction to avodart and go looking for stories which match theirs. I will not say that anyone should avoid trying it, but only to be careful. Everyone reacts to medications differently.

Thanks Georgie for documenting your journey with adovart, I also have been prescribed adovart ..but have been too scared to take, I kept my second dermatologist appointment to ask her more questions re meds and was reassured that the dosage was minimal and they were nothing to be afraid off..the problem is that once you start taking them you r on them forever otherwise you loose all the hair that you gained by taking them..
So still undecided..good luck with your journey..and hope you have some success