What is more effective, spironolactone or finasteride? (oral RoA)

[labellavita1985]

Hey guys, just wanted some feedback on this topic. If the feminization associated with oral spironolactone is not an issue (it is not for me because I am a female,) what is more effective; spironolactone or finasteride? I'm asking about oral RoA.

I have been on spironolactone, 100 mg, for about 5 months now. It doesn't seem to do that much, I'm still shedding tons of seemingly miniaturized hair, does that mean its not working for me? I'll be talking to my doctor soon about a dose increase just in case my dose is not high enough. However, I was wondering if you guys think finasteride is more effective at stopping further loss and enabling regrowth. If you have a theory about their comparative effectiveness, please explain.

Thanks in advance. I really appreciate it.

 

[Greenlandic guy]

finasteride is highly effective in men, but its effectiveness has never been proven in women. spironolactone is effective in men, but this comes with severe side-effects. I'm fairly sure that spironolactone can be expected to be moderately effective if you are a woman with FPB. Not much research has been done on treatments for FPB though, and we don't have a very clear idea of what is proven to work.

 

[parisienne]

finasteride is highly effective in men, but its effectiveness has never been proven in women. spironolactone is effective in men but has severe side-effects. I'm fairly sure that spironolactone should also be expected to stop your hair loss if you are a woman with FPB. Not much research has been done on treatments for FPB, however, and we don't have a very clear idea of what is proven to work.

No clear idea as he said but there are encouraging studies out there that tend to conclude that a higher dose than the dose delivered to men is required :

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3746222/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20442354
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16549704
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17454167
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25382509

spironolactone is an anti androgen while finasteride is a 5 alpha reductase inhibitor. They don't target the same mechanism so it is not possible to compare them. I hope you will find something that suits you and that makes you grow your hair back sister