When do you just cut your losses and look to something else?

[porad]

I stopped taking propecia in October after nearly 5 years. It just didn't seem to be doing the job anymore. I then switched to Dutas, which I've been using for ~6 months now. The problem is, I've continued to thin pretty dramatically, although without substantial sheds (ie i don't have a ton of hairs on the comb after each stroke).

I realize with DHT-inhibitors these things take time, but just how much time is realistic? In all of the dutasteride success stories I've encountered, responders had results before and sometimes well before the 6 month mark.

Moreover, the phase 2 trials showed a substantial hair increase over baseline at the 6 month mark, something I certainly haven't experienced.

So my question is, when do I acknowledge it's not working and will not work and move on, before my situation gets any worse?

 

[Sean68]

when something better comes along? i dont know. im in exactly the same
boat. none of this stuff seems to even touch me. the problem is what to move
on to really. at the moment im planning to give it two years which is about another 18 months.

 

[plusryan]

You can't cut your losses as this is the only thing left.

 

[antonio666]

Porad my freind,

I know how you feel,avodaer is meant to lower your dht by 93% but we continue to lose density,i have only been on avodart for 2 and half months so have not give the drug time yet but if i got back to baseline i would be estatic now when i first started taking the drug ,i would not have been happy to know that the best i could acheive was baseline,because i was hoping to reverse my hairloss by 6 months but every day that passes i realise it gets more unlikely

 

[Timi]

dutasteride

antonio666


shedding go on with dutasteride and hairs bad
ore already better?

and shedding stop

Timi

 

[Slartibartfast]

My hair thinned out quite beautifully during the first 6 months. In fact I was still below baseline after 1 year, though signs of regrowth were by then evident. It wasn't until around the 15/16 month mark that, front excepted, it had gotten back to baseline; something the front achieved only after two years on dutasteride. - the rest of my hair continuing to thicken to this point, or thereabouts.

Personally, any change to my regime would involve the addition of a product to supplement dutasteride, what could we possibly replace it with?

 

[Sean68]

good to hear cheers.

 

[porad]

My hair thinned out quite beautifully during the first 6 months. In fact I was still below baseline after 1 year, though signs of regrowth were by then evident. It wasn't until around the 15/16 month mark that, front excepted, it had gotten back to baseline; something the front achieved only after two years on dutasteride. - the rest of my hair continuing to thicken to this point, or thereabouts.

Personally, any change to my regime would involve the addition of a product to supplement dutasteride, what could we possibly replace it with?

Glad to hear you've had success. I'm actually going to switch from Dutas to Avodart, so I can be completely sure of what I'm getting.

Considering throwing rogaine into the mix, which I always avoided because of the hassle.

 

[Pondle]

I'm actually going to switch from Dutas to Avodart, so I can be completely sure of what I'm getting.

You can't be sure of it. There's a bigger margin on faked GSK than faked Dr Reddys.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Slartibartfast didn't write.

Is there even fake Avodart out there? I've not heard of anyone doubting the authenticity of their product.

porad - rogaine foam?

 

[porad]

I'm actually going to switch from Dutas to Avodart, so I can be completely sure of what I'm getting.

You can't be sure of it. There's a bigger margin on faked GSK than faked Dr Reddys.

I'm getting it from an American pharmacy with a prescription.

 

[porad]

Slartibartfast didn't write.

Is there even fake Avodart out there? I've not heard of anyone doubting the authenticity of their product.

porad - rogaine foam?

yes, rogaine foam.

 

[Nick4441]

So many people on this site now way below baseline after 6mths on either dutasteride or finasteride. Its really worrying and disappointing that we all keeping faith yet we dont have results.

Slarti, Interesting it took you a year to see improvements. How much do you recon you lost at the 6 month mark and how much you regained between then and 1 yr.

Its good to hear that mabe even if at 6mths things are bad that they could still improve beyond that.

Hope the rest of us who only see loss at 6mth point will see improvements thereafter

 

[Slartibartfast]

Hard to estimate loss in percentage terms, but suffice to say that shedding from month 4 to month 6 had precisely the sort of impact on density that you would expect. The crown thinned to the point where a (thankfully small) bald spot began to re-emerge, something that my time on finasteride, and later dutasteride every second day, had previously eliminated. Apart from the crown, it was the front few inches where the loss of density showed, to be expected considering its pre-existing sparseness.

The positive for me between month 6 and a year was primarily the cessation of further loss, only towards the year mark did my crown and mid-scalp density begin to slowly increase. If I remember correctly (this was all in Spring/Summer of '05) the front had a large number of very fine, short hairs coming through at this time. Too bad they never matured into the thick, dark shafts that I was expecting, or at least hoping for.

For the crown and mid-scalp the rate of improvement picked up after the first year, so that by 15/16 months in they were back to baseline - a level that, thanks to previous meds., was sufficient to not show any balding. That the thickening then continued up to the end of year two, albeit punctuated by a couple of small sheds, was a real bonus, one that has left my hair (except the front) indistinguishable from my pre-male pattern baldness days.

Even the front eventually recovered, but it took the full two years just to get back to baseline. Actually in a strange way the front has improved. You see along the hairline it's now thinner than before dutasteride., but the two or so inches behind this are denser, and in terms of light shining onto the scalp I find a thin strip of extreme sparseness preferable to a several inch-deep patch of sun-reflecting head.

Good luck, and try to stay positive.

Slarti

 

[Guest]

Crown and midscalp for me have improved dramatically compared to pre-Avodart states. I've been on it for 8 months. No shedding since January.