20 years old: Propecia or Dutasteride

[Sometimesidont]

Hey everyone,

I'm 20 years old, turning 21 this summer, and started noticing hairloss around december 2012. I didn't react immediately, but I started rogaine and nizoral 1% about 11 months later. The reason I didn't start finasteride was because of all the horror stories.

Well, researching it some more, I've ordered some Propecia and been taking it for the past 16 days. But now I can't help thinking about, whether I should just start with Dutasteride instead of finasteride? I mean, it is seemingly the stronger and more effective drug in terms of combating hairloss, and I would really want to have a full head of hair for as long as possible. The idea of duta comes from the fear of finasteride maybe not stopping my hairloss long-term.

I do realize that sides may be stronger in dutasteride, but I do still believe - as with finasteride - that some of these sides are people imagining things.


But I do have some worries about taking duta, that I read about while searching the internet. Being that much of the information I came upon was posted up to years ago, I would just like to know if we today know anything more about:

1) Does dutasteride affect the brain in a negative way, that may impact ones life? (I think this was rumored due to blocking much of the DHT type I)

2) Have there been made any long-term studies with dutasteride yet? And if so, how does it compare to finasteride?

3) Can it be guaranteed, that if finasteride would have worked for me, then dutasteride will AT LEAST give the same results in long term (and probably better)?

Thanks in advance

 

[Valiant]

You've only been on finasteride for 16 days. Why would you want to switch already when you don't even know if finasteride will provide you with the results you want? I think it is a bit early to make the switch to such a heavy medication. Not to mention the fact that you would not find a doctor to prescribe you with Avodart for hair loss reasons at age 20.

The overwhelming majority of men who take finasteride or even who take dutasteride don't experience any serious side effects. However, for those of us who have had side effects, I can tell you with certainty that I didn't "imagine" them.

But, to answer your questions, finasteride and dutasteride can have the same side effects related to mental issues. I'm not aware of any long-term studies with Avodart for treating hair loss, as the maker of Avodart abandoned its attempt to get FDA approval for using dutasteride for hair loss reasons. There may have been a study done in Korea, but I'm unaware of how long the study was conducted for. You may want to check on pub med. There's no way to guarantee that dutasteride will work at least as good as finasteride.

 

[foxmann250]

Here's a study I found comparing finasteride to dutasteride.

http://www.bernsteinmedical.com/resources/hair-restoration-papers/dutasteride-vs-finasteride/

 

[zzzzz]

I went with dutasteride over finasteride because I am more interested in regrowth as my crown is quite transparent. If I was at early stages and was satisfied with maintaining I would just take finasteride. The studies show on average dutasteride works about 20% better than finasteride. I have heard that inhibition of the first type of ar receptor or whatever it is may lead to depression or worse depression or something, but I do not know much about this or if it is true