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Anyone Here Who Used Diane 35 And Then Stopped?
- Thread starter tressful11
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el_duterino
Senior Member
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"after exhausting all other options " which were ?
Im somewhat in the same situation as you are. I am 29 and took Minoxidil 8 years, Norwood 4, 1 FUE transplant failed 2016, 2nd FUE transplant successful 2018, finally more than happy with my hair, late October 2018 took antiretroviral medicine because I freaked out I got HIV due to a condom break (which I didnt in the end), had a massive shed 3 weeks in taking the medicine (out of 4 in total I was supposed to take it), experienced massive shed November all over my top and crown, took finasteride for 2 weeks to try to stop it and couldnt handle the sides (first testicular pain, then pain and numbness in penis shaft). I ended up losing 60% of my hair on top in just a month and a half, and here I am now looking even worse than I did before my first transplant, and while I lost my hair on the head, my body hair exploded, even in places where I never had it before.
I spoke to a dermatologist and to two hair transplant surgeons, none of them have no idea what happened or how it happened. They mention everything from accelerated male pattern baldness, to drug-induced hair loss, to diffuse alopecia areata. The transplant surgeons say that at least my FUE hairs might come back in the next 6 months, if not my old hair. I already do see small regrowth on my crown though, but I think the damage is way to big for anything solid to fill in. I diffusely lost hair all over my hairline, top, and crown, it looks awful.
I literally dont know whether your story is more depressing or mine. I think mine would beat yours if I got gyno on top of all that, but thats why I also stopped Finasteride, I think Id literally shoot myself if I got gyno on top of all this whats happening to me right now.
I spoke to a dermatologist and to two hair transplant surgeons, none of them have no idea what happened or how it happened. They mention everything from accelerated male pattern baldness, to drug-induced hair loss, to diffuse alopecia areata. The transplant surgeons say that at least my FUE hairs might come back in the next 6 months, if not my old hair. I already do see small regrowth on my crown though, but I think the damage is way to big for anything solid to fill in. I diffusely lost hair all over my hairline, top, and crown, it looks awful.
I literally dont know whether your story is more depressing or mine. I think mine would beat yours if I got gyno on top of all that, but thats why I also stopped Finasteride, I think Id literally shoot myself if I got gyno on top of all this whats happening to me right now.
Man im sorry for the stressfull situacion that you lived.
The big shedding was caused by 2 options :
1) you stopped minoxidil or finasteride after long use time
2) an hormonal imbalance which causes high testosterone and kill your hairs.
If not the 1) i would check your hormones and thyroid
The shedding is because you started taking diane. There is a big regrowth with these kind of drugs but first there is a big shedding. The hairs need to fall to regrowth thicker.
Tamox is not good for hairs..it causes an increase of testosterone and block the estrogen receptor(good for the breast but not for our hairs)
Hey Arnold, thanks man.... I was using minoxidil for 8 years, and stopped it in March 2018 due to the transplant. Then I decided not to continue it, as I didnt feel it was helping, I mainly lost all my hair in the minoxidil applied areas anyway, and thats where I had the transplant done afterwards. Then when the hair started growing after the hair transplant, I freaked out thinking that minoxidil still had some benefit as the areas looked still thinner, so I continued using minoxidil after 3 months stopping (end of July). The hair looked fantastic by October, I would say from Norwood 4/5 to Norwood 1,5, and then the big shed happened late October, and I went to Norwood 5-6 in just a month... so I dont think the shed was minoxidil caused having in mind I stopped it back in March. Finasteride I only used two weeks in November as I was trying to stop the sudden shed, but couldnt cope with the sides.
I dont know if the stupid antiviral medicine could cause the hormonal imbalance (Ive read somewhere it raises slightly testosterone), or the immense stress for a few continuous weeks and cortisol managed somehow to make a mess in my body, but I would definitely say something was wrong with my hormones as my face and scalp got oily, my hair fell off, and my body hair grew insanely (and still is)... I will see another derm on the 23rd and see with her to check my hormones and thyroid. In case this was hormonal caused, I guess there is no way my hair is coming back? Because I lost hair all over the androgen parts, and even my native hair that I had before the hair transplant fell of in these few weeks...
Your mistake was stop minoxidil, specially after 8 years. When you stop this drug you start shedding and thinning for months until you reach your baseline. So its normal you lost 8 years of minoxidil benefits in few months. And it affects all the scalp not only where you apply it. Start again minoxidil and if you can add finasteride even better..
sorry to get a bit off topic, but did tamoxifen reduce your gyno?
Your mistake was stop minoxidil, specially after 8 years. When you stop this drug you start shedding and thinning for months until you reach your baseline. So its normal you lost 8 years of minoxidil benefits in few months. And it affects all the scalp not only where you apply it. Start again minoxidil and if you can add finasteride even better..
I thought that as well, but Ive quit minoxidile in March. And I started losing my hair in November, that is almost 9 months after stopping minoxidil. So I have stopped it from March and continued in July, and now I see the big shed, I literally went from Norwood 1/2 to Norwood 5/6 in a month. :/ I still dont think its me stopping minoxidil, its either the medication I took or the insane amount of continuous (life or death) stress for 4 weeks that I head. Also my body hair literally exploding at the same time is an indicator that something hormonal mustve gone wrong.
So sorry to hear that... it can definitely happen. Did you take any anti depressants? Could that have caused the shedding as well?
Even though six months is still a very short period to jump two NWs, the thing for me was that I was in 2016 some Norwood 4-5, then after the transplants I went down to Norwood 2, and now in one month after all this crap happened to me, literally in one month I went down to Norwood 5-6 from Norwood 2. I can already see a lot of new small hairs coming up though, so I hope I will get at least something back
el_duterino
Senior Member
- Reaction score
- 397
You haven't tried any topical anti androgen like RU or CB those work like the systemic anti androgen you took but without the side effects
- Reaction score
- 563
Taking something like Diane when you are male and not transgendered is idiotic. A lot of people here have mental illness to do such a thing or think that taking Finasteride for a month caused them to lose 60% of their hair. Outrageous. Go get therapy.
Tamoxifen hair loss, which is usually due to long term intake, is reversible upon cessation after a while.
PEP due to HIV exposure will not cause hair loss. Nobody got bald due to HIV meds.
Tamoxifen hair loss, which is usually due to long term intake, is reversible upon cessation after a while.
PEP due to HIV exposure will not cause hair loss. Nobody got bald due to HIV meds.
Sorry bro but you are wrong for tamoxifen.
That drug increases testosterone, something like 400/600 % if taken regularly.
Bodybuilders after finish a cycle take tamoxifen to help raises testosterone.
- Reaction score
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Tamoxifen does not increase T by 400-600%. More like 50-150% depending on your situation.
Tamoxifen hair loss is not due to the Testosterone increase it is most likely due to the estrogen dysfunction it causes in the hair. All SERMs have different effects on different tissues. Tamoxifen most likely blocks estrogen receptors in the hair and skin whereas SERMs like Raloxifene and Clomid do not seem to block these receptors as hair and skin issues are not reported. Arimidex also causes hair loss in women but does not increase their testosterone. It is due to estrogen depletion...which is made from Testosterone.
Are you sure though?
The protease inhibitor class, in particular indinavir, was most commonly reported to cause hair loss, followed by the NRTI, lamivudine. The majority of cases presented with alopecia of the scalp alone, with a median time of onset of 2.5 months. Management involved discontinuing the drug in most cases, with at least partial reversal in half the cases.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24944240
A 39-year-old Hispanic man with a history of cryptosporidiosis presented with hair loss 3 weeks after commencing combination antiretroviral therapy. He was on prophylactic therapy for Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia with trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole and Mycobacterium avium complex with azithromycin for several weeks when a daily regimen of atazanavir (300 mg), ritonavir (100 mg), and emtricitabine/tenofovir (300/200 mg, fixed-dose combination) was initiated. The physical examination was remarkable only for diffuse hair loss (Fig. 1a) without skin lesions.
https://journals.lww.com/aidsonline...cia_associated_with_ritonavir_boosted.31.aspx
I do agree with you that it is very very unusual for it to happen, the HIV docs also say they never saw it in their 30 years experience, I spoke to one dermatologist who says its androgenic alopecia (?!), and two hair transplant surgeons who literally have no idea whats going on and how it could happen so fast, one of them said it might even be diffuse alopecia areata due to the fact that I was under immense stress for 4 weeks while taking PEP and fast onset of hair loss and the diffuse pattern, so I am going to see another derm next week to see whether a biopsy is warranted.
This is me mid-November after 2 FUE hair transplants:
And this is me today, exactly a month and a half after that...
I do see some weird hairgrowth on the crown already though, which also puzzled the doctors even more
Also what happened to me is when I noticed my hair loss, my face got oily, scalp got itchy and dandruffy, body and facial hair started growing like crazy, the ones I had got so much thicker, and I had growth of new body and face hair where I didnt have it before. So yeah... I dont know if its the PEP HIV Meds, or stress, or because for a short while I did take intranasal corticosteroids (mometasone) while taking the HIV meds that couldve made a hormonal chaos in my body, but I lost half of my hair in a month, and Im pretty sure its not coming back
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- Reaction score
- 563
Are you sure though?
The protease inhibitor class, in particular indinavir, was most commonly reported to cause hair loss, followed by the NRTI, lamivudine. The majority of cases presented with alopecia of the scalp alone, with a median time of onset of 2.5 months. Management involved discontinuing the drug in most cases, with at least partial reversal in half the cases.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24944240
A 39-year-old Hispanic man with a history of cryptosporidiosis presented with hair loss 3 weeks after commencing combination antiretroviral therapy. He was on prophylactic therapy for Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia with trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole and Mycobacterium avium complex with azithromycin for several weeks when a daily regimen of atazanavir (300 mg), ritonavir (100 mg), and emtricitabine/tenofovir (300/200 mg, fixed-dose combination) was initiated. The physical examination was remarkable only for diffuse hair loss (Fig. 1a) without skin lesions.
https://journals.lww.com/aidsonline...cia_associated_with_ritonavir_boosted.31.aspx
I do agree with you that it is very very unusual for it to happen, the HIV docs also say they never saw it in their 30 years experience, I spoke to one dermatologist who says its androgenic alopecia (?!), and two hair transplant surgeons who literally have no idea whats going on and how it could happen so fast, one of them said it might even be diffuse alopecia areata due to the fact that I was under immense stress for 4 weeks while taking PEP and fast onset of hair loss and the diffuse pattern, so I am going to see another derm next week to see whether a biopsy is warranted.
This is me mid-November after 2 FUE hair transplants:
View attachment 109968 View attachment 109969
And this is me today, exactly a month and a half after that...
View attachment 109970
View attachment 109971
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I do see some weird hairgrowth on the crown already though, which also puzzled the doctors even more
View attachment 109974
Also what happened to me is when I noticed my hair loss, my face got oily, scalp got itchy and dandruffy, body and facial hair started growing like crazy, the ones I had got so much thicker, and I had growth of new body and face hair where I didnt have it before. So yeah... I dont know if its the PEP HIV Meds, or stress, or because for a short while I did take intranasal corticosteroids (mometasone) while taking the HIV meds that couldve made a hormonal chaos in my body, but I lost half of my hair in a month, and Im pretty sure its not coming back
Are you using hair loss treatments at this time? I would use Finasteride, low dose oral Minoxidil and topical Minoxidil if I were you. Also, if you can afford getting iRestore, I would use this as well. The hair is salvageable.
The drugs mentioned in those rare cases are not the drugs used today and were associated with a lot of bad side effects. Your hair loss looks like male pattern baldness in my opinion though.
Thanks for the reply retinoid! I was using Descovy (emtricitabine + TAF) and Prezcobix (darunavir + cobicistat), and the doctors said they never saw it before either. It really looks like male pattern baldness to me too, however I spoke with two hair transplant surgeons who said there is no way for male pattern baldness to progress that fast and to cause such a damage in 2-3 weeks, and that the pattern is a bit weird. They said either it is a severe drug reaction, or severe stress. I went yesterday to a dermatologist, who said it was stress induced diffuse alopecia areata (?!), and gave me Elocon lotion to smear for 3 months, but I am not really sure? Then again, I saw this https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0748806817699926 where there is a case of a man who had the exact same rapid hair loss as me, in the exact same androgenic areas, where only his transplanted hairs survived (like mine). I mean, I had male pattern baldness loss in that area prior to the transplant (top, front, crown), so its quite a lot of transplanted hairs there.
My only conclusion is that something hormonal in my body couldve caused this mess, because I all of a sudden got dandruff in my eyebrows, oily face, my scalp hair fell off, and my body hair EXPLODED literally, it started growing where I didnt have it before and the one I had got super-thick. As I have been taking Prezcobix (Darunavir + Cobicistat), and I have been using intranasal mometasone for a few days before I found out they shouldnt be using together as the Cobicistat can boost the mometasone in the body and cause cushing syndrome, hypertrichosis or adrenal fatigue, I thought that might have contributed to everything? Thats what I read in a scientific journal at least where they had few case studies where people developed these symptoms after administering mometasone + cobicistat starting from days to weeks and months... I dont know, I am just so lost, and confused, and desperate, as I went from nearly a full head of hair to that what you see up there in 2-3 weeks...
I am on Finasteride since 2 weeks, and Rogaine for almost 8 years now... Can I just ask what makes you think the hair is salvageable, and how much of a difference oral minoxidil and iRestore would make? Many thanks once again, really appreciate the responses!
Well, I am still not sure if its the medicine or stress, I am puzzled even if its any of the two, because it happened 2-3 weeks after started taking the meds and worrying if I have HIV. I always read everywhere that effluviums caused by the meds or stress take at least 3 months to show up, and I lost my hair in 3 weeks. But yeah, I guess this extreme stress couldve caused the stupid diffuse alopecia areata as well, which usually has a very rapid onset.
Did you ever recover from that in your 20s tressful?
Sorry for hijacking your thread btw, I am just so devastated and depressed that I am completely out of myself. After having two large FUEs, its not easy to digest the fact that Im looking like THAT, through mainly a fault of my own....
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- 563
Oral Minoxidil is a super version of topical. I would take about 2.5mg/day split up twice a day. This won't give you side effects. IRestore is just a good addition for hair loss in addition to other treatments.
These things will help with any type of hair loss, not just male pattern baldness.