Einstein
Established Member
- Reaction score
- 110
How long were you on oral before doing only topical
I guess it’s apparent why oral minoxidil never went for approval as a treatment for male pattern baldness
Eyes and cheek swelling from Oral minoxidil
- Thread starter Einstein
- Start date
I guess it’s apparent why oral minoxidil never went for approval as a treatment for male pattern baldness
yes and no.
does it actually give "wrinkles" or is it just hypochondriacal forum BS
@Einstein i had the same problem you describe. I ended up cutting my dosage in half (2.5mg morning, 2.5mg night) and the frequency/severity for which I had the intensely puffy eyes (I had it every day until noon-ish) subsided greatly. The good news is that I didn’t see a decrease in the efficacy of the oral minoxidil when doing this. Oral minoxidil >>>> topical if you can do it safely.
Like a couple others in this thread, I monitored my blood pressure several times a week for the first few weeks to ensure it was okay for me to take. I first got a baseline, then started taking the drug and went to a local CVS to get my pressure taken (they didn’t have an automated machine, but the pharmacist had no problem coming out and taking it manually for me). My bp did change a bit, but then leveled off back to baseline..:if I recall correctly, I have a pretty low resting heart rate (low 40s, maybe— it’s been a while), so once the bp decrease a little bit, my hr increased slightly to make up for it. Not by any extremes, and I was/am still very much well in the safe / healthy range. For everybody else reading this, before going full trottle into loniten, please do your due diligence.
Like a couple others in this thread, I monitored my blood pressure several times a week for the first few weeks to ensure it was okay for me to take. I first got a baseline, then started taking the drug and went to a local CVS to get my pressure taken (they didn’t have an automated machine, but the pharmacist had no problem coming out and taking it manually for me). My bp did change a bit, but then leveled off back to baseline..:if I recall correctly, I have a pretty low resting heart rate (low 40s, maybe— it’s been a while), so once the bp decrease a little bit, my hr increased slightly to make up for it. Not by any extremes, and I was/am still very much well in the safe / healthy range. For everybody else reading this, before going full trottle into loniten, please do your due diligence.
Side note: tbph, I’m still not sure what the best option is to fully resolve the under-eye water retention issue, since it does still pop up *every now and then*…I entered this thread because I actually did have my blue moon last night and I’m puffy this morning— and I drank a higher amount of water yesterday than usual (1.5-2.0 gallons of water)….most people from what I’ve read say if you drink more water, you decrease your odds, but at the surface that seems counter-intuitive, since it is water *retention*…if you drink LESS water, wouldn’t you actually be less susceptible to having retention?
- Reaction score
- 2,034
it's never good to take only half of the does that one used to take, at least in the deer world. Just saying....
Einstein
Established Member
- Reaction score
- 110
Good to know thanks for sharing. I think my oedema is completely gone, will start back on 1.25mg tomorrow and see how it goes. I read literature on Loniten stating the swelling usually begins to occur around the 10-12 day mark, which is exactly when I started to feel it around my eyes. So I’ll do 1.25mg/day for 14 days. If all is well I’ll increase it to 2.5mg. This way if swelling occurs thereafter I’ll know for sure the 1.25mg I can tolerate and nothing above.
And that’s a good idea, I almost forgot about that - blood pressure at any local pharmacy, awesome bud
Einstein
Established Member
- Reaction score
- 110
Your body holds onto the fluid it should have flushed out, this water retention gets worse by not drinking enough water because the body will hild onto more fluid especially when salt intake is increased by the slightest amount. By drinking more water your body will hold onto to less fluid/water and it gets flushed out
- Reaction score
- 2,034
They took my BP several times at the hospital and all were perfect, I was told, and this is after about ten months on oral minoxidil taken between 12.5mg and 25 mg daily. For people worried about blood pressure effects try taking it right before bed or in split doses and get BP pressure reader. I was once on a med called Vistaril, that literally made me swoon in in an instant but it only lasted like a second, just enough time to bang my head on the door or whatever so please, everyone take any dizziness seriously.
Dude... listen to me. I had the same experience on oral minoxidil just like 9 months ago. My cheeks swelled, eyes were swollen, even my nose felt like “bulbous”.. my joints hurt from the fluid buildup it caused as well, I tried lasix, dandelion root, otc diuretics.. they won’t help you. Unfortunately, I had to come off and my swelling went down a bit, however my under eye bags are terrible now even 6 months after cessation. That drug is good for hair, bad for literally everything else
- Reaction score
- 2,034
Even if that is true and I wasn't thrilled with my under the eye area today, sleep has something to do with it because the condition is highly variable. Ultimately we have the science called an eye job that is fairly well developed. Restoring hair or keeping it or transplants are fair less regular I am sure that folks with big bald heads don't have many people looking under their eyes; most people look away or just home in on that shiny noggin. All of this involves choice and your choices need to be right but I would consider risk/reward quite thoroughly. Once male hair goes dormant, only estradiol can revive it and that's a big if.
Best,
Janey
I think blood pressure effects from oral minoxidil last about three days so it doesn't matter when you take it really, i just take it at night but you can take it in morning too, like you i have had blood pressure taken etc at 10mg and everything has been fine. As for water retention if dandelion root etc isn't helping you are probably going to need to buy a prescription diuretic.
Surgery cant change your orbitals except for extremely invasive surgeries which 99.9% of people who do actually get surgeries will never get. Sure you can alter the tissue but the collagen and fat displacement around the eye area is ultimately a huge factor for attractive and alive looking eyes. No amount of eye surgeries can put more bone to overly elongated and recessed orbitals. Unless you do an orbital decompression your collagen matters and affects your eyes more than surgery ever could/does.
- Reaction score
- 2,034
spironolactone might work, for those situated to use it. The stuff makes me weak and dizzy but some might tolerate it. It will get you going, so to speak, urine-wise since it is a diuretic. I will consider the dandelion root. We need some diuretics that are more pleasant than spironolactone.
- Reaction score
- 2,034
I stand corrected then but my situation is nowhere near that so we might not be discussing the same phenomenon. I also note that as we age in general, this is an area that is an age marker. Microneedling and massage might work and for some of us, it is an issue more so of baggy tissue. You pays your money and you takes your chances so to say. Concealer works great on this area. Ten bucks at Amazon and you sort of blend it in with a small bit of foundation and maybe some powder. Makeup for guys is something that has really never taken off but for those of us who are more so house XY's, it's a powerful tool particularly when being photographed.
Legit hormone replacement only? Or can it work if you rub a commercial product like this on your head: https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/Life-F...m-With-Estriol-Estradiol-4-oz/PRD7KKVW5SSKO01
- Reaction score
- 2,034
That's what I used primarily for several years. It is real USP quality estradiol/estriol. I think that it is great as a face cream and scalp cream for night-time use. Used in enough quantity, it will definitely femininize and I noticed substantial breast growth but as I progressed I might have been using two to four of these a month. I actually think my hair got worse on HRT initially because I began on minuscule amounts of Premarin (.30mg!) for the first six months of HRT.
I mostly recommend it now as a way to ease into HRT or to use in between shipments or if a prescription is held up. For a while on here, there was a bit of an estriol kick with people thinking using only estriol might avoid breast growth while leading to scalp regrowth but unfortunately, estriol seems a bit weak for this. I don't hear as much about using estriol to avoid breast growth while hopefully helping hair. This might then have both localized effects and systemic effects and this is partially why I can't give a more precise answer. People have little to lose by trying it say, just on the hairline and then titrating upwards. My feeling is that it is likely to work well as maintenance and maybe provide a way for the guys who can't tolerate reductase inhibitors.
My favored product is Estrogel which is moderately expensive even off-shore but I definitely used it in feminizing amounts. I had hoped to find some sort of backdoor way of using estrogen just for the hair and I started using the term, "just in it for the hair" for XY's who didn't mind feminization but who still assigned as male. That was the case of bridgeburn and I am similar but I opted to legally change my gender and I tend to present as both genders.
I honestly don't know of anyone else who has played this thing all the way through and posted pics like he did and like I am doing. Most of the folks that I have seen post besides us seem to be college age or younger. MtF's tend not to take pics if they have a deceased alter-ego so that is part of the issue. There are lots of one-off pics on timelines but I hope to see others come forward and have success. One thing that I think is important is that if someone is going to do this then, you can't sweat breast growth and that why most people drop out and rightly so.
So that leaves us in a situation where Biestro might work similarly to finasteride, say, in non-feminizing amounts for people who can't use finasteride. I encourage its usage and exploration. Because in the last year or so, doctors have started using testicular application of estrogen, which is far stronger and more direct than application on the arms, up to five times stronger, these products might actually be overall feminization vehicles for people without access to prescribed or off-shore meds. I didn't realize that Walmart sold these but it might only be OTC via the internet, like Amazon. I have never seen them in a pharmacy and I have inquired but my pharmacy doesn't hold them OTC. But I definitely started and spent a lot of my "journey" using these. Thanks for bringing this up.
Janey
Last edited:
Yeah I might want to do this if oral minoxidil doesn't get me where I want
Now what is an effective (for hair regrowth) but non-feminizing dosage of that cream? Who knows tbh
- Reaction score
- 2,034
They have the pump system and I think that someone with the inclination can try to estimate but the two components differ in strength and receptor-clinging. They also have "pure" Estriol Care, Estradiol Care and Progesterone Care. Estrogel has a little stick but with all of the differing application sites, if someone want to do this best, getting monthly HRT tests would help locate a sweet spot. I have lists of all of my purchase dates with correlating pics but my main regrowth/improvement came when I decided to use "pregnancy" levels of E2 for an entire pregnancy period of ten months.
For me, that was what finally seemed to do the trick, assuming nothing my Goddess, in terms of turning on hair growth, more or less like when I was 16 say. I had/had the diffuse thinning version of male pattern baldness and Bridge did too, although this is a spectrum and I think that HRT might work best for people without large areas of slick skin even if the area is obviously balding. Bridge was closer to a cueball then I was but then I had a shed to zero so I did some time in the cueball club. I have had most of the hair experiences now, lol. People from the future will find me obsessed but they will all probably be bald so.... Except for the stuff about children and spouses, regrowing my hair in and now growing it long at 56 is just about the greatest thrill of my life and just imagine waking up every day with a little more hair, just the opposite of what I went though for over 30 years.
I hope as many others can know this feeling as possible. I have been thinking about writing essentially about everything on here and how dedicated people are as a long magazine spread perhaps.
Janey
My main goal now is to try to determine if we can figure out what differentiates even MtF's on HRT in terms of results and age alone isn't it. Some feminize great at 60 and apparently have some measure of hair regrowth. My thought has been that to "undo" so to speak, damage by T bombardment that it might take a certain level of E2, perhaps 200pg/ml to 400 pg/ml, to more or less, turn on the light switch for hair regrowth. Breast growth starts at very low levels of estrogen supplementation so that's the conundrum. You can't get to the good hair without passing through the breast growth phase.
Last edited: