Finasteride and Low Dose Dutasteride Treatment Androgenetic Alopecia

[KSA]

ive been on finasteride for 8 months and avodart for 6 months. After the first 2 months this regime worked very well shedding had almost completetly stopped and inflammation/tingling went away.

I wanted to just take avodart as from common knowledge its stronger than finasteride so logically no point taken both at the same time so 4 days ago I quit fina cold turkey.
Conseqently, the bad sides came back, oily scalp, inflammation and tingling, and also been shedding dht must of crept back. My libido also shot down when before i was on fina i had a sky high libido(assume it was supressing the dht and convertinf it into T).

Its not something I logically thought is possible from our understanding of both drugs but clearly my body found taking both together 2× more potent or perhaphs it was just the generic finasteride which my body found more potent in blockading the dht.

I dont want to jump back on finasteride as it made me increadibly horny and i barely felt any oil serum in my scalp which made it very dry which cant be good for hair growth

I’m not sure most people are expected to have these sides on the drug, but if I were you I’d take a blood test (testosterone free and total as well as DHT - for systemic effects) and evaluate. Good luck

 

[Harv]

I’m not sure most people are expected to have these sides on the drug, but if I were you I’d take a blood test (testosterone free and total as well as DHT - for systemic effects) and evaluate. Good luck

Alot of people have a surge in testosterone when on finasteride as it supresses the dht and converts it to T.
inflammation on the scalp and that itchy/tingling sensation is usually dht attacking the follicles. I had that before any anti androgen drugs. Finasteride stopped it in combination with duta but now that ive dropped fina its come back. Can anyone potentially give me an insight why this may of happened? is my body just waiting for the fina to leave my system now and duta to overtake as the more active drug?
i did my blood tests last week when i was taking both fina&duta. (the free ones i could get from my gp)
Serum testerone is 30.1 nmol
SHBG 57.4 nmol
both very high

 

[KSA]

Alot of people have a surge in testosterone when on finasteride as it supresses the dht and converts it to T.
inflammation on the scalp and that itchy/tingling sensation is usually dht attacking the follicles. I had that before any anti androgen drugs. Finasteride stopped it in combination with duta but now that ive dropped fina its come back. Can anyone potentially give me an insight why this may of happened? is my body just waiting for the fina to leave my system now and duta to overtake as the more active drug?
i did my blood tests last week when i was taking both fina&duta. (the free ones i could get from my gp)
Serum testerone is 30.1 nmol
SHBG 57.4 nmol
both very high

Yes, I’ve read that people claim this experience, but you’ve got to remember - that raise in T is simply the T that would otherwise become DHT. It is possible that perhaps you up or down regulated, but I can’t be sure. High T with high SHBG is good! That means most of your t is bound and not free to attach your follicles. Why did you drop finasteride? If you were doing good on it, you’ve figured out a regimen that’s worth staying on. So many people here are looking for that sweet spot. Truth is on paper - neither fun nor dutas are known for those sides.

 

[Harv]

Yes, I’ve read that people claim this experience, but you’ve got to remember - that raise in T is simply the T that would otherwise become DHT. It is possible that perhaps you up or down regulated, but I can’t be sure. High T with high SHBG is good! That means most of your t is bound and not free to attach your follicles. Why did you drop finasteride? If you were doing good on it, you’ve figured out a regimen that’s worth staying on. So many people here are looking for that sweet spot. Truth is on paper - neither fun nor dutas are known for those sides.

Is that really good if my serum t & shbg is good? i just took fina again

 

[KSA]

Is that really good if my serum t & shbg is good? i just took fina again

That means that your SHBG is bound to most of your T - so it’s not biologically active. Look it up. It would be problematic if you had low SHBG and high t - I had that. Unpleasant hyperandrogenicity

 

[Harv]

That means that your SHBG is bound to most of your T - so it’s not biologically active. Look it up. It would be problematic if you had low SHBG and high t - I had that. Unpleasant hyperandrogenicity

Remember its serum testosterone not free testosterone im talking about.

 

[KSA]

Remember its serum testosterone not free testosterone im talking about.

Yes - your serum testosterone in this case is your “total testosterone” - of which a percentage is free to bind

 

[Harv]

ok cheers. i havent tested my free T yet but is that most likely going to be low or high? ive heard low is better.
popped a fina pill 30min ago crown feels burning less already, strange avodart is not stronger for me.
annoying i stopped it for 4 days. i shedded quite alot, even though my hair is still a mess from 8months ago when the first fina pill i took gave me crazy sides in the first week

 

[KSA]

ok cheers. i havent tested my free T yet but is that most likely going to be low or high? ive heard low is better.
popped a fina pill 30min ago crown feels burning less already, strange avodart is not stronger for me.
annoying i stopped it for 4 days. i shedded quite alot, even though my hair is still a mess from 8months ago when the first fina pill i took gave me crazy sides in the first week

Now that sounds psychological to me.

 

[Harv]

no really the inital hormonal change 8months ago was a crazy shock to mt system gave the hyperreflex symptoms till my body adapted .
My hair folicles are obviously sensitive to even he slightest increase of dht and dropping fina for a few days increased those dht levels slowly

 

[Michael1986]

I explained in your other thread why it would be highly unlikely that dropping finasteride would make any difference to your DHT levels as you are continuously using dutasteride the whole time. I think that the symptoms you are experiencing have got to be either placebo or are caused by something unrelated to your hair loss regimen.

 

[WarLord]

Hey! How did this work out for you? I’ve been on finasteride 5mg for 20 months (albeit my story is complex as I was on stronger anti androgens for years as I was misdiagnosed with hyperandrogenicity too) and while occasionally sometimes I imagine I have sides on finasteride, my blood DHT is near undetectable at 6-7ng/dl, but then jumped to 10ng/dl in May and went back down. When I started pre meds in 2012 - I was at 120 ng/dl. I hear serum DHT is not as strong an indicator of response as scalp tissue DHT which cannot be measured. Idk. My doctors don’t want me to try dutas because they claim it will have no impact for me but I’m honestly fed up of them blowing smoke up my *** because, I’m certain I am only getting worse.

Maybe some update would be useful: I quitted finasteride completely (in summer 2013) and switched to 0.5 mg dutasteride daily. I monitored my DHT levels and they were slowly, but continually decreasing at a rate of 10 ng/dl/year. In August 2016, I reached 7,0 ng/dl, which most patients on dutasteride should achieve after several weeks/months. Then I started experimenting with lowering dutasteride dosage (because it was very expensive), but with no success.
- Five capsules a week (2.5 mg) caused a rapid increase in DHT levels.
- Six capsules a day (3.0 mg) tended to increase DHT as well, albeit very slowly.
Fortunately, generic dutasteride started to be available several years ago, so dosage is no longer an issue. I have been using 0.5 mg/week. The last time when I measured my DHT levels was in June 2019: 7.6 ng/dl. However, I changed a lab in the meantime, and this lab's results were always twice higher. So I estimate that my DHT level was about 4 ng/dl and it very probably decreased even deeper in the meantime.

As for hair regrowth, it was disappointing. I hoped that 5% minoxidil+dutasteride would regrow a lot of hair back, but I noticed only few new hairs here and there. And I suspect that this was rather due to dermastamping, not dutasteride. I was also experimenting with spironolactone but I was getting unpleasant acne and each of my two "spironolactone cycles" did not last longer than 4 weeks (Go figure - but scientific literature claims that there is no systemic absorption!). Still, my situation is quite good at the moment.

And my final clarification of the perplexing hair loss after the cycle with Andarine and Ostarine (summer 2012): I studied my notes and I realized that I must find out what I was doing 2 months before this incident because that's the usual length of the hair's rest (telogen) phase. Apparently, SARMs could not have been the direct culprit because otherwise, the hair loss would have started much earlier. I realized that at the end of the SARMs cycle, I was taking anastrozole to boost my testosterone, and as a result, my blood testosterone markedly increased from 50 ng/dl to moderately normal levels (325 ng/dl). I think that the combination of normal testosterone/DHT levels with very low SHBG (sex-hormone binding globulin) - which is the usual body response during every androgen cycle - caused a shock to my hair because a lot of androgens was in the free form. There is hardly any other explanation. So beware of the combination of low SHBG and testosterone!

 

[maballack]

@WarLord I can ensure that Ostarine caused the sudden aggressive hair loss. I had the same situation 3 days after quiting Ostarine I had massive Loss for almost 3 months 50% of density was lost then Hair loss never stopped.