Hypotension From Oral Minoxidil (urgent)

[Derelict]

The plan was to lower it after a year, saying that though the 'side effects' are actually good for me, I had hypertension before, and the elevated BPM subsided after the first two weeks and returned to baseline (80-85bpm which is still quite high).

I also read about how minoxidil actually promotes elastin, which is a nice bonus. I do plan to get a smart watch which claims to test for atrial fibrillation as I don't have an at home EKG, but I daresay I think I am actually 'healthier' with minoxidil solely due to the blood pressure.

Bit worried about dropping dosage now before giving it at least 6 months, especially as I feel perfectly fine. Though it is something that will happen at some point.

The initial thought process was, go gung ho with it, whilst monitoring blood pressure and heart rate, get the best results I possibly can from it and then taper back. Definitely not advisable for most people but as I was already a likely candidate for the drug anyways I figured that I might as well.

Did you notice any hair loss when cutting back? How long have you been taking, and what are your results like?

I noticed on your profile that you take spironolactone as well, I was considering adding this to get rid of the pesky last few pounds (if it is indeed water weight), and lowering my BPM a tad. I am not currently taking any anti androgens and that one seemed ideal for my current situation.

Yeah i just restarted spironolactone at 100mg, was on 200mg for 5 months but stopped due to gyno concerns, no sensitive chest or anything at 100mg so i think i am safe from gyno at that dosage. Definitely helps with water retntion, i put on about 11lbs of water weight with oral minoxidil. If you want to use it just to get rid of water retention use a lower dose than 100mg. I don't know how effective natural diuretics like dandelion root are for water weight from oral min.

 

[Ikarus]

I am taking oral minoxidil (via liquid).

I have been taking it since October 14th, so just over 3 months.

My hair does seem slightly thicker, but def nowhere near where I want it to be. I have taken topical in the past (around 6 months) which resulted in approximately two vellus hairs. I'd say it's def more effective than topical and a hell of a lot more convenient.

Full disclaimer though, I take a very large dose, half a ml of liquid, 25mg once a day. I do not recommend this for most people.

Regarding side effects, my blood pressure is actually normal now. I had a very high resting heart rate before taking minoxidil, that hasn't changed, currently 83 BPM as of writing this.

When I first started it definitely increased my BPM (mid 90's), and I could literally feel my heart beats, but it seems to have normalized. This could be due to quitting alcohol and might be completely unrelated to minoxidil, but the palpitations were definitely due to minoxidil but they were gone in roughly two weeks.

I also have noticed two patches of hair on my arms close to my hands and my sideburns have gotten thicker (arms were relatively hairless, still kind of is, but when you grow hair on a bare patch it's probably a lot more notable).

I can't tell if my facial hair is growing more, as I've always been lazy when it comes to shaving, was kind of hoping it would fill in some patches but that didn't happen and I still can't grow a beard.

It is hard to tell if I gained weight, as last year I was drinking excessively and gained 10kg (before the minoxidil) but also quit drinking around the same time I started minoxidil, so have actually lost a lot of weight. I would say the water weight is def there though, as my body quickly sheds weight but this time it seems the last few kilos are a bit more stubborn, that might just be getting older though, who knows.

I do have photos, though they aren't very helpful as I shaved my head just before starting minoxidil whilst now its grown out so hard to compare.

Are you using it alone, or with finasteride? Is your main use to add density, or to benefit the hairline area?

Do you drink water after drinking the minoxidil?

 

[Ikarus]

So you think we are all just lying? What reason would we have for doing that?
The fact is topical does very little for the majority of people unless you have the enzyme needed for it to work.oral is one of the best drugs around for hairloss.I cant actually believe how good its been I wish id started it years ago.More and more hairtransplant doctors are starting to prescribe it too

https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(19)30685-1/fulltext

My dermatologists were meant to prescribe it to me, but they're worried about it being an off-label treatment. I don't understand that, since they prescribed me spironolactone as an off-label treatment but not oral minoxidil...

 

[gonetoday]

Yeah i just restarted spironolactone at 100mg, was on 200mg for 5 months but stopped due to gyno concerns, no sensitive chest or anything at 100mg so i think i am safe from gyno at that dosage. Definitely helps with water retntion, i put on about 11lbs of water weight with oral minoxidil. If you want to use it just to get rid of water retention use a lower dose than 100mg. I don't know how effective natural diuretics like dandelion root are for water weight from oral min.

I was ironically thinking of taking quite a low dosage of it, the main reason being water retention. They always prescribed a diuretic with minoxidil, and I guess my largest concern is fluid build up around the heart.

Are you using it alone, or with finasteride? Is your main use to add density, or to benefit the hairline area?

Do you drink water after drinking the minoxidil?

I am using it alone (well with Nizoral, if you count that).

My main goal is to grow hair wherever I can.. my hairline got completely shot about 8 years ago, so I had a hair transplant about 5 years ago, my hair has thinned since so my intentions are to refill those areas (the hair transplant itself was never perfect/nor close to it). I definitely would of greatly benefited from a second hair transplant immediately after, and over the years it got worse. About a year ago I noticed I had hair loss on the crown, that one snuck up on me, so am not entirely sure when that started.

Saying that I took a picture recently and unsure if lighting/length of hair/minoxidil, but the crown looks a lot better.

Yes, I have a drink after the minoxidil, the taste hangs around if not washed out with something and it's not the best taste in the world

 

[Ikarus]

I was ironically thinking of taking quite a low dosage of it, the main reason being water retention. They always prescribed a diuretic with minoxidil, and I guess my largest concern is fluid build up around the heart.




I am using it alone (well with Nizoral, if you count that).

My main goal is to grow hair wherever I can.. my hairline got completely shot about 8 years ago, so I had a hair transplant about 5 years ago, my hair has thinned since so my intentions are to refill those areas (the hair transplant itself was never perfect/nor close to it). I definitely would of greatly benefited from a second hair transplant immediately after, and over the years it got worse. About a year ago I noticed I had hair loss on the crown, that one snuck up on me, so am not entirely sure when that started.

Saying that I took a picture recently and unsure if lighting/length of hair/minoxidil, but the crown looks a lot better.

Yes, I have a drink after the minoxidil, the taste hangs around if not washed out with something and it's not the best taste in the world

I'm currently on bicalutamide, estradiol and dutasteride, but my hair loss was quite severe and was left with around 1/8th of my hair left. There has been a significant improvement, but it's still horrifically thin, and most likely needs oral minoxidil to mend the damage.

I'm thinking of using around 2.5mg/day, would you say that's an appropriate dosage for someone who has diffuse thinning? Would 5mg/day be a more appropriate dosage?

Have you noticed thickening of hair on your body, eyebrows and eyelashes?

 

[StevenGerrard]

I'm currently on bicalutamide, estradiol and dutasteride, but my hair loss was quite severe and was left with around 1/8th of my hair left. There has been a significant improvement, but it's still horrifically thin, and most likely needs oral minoxidil to mend the damage.

while your agree that your hair loss was severe (going by your Progress thread) your hair now is insanely thick (given the picture that you posted: Month 6.5). I'm no expert but realistically speaking I don't think your hair can't get any fuller than it already is.

 

[Ikarus]

while your agree that your hair loss was severe (going by your Progress thread) your hair now is insanely thick (given the picture that you posted: Month 6.5). I'm no expert but realistically speaking I don't think your hair can't get any fuller than it already is.

It's not, my hair density wasn't great in that photo. It's currently at half of it's initial density, and requires some sort of minoxidil to reach some sort of a 'maximum'. I can definitely say the top part has improved significantly, but the frontal is absolutely horrific. I feel like uploading a photo to this website, but after someone on this website started posting my photos in incel discords, I don't think I'll be posting any update images. You should join our discord server, by the way!

 

[gonetoday]

I would recommend first checking your blood pressure. Regarding dosage i've seen doses ranging from 0.6mg to 5mg in a clinical setting.

https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(19)30685-1/pdf

"OM, 0.25-1.25 mg daily, has been used for the treatment of female androgenetic alopecia, traction alopecia, and telogen effluvium, showing improvement in 61 to 86% of patients and a good safety profile.1-3 There are few articles describing the effectiveness of OM in MAA.1,4 A previous study reported improvement in 30 men (100%) with MAA who were taking OM, 5 mg, with a higher rate of adverse events than in our cohort: 93% of patients had hypertrichosis, 10% had edema, and 10% had an electrocardiogram alteration.4"


Probably a useful read, if you haven't read it already. I do strongly recommend a blood pressure monitor at home though, if you plan to take oral minoxidil. They are quite cheap and can be found on Amazon.

Hard to give sensible advice whilst knowingly not following it (my dosage is very high, I do plan to cut it down though and will be booking an appointment with the doctor for an EKG).

My eyebrows/eyelashes dont seem any different, I did notice one hair on my eyebrows longer than the others.. unsure if I noticed that because I was looking for it or was a result of the minoxidil, needless to say whatever changes they have been incredibly subtle. It is still early days mind you, I am only 3 months in and have read a lot of people don't notice changes until 4-6 months. So that could possibly change in the future.

What I have noticed however is hair on my arm, my arms always had small blonde hairs, basically hairless but one section of my arm the hair has definitely changed, I have included a photo from just now. I don't have a before photo but just imagine hairless lol. This is occurring on both arms at the same spot.

Outside of that, I really havent noticed anything. Okay i just looked at my chest, and noticed 1 long black hair, and some tiny hairs, was pretty much hairless there too.

So yes, body hair has increased but I wouldn't say im a werewolf yet.

 

[gonetoday]

One odd thing to note is, on that arm I have a mole which had two hairs that grew long, it always stood out because it was just two random hairs popping up out of nowhere, i'd normally get rid of them, but currently they are indistinguishable in length/thickness/colour to the surrounding hairs. I was always curious why hair grew there, and it seems minoxidil has caused all the other follicles to react the same.

 

[StevenGerrard]

It's not, my hair density wasn't great in that photo. It's currently at half of it's initial density, and requires some sort of minoxidil to reach some sort of a 'maximum'. I can definitely say the top part has improved significantly, but the frontal is absolutely horrific. I feel like uploading a photo to this website, but after someone on this website started posting my photos in incel discords, I don't think I'll be posting any update images. You should join our discord server, by the way!

Don't ever post your pictures here again, way too many ill intentioned trolls/lurkers amongst us. What is Discord exactly? is that a phone App? because I'm not big on apps. Do you plan on taking a diuretic along with oral minoxidil? because that is what the "textbook" says it's "right"

@gonetoday what are you on exactly? besides Loniten obv. Are you currently taking a diuretic as well?

 

[gonetoday]

I am not taking anything outside of liquid minoxidil (20-25mg once daily) and Nizoral. I am seriously considering adding a diuretic, as it is always prescribed with minoxidil. I will see if anything odd shows up at the doctors first and proceed from there.

 

[Ikarus]

I would recommend first checking your blood pressure. Regarding dosage i've seen doses ranging from 0.6mg to 5mg in a clinical setting.

https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(19)30685-1/pdf

"OM, 0.25-1.25 mg daily, has been used for the treatment of female androgenetic alopecia, traction alopecia, and telogen effluvium, showing improvement in 61 to 86% of patients and a good safety profile.1-3 There are few articles describing the effectiveness of OM in MAA.1,4 A previous study reported improvement in 30 men (100%) with MAA who were taking OM, 5 mg, with a higher rate of adverse events than in our cohort: 93% of patients had hypertrichosis, 10% had edema, and 10% had an electrocardiogram alteration.4"


Probably a useful read, if you haven't read it already. I do strongly recommend a blood pressure monitor at home though, if you plan to take oral minoxidil. They are quite cheap and can be found on Amazon.

Hard to give sensible advice whilst knowingly not following it (my dosage is very high, I do plan to cut it down though and will be booking an appointment with the doctor for an EKG).

My eyebrows/eyelashes dont seem any different, I did notice one hair on my eyebrows longer than the others.. unsure if I noticed that because I was looking for it or was a result of the minoxidil, needless to say whatever changes they have been incredibly subtle. It is still early days mind you, I am only 3 months in and have read a lot of people don't notice changes until 4-6 months. So that could possibly change in the future.

What I have noticed however is hair on my arm, my arms always had small blonde hairs, basically hairless but one section of my arm the hair has definitely changed, I have included a photo from just now. I don't have a before photo but just imagine hairless lol.

Outside of that, I really havent noticed anything. Okay i just looked at my chest, and noticed 1 long black hair, and some tiny hairs, was pretty much hairless there too.

So yes, body hair has increased but I wouldn't say im a werewolf yet.

Thank you for this information!

Don't ever post your pictures here again, way too many ill intentioned trolls/lurkers amongst us. What is Discord exactly? is that a phone App? because I'm not big on apps. Do you plan on taking a diuretic along with oral minoxidil? because that is what the "textbook" says it's "right"

@gonetoday what are you on exactly? besides Loniten obv. Are you currently taking a diuretic as well?

It's an app where you can talk in a channel, in which I've created one for hair loss. A lot of people from Bridges thread are there, too. I do plan on using spironolactone at a dose of 25mg with it, just incase.

 

[jamesbooker1975]

I don’t give a sh*t about studies. There isn’t many studies about estradiol providing regrowth, yet we know it’s far more superior than finasteride. Sorry but I don’t trust the opinion of someone who uses spironolactone cream. Literally every single person who has used it orally has better results than it being used as a topical, even my dermatologists said oral minoxidil works significantly better than the topical

If you give a sh*t about studies, why you are using minoxidil in first place . lol

 

[jamesbooker1975]

So you think we are all just lying? What reason would we have for doing that?
The fact is topical does very little for the majority of people unless you have the enzyme needed for it to work.oral is one of the best drugs around for hairloss.I cant actually believe how good its been I wish id started it years ago.More and more hairtransplant doctors are starting to prescribe it too

https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(19)30685-1/fulltext

Lol, dude, you are talking about a 40 years old drug! !!!!!!!! that was first used as oral , before topical !!!!!

That study is useless, cause it don't compare it to topical minoxidil !

 

[jamesbooker1975]

Worst part of the study, this show this as the best results :

What about the hairline ?! and that is the only photo of the entire study !

 

[soundnvision]

Lol, dude, you are talking about a 40 years old drug! !!!!!!!! that was first used as oral , before topical !!!!!

That study is useless, cause it don't compare it to topical minoxidil !

Topical minoxidil is useless for the majority of men thats the truth here.Oral minoxidil is the best thing there, excluding tranny drugs or chopping your balls off.

 

[soundnvision]

Worst part of the study, this show this as the best results :
View attachment 136160


What about the hairline ?! and that is the only photo of the entire study !

These are pretty awesome results so im not sure what you are trying to say exactly.

 

[Ikarus]

If you give a sh*t about studies, why you are using minoxidil in first place . lol

I don’t follow closely of the studies with dutasteride, yet I’m still on dutasteride. You don’t need to follow studies closely to have an understanding that oral medications work better than topicals, and that applies to all hair loss medications.

 

[Ikarus]

Worst part of the study, this show this as the best results :
View attachment 136160


What about the hairline ?! and that is the only photo of the entire study !

You should look at Bridges results, he recovered his entire hair and is an NW0 with the help of oral minoxidil.

 

[Ikarus]

Lol, dude, you are talking about a 40 years old drug! !!!!!!!! that was first used as oral , before topical !!!!!

That study is useless, cause it don't compare it to topical minoxidil !

This is coming from someone with spironolactone cream in their regimen...