S-equol Usage And Sexual Side-effects.

[mr_robot]

Just to update you guys, I've been using S-Equol topically for just over 6 months now using 'Equelle' tablets that I crush and dissolve in ethanol and mix into my usual minoxidil/peppermint oil/stemox cocktail.

Initially I used 4 tablets for 10mg of S-Equol spread over a week (~1.4mg/day) which did not seem to have any effect so I decided to up the dosage to 10 tablets (~3.5mg/day) with the view of depleting my tablets quicker and finally quitting S-Equol.

That was six weeks ago and two things happened since. Firstly I've noticed for at least the last two weeks reduced ejaculate volume, no ED as such but definitely less sex drive. Secondly I've started shedding which has been getting worse with all type of hairs, long/short/thick/thin. So two of symptoms you could get from taking Finasteride.

Of course, take everything I write here with a pinch-of-salt, it could just be a coincidence but I'd thought I'd share my experience.

 

[champpy]

Interesting and thank you for sharing. How much longer do you plan to use your mixture?

 

[mr_robot]

I've got around 4 months supply left, I will see how it goes maybe reduce the dosage a little and see if that changes anything.

I was actually going to start taking it orally, but others have tried and it seems that you need to take quite a large amount daily as it seems may not be very bioavailble.

 

[WMQ]

Any non sexual sides?

Besides, what's your view on this shedding (a good or bad shed?) You can usually tell by monitoring your scalp condition.

 

[mr_robot]

Any non sexual sides?

Besides, what's your view on this shedding (a good or bad shed?) You can usually tell by monitoring your scalp condition.

No non-sexual sides, and that's with 4ml of minoxidil per day.

I'm shedding between 5 to 10 times more hair then usual. I have diffuse thinning and for the first time in over a year scalp is visible over the forelock when combed, crown is looking pretty crappy too. I have been through a similar shed before, I just hope it will recover and not a sign that the minoxidil effectiveness is starting to fade.

Just going to have to wait it out for 3 months for the follicles to come out of telogen and see what happens.

 

[mr_robot]

Update:

I'm pretty sure sexual sides isn't from the S-Equol and more likely from a combination of low zinc and constipation. I've been taking a liquid multi vitamin for a couple of years now and I've drifted out of the habit of taking it for the last month of so. Was also ill a few weeks back with stomach problems and have constipation which can put pressure on the prostate. Restarted the vitamins and constipation is clearing and I feel a lot better for it.

Lack of zinc is also a cause of seborrheic dermatitis that I suffer from and I've recently discovered that my scalp is in a pretty bad condition as documented here:
https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...er-scalp-peel-exfoliation-pic-warning.104641/

Not sure if this is what caused the shed, but having a layer of sebum, dead skin and fungus can't be good.

 

[d3nt3dsh0v3l]

Any updates, mr_robot? I'm following closely.

 

[Min0]

Is S-equal an anti-androgen?

it's an anti-DHT

 

[mr_robot]

Any updates, mr_robot? I'm following closely.

I'm 99% confident the issues where not from S-Equol. In fact I may have to reset my experiments as I've just discovered that I've not been getting much absorption of any topical. I will update another thread regarding scalp absorption and link it from where.

 

[Swoop]

I'm 99% confident the issues where not from S-Equol. In fact I may have to reset my experiments as I've just discovered that I've not been getting much absorption of any topical. I will update another thread regarding scalp absorption and link it from where.

I'm considering dumping the pills in ethanol and then using a super high speed powerful blender to dissolve all. Then filter eventual remains. Do you think this will work?

 

[mr_robot]

I'm considering dumping the pills in ethanol and then using a super high speed powerful blender to dissolve all. Then filter eventual remains. Do you think this will work?

After I wash the pills in water to remove the titanium oxide coating and then crush the pills and mix with ethanol there seems to be 3 major components that do not dissolve, two of them settle quite quickly and are visible as two layers due to the different weights. The third settles but not quite and is misty with the ethanol, it may completely settle if you leave it for a few hours.

The actual pill is not a consistent color, you can see the different components if you break the pill in two. If you crush the pill enough with a herb grinder it should be enough as the amount of S-equol is very small and it should dissolve into the ethanol. A centrifuge would probably be useful and there quite a few videos on how to make DIY one.

Anyhow, I think I'm going to stop everything other than minoxidil and re-evaluate. I've been having less and less reaction to peppermint oil on my scalp for a while now and thought it may be becoming desensitized to it. Turns out that the shampoo I've been taking for my seborrheic dermatitis whilst seeming to work in ridding me of the symptoms has not prevent a layer of crap forming on my scalp. I only noticed after I started a regime of trying to increase circulation by brushing that after I had applied my daily crap, brushing hard over certain areas would produce the crap on my brush as shown in the thread I liked above. The areas that were chronic were the areas where my loss was worse, vertex and crown and it seems the ethanol was doing its job a solvent to soften this gunk. It took me over an hour to remove it all.

I carried on with my usual regimen and noticed a slightly increased reaction to the peppermint oil. I then decided to add some tretinoin, which after three days had caused a massive reaction and skin cracking. I've never had this reaction before and used quantities that I previously tolerated very well. Must have the been the better absorption, regardless my scalp was now very dry and in pretty bad condition as applying anything with alcohol in it would burn like hell. So I got some Jojoba oil and gave it a few of days of nothing but the oil to re-moisturize. Healing over the week, he dry skin then starting coming off like it was snowing along with quite a bit of hair.

Now I have a scalp that where my 3-4% solution now causes a massive a very uncomfortable reaction whilst previously I could put undiluted peppermint oil on my crown and not feel a thing, Likewise the minoxidil foam amounts that where okay previously now cause me headaches, the first time I've had sides with minoxodil. So basically I've wasted a lot of time and effort over the last two years experimenting when 90% of the stuff has not been absorbed. The only good news is that there may be a chance I can recover from the diffuse thinning that is linked to seborrheic dermatitis, that if the damage is not too severe.

End of rant.

 

[whoken]

I had the worst form of seborrheic dermatitis. For years, it literately ate my scalp away, to the point I have now scars and small concave areas from digging dead skin in my scalp. My flakes were white at first, then they turned yellow, and eventually it became some disgusting greenish brown. The flakes were enormous too, and every-time I would scratch one away I would lose tens of hair with it. I believe it was so severe it actually caused some permanent hair loss patches.

Anyway, I cured it, if you're interested I can point you to the products (a shampoo and a cream) I used at the time, I am not sure I can display the names here, will edit if I can. But the products didn't technically cure the disease, I still had to use them or it would come back, what cured me for good was changes in my diet. Yes "diet", never believe it would be able to help with such a severe condition but well it did, I used to laugh at anyone bringing up diet to solve health issues. I always noticed I had more inflammation in my scalp when I was binge eating some foods. Basically I cut all sugar from my food, that means you can say goodbye to most crap food, I cut a lot of other things too but it's the one thing that helped the most.

 

[mr_robot]

I had the worst form of seborrheic dermatitis. For years, it literately ate my scalp away, to the point I have now scars and small concave areas from digging dead skin in my scalp. My flakes were white at first, then they turned yellow, and eventually it became some disgusting greenish brown. The flakes were enormous too, and every-time I would scratch one away I would lose tens of hair with it. I believe it was so severe it actually caused some permanent hair loss patches.

Anyway, I cured it, if you're interested I can point you to the products (a shampoo and a cream) I used at the time, I am not sure I can display the names here, will edit if I can. But the products didn't technically cure the disease, I still had to use them or it would come back, what cured me for good was changes in my diet. Yes "diet", never believe it would be able to help with such a severe condition but well it did, I used to laugh at anyone bringing up diet to solve health issues. I always noticed I had more inflammation in my scalp when I was binge eating some foods. Basically I cut all sugar from my food, that means you can say goodbye to most crap food, I cut a lot of other things too but it's the one thing that helped the most.

Mine is mainly climate and stress induced, when I was living in a hot sunny climate with low stress everything was good I only ever had some slight problem during the winter which was easily treated with a coal tar shampoo. Moving to a generally cold, damp country with mega stress caused me major hair problems within one year. I would get massive flakes, but only after using coal tar shampoo but it would build up again and repeat. I thought that the piroctone olamine shampoo was better as there was no flakes and no itching sensation, however all that it did is stop it from flaring up.

Diet does play a part in it, I don't really get flare ups once it start it was basically constant.

 

[Min0]

reading this made me think about my situation, i get severe itching when i drink soda like coke.
i moved to france to study and it was here where i'm starting to losing my hair in a diffuse pattern. my life has been hell in the last two years.

and i'm noticing that immigrants here are all losing their hair.

what can i do about it ? this seems lifestyle/stress related.

 

[BTW]

what can i do about it ? this seems lifestyle/stress related.

yeah man you are so right, even ancient greeks had this issue with stress, soda and other sugary products, what can we even do about it? read the following link at the end
http://www.exclassics.com/arist/arist31.htm

joke aside if you want to stop your hairloss you cut your genitals so you stop posting the same tired theories about lifestyle and diet, and some other dumb correlations about baldness you see in people that reach the age where baldness should begin

 

[mr_robot]

yeah man you are so right, even ancient greeks had this issue with stress, soda and other sugary products, what can we even do about it? read the following link at the end
http://www.exclassics.com/arist/arist31.htm

joke aside if you want to stop your hairloss you cut your genitals so you stop posting the same tired theories about lifestyle and diet, and some other dumb correlations about baldness you see in people that reach the age where baldness should begin

Regarding seborrheic dermatitis, it is definitely the case that stress is a trigger. Seborrheic dermatitis can cause hair loss but there is nothing stopping you having male pattern baldness and SD at the same time.

 

[Min0]

yeah man you are so right, even ancient greeks had this issue with stress, soda and other sugary products, what can we even do about it? read the following link at the end
http://www.exclassics.com/arist/arist31.htm

joke aside if you want to stop your hairloss you cut your genitals so you stop posting the same tired theories about lifestyle and diet, and some other dumb correlations about baldness you see in people that reach the age where baldness should begin

dude i have DUPA, finasteride can't do sh*t against it apparently. some experts say it's not DHT related.

 

[Dolph]

dude i have DUPA, finasteride can't do sh*t against it apparently. some experts say it's not DHT related.

Anecdotally, I also have DUPA, and finasteride worked but I had to stop due to sides.

 

[abcdefg]

The big win from s-equol IMO is avoiding any changes to neurosteroids in the brain. Other than that id expect it to basically do the same thing as finasteride if your lucky.
Its not easy to find something natural that is powerful enough to match something like finasteride even if it does inhibit DHT

 

[mr_robot]

So did you ever try the s esquol again to test if it gave you side effects

I gave an update to this, it was n't the S-Equol causing it as they passed whilst I was still using it. I carried on using S-Equol until a couple of months ago so was a nearly a full year with it but to be honest it did n't seem to do anything.