Molecular Weights:
I am all in favor of reasonable experimentation as long the person knows what they are doing. The worst thing about spironolactone is the sort of icky feeling that it gives you; well, not only that. It has a lot of short-term sides that might never go away but titration could make a difference. I was taking 200 mg which is generally the maximum dose and yes, I had a shed to baldness and I just posted three pics today of my "spironolactone shed".
AA's don't make me shed but I would love to know my results from 200mg topical spironolactone. Were you taking 200mg orally or topically? My best bet is to crush spironolactone pills and mix them with alcohol and PG or I could find a vendor online that will sell me spironolactone powder.
RU from 500mg definitely made my gyno flare up so yes it does go systemic and cause feminizing
I was taking them orally and I was pretty bad about taking two on many days since "it could only help, right?" Learned my lesson there about titration and exceeding dosages.
Yes, exactly. My goal is to use 250mg of RU and another AA because I can't tolerate more than 250mg of RU a day. I'm assuming you meant you took the spironolactone orally and were pretty bad at taking two "pills". If topically, what did you mean by taking two?
I corrected it. You are right orally.
People usually tout what they like best and I would put medroxyprogesterone acetate at the top of the list if we are not talking oral minoxidil. I have had no sides that I can tell from MPA or provera (brand name). If you are going to do this scientifically, you probably should test if possible. My current quest is to try to verify the effects of middling amounts of T and E2 on hair improvement.
When you say the big 3 AA's you're referring to Cyp Acetate, Bicalutamide, and spironolactone? The problem with the first 2 is that they're weak and have an incredibly long half life. With spironolactone, it's still pretty weak but I feel like it's half life is what makes it stand out from the rest. There are stronger AA than RU but their half life makes them unusable. Oh-flutamide is as strong as RU but it's half life is 10x longer. I preferably want something that has a short half life even though it might be a weak AA. CB is the perfect solution except for the fact that I'm not a billionaire. I would probably need at least 200mg+ of CB a day and that would cost around 4k a year. Screw that.
Let me look up the half-life on MPA. I keep meaning to anyway.
Is Oral minoxidil truly better than topical if you take just 5mg daily?
Well, that depends upon the person and how much sulfurtransferase they produce in the scalp. Apparently, up to 40 percent of us lack enough of this enzyme to get the full growth effects of minoxidil. Another thing that can be tried is topical sulfurtransferase or derma-rolling which also elevates sulfurtransferase.
I ordered a dermaroller which should be coming soon. I've been on finasteride for 7 years with zero sexual sides (i just pee alot more now) and I think it's beginning to lose some effectiveness, I've been on and off with topical minoxidil these years, doing everything from compounded 10% to the 5% over the counter now (couldnt stick with compound solution as the propylene glycol irritated my scalp. I'm looking for alternatives should I not see any improvement the next few months. Do you think a cis male taking 100-150 mg of oral spironolactone is too much? I know people panic about it but people on here also panic about finasteride and I've had zero trouble with it all this time. I also have oily skin and I think the spironolactone can help...