anyone had success using avodart? need help.

[willie]

was on propecia for 7 years and it worked well, but a few months ago it appeared it was starting to lose its effectiveness. therefore, i started on avodart two months ago but have had significant shedding especially at the hairline. so i ask you what should i do?

 

do i ride out avodart or do i get back on propecia?

 

anyone know if one works better on the front hairline better than the other?

 

i'm thinking there must be something to propecia being FDA approved and avodart not being. let me know your thoughts. thanks!

[jr99]

Beware if dutasteride is causing you hairline loss. I've used it for a year. It was awesome for me for the first 6-7 months, literally awesome. The regrowth was really amazing. Over the last 5 months or so it has reversed course and my hairline has gone disastrous. Maybe it will be different for you, it seems like for a lot of people here it hasn't affected their hairline. But for a fair number it seems to have had. Is it dutasteride or something else, I don't know. But it would be pretty coincidental that significant amount of people have had bad hairline damage on dutasteride.

[hairbank]

Avodart is FDA approved for BPH (enlarged prostate), just not for hairloss. USUALLY, as shed is just a larger than normal amount of hair being kicked into the telogen (resting) phase causing it to be noticeable. Normally, around 10% of our hair is in the resting phase at any given time.............for some reason, Fin and/or Dut seem to mess with that cycle somewhat. The hair should come back.

 

As for whether or not to switch back..........totally up to you. Fin is a DHT AR II blocker, Dut blocks DHT AR II and AR I........research shows that we have DHT AR I in the brain so I was leary of "blocking" something which was being used in the brain. I don't know of any evidence showing harm to the brain............it just shocked me enough I didn't want to go there. Many use Avodart successfully.

 

I believe the reason Avodart is not yet FDA approved for hair loss is due to lack of a long term study required for approval............maybe others can chime in here??

 

As far as one working better than the other for the hairline...............no way of knowing as everyone responds differently do them. Fin worked a little in my hairline but I believe both show more evident regrowth in the crown.

 

You may want to check with your Doc on switching back. IMO the shed is likely just due to the change in meds and the hair will come back when through the telogen phase.

[Guest]

Willie, I was also in your shoes. I used Propecia for several years (Jan. '99 to Dec. '06) with good success. Just like you, in the preceding year, it began to lose its' effectiveness and led me to a third HT. But, back in 2004, I started using Avodart for about three/four months and had a terrible shed that almost never stopped and really scared me. My frontal third became noticeably thinner. I quit after about 4 months. However, after my recent HT I looked into it once again. I reviewed all the literature including the dosage charts and compared them to Propecia. I found that Propecia/Finasteride blocks about 37% of scalp DHT at 5mg vs. 52% for Avodart at .5 mg every other day. I began my current Avodart routine at .5 mg every M-W-F for about six weeks and then moved to .5mg/day. I'm four months into it and everything seems fine. I can't tell you or anyone else how your body will react to the medicine but it's really hard for me to believe that Avodart will do permanent damage to the hairline. After my first experience with the drug, my hairline returned to pre-Avodart within six months of stopping. Hope this info helps.

[hairbank]

NSB-

 

Hey old-timer.........saw your registered date, back in 2001!! ....Nice to see your still around occasionally.

 

Just curious where you got your states on Avodart and Propecia..........it's been awhile since I compared the two but thought that the DHT blockage percentages were higher than that for each. Always looking to learn more, my friend.

 

Thanks,

[Tom R.]

HB, I've been here all along. The system has a glitch. When I initially registered, NSB was the screen name I used. When I re-registered, forgetting my first name and password, I used my real name (Tom R.). However, each time I sign on with Tom R, the system reverts back to my initial screen name most of the time. If you search, you'll find recent posts under both names. I can't help that. Anyway...I don't recall where I got those numbers but I can say they were retrieved from another website and provided as detailed graphs. If you're really interested, I'll look into it for you and send the graphs your way.

[hairbank]

Don't go to too much trouble but yes, I'd be interested. It's likely been more than 10-12 months since I really researched the results and my recollection of the studies continues to fade!!

 

I'll try to remember the NSB/Tom R. situation. Thanks for the heads up .