Dutasteride efficacy!!?

[Hank9]

Hey everyone, I’ve been on dutasteride for 13 years now. Avodart for 10 and generic dutasteride for the 3 or so years it’s had the generic available. And I’ve had unreal results! I have also experienced no side effects. I would highly recommend anyone to atleast try it for 6 months. It’s been a total life saver for me! I have noticed however that the efficacy of it has seemed to not be working as well as I’m used to and I’m noticing my hairline has gone back recently within the last 3 months. I’m wondering what people thought of this. Is this normal that dutasteride effects would wear off over time? I’ve been told by a very reputable source that I’ve noticed it not working as well because I switched from avodart to generic. Would this make sense? Any and all help would be awesome as I’d love to keep what I have. As well, I am only on generic dutasteride to stop my hair loss and nothing else. Is there something else I should add that’s been proven to help? Thanks everyone and look forward to hearing from others experience.

[Markee]

What dosage of the stuff are you taking ?

[Hank9]

I have always taken the normal dose of one pill a day (.5 mg). 

[jjsrader]

Spanker has commented on this fairly succinctly.  I believe after 8-10 years of Avodart usage those that are destined for NW5 or more start to lose their gains.  Consistently, slowly - but consistently.

Sometimes it is probably a bit faster and hairloss accelerates closer to your genetic pre-destiny.  I think (think) this happens if you are an early hairloss sufferer w/family history of aggressive hairloss.  Your hair simply taps out and starts going away like nature intended.

NW3 & NW4's probably lose moderately slower.

Only solace is your existing hair that is not prone to balding stays thicker and denser than if dut was never used - so you max out your hair transplants with those if you are going down that road.

And live w/it the best you can.  NOTHING is perfect when genetic balding is involved.  It's relentless over time.

If you don't want to leave anything to chance you take the prescription brand Avodart and discontinue the generic (or never start on the generic).

Edited July 28, 2018 by jjsrader

[Al - Moderator]

Hank9, If I were you I would try going back on the real stuff for 6 months just to see if it is an issue with the generic or not.

 

[Hank9]

Ya that’s what I’m doing. I’ve gotten back on avodart and gonna see if it makes a difference. Only issue is it being 4 times the price of generic and my benefits are just horrible at the moment. I’ll have to sift through the forum here to see if I can find it for cheaper online somewhere. I’m wondering if there’s anything else I should add to stopping my hair loss along with the avodart? I’m only interested in proven combatants to hair loss of course. Thanks for the awesome replies and solid info! Again, I would highly recommend avodart for anyone wanting to halt their hair loss. My brother is on it with amazing results as well. 

[Melvin- Admin]

Why not give liipogaine a chance, I have found it to be the highest quality Minoxidil out there, obviously it will be nothing in comparison to Dutasteride which is essentially the strongest anti-androgen medication available. However, you may get some real benefits to adding minoxidil with Dutasteride. I hear a lot of guys saying it's a hassle to apply. What I do is apply it at night, you really only need to apply it once a day.

[jjsrader]

4 hours ago, Hank9 said:

Ya that’s what I’m doing. I’ve gotten back on avodart and gonna see if it makes a difference. Only issue is it being 4 times the price of generic and my benefits are just horrible at the moment. I’ll have to sift through the forum here to see if I can find it for cheaper online somewhere. I’m wondering if there’s anything else I should add to stopping my hair loss along with the avodart? I’m only interested in proven combatants to hair loss of course. Thanks for the awesome replies and solid info! Again, I would highly recommend avodart for anyone wanting to halt their hair loss. My brother is on it with amazing results as well. 

Try here:

https://www.inhousepharmacy.vu/p-1906-avodart-dutasteride-05mg-sourced-from-turkey.aspx

I buy my 2nd dose per day from them.

If you are aggressive - you can go on 5-10-20 mg oral minox (loniten) and oral spiro (100mg) per day.  There are posts on these systemic drugs here and on other forums.  You can start w/ 1/2 doses and monitor for any symptoms and titrate up. 

 

 

 

Edited July 28, 2018 by jjsrader

[Hank9]

Oral minoxidil? That would be amazing! Do I need a script and where to buy? Also, what’s spiro? Thanks again guys! Such awesome help!

[jjsrader]

I suggest searching this forum and a few others to get other people's opinions & experiences w/both.

Really, do some searches and see if it seems okay for you - I know there are real side effects in people and I urge you to weigh those risks against 'potential' benefits.

I get oral minox cheap from https://www.thailandpharmacy.net/product-category/hair-loss/

And oral spiro from https://www.inhousepharmacy.vu/p-1140-spiractin-100-spironolactone.aspx

[Hank9]

I am being told by my surgeon to up my dose of dutasteride from .5 mg to 1 mg. Makes sense to me! 

[Hank9]

So here’s the plan... I’ll up my dosage of dutasteride from .5 mg to 1 mg. And just to be safe I’ll start taking the oral minoxidil that jjsrader has suggested. So I’m guessing I’ll start out with the 5 mg oral minoxidil and take it from there. May have to play around with this a bit. 

[jjsrader]

If you take oral minox - yes, start w/5mg in the a.m.  You REALLY should check your blood pressure 30 minutes after for the 1st month - see if everything continues to be normal.

If you start off w/10mg right away, check your blood pressure regularly, it's important.

You can use a blood pressure cuff from the drugstore for like $20 or $40 USD

If you decide to take a 2nd dose of oral minox (another 5mg) daily - perhaps take your 2nd dose around dinner time or at least 2 hours before bed.

Continue to check your blood pressure if you up your dosage on a regular basis.

Finally, you can take the 5mg in the a.m. for 1 or 2 or 3 months and then begin taking your 2nd dose if you have no health issues.

Good luck.  I began taking oral spiro about 3 weeks after I began taking oral minox.  I did NOT notice any water retention when taking oral minox - but decided to begin taking oral spiro as an adjunct to the oral minox.

After a month I upped my dose to 10mg daily oral minox (split into two doses per day for a total of 10mg)  but you can probably take the whole pill in the a.m.) and 100mg oral spiro (split into two doses per day - total of 100mg).

If you do have side effects, don't ignore them.  I haven't had any issues whatsoever - but I never really have any issues w/any meds and I tolerate alot of drugs well.

Finally, some days I just take 10mg oral minox and 100mg oral spiro in the a.m. (both together) and don't bother splitting them up 12 hours apart - but usually I split the dose so both stay in my bloodstream at higher concentrations for each dose.

Edited August 1, 2018 by jjsrader

[Hank9]

I just began looking back into all this recently as I had no issues with hair loss once on avodart/dutasteride for 13. So I don’t know what spiro is or what it does. I’ve been reading and seeing the combo of dutasteride and minoxidil somewhat common in my situation where efficacy starts being an issue in this forum. Just curious as to what spiro is? This is amazing info! Thank you so much! This forum was an absolute life saver for me 15 years ago when I began my journey. It’s amazing to still see it going strong and for any newbies out there... you’ve come to the right place. 

[Melvin- Admin]

spironolactone is used as a feminizing hormone blocker for transgender women. I would not recommend taking spiro orally if you’re a man. It can cause Gyno and feminization in general. It can also cause testicular atrophy. You should really research a medication before thinking of taking it.

[jjsrader]

I agree - oral spiro is quite aggressive.  I think I wrote several times about doing one's own research on it before trying. 

 

 

[Hank9]

I’m just wondering what are people’s thoughts on adding minoxidil to dutasteride? It’s my understanding that dutasteride is the strongest and most effective hair loss medication out there, so I’m wondering what effect would adding minoxidil really have if any? I noticed after 13 years of being on dutasteride that the efficacy was starting to wear off and have now doubled my dose to see if this bumps it back up again. I was going to add minoxidil but have been questioning what the point would be since I’m already on the strongest med out there. Just some thoughts and insight would be nice. Cheers ? 

[Melvin- Admin]

While many believe that the mechanism of minoxidil is unknown, what we do know is that minoxidil keeps hair follicles in the anagen (growth) phase longer. Therefore, if you’re on a powerful anti-androgen like dutasteride theoretically the DHT should not be binding to the receptors. Now with minoxidil extending the hairs life cycle, the thinning/balding process would be delayed significantly. 

So in summary, more active follicles on your head= a fuller appearing head of hair. This is how minoxidil works, in combination with dutasteride that would mean more hair on your head with DHT not affecting it. Hope that makes sense. 

Warm regards-Melvin

[Hank9]

So Melvin, if I was to add anything to my dutasteride, do you feel adding minoxidil is my best possible route? Also how many mg of minoxidil should I start with? Thanks 

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, Hank9 said:

So Melvin, if I was to add anything to my dutasteride, do you feel adding minoxidil is my best possible route? Also how many mg of minoxidil should I start with? Thanks 

Yea that’s the only other proven medication, I’d say 1ml daily is enough. 

[skinnyshaft]

Hank9 - your story with Dutasteride seems to be vaguely similar to mine with Finasteride. I'd been on Fin for around 12 years but felt it had been losing its efficacy over the last year so I made the switch to Dut in March, nearly 6 months ago. I'm sad to say that I've not noticed any improvement since making the switch and I still seem to be shedding hairs like crazy.

I'm not sure whether I should return back to Finasteride, stick with the Dut for longer, or see if there's anything else I should be trying. Sadly, I do fear that mother nature may finally have caught up with me and that there's not a huge amount I can do now.

For the record, I've just turned 40 and I've had 3 HTs since the age of 29 - 2 with Dr Feller and 1 with Dr Alexander, all very good results, although I am hamstrung by naturally incredibly fine hair.

[skinnyshaft]

Just to add to the above, I was using Propecia for the Fin, briefly switched to generic fin but was certain that I was shedding more than I was with the branded meds. For the Dut, I've been using Avodart.

[Hank9]

My advice would be to stay on the avodart for atleast a year before deciding to switch back to propecia. Dutasteride (avodart) has been awesome for me over the years but like you, it seems Mother Nature has caught up to me and now it isn’t quite working as well as I’m used to. I’ve since been slowly doubling my dose of avodart and going to see how that goes. I’m also planning on taking oral minoxidil as well but haven’t started yet. It sucks but not all dudes have awesome hair into their 40’s. I have very realistic thoughts on how I’d like my hair to look as I grow older. I’m quite certain an fue surgery is in my near future. Just as long as I have a mature hairline and say had some minor thinning in my crown I’d be quite happy. I do think you may as well stay the course on dutasteride as from what I understand it’s from the same realm as propecia (finesteride). It’s just basically much stronger. Minoxidil is different and u could add that. Just my thoughts. I have heard of people going off the drug for a certain amount of time and then back on it as a “reset” to it. But I haven’t done much research into it to take that leap. 

[skinnyshaft]

Thanks for the advice Hank9. I think you're right, I should stick on the Dut for another 6 months to complete a full year. As you say, given that it's a very similar but stronger drug than Fin, I'm not sure that switching back to Fin would make any difference - especially after I gave it up anyway because I thought I'd noticed increased hairloss.

I'd never heard of oral minoxidil though. When was that introduced? I've never used that stuff before because I use a lot of hair products (eg hairspray, concealer) so didn't want to apply a topical solution as well.

 

 

[Hank9]

Oh ya, I too have zero interest in a topical minoxidil but it was mentioned on this thread that you can get oral minoxidil instead which I think is worth a shot as well. I wonder if anyone out there has heard of any success of going off finasteride or dutasteride for a certain amount of time and then going back on it to “reset” the efficacy of the drugs in your system?