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Sensitive nipples a month into Finasteride


Hairybiker

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I have been taking 1mg EOD for a month and my nipples are more sensitive. I am also not sure but I think they could be more raised than usual.

Does this go away over time?

Should I reduce the dose? Maybe 0.5mg EOD?

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22 minutes ago, LaserCap said:

I've observed this in a number of patients.  I would consult your doctor before assuming or making your own decisions.  

What was the outcome for these patients? Did this go away over time? 

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Some patients decided not to take the medication any more.  

Some got off the med for 2 weeks and resumed.  The effect returned and they stopped altogether.  

Some took the med every other day and others took 1/2 the dose.  And while the effect was minimized, there was a lot of hesitation.

It was evident to me, once this happens, it will linger in the mind of the patient.  This unnecessary stress can also lead to more shedding.  Perhaps it's best to get on a combo of the other modalities available until something else comes along.  You may even want to discuss dutesteride with your doctor and see how you react.

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As someone who has struggled immensely with fin sides, esp. gyno, I can tell you it’s very real and not something to ignore. HOWEVER, as @LaserCap said, the worst thing you can do is stress out and do something desperate. 

For some men (def me, maybe you as well), a drop in the ratio of androgens to estrogens in estrogen-receptor-positive (E+) tissue will promote mitosis and growth of new cells, for example fat and glandular tissue in the breast. There are many stages of tissue growth that I don’t understand in much detail, but you should notice sensitivity and swelling in the breast before much new tissue has actually grown, so there’s still time to intervene. If you drop fin and let your hormones normalize, you may see everything return to normal in a few weeks or months. If you decide to do this, remember to give it some time.

If you’re prone to gyno, it’s likely that any effective dose of fin will cause this to happen. I was in your shoes and decided the tissue was minor enough to ignore until I could get it surgically removed. I had a lot of success with fin and decided it was worth the trade for a time. Your objective as a man with MPB is the only thing to distinguish “success” from “side effect”, which is why they often go together. I suspect you’ll have good results in the scalp, so you may want to consider the choice I made. I’ve had multiple gyno surgeries, but I’d do it all over again.

Couple things: Do not toy with anti-estrogens to control the side effects, and stop probing your breast tissue. Both of those things are very tempting and likely to make your problems worse.

 

“You may even want to discuss dutesteride with your doctor and see how you react.”

With respect, I would advise against using dutasteride. It does the same thing as fin and is many times more powerful. Last I heard, dut was the drug of choice for transgender patients on hormone therapy for this reason. Of course, I’m not a doctor and could be misinformed.

Edited by Taken4Granted
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4 hours ago, Taken4Granted said:

As someone who has struggled immensely with fin sides, esp. gyno, I can tell you it’s very real and not something to ignore. HOWEVER, as @LaserCap said, the worst thing you can do is stress out and do something desperate. 

For some men (def me, maybe you as well), a drop in the ratio of androgens to estrogens in estrogen-receptor-positive (E+) tissue will promote mitosis and growth of new cells, for example fat and glandular tissue in the breast. There are many stages of tissue growth that I don’t understand in much detail, but you should notice sensitivity and swelling in the breast before much new tissue has actually grown, so there’s still time to intervene. If you drop fin and let your hormones normalize, you may see everything return to normal in a few weeks or months. If you decide to do this, remember to give it some time.

If you’re prone to gyno, it’s likely that any effective dose of fin will cause this to happen. I was in your shoes and decided the tissue was minor enough to ignore until I could get it surgically removed. I had a lot of success with fin and decided it was worth the trade for a time. Your objective as a man with MPB is the only thing to distinguish “success” from “side effect”, which is why they often go together. I suspect you’ll have good results in the scalp, so you may want to consider the choice I made. I’ve had multiple gyno surgeries, but I’d do it all over again.

Couple things: Do not toy with anti-estrogens to control the side effects, and stop probing your breast tissue. Both of those things are very tempting and likely to make your problems worse.

 

“You may even want to discuss dutesteride with your doctor and see how you react.”

With respect, I would advise against using dutasteride. It does the same thing as fin and is many times more powerful. Last I heard, dut was the drug of choice for transgender patients on hormone therapy for this reason. Of course, I’m not a doctor and could be misinformed.

Great post,

I was wondering if an Aromatase Inhibitor (AI) would work to counter the gyno. Did you ever try one?   

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Hey, thanks @Melvin-Moderator. I’m honored if you felt I had anything to contribute. I had exactly the same thought about AIs and SERMs back in the day and did end up trying them out of desperation. I’m happy to share my experience.

For everyone else, anti-estrogens come in three main classes: steroidal aromatase inhibitors (AIs), non-steroidal AIs and selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs). The first two block the enzyme that breaks a piece off of testosterone to make estrogen, and the other one blocks the effects of estrogen in tissue by competitively binding to E+ receptors in cells.

As Melvin pointed out, these drugs may combat estrogen-induced side effects like unwanted breast tissue. They’re extremely popular with AAS users because they are effective when used to prevent these sides while you take them. However, I’d strongly advise against it for anyone considering it on this forum, for the following reasons.

1. No ethical doctor will prescribe these drugs to you unless you have breast cancer or hormone replacement therapy. That means you have to buy them illegally. You will have to break the law and then put unregulated substances in your body. Several years ago, you could buy them legally as “research chemicals”, but that loophole is gone.

2. Anything you do to manipulate your hormones runs the risk of permanently damaging or destabilizing your endocrine system, in particular the hypothalamus-pituitary-testes axis or HPTA. You could very plausibly induce hypogonadism and end up needing HRT.

3. If you’re taking finasteride for hair loss, combating side effects with anti-estrogens defeats the purpose of finasteride. Estrogen is essential for hair and fin works because it makes estrogen a more dominant hormone affecting your hair follicles. It’s essentially a mildly feminizing drug, which is why it has side effects like gyno. Growing hair is just like any side effect in that regard.

4. Even when you use anti-Es very carefully, you still risk estrogen rebound when you discontinue the drug. Your body makes estrogen from testosterone and uses estrogen for negative feedback in the hypothalamus. When E is too high, your body reacts by making less LH and FSH to stimulate your testes, so you make less T and thus bring E back down. When you supress E, your body makes more T. This is the most common mechanism for rebound: you discontinue your drugs while your T is sky high, and then it starts converting to E, resulting in abnormally high E. Gyno city.

5. Suppressing estrogen will stop gyno from getting worse, but it will not get rid of permanent tissue.

 

In summary, the best thing to do is just let your body stabilize on its own. Messing with anti-estrogens can put you in jail with even bigger boobs, lifelong impotence or worse.

Edited by Taken4Granted
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Some good advice here posted here. 
 

In layman’s terms, and to my understanding (I stand to be corrected) an inhibition of the conversion of Testosterone to DHT, results in an increase in the bodies free Testosterone. This excess of testosterone overwhelms the bodies requirement, and is broken down and converted into Estrogen - resulting in female related processes such as the enlargement and grown of breast tissue  ie. gynocamastia. 
 

I’ve read a few times now, that it is hypothesised the adverse side effects related to using finasteride, are sub-consequences of the increase of estrogen in the body, as opposed to the reduction in DHT. I am unable to comment on the accuracy of this, however theoretically I guess it seems plausible. 
 

I’ve previously likened finasteride to Anabolic Steroids, and there are similar crossovers with the side effects profiles for each, (loss of sex drive, lowered mood, ED, gyno, ejaculation issues) - AS side effects usually always a consequence of the Increased estrogen production. 

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Hey @Curious25, def appreciate that. No, I’m just a damaged internet troll. You learn a lot trying to stop boobs from growing.

I’m not totally against finasteride. I took it for years and managed to postpone becoming the bald guy long enough to cope a little, which was prob worth the trade. I do think it’s a lot more serious than many think and say. Do you take it? Sounds like you’ve had occasion to think about these things.

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not...”

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Hey @Taken4Granted 

I've never taken it, because I'm very much against messing with your bodies hormones - something which stemmed from watching close friends of mine using AS's whilst we were in our teens/early twenties, and the catastrophic effects it had on them. 

Something which perplexes me, is the casual attitude many doctors in this industry seem to place on it, and I don't know whether it is because there are financial incentives from the drug companies manufacturing and selling it,

or whether it is simply because it compliments their work, and facilitates an added enhancement of results by strengthening native hair, creating an after image with fuller density and increased hair health - that they are then technically able to allude and attribute to as an after surgery result. Hair restoration is an illusion in more ways than one!    

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@Curious25

Agree, very hard to make a case for messing with a normal endocrine system. It amazes me that women are so casually expected to take contraceptives. I do understand finasteride for hair, though. For some of us, hair loss can really change life for the worse. It seems so absurd, superficial, petty and vain, which only makes it harder. But the fact is that your face is a big part of who you are to yourself and others, and how you look can profoundly affect your life.

It comes down to values and priorities, which we can only judge for ourselves. But yeah, docs hand it out way too readily. Patients should be able to make informed judgments and decide how much they want to risk for their hair. I support fin because I took the risk, paid a high cost and still have no regrets.

 

Best of luck to you, @Hairybiker. We’re all on our own with these hard decisions, so it’s ultimately a tough call you have to make for yourself; but if I were in your shoes, I’d discontinue the fin altogether for a couple months to let the breast tissue go back to normal. Without knowing how much fin it takes to cause that, you might keep fueling the process and end up with permanent tissue. Maybe let your hormones stabilize and try a lower dose when you feel normal again. And hey, maybe try a low buzz if you haven’t yet. It really works for some guys, esp. biker types.

Edited by Taken4Granted
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In the last times I see my nipples - only the nipples, no their halo - get erect often. I do not notice any nodule or other things.  Is it normal or I have to worry? I have been taking finasteride since two years, I'm currently making a pause up to 3 weeks 

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Hi @Struggle, definitely understand your struggle, if you’ll forgive the pun. Gyno is tricky in the early stages because the first signs are subtle. If you’ll forgive my slow pace, I’d like to discuss these early signs before addressing your question.

There are visible changes like more erect nipples, more fullness or swelling, and maybe a puffy look. It’s hard to judge because there’s so much variation (muscle, fat, hydration, fibrous tissue, nipple and areola) from one man to another, from one life stage to another, even from one day or time of day to another for the same man. It also changes depending on your hormonal situation, i.e. how hormones affect you and which hormones are causing the problem, because different hormones affect different tissues, or they may affect the same tissue in different ways (for more on this, look up the effects of progesterone, prolactin and estradiol in breast tissue). Moreover, the earliest signs are aesthetic - in the sense of aesthesia, i.e. sensation - and therefore entirely subjective: tenderness, itching, burning or just increased sensitivity. 

That being so, physicians may not be in the best position to judge whether you’re showing signs of gyno, even if your uncertainty and psychological fog seem to call for an objectve, professional opinion. It’s just hard to diagnose it in the early stage when your physical presentation falls within the normal range that a doc sees every day. The same occurs to a lesser extent with hormones and other lab results with wide reference ranges. It’s not a classic disease that disrupts critical bodily functions, so there’s a lot of room for “normal”. 

Okay, the bottom line: You’re dealing with the early signs of a subtle process where psych factors are hard to account for and no one can give you a straight answer until you’re ready for your first trainer bra. Only you can decide whether things look and feel normal. It could be in your head,  but the first signs can be as minor as simply noticing your nipples more than usual as the nerves get more sensitive and start sending stronger signals to your brain. The same thing could result from you touching them more - this causes you to make prolactin, so stop doing it - or from just stressing about it. But my rule is “When in doubt, discontinue.” You could be overreacting, but once you get permanent tissue, you’ll always be more prone to issues in the future, it won’t take much to make it worse, only surgery gets rid of it, and you’ll never see your natural chest again.

A few things to keep in mind:

1. Don’t scare yourself with pictures on the Internet of crazy gyno on young men with relatively low body fat. That happens to them because they inject enthanated AAS and can’t stop the side effects because the injected drug continues to break down into sex steroids for weeks after it’s injected no matter what you do. Not your situation.

2. You notice more about your breast tissue the more you look. Don’t attribute slight changes (e.g. “they’re puffier today!”) to gyno too hastily. Watch, evaluate critically, take note of the environment (cold, warm), time of day (morning, night) and so forth.

3. Get a baseline blood panel for sex hormones. This includes testosterone, DHT, SHBG, estradiol, estrone, progesterone and prolactin. You can’t do this without dropping the fin for a little while, but it will help immensely if you want objective data down the road and need a baseline for comparison. With hormones, the lab reference ranges aren’t much use.

Good luck!

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Thank you very much for the articulated question. I had blood work done before I interrupted finasteride, T was in the high range of normality and prolactine was fine. 

A physician visited me and said I had nothing, even if for precaution he suggested me to make a pause. My chest is fine, as my areola, totally flat, I noticed only these nipples go erect more often, so that they would be visible under my tshirt. No itching, tenderness or other things. I had balls ache some months ago and so I began to be suspicius regarding side effects. I took some photos when it happened, I could attach them here.

 

Edited by Struggle
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It’s a very difficult choice, wish we had something else besides fin. I can’t take it due to sides. Heard exosome therapy, but I really need to talk to somw surgeons about it. 


I’m a paid admin for Hair Transplant Network. I do not receive any compensation from any clinic. My comments are not medical advice.

Check out my final hair transplant and topical dutasteride journey

View my thread

Topical dutasteride journey 

Melvin- Managing Publisher and Forum Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q&A Blog.

Follow our Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and YouTube.

 

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21 hours ago, Taken4Granted said:

@Curious25

Agree, very hard to make a case for messing with a normal endocrine system. It amazes me that women are so casually expected to take contraceptives. I do understand finasteride for hair, though. For some of us, hair loss can really change life for the worse. It seems so absurd, superficial, petty and vain, which only makes it harder. But the fact is that your face is a big part of who you are to yourself and others, and how you look can profoundly affect your life.

It comes down to values and priorities, which we can only judge for ourselves. But yeah, docs hand it out way too readily. Patients should be able to make informed judgments and decide how much they want to risk for their hair. I support fin because I took the risk, paid a high cost and still have no regrets.

 

Best of luck to you, @Hairybiker. We’re all on our own with these hard decisions, so it’s ultimately a tough call you have to make for yourself; but if I were in your shoes, I’d discontinue the fin altogether for a couple months to let the breast tissue go back to normal. Without knowing how much fin it takes to cause that, you might keep fueling the process and end up with permanent tissue. Maybe let your hormones stabilize and try a lower dose when you feel normal again. And hey, maybe try a low buzz if you haven’t yet. It really works for some guys, esp. biker types.

Thanks for your advice. I'm quite short and have a larger forehead than normal so I know that I could never rock a bald look. I had my hair transplant this week so I had hoped to use fin the keep the native hair from balding. 

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18 hours ago, Struggle said:

Thank you very much for the articulated question. I had blood work done before I interrupted finasteride, T was in the high range of normality and prolactine was fine. 

A physician visited me and said I had nothing, even if for precaution he suggested me to make a pause. My chest is fine, as my areola, totally flat, I noticed only these nipples go erect more often, so that they would be visible under my tshirt. No itching, tenderness or other things. I had balls ache some months ago and so I began to be suspicius regarding side effects. I took some photos when it happened, I could attach them here.

 

This is very similar to me. It is just my nipples that I notice are erect more often. But then again it could all be in my head. 

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in my opinion just be careful of this stuff , ive burned my hands badly with it , luckily i was on it for just 5 months , months 1-4 were no sides ... month 5 ...BOOM ..... ED , Depression and small breast fullness .... pissed ...... stopped , luckily got normal in 1 year .... Thank God ......

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On 12/4/2020 at 7:18 PM, Hairybiker said:

Just an update for everyone that I no longer have an issues. It could just have been my body adjusting to the finasteride.

 

Edited by jolly
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On 12/15/2020 at 6:02 PM, jolly said:

in my opinion just be careful of this stuff , ive burned my hands badly with it , luckily i was on it for just 5 months , months 1-4 were no sides ... month 5 ...BOOM ..... ED , Depression and small breast fullness .... pissed ...... stopped , luckily got normal in 1 year .... Thank God ......

It took you a whole year? Oh man, I'm about to start fin in a day or two.

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