Oral Minoxidil

[bklynborn]

Has anyone taken a low dose oral minoxidil and would anyone recommend it?

I am thinking about doing it instead of topical rogaine

 

[Zoomster]

I believe Dr Bisanga recommends its use  ....that's a lofty recommendation . 

Why not give it a go 

Z

[ciaus]

I do and it works. I have scalp skin conditions that make my skin too sensitive for topical minoxidil. I posted this yesterday on a thread from Dr Bisanga's patients when another member asked the same question:

==

yea I use 2.5mg daily, but you can't buy it over the counter like the topical formula. You'll need a doctor prescription, then any local pharmacy can fill it.

Oral minoxidil was originally developed to treat high blood pressure and they accidentally discovered the hairloss benefits later, similar to finasteride being originally developed for prostate issues. Its generally safe at the lower dosages for hair loss, but it can still potentially have cardiovascular side effects so you want to be mindful of that, especially if you are overweight and /or are already taking blood pressure medicine.

I don't have weight or blood pressure issues, but I still went to walmart and got a little home blood pressure monitor -like they use in the doctors office that wraps around your arm and squeezes, gives readout -, the one i got was about $30, and took some readings the week before I started to get my general bloodpressure baseline in case I started to notice symptoms or weird changes in my blood pressure numbers.

[bklynborn]

Thanks for the information. I use topical regains and quite frankly do not see any difference in hair shedding the only thing I notice is my hair appears to be thicker

Do you think I should start with 1.25mg first?

appreciate your feedback

[ciaus]

1.25mg is fine, that's what I started with cutting 2.5mg pills in halves and my doctor said he has patients that get results with that. I think 2.5 is the smallest dosage you can get without using a pill cutter or getting it custom compounded at a compounding pharmacy.

After about a month of 1.25 one of the doctors here posted on a different topic that he usually starts his patients on 2.5, that there's some literature and consensus that he and doctors he knows use. So I went back to my doctor and talked about it, since 2.5 was still a relatively low dose and I didn't want to wait or wonder if I would get more improvement from 2.5, I asked if he thought it would be alright and he approved, so I did.

The only side effect I've gotten from it is a little light headedness for about the first week, which I also got years ago when I tried the topical minoxidil too (I was applying it pretty liberally then to my crown and front/temple areas).

 

In the other topic on the Dr Bisanga patient thread that I copy/pasted my previous post, his rep says Dr Bisanga usually starts his patients on 5mg, I'm going to try to avoid going up to that dosage -because minoxidil is designed to work on your cardiovascular system I don't want to get greedy or push it. I'm getting good results with 2.5, better then when I was taking the topical, and the probability for side effects do increase with dosage increases. That and I know the main reason I am holding on to my vulnerable hair is the finasteride, the minoxidil while also important, is more like the icing on the cake, making the hairs thicker and keeping them in the growth phase longer.

I would recommend that you go get one of those home blood pressure monitors too and do some regular checks for maybe a week before you start like I did, to know your baseline numbers, and then do the same checks your first weeks while on it. Hair is important, but not nearly as important as your heart/circulatory system.

 

Edited September 21, 2020 by ciaus

[bklynborn]

Thanks ciaus I will let you know what happens 

[giegnosiganoe]

I'm interested in trying it out. How are those in the US getting their prescriptions? My GP wasn't comfortable prescribing it to me. @ciaus

[jjsrader]

Thailandpharmacy.net    I think you can even use bitcoin.  I use Western Union and buy enough for a year and a half at a time.

https://www.thailandpharmacy.net/?s=oral+minoxidil&post_type=product

I started at 2.5 mgs.  Then 5mg and then 10mg and then 10mg 2X's per day.  I now take 5mg's a day.  So much easier than nasty 15% or 30% custom-compounded minox creams.

I take it mainly to keep my donor hair (along w/brand-name Avodart & a hair laser helmet) healthy for more hair restoration surgeries as I keep getting older.

When I was on the highest dose I think my heart rate might have been a bit elevated when exerting myself - but maybe I was just fatter and more out of shape 1 year ago.  I did monitor my BP along the way - no changes.

 

Edited October 7, 2020 by jjsrader

[ciaus]

10 hours ago, giegnosiganoe said:

I'm interested in trying it out. How are those in the US getting their prescriptions? My GP wasn't comfortable prescribing it to me. @ciaus

Over the summer I went to my HT doctor to talk about getting some hairs into my FUT scars with FUE and we talked about my med regimen too. I mentioned that I would like to be doing minox too but that it irritates my skin condition. That was when he brought up the oral version and says he prescribes a low-dose of it to some of his patients. He wrote me the script and I just went to the grocery store pharmacy to get it filled.

I would be careful about going over 2.5mg, the general blood pressure dosage ranges are 10-40mg, maximum dosage is 100mg.  There's a link here with some other interesting information and the chart that I pasted below.

https://donovanmedical.com/hair-blog/oral-minoxidil-top-10

 

 

[giegnosiganoe]

10 hours ago, jjsrader said:

Thailandpharmacy.net    I think you can even use bitcoin.  I use Western Union and buy enough for a year and a half at a time.

https://www.thailandpharmacy.net/?s=oral+minoxidil&post_type=product

I started at 2.5 mgs.  Then 5mg and then 10mg and then 10mg 2X's per day.  I now take 5mg's a day.  So much easier than nasty 15% or 30% custom-compounded minox creams.

I take it mainly to keep my donor hair (along w/brand-name Avodart & a hair laser helmet) healthy for more hair restoration surgeries as I keep getting older.

When I was on the highest dose I think my heart rate might have been a bit elevated when exerting myself - but maybe I was just fatter and more out of shape 1 year ago.  I did monitor my BP along the way - no changes.

 

These kinds of websites are too sketchy for me.. I only want to do this through a prescription.

 

2 hours ago, ciaus said:

Over the summer I went to my HT doctor to talk about getting some hairs into my FUT scars with FUE and we talked about my med regimen too. I mentioned that I would like to be doing minox too but that it irritates my skin condition. That was when he brought up the oral version and says he prescribes a low-dose of it to some of his patients. He wrote me the script and I just went to the grocery store pharmacy to get it filled.

I would be careful about going over 2.5mg, the general blood pressure dosage ranges are 10-40mg, maximum dosage is 100mg.  There's a link here with some other interesting information and the chart that I pasted below.

https://donovanmedical.com/hair-blog/oral-minoxidil-top-10

 

 

I figured I'll have to go through a HT doctor. I'll ask about it once I go for my HT. Interesting to see the difference between 2.5mg and 5mg, I wouldn't have thought it would be more than double.

Given the short half life, what do you think about taking it multiple times a day? Say 1.25mg twice a day instead of 2.5mg once a day. Would that be more effective?

[ciaus]

1 hour ago, giegnosiganoe said:

Given the short half life, what do you think about taking it multiple times a day? Say 1.25mg twice a day instead of 2.5mg once a day. Would that be more effective?

I'd just stick to once a day 2.5mg or less. I wouldn't think of it like finasteride where you are trying to keep your DHT levels down consistently. Even after 12hrs the 2.5mg dosage has a blood level concentration a bit higher than the topical.