Oral Fin or topical Dut..?

[follically challenged]

I was wondering about which meds to start, when i finally grow some balls and take the plunge..

Anyway, in the mean time I have been looking into topical as opposed to oral, and i came across this info regarding Dutasteride:

"Topical Dutasteride is the most powerful topical DHT inhibitor available today. It reduces up to 90% of scalp DHT by blocking the 5 alpha-reductase enzyme locally while causing a negligible decline on serum DHT levels which significantly reduce the chances of side effects commonly reported on oral Dutasteride and Finasteride...

Due to having a larger molecular weight (537kda) than finasteride it  remains longer in the scalp with only a minuscule fraction of the medication becoming vascularized and going systemic. Our patients report reduced shedding, hair loss stabilization, regrowth and minimal to no side effects while being able to use this medication every other day or even weekly due to its large half-life...

Our Topical Dutasteride is a unique and exclusive custom made formula containing Dutasteride 0.1%, natural vitamins and growth factors that have a synergic effect on follicles preventing further miniaturization and thickening existing ones."


So, I am wondering, if this is true, and if so, why would anyone even risk side effects in the first place from fin when a supposedly viable alternative is available that you simply apply to the head..?

Sure, I can imagine it becomes tiresome, but surely that is a better option than potentially messing up your hormone profile...?

Would be grateful to hear your thoughts. Cheers

[HairRun]

It looks like you got that information here

https://fueclinic.com/services/treatments/topical-dutasteride-0-1/

First thing I noticed that its not a liposomal solution, which is the gold standard for topical fin. But they use this instead

https://us.fagron.com/en-us/product/trichosoltm

 

 

[follically challenged]

Hmm, ok. Can you explain the difference..?

Also, I was talking more about the benefits of topical dutasteride over ORAL fin (not topical fin).

Cheers

[JDEE0]

1 hour ago, follically challenged said:

Hmm, ok. Can you explain the difference..?

Also, I was talking more about the benefits of topical dutasteride over ORAL fin (not topical fin).

Cheers

The idea behind the benefits of topical Dutasteride is that the drug does not absorb systemically to any large degree and thus does not alter serum DHT levels significantly; maybe only 20 or so percent as opposed to the 70 ish percent of oral fin and the near 100 percent of oral Dutasteride. Instead, it is hoped it is absorbed straight into the scalp/dermal papillae and targets the AR locally instead. 

However, there is really no substantial clinical data that currently exists to corroborate this at all; most of the evidence comes from online forum posters who have had their bloodwork done on topical dut and compared this to baseline. But it does seem promising and seems that this may well actually be the case. You could fairly easily test this for yourself by getting your own bloodwork done before and during taking topical dut; if it only drops marginally after say 6 months of continued use, then you can be confident that it indeed is only going minimally systemic.

The real issue is that there is also no real clinical data to prove that topical dut works to significantly prevent hair loss. Perhaps the reason that it doesn't seem to go systemic (which it is speculated is due to it's relatively high molecular weight of above 500 daltons) also means that it doesn't really do much in the way of stopping miniaturisation. I'm not saying that this is the case, I do actually think it's promising, but who knows. I personally wouldn't bet my hair on it right now as there's no evidence that it works whilst we have lots and lots of evidence that finasteride indeed does work. 

I'll say that if you absolutely won't use fin, then I would certainly recommend using topical dut if you're willing to do so. There are a number of high level surgeons who have been prescribing topical dut for a while now and say that it works well, so that bodes well in its favour also. But if you don't mind taking fin, I would personally recommend to just take that. It's proven to work and has decades of highly controlled scientific data to back this up.

[follically challenged]

Interesting. Thanks for your reply