Should someone considering a hair transplant get on dutasteride beforehand? I am on finasteride but I am worried it isn't enough

[Norwood311]

Hi everyone, I am a 28 year old man, currently around a Norwood 3 and considering a hair transplant later this year, likely with Pekiner or possibly Laorwong (I prefer Pekiner's hairline work though, he actually thought I was a Norwood 2 but I think I'm closer to 3). Had online consults with both, got some good info. However, I have been on oral finasteride 1mg for around 9 months and unfortunately I am still losing hair. I understand that I could potentially just be going through another shed, but I do have a family history of some very aggressive male pattern baldness. Both grandpas completely bald, dad is almost completely bald, uncle isn't but he had a transplant and uses finasteride, all of them starting balding very young like I did, late teens early 20s.

Fortunately I'm not getting sides from finasteride at all but I do think I probably need oral dutasteride. I have a more severe genetic disposition to balding (i remember the first time someone noticed my hairline was receding and I was only 18!!!) and dutasteride isn't more likely to cause side effects than finasteride according to all the most recent studies. We even have some long term studies on dutasteride, a 5 year Korean study was published not long ago, hopefully we get longer 10 year studies soon!

Anyway, i just wanna make sure my hairloss has STOPPED before surgery and want to hopefully grow back a bit and lower the number of grafts I will end up needing (looks like it would be around 2500 based on my level of loss) and could potentially even avoid surgery entirely if I am very lucky and grow back a lot on dut.

What do you guys think? Seems like dut is a safer choice before surgery. Plan on using 0.5mg once a day. 

Edited February 4 by Norwood311

[Gatsby]

It’s seems like switching to dutasteride is the logical move. But I would suggest that you see a good dermatologist and do this under his/her guidance. Wishing you all the best. 

[Ramons]

On 2/4/2024 at 2:21 PM, Norwood311 said:

Hi everyone, I am a 28 year old man, currently around a Norwood 3 and considering a hair transplant later this year, likely with Pekiner or possibly Laorwong (I prefer Pekiner's hairline work though, he actually thought I was a Norwood 2 but I think I'm closer to 3). Had online consults with both, got some good info. However, I have been on oral finasteride 1mg for around 9 months and unfortunately I am still losing hair. I understand that I could potentially just be going through another shed, but I do have a family history of some very aggressive male pattern baldness. Both grandpas completely bald, dad is almost completely bald, uncle isn't but he had a transplant and uses finasteride, all of them starting balding very young like I did, late teens early 20s.

Fortunately I'm not getting sides from finasteride at all but I do think I probably need oral dutasteride. I have a more severe genetic disposition to balding (i remember the first time someone noticed my hairline was receding and I was only 18!!!) and dutasteride isn't more likely to cause side effects than finasteride according to all the most recent studies. We even have some long term studies on dutasteride, a 5 year Korean study was published not long ago, hopefully we get longer 10 year studies soon!

Anyway, i just wanna make sure my hairloss has STOPPED before surgery and want to hopefully grow back a bit and lower the number of grafts I will end up needing (looks like it would be around 2500 based on my level of loss) and could potentially even avoid surgery entirely if I am very lucky and grow back a lot on dut.

What do you guys think? Seems like dut is a safer choice before surgery. Plan on using 0.5mg once a day. 

Be careful about Dutasteride. I was on Finasteride for close to 2 decades -  overly healthy libido, fathered 2 healthy children….no side effects whatsoever. 
 

I switched to Dutasteride and felt like sh!t. Had depression, dark thoughts, no libido - it was like it had plummeted my testosterone. I stopped taking it mid script and felt better within days.