» » Thank you MJ2003. I feel I have a moral obligation to share my
» experience.
» »
» » I have used hairloss treatments since 1996, starting with minox 2% then
» 5%
» » (stopped due to the mess) and propecia in 2005. In June 2009 I started
» with
» » 0.5 Avodart(Brand).
» » That first week I had an outbreak of shingles. Nothing unusual as this
» had
» » been going on since 2005. I was waking up with joint pain and loss of
» » energy. I began to feel slightly anxious and depressed, I put this down
» to
» » the hairloss and something that would pass.
» »
» » My profession requires me to be presented at a good physical level. I
» eat
» » a consistently balanced diet and workout 5/6 times a week. My muscle
» » quality was detriorating and my workouts less vigourous. I gained
» weight,
» » something I attributed to the decrease in workout intensity. I just
» thought
» » I was ‘going through the motions,’ and it would pass. My blood pressure
» had
» » always been stable and was now elevated along with my resting heart rate.
» I
» » put this down to less vigor and intensity in my workouts. (A
» cardiologist
» » had suggested that dutasteride reduces the size of the prostate and
» overall
» » muscle mass. The body responds with an excess production of adrenaline
» and
» » other chemicals as a protective mechanism).
» »
» » I continued through the weeks and I was still feeling the same,
» » generalized joint pain, shingles outbreaks, sad, no energy, loss of sex
» » drive, although I was now ejaculating a brown fluid and the only thing i
» » had to keep me going were my new breasts!
» »
» » With regard to my hairloss - who knows if I made a difference, or slowed
» » it down. All I know is that I continued to lose it. I have used drugs
» and
» » alcohol to detach from the feelings and emotions of hairloss. I have
» spent
» » upwards of £50,000 on rehabilitation (now clean 3 years). That money
» could
» » have probably strengthened my hair with an accredited hair transplant
» » professional.
» »
» » I recognize that denial of reality is a symptom of any addiction,
» whether
» » it is to drugs, alcohol or external appearance.
» »
» » Again, I would like to thank MJ2003 and all the other contributors as
» this
» » thread was the catalyst in my further research to the complications of
» » Avodart.
» » Today, I have not taken a tablet.
»
» Thanks for sharing mbrook. I’m sure many can relate to your personal
» experience, and becoming content with your hair loss is a success all on
» its own.
MJ,
Thank you for sharing your experiences. You have been courageous! I have been researching tons and tons of things for the last 10 years and have a lot of resources from this research but have not pulled the trigger on too many things. I have a couple of questions for you. How old are you? When did you start losing hair? I know where to get generic dutasteride .5mg pills for roughly 55 cents a piece and I can get finasteride 1mg tablets for less than 20 cents a piece. I have been only taking finasteride 1mg a day for 9 months and have had remarkable regrowth but it seems that it is plateauing. I have read everything that you have posted and I think that your supplementation for lifting and working out could be a factor that you have not thought of. I know for a fact that my favorite pre-workout supplement jack3d makes me lose more hair. Adaptogens like Maca root, Tongkat Ali, and my favorite Maral root (Luzea) all contribute to hair loss because it makes your body produce its own testosterone and makes it like you are a 16 year old all over again.
For the record, I am 41. I have less than 9% body fat and everyone tells me I look like I am 25. I have hair loss in my crown area and minoxidil 2 or 5% did not help me regrow hair. I only tried it for 6 months and could not stand the sticky gooey mess. MJ, I have considered your higher doses and of going though like 4ml a day or more. I admit I was only doing 2ml or 5%. I might revisit that. I know a couple of doctors in Bangkok, Thailand that do hair transplants for literally 10 to 20% of what doctors here in the states here do and a plane ticket only costs $1,000 round trip and you could be hanging out on the Island of Phuket for a month recovering for literally 1/4 of the cost. Again I have not jumped on this. I am in the process of researching and seeing if I can wait out for maybe a more permanent with less side effects type solution. I have several other things on my mind including using a micro-dermabrasion roller (look on amazon under “derma roller”, that allows for 97% absorption of minoxidil versus a normal absorption of 4-8%. I have looked at hair lasers and at certain wavelengths this seems to be a solution for some. Again I have many other things I have been thinking about but would like to lay these things down to begin a discussion. I also have not seen a posting from you MJ since September of 2012. How are you doing? How is your dosing of dutasteride? What is your current daily dosage? Where are you at pertaining to regrets or things to the contrary?
Again before I forget, I think it is important to note. I was married for 7 years before my wife was able to have children. I had a daughter from another marriage and so we didn’t think there was an issue with me but both of us were tested when going through infertility treatments. I am not bragging but in order to think about various factors it is important to state what happened to me. Multiple blood tests showed that I produced 7 times the testosterone than an average male (I was 29 at the time). That is also about the time that my crown started to thin. I also produce at least that same amount of viable sperm; so I had that androgen-DHT thing probably raging inside of me and it began to affect my hair follicles.
I have had some sexual side effects from taking finasteride but most of them have subsided. I am also 41. What I have found is that it has most likely significantly reduced my testosterone and it has been a great benefit to me. I am not as aggressive and “Alpha male-like” and it has allowed me to settle down for the first time in my life. I usually only get 4-6 hours of sleep and now I get 8. I can feel when my testosterone gets low and that is when I take adaptogens like maral root for a month and hit it hard in the gym and it balences me out between too little and too much testosterone. This is also when I notice a little more hair loss. Same goes for some of my pre-workout supplements. Again this is enough for now.
