I know this is old news but not everybody is up to date such as myself. I always knew that maintenance after one yr with dut can be as little as 0.5mg every other day or possibly stretching it 2 times per week. But in this article Dr. Sawaya indicates that patients can use 0.5mg one time per month(?) as maintenance. If thats the case I think that should remove all fear of the terrible and unknown side effects of dut because taking 0.5mg once a month is not bad at all.
Dr. Sawaya’s Test Patient Reporting Impressive Results With Dutasteride - The New Hair Loss Medication That Will Soon Eclipse Propecia
One of HairSite’s frequent visitors posted in the Dutasteride forum on April 26th, 2002 a certain news article he found in the News4 Jacksonville website (news4jax.com). This news article was dated Feb 18, 2000. In the article, a test patient of Dr. Marty Sawaya’s came forward and reported dramatic results in hair growth while participating in a study for a new hair loss medication. Dr. Sawaya of Ocala is one of the nation’s most highly respected specialists in the filed of hair loss.
The name of the medication was not disclosed in the News4Jax’s article but HairSite’s posters were quick to speculate (as usual) that the medication referred to could very likely be Dutasteride.
HairSite has managed to contact the test subject featured in the News4Jax article. For the purpose of this report, we called the test subject Tom. Tom confirmed that he was one of the 35 test subjects participated in Dr. Sawaya’s study for Dutasteride several years ago.
Tom was about 33 years old when he began the study. According to Tom, Dutasteride had worked wonders for him. Tom was on the medication for about 8 - 10 months (he does not remember exactly how many months, but according to Tom, definitely at least 6 months and no more than a year) and he went from a Norwood 4 - 5 to a Norwood 2 during that period. His hair loss stopped completely 3 weeks after he began the treatment and he witnessed gradual hair growth throughout the rest of the study. No shedding was reported. First visible signs of regrowth were observed at the back and crown area. The regrowth was particularly dense and thick in the back and crown area, but there was noticeable regrowth along the hairlines as well. Absolutely no side effects were reported.
After Tom was taken off the medication, he was requested to visit Dr. Sawaya’s office for blood test and monitoring. It was found that his DHT level had remained low for more than a year after he discontinued taking Dutasteride even though the results tapered off eventually. Dr. Sawaya’s office speculated that because of the medication’s effectiveness, some patients can possibly go on Dutasteride one pill a week or even stretch as far as one pill per month in the maintenance phase. When Tom was on the medication, he was asked to take one pill per day during the 8 - 10 month period. Tom remembered that he was given the highest dose in the study but forgot exactly how many milligrams exactly. He had not used Propecia, Minoxidil or any other hair loss products prior to or during the study.
Tom also added that another benefit of Dutasteride was that the hair on his back fell off while he was on the medication.
Unfortunately, about a year after Tom stopped using Dutasteride, a majority of the Dutasteride induced regrowth started to fall. When asked if he would go back to Dutasteride again when it becomes available, Tom said he was totally devastated that they took him off the study and that he would absolutely go back to the medication as soon as they become available.
There were about 35 other subjects in the study. Tom indicated that he was not able to get in touch with other test patients and he cautioned that his results may be among the most impressive of all.
THANK YOU “TOM” FOR PROVIDING THE TESTIMONIALS