Dutasteride

[Eridani]

Hi all,

Have anyone of you know if dutasteride could prevent futher develompent of facial and body hair? How different are effects of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone?

[LilKittyCatZoey]

i use that stuff it doesn't affect facial hair only head and body hair

[Padma]

Aye, dutasteride will reawaken hair follicles on the head (the ones that have been made dormant by DHT but not the ones that have been killed off, thus partially reversing male pattern baldness) - it won't otherwise affect hair anywhere else, including the face.

[Eridani]

But could dutasteride prevent new body and facial hairs from growing? I have a pretty modest amount of hair and start laser this Friday.

[Padma]

I'm afraid not - dutasteride/finasteride only reawaken dormant (as opposed to dead) scalp follicles as a side-effect, because they suppress DHT, which the body makes out of some of its testosterone, and which causes (among other things) male pattern scalp baldness. This is why as soon as you stop taking them (if you have no other means of suppressing DHT) your male pattern baldness will return again.

Body hair will mostly become finer or fall out once on hormones/anti-androgens (apart from the pubes, which are there to stay) but is unaffected by dutasteride/finasteride.

Facial hair is there to stay once it's there, and though it will become finer and grow a bit more slowly on hormones, it is also unaffected by dutasteride/finasteride, and has to be removed physically via laser (or electrolysis if it's not dark enough for laser). So get it while it's young, or at least get it while it's dark!

[wendy]

Dutasteride did prevent further male pattern baldness.  It had no effect at regrowing any of my hair as my hair had gone back to Maker.  One very positive aspect of dutasteride is that it shrunk prostate gland back to size of person in their twenties.  Drug can cause birth defects for pregnant female and can cause intersex births.

[Bird]

@Wendy

[Sarcasm]I suppose that is one advantage of being born without a womb, if there could ever be one![/Sarcasm]

[Stephe]

I considered finasteride but the more research I did, the less I liked what it does to my system. It doesn't just block T to DHT, it blocks/inhibits a LOT of different chemical conversions in our bodies, some related to brain chemistry that keeps us from becoming depressed. The makers finally had to add depression as a side effect because it happens fairly often after longer periods of use and they proved the brain chemistry behind this in lab tests. It also inhibits progesterone from doing certain things, good things your body needs. I wonder what other weird things it might be doing no one understands....

I feel like if you are taking enough meds to get your T down where it should be, you shouldn't need to worry about T to DHT as there isn't much T to start with. Just being on spiro has killed off much of my VERY furry body hair I had. I'm a firm believer in taking as few different meds as you can get away with and get to where you need to be. Personally I wouldn't add this to the mix but YMMV..

[Padma]

I'd prefer not to take finasteride/dutasteride (on top of everything else that's coming along), but it's the only way for me to address male-pattern baldness without having horribly expensive hair transplants, since I don't wish to wear a hairpiece.

[Joeyboo~ :3]

Hey guieezz.
Uhm.. I don't know how to ask but--
if I get on Dutasteride (or something similar that does suppress DHT) early can the effects of male pattern baldness be fully reversed?
The corners of my hairline are getting lighter and aren't as full as they used to be.
sooo.. I assume that's the beginning of it.

and how do I ask my endo about something like this? I don't wanna feel like I'm telling him how to do his job lol.
i'm a really bad talker. >.<

[Padma]

Yes, it would reverse male pattern baldness, though only for the follicles that have been rendered dormant, rather than killed off, by the DHT. The earlier you catch it, the better for your hairline. And I think asking your endo what he/she thinks about it is very different from 'telling' them their job, so go for it .

[Jay-Bird]

Hey guieezz.
Uhm.. I don't know how to ask but--
if I get on Dutasteride (or something similar that does suppress DHT) early can the effects of male pattern baldness be fully reversed?
The corners of my hairline are getting lighter and aren't as full as they used to be.
sooo.. I assume that's the beginning of it.

and how do I ask my endo about something like this? I don't wanna feel like I'm telling him how to do his job lol.
i'm a really bad talker. >.<

You should ask for something straight away regarding hair loss or thinning, the more you thin or lose the harder it becomes to get back so to speak.
Duta's are very good but also very strong, usually an Endo or Doc won't prescribe them straight away for a minimal level of hair loss which it sounds like you have. From my understanding they will usually put you on Finasteride first which is more than enough to stop hair loss, and even grow back some. Depending on how much Fina you take it blocks around the 75% DHT mark where Duta's is about 90%. I did a lot of reading on these before I started Duta's, there are many hairloss sites out there which can tell you more detailed specifics. Oh' and if you want to grow back hair or thicken hair again you may want to add Minoxidil, it stimulates or aggravates hair follicles back into action, so its a good combo.
The general rule is, if there is still hair there, as in thinning hair it can be grown back into terminal hair if it has been thinning for around 5-6 years roughly. If there is a slick bald patch, not so good. But again as with all things its dependent on the person and age and genes and so forth. Nothing is ever written in stone, such is what i believe anyway - take things as a general guide.

hope that helps.
Miya

[wendy]

Hey guieezz.
Uhm.. I don't know how to ask but--
if I get on Dutasteride (or something similar that does suppress DHT) early can the effects of male pattern baldness be fully reversed?
The corners of my hairline are getting lighter and aren't as full as they used to be.
sooo.. I assume that's the beginning of it.

and how do I ask my endo about something like this? I don't wanna feel like I'm telling him how to do his job lol.
i'm a really bad talker. >.<

Actually my endo told me she would no longer treat me if I kept doing want I wanted.  I then followed her and told her why I did certain things.  She actually started agreeing with me and working with me instead of telling me what to do.

Dutasteride can recover hair that you lost about 10 years ago as Padma stated.  I have watched young people in their 20's that had less hair than me recover their hair.  It did very little for me and my endo told me I could stop taking it as I no longer have DHT.  Yes I listened to her and stopped taking it.

I have heard from other doctors that to grow hair back you can take Dutasteride every other day after initial treatment.  This is good because meds are expensive!

If meds start to work then hair starts to grow like fine "baby" hair.  It takes many months before you see results even if it works.  It also helps keep hair you have.  After you remove your testes you no longer need Dutasteride because removing your "T" in turn removes derivative of T which is DHT.

[Annah]

I had hair loss for about 15 years when i went on dutas. I had to convince my endo. I have been very happy with the results. I tried finasteride for sometime....it was nowhere near effective as dutas is. So I went on dutas.

Ill show you a before/middle/and after pic of dutas:

Before


During


After


YMMV but it really did work wonders for me. It does not stop facial hair growth tho

[Annah]

Erm, that's briliant Annah, but which one are you in the first picture?  oops

I love dutasteride too, although I havne not gone as far as eating on toast yet.  haha

Debbie 

im the one with the beard in the first pic.

[Annah]

nope. only I had the beard. My brother has the goatee.

[wendy]

Annah,

I might have more hair than you had before you started Dutasteride.  I was 52 before I read literature that Dutasteride blocks alpha and beta derivatives of DHT and started taking it.  Dr. Osterhout found that people starting before 50 with Dutasteride had reasonable results and people after 52 had almost no results.    He told me "Well my statistics are pretty close."

Annah you look great and you have trained your voice to be impressive!

I have taken hormones for 7 years and when I went to my endo 3.5 ears ago she said this is all you will get.  She was correct.  I have no T and no beard.  I presented male today and was called sir almost 100% of time.  One person knows me to present both ways and avoided gender label.  Had one run in at an auto store which I felt was unwarranted.  Young female store manager would not give me a $1.69 credit which is unbelievable for a duplicate item.  This was poor customer service.

My center hairline is 2.5 inch off center of eyebrow and sides are 4" off center of eyebrow.  Hair is number 1 factor to determine gender.  Nose is second and voice is third.

I think Dutasteride is underrated.

[Annah]

  Hair is number 1 factor to determine gender.  Nose is second and voice is third.

I think Dutasteride is underrated.

I totally agree with you about this. Hair, in my opinion is number one when it comes to the presentation. However, our number 2 may vary a lil. I find eyebrows to me number two and Voice is def. third.

[wendy]

I totally agree with you about this. Hair, in my opinion is number one when it comes to the presentation. However, our number 2 may vary a lil. I find eyebrows to me number two and Voice is def. third.

Too funny.  Annah I never could grow a full beard and had no hair around my mouth.  My eyebrows were always feminine.  But I do have a big heavy bridged male nose.  You have a rather feminine nose.  I can not do voice thing like you but can do a sentence or two on phone message.  It feels totally wrong when you talk through your sinus  cavities.  It even sounds wrong to my ears as I try to change my voice.  However when I listen to recorded message it is O.K.  It is mixed with male sentences, female sentences, falsetto, and in between.  After about 60 seconds my voice drifts back to male.  With a wig and makeup and female clothing I totally pass with my big male nose.  However if I talk general public will read me. 
............................

I have never heard that before (the 50 /52 bit).  I am 60 and taking it.  I guess I am not sure why as I have a full head of hair. I suppose I am hoping to keep it there, and also maybe make it thicker.  I know it doesn't fall out so is it doing nothing?

Does anybody else know about this 52+ innefective Dutasteride thing?

Debbie 

Debbie this material is not published.  Many TG people teach each other and then doctors.  Dr. O studied anthropology and loves statistics.  His precise age for Dutasteride being marginal at best for hair growth was 52.5. 

India uses Dutasteride with great success at treating BHP (enlarged prostate).  I took drug to grow hair which it did not.  However it did do what it was designed to do for me which was eliminate need to get up multiple times at night to visit restroom.  This happens to strike me as funny in that I am self medicating to try to better pass and I fix a problem from my birth gender.

Another side effect from Dutesteride is potential breast growth.  I am not sure if it helped as my breasts are good size.

Bottomline: 1. If you have good hair and prostate is not enlarged then why take Dutasteride?  It is expensive. 
2. If you remove your testes you can stop taking Dutsteride since your DHT production is near zero,
3. Per one SRS/GRS doctor Dutasteride can be taken every other day after several months and will save you some money and be equally effective.  (I never took a pill every other day.  I took it every day for three years and then stopped when no DHT was in my system.)

Genetic women must avoid this medication if they get pregnant as it can cause an intersex baby (XY born to look like XX).

[Emily Ray]

I love the color!

Huggs

Em