Non-insigificant Avodart side effects?

[Autumn]

http://www.raysahelian.com/avodart.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrotestosterone


Besides the obvious (breasts, erectile dysfunction, minor feminized effects...which are positive), it seems that avodart may have further side effects.

A friend of mine who is transitioning is worried that I'll suffer osteoperosis if I stay on avodart without estrogen. That, i'm not sure about, it seems like bone density loss would be something that would crop up easily in studies. But life-long avodart consumption isn't exactly something charted.

However, the muscular pain thing (in the comments section of the first link, bottom of page) seems to be a fairly common, unmentioned side effect. Double checking the wiki entry for the effects of DHT notes that DHT1 is an enzyme that's present in the brain - luckily it's repressed 33 times less powerfully than DHT2.

My concern, I guess, is that I know that if I were to stop taking hair loss meds that my self image would collapse. I'm not sure if I can get through life without transitioning, but losing my hair would leave me an angry, bitter, depressed person. 3 months on avodart, now, I'm beginning to notice the birth of new hair that I didn't have after a year on propecia, so I'm really excited, but the thought of losing that is awful.

[lady amarant]

I was on Spironolactoneand Fincar for almost a year before starting Oestrogen about 6 weeks ago now, and that was one of my main reasons for starting before going back to South Africa. Hormones are important for bone health, so your friend has reason to worry.

That said...

You should be okay for up to two years on just anti-androgens, according to most of the different sources I queried. Of course, this will vary from person to person, but if you start anti-androgens at 16, you should be fine getting onto Oestrogen at 18, all SOC kosher.

The muscle cramps and spasms are fairly common when using Spiro, mostly caused by the imbalance between sodium and potassium created in your body. I'm not sure about how Dutasteride would be causing similar symptoms, but I can imagine that anything inhibiting hormonal action would affect muscle function because of that. I know that, when I was on the anti-androgens, I had episodes of muscle-weakness and tremors. Now that I've started oestrogen as well, those are disappearing fairly quickly.

Good luck hon. Hope it helped.

~Simone.