I have a question, do I need to get a therapist's letter for a testosterone blocker? My hair is thinning out a little on the top back of my head and I need to get it to stop quickly, I don't want to wait to start taking the estrogen to take a testosterone blocker. I would never take any drugs without a doctor's prescription and I want to follow SOC, but I haven't seen anything on getting just the blocker and not the estrogen right away. I want to bring this up with my therapist, but I don't see her until early July. I'm sure my well-informed Susan's friends do :) Thanks, Meghan
To help the hair you could you finasteride (or dutasteride). It is a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor i.e. slowing down the conversion of testosterone into DHT in the target tissues. Finasteride is considered a normal medicine and it should be obtainable from a GP for male hair loss.
I doubt that you'll get bald until July. It's only less than two weeks away.
If you are loosing hair I would suggest asking for Proscar when you start hrt. It is the same thing as Propecia, and both are Finasteride, but Proscar is a 5 times higher doseage tablet. Instead of blocking testosterone receptors, it inhibits the enzyme that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT).
I am on Proscar because I couldn't keep my potassium down with Spiro. The results are as good, and my receding temples have grown hair back.
Sandi (http://vista.powerblogs.com/)
Thanks All. Jeanette, silly, my July meeting isn't when I get my letter, that's just when I can talk to her next. I'm going to use this info to do some research and then I'll be able to present some ideas to her :)
Proscar is very cheap and efficient for hair loss
(but its not a general antiandrogen, so it won't help to reduce muscle mass and shut down testes. You have to take more E to counter T's effect without an anti-androgen. The effect on libido is less too.
The best thing for hair is dutasteride, it blocks the conversion of almost all DHTl; the cheapest price for it is about $1 per day (but even taking it every other day its still stronger than propecia). It also has a very long half life and DHT takes a long time to rebound after it is stopped, so even if your intake of medication fluctuates, it won't really affect DHT levels reaching the hair will always be low (this is unlike spiro which needs to be there in sufficient quantity to prevent the DHT from reaching the hair, fluctuations during the day due to its short half life, allows varying amount of DHT to reach the hair).
Spiro binds to 66% of T receptors when you take spiro, and since spiro also diminishes T production, the amount of DHT converted from T that can attach to receptors is low to nil if the spiro dose is high enough and it is taken several times a day. The result of just using spiro for most, is the regrowth of all but the smallest miniaturised hair. For the smallest one though (like the ones at or near the temple), a strong DHT inhibitor is needed until they're strong enough not to be affected by the small ammount of DHT remaining.
My own opinion is that finesteride is so cheap (max 15 cents a day if you buy a Fincar finesteride pills and cut it small pieces) that its not worth it not using it. There's no downside, just an upside. Besides, its not in SOC and any doctor can prescribe it to you in an instant.
Tell you doctor you want Finesteride in 5mg pills that you will cut down, Propecia is the same medication, but in 1mg form. They sell it for the same price as the 5mg one.
Remember that these products do increase T because they are blocking DHT. They don't interefer with Spiro's blocking of T. Rather that by blocking conversion of T to DHT, T levels increase. Just something you should be aware of.
Quote from: Amy T. on June 20, 2007, 09:43:53 AM
Remember that these products do increase T because they are blocking DHT. They don't interefer with Spiro's blocking of T. Rather that by blocking conversion of T to DHT, T levels increase.
True, but I believe by only 10% - 15%. Significant, but probably not enough to affect feminization.
I've been taking Propecia for many years, and after starting HRT my testosterone level still fell to the lower end of the female range. It had been at the high end of the male range before HRT.
~Kate~
Quote from: MeghanAndrews on June 20, 2007, 12:07:33 AM
I have a question, do I need to get a therapist's letter for a testosterone blocker?
Heck, no. Reversable treatments do not require approval. I was on both spironolactone and proscar for 1 1/2 years before I got my HRT letter.
Quote from: Kate on June 20, 2007, 10:19:10 AM
Quote from: Amy T. on June 20, 2007, 09:43:53 AM
Remember that these products do increase T because they are blocking DHT. They don't interefer with Spiro's blocking of T. Rather that by blocking conversion of T to DHT, T levels increase.
True, but I believe by only 10% - 15%. Significant, but probably not enough to affect feminization.
I've been taking Propecia for many years, and after starting HRT my testosterone level still fell to the lower end of the female range. It had been at the high end of the male range before HRT.
~Kate~
Dutasteride its 26%!
Like I said the increase, is only coming from DHT production being halted. The better the DHT blocker, the higher the T. It does not mess with Spiro and Estrogens T blocking effects. Rather the conversion to DHT does not happen. So if Spiro and E is blocking the T, it just means the T that does get through does not turn into the nasty DHT. It took me awhile to figure this out. And I will probably start one of them.
Yes, but the T not converted to DHT is very small after HRT is started (before it will be 10-15% increase but Spiro can take care of that); miniaturised hair in many susceptible to Male pattern baldness is sensible to even small amounts of T (in DHT form) but must body tissues are not that sensible to very small amounts of T.
ok,so I just dropped of my prescription for propecia. keira, I tried to convince him to give me proscar but he said he only prescribes intended doses. no problem. I probably won't be on hormones until sept or oct and I don't want to lose more hair in that time. he said I might have sexual side effects like erectile dysfunction and low sex drive. I thought to myself 'don't think it could get any lower, but ok!'
thanks for the advice :) Meghan
This thread has convinced me to pick up Proscar in addition to HRT. I always thought that the Spiro would take care of the issue, but I believe I am very sensitive to DHT and that it is genetic. Correct me if I am wrong, but the Proscar should still stop the Male pattern baldness correct?
Charlotte
Quote from: charlotteNH on June 20, 2007, 08:04:39 PM
This thread has convinced me to pick up Proscar in addition to HRT. I always thought that the Spiro would take care of the issue, but I believe I am very sensitive to DHT and that it is genetic. Correct me if I am wrong, but the Proscar should still stop the Male pattern baldness correct?
Yes, but most doctors will prescribe Propecia instead, as Proscar isn't indicated for hair loss (same drug, just different dose per pill). I took Propecia for years before HRT, and it reversed some of my balding.
~Kate~
Its an insurance thing mostly, since they're not the same price, the doctor doesn't want to prescribe the higher dose one even if he knows its the same thing.
I just buy generic fincar from india for next to nothing, cut it into very small pieces and 30 pills last half a year. That's much cheap.
As I said, the downside of finesteride for a MTF is nil since the side effects if you get them, are the same as an anti-androgen; don't think many mtf would object to that (some males do).
Propecia stops hairloss pretty fast for most, but it takes at least 4 months to see some regrowth in the areas where the hair was lost the latest, the ones lost a while back take more time, sometimes they don't come back. For those with severe hairloss, starting spiro quickly so T levels will also be suppressed or switching to dutasteride is in order (it cost about $1 a day).
Keira,
I've been looking all around for the best price on FINCAR but with no luck so far.Where do you get yours from? And do you pay for it or does your ins pay for it? I'm on PROPECIA for now and would like to find something as good or better for a better price cause my ins will not pay for any of it.
Its so funny when a post gets gutted.... Hey. I became a girl of few words ;-).
Anyway, on the internet you can good deals on fincar (generic finesteride) and dutas (generic dutesteride). Fincar's much cheaper per day (less than 15 cents).
Keira, now I totally understand why you were recommending getting the Proscar instead of Propecia. It cost me $73 for a 30 day supply and NOT covered by insurance. I don't know why I wasn't even thinking of that, but that's a lot of money! Obviously not losing hair is very important, so I'll need to figure out what to do. Definitely understand not advocating DIY though. I'll keep you posted on my hair regrowth (hopefully). It's just a little patch in the back that is thinning anyway. thanks again, Meghan
Quote from: Keira on June 21, 2007, 01:46:51 PM
Its so funny when a post gets gutted.... Hey. I became a girl of few words ;-).
Anyway, on the internet you can good deals on fincar (generic finesteride) and dutas (generic dutesteride). Fincar's much cheaper per day (less than 15 cents).
Sorry for getting you in trouble for asking that.I didn't think it was a big deal.