I wondered If anyone went through a shedding phase when changing their delivery method of Estrogene post op. In November last year I switched from Estradiol gel to sublingual tablets and since then I see hairloss at the temples progressing. It could be possible that the current hormonal inbalance causes my hair to shed in a male pattern.
Another possibility, and that really scares me, is that the Estrogene tablets themselves, especially high doses, somehow trigger that male recession pattern. I have no logical explaination for this since I am 6 yrs post op. What I know for sure is that the loss goes on at the moment and that is really depressing.
Sigh...
Did you experience something similar on E-tablets?
Many thanks for your replies!
Why not just go back to gel?
Shedding should not be triggered just by changing the Estrogen delivery method. You would see increased shedding in the first two-three months from all head hair regions, not just at the temples.
Are you taking any anti-androgens along with estradiol? If you have MPB in your genes, it's highly recommended, in many cases necessary, to take DHT blocker, regardless of being pre-op or post-op. Talk about this with your endocrinologist and do the tests (DHT, T, DHEA, etc....) to see what is happening.
Thank you two! I am seeing a specialist at the moment, he is focused on hormones and hair but he has some strange opinions. I want to get back on gel, but he says another switch will harm the hair even more. Also he did not want to measure my DHT levels since he is convined that there is no possibility of DHT still being harmful for me anymore with my low post op level. But I will let it be measured anyway. He publishes articles in medical journals so he must be good. But I think he is wrong with the claim that DHT is no longer harmful post op. I think it can be.
I take finasteride and minoxidil for many years but they do not seem to be powerful enough anymore. I really want to get on an antiandrogen, Spiro would make sense. Hopefully I find an endocrinologist soon who is willing to prescribe it to me
He might be very good specialist, but he is wrong on the DHT claim.
I'm not a specialist or a MD, so don't take this as a experts fact. But I've read many times of many cases where people were taking DHT-blocker (either finasteride or dutasteride) for longer periods of time, for example 5, 7 or 8 years, and it lost it's effectivness because body system got adjusted to it, and contra-effected to it to the point where the effective dose would have to be 5 times or 10 times higher than what was the effective dose at the beginning. Taking such larger amounts would not only be pretty expensive, but could also affect some other physical functions and cause unwanted side effects. A change to another DHT blocker in many cases resolved this issue, but it isn't clear and often reported for how long. I did read of some reports where dutasteride lost its effectivness after around 2-3 years of taking, after previously taking finasteride for (example) 10 years. Also this doesn't happen to everybody, as some take finasteride for a very long time and it obviously must be still effective. So this is more about that people who over time lose effectivness of one DHT-blocker, and have also more likely chances that the same will happen with another. But this is really more the discussion for you and endocrinologist (that kind who has knowledge about this sort of things... many sadly don't.).
I hope you resolve the issue soon.
I also read about people getting used to finasteride over time so it was not efficient anymore. As far as I know it happens to men because with them MPB over the years gets severe and the medication is not strong enough anymore. I dont know about people on HRT though.
Switching to another DHT-blocker means going to Dutasteride. I tried it actually two years ago but it did only cause shedding for six months and damaged my frontal hair. I became scared and finally got back to finasteride again. For many people especially us dut seems to work though. But other people including me get only more trouble with it.
...by the way thats the doctor I see (attached)
He should really know his thing but I wonder he says that thing about DHT not being dangerous anymore after surgery. I think ill have to trust him anyway...
http://www.academyofexperts.org/find-an-expert/d%20hugh-rushton