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Transgender girl here looking for help, long story be prepared.
Hello everyone this is my first post.
I can't say I am happy to be here, I wish I didn't have to be.
So I have been lurking these forums for years and I finally decided to make an account.
Basically I noticed my temples thinning when I was about 17 when I had no idea what the mature male hairline was. It drove me crazy and made me so depressed for years. Being transgender and knowing I was female and dealing with this made it 100000000 worse.
So a couple of long years later I am 22 and I started Hormone Replacement Therapy in October of 2013.
I started Dutasteride right away, I was not about to **** around after finally dealing with this shit. I also was given a Lupron Depot injection which provides a temporary chemical castration as well as starting trans dermal estrogen.
So when I first noticed my hair loss at 17 I was sick and tired of running to the mirror and spending days staring and staring looking for changes that I totally stopped looking at my hairline at all. I would part my hair down the center and try not to look at it at all.
Fast forward to December 2013, after not looking at my hairline for years I was feeling my hair line and noticed all of these little pointy broken feeling hairs. To my horror when I pulled up my hairline it looked like it was thin through not just the temples but the whole hairline. My right temple had receded into a norwood 1.5 but was thinning into a 2 while my left temple was thinning into a 1.5 but was still intact to a norwood 1.
I was absolutely distraught and took some photos of my hair in really bright lighting and to my horror it seemed like the part of my hair was thinning as well. I posted them on some forums for transgender people and everyone said I was crazy blah blah blah. There was one woman who saw my post who was very knowledgeable and told me that all I had was a mature male hairline and as soon as I was castrated it should stop and that I should be able to regrow some of it. She also said my part looked normal. She knew a LOT about hair loss and has posted here frequently, her name is tracy.
In January, literally because of my hair loss driving me totally insane and desperate to stop this I had a bilateral orchiectomey.
I felt great about everything for a while but I had a nagging feeling that something was still not right.
I went outside and looked at my hair in direct sunlight, something I have not done ever, but especially since I was 17. I was absolutely SHOCKED. My hair line looked like it had lost a large amount of density to the point where the outer edge looked transparent and you could clearly see through my hair in the frontal area and my hair part looked like it had lost a large amount of density as well.
I was told over and over and over again that I do not have diffuse thinning but I suspect that I do. At least I suspect I have thinning in the 2A pattern.
I want to know a couple of things and although it will probably be impossible to give me exact answers I think it would be a good idea to brain storm with others.
First of all since I have been castrated and since I am taking Dutasteride for the rest of my life my hair loss should be arrested correct? That is what I keep getting told, that at the very LEAST my hair loss should be stopped right where it was when I was castrated.
Also my biggest question that I can not seem to get an answer to is how much reversal of miniturization should I see? Even if my hair loss stops I am unhappy with the density of my hair line and the area directly behind it.
Since I was only 21 when I started treatment and was castrated, taking Dutasteride, Estrogen is now my dominant hormone, and since the miniaturization seems to be in an early-ish stage I was thinking that it could potentially totally reverse or close to it. The miniaturized hairs are totally cosmetically significant, apparently it's only noticeable to me and it only looks bad in direct sun light. I have noticed Cis females also have "see through" hair lines and their parting looks much wider as well.
I want to post the pictures but I am afraid of what types of people I will encounter here. I have extreme anxiety and depression about this and I don't want people to lie and hurt my feelings because I am trans.
I know I may seem greedy and dramatic compared to others here but please try and understand. Hair loss sucks terribly for men, hair loss is distressing and life changing in women, but for a transgender woman it is life threatening. My life is so scary and stressful as it is and I have lost so many things and people and face so much negativity every single day. My hair loss is sending me into suicidal thoughts and depression and is eating up all of my thought and time. I am unable to get out of bed most days.
Please help
This is what I'm taking:
3 MG trans dermal estrodial
0.5 MG Dutasteride
200 MG Micronized Progesterone
1% Nizoral 2X Per Week
Hair max Laser comb every other day
I am Post Castration so no Anti Androgens.
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Have you tried minox 2%? Use it to stimulate growth. Since your on dut you should be good. Start off with 2% for a couple months and see how it goes. ALSO get a blood test and see if your blood work is good because you mention that estrogen is your dominant hormone so im thinking you could a have a deficiency.
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Originally Posted by goldnt
Have you tried minox 2%? Use it to stimulate growth. Since your on dut you should be good. Start off with 2% for a couple months and see how it goes. ALSO get a blood test and see if your blood work is good because you mention that estrogen is your dominant hormone so im thinking you could a have a deficiency.
Thank you for replying, I was told not to use minoxidil because it can end up causing permanent hair loss in the frontal area of the scalp in some people.
I have had extensive blood tests since I started HRT in October and nothing has been found, what deficiency are you referring to? I honestly would highly doubt it is anything other than genetic hair loss. Thyroid issues do run in my family though, I guess I should ask to have it checked in my next blood test.
Also it makes me feel better that you think it should at least stop from taking Dut
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Many people use minox and see growth after a couple months. Just like your Dut its a commitment for life otherwise the hairs will fall out. Dut should stop your hairline from receding but i honestly suggest you at-least try minox. If your upset over how your hair already is might as well take the risk. I use it and its perfectly fine. Just don't stop using it otherwise it will be worse than what you started off. And how long have you been using dut? A year? Try also taking pics every once in a while to see how your hair stands over time.
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Originally Posted by goldnt
Many people use minox and see growth after a couple months. Just like your Dut its a commitment for life otherwise the hairs will fall out. Dut should stop your hairline from receding but i honestly suggest you at-least try minox. If your upset over how your hair already is might as well take the risk. I use it and its perfectly fine. Just don't stop using it otherwise it will be worse than what you started off. And how long have you been using dut? A year? Try also taking pics every once in a while to see how your hair stands over time.
Well it's not bad enough to risk making it worse yet, and I have only been on Dut for 7 months and I haven't really seen any difference yet but I keep getting told I need to wait 12 - 18 months or even longer to see a difference.
Apparently a hair may need to go through more than 1 hair cycle to show some recovery.
Also my time frames are different since Estrogen lengthens the growth phase so I really am not sure when I should start seeing results.
If I can avoid using minoxidil I would rather not have to use it, its a big commitment and seems really messy and annoying to have to use.
Will Dut and the fact I am castrated be enough to reverse the miniaturization process ?
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IF your hair were to get worse still after dut and castration it would mean it must be something other than ANDROGENIC Alopecia. Have you had blood tests recently?
Also I'm not sure it is necessarily true that nuking DHT and Testosterone will literally regrow a hairline that has matured. Some get regrowth with fin, dut and especially spiro but its never a guarantee.
It would be awesome if you hairline regrew completely but if it doesn't, maybe consider a HT?
Best of luck to you! Keep your head up
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Thanks Dan but see that's the thing, my hairline is miniaturized it's not gone yet. It's thinning still, but no one has even noticed yet. It's still in a stage that most hairs grow really long, they are just a lighter blonde color.
So what I'm saying is they are still cosmetically significant especially in my forelock area, I just want to reverse the miniaturized hairs which I heard is supposed to be very possible especially since the hair is not at an adanvced miniaturized state yet
Is that true?
I have thought about a HT but I certainly don't have the money right now. I also am told that it would be a very bad idea since my hair is not yet gone, I have coverage it's just thin and has lost density. If I were to get transplants they could cause shock loss and I would lose the miniaturized hairs.
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Also please not I am NOT talking about the "temple peak" area. I am talking about the frontal forlock area recovering since that is where I have density loss and miniaturized hairs that are really bothering me.
Transplants are fine for the temple peak area since that area is never really that dense. But transplants anywhere else requires maintenance like selective styling and a huge issue with density.
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