DHT Test Results

[Glawre]

Question. Before starting Propecia I had my DHT tested. The range for my age was 30-85 ng/dl I came in at 38. I started propecia at 1/2 dose every other day, had my DHT tested after 3 months and my results wer 16ng/dl. The test was marked low. Then I started taking 1/4 of the tablet, 0.25mg every third day. Again aftrer 3 months had my DHT tested and came in at 19ng/dl, still marked low. Question, is 19ng/dl a good level which will make a difference or not much better than 38ng/dl without Propecia. Interesting that this low dose still has the effect of reducing DHT but are we looking for 0ng/dl before Propecia is effective?

Thanks in anvance for any input.

[OrdinaryUser]

I am not aware of any target DHT serum level that would be most effective. It is safe to assume that a significantly lowered DHT will be sufficient, as many who respond to the drug have great results without eliminating DHT completely.

That is pleasant to hear that 0.25 every third day still kept DHT at low levels. I may have to try that.

This may be a semi-relevant study:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10495374

[Glawre]

Yes, interesting on the dose. I will say I weigh only 140lbs, not sure if this factors into the effectiveness at the low dose. I can't help to beleive that a DHT level lower than the clinical range would be a good thing. One more thought. I am 59 years old. Does it matter? Damage to my hair folicals occured a long time ago. I still have good hair. Thanks for the reply,

[OrdinaryUser]

Yes, interesting on the dose. I will say I weigh only 140lbs, not sure if this factors into the effectiveness at the low dose. I can't help to beleive that a DHT level lower than the clinical range would be a good thing. One more thought. I am 59 years old. Does it matter? Damage to my hair folicals occured a long time ago. I still have good hair. Thanks for the reply,

There is a subset of those that tolerate inhibiting DHT, and there is of course the converse too: those that do not tolerate it for various reasons. So whichever you set you identify with, you will claim it respectively good or bad. Finasteride is really only based on what was correlated from those with deficits in the enzyme that converts testosterone to DHT: they show no male pattern baldness symptoms, as well as other less benign effects that can be found with a google search. This is not the same thing as inhibiting DHT below normal thresholds though, but it does help hone in on some consequences of reducing the hormone.

Does your hair cause you much distress as to justify taking medication? If so, then maybe that's the way to go. But since you've got good hair still at your age, something tells me you ought to just forgo it. That's just my opinion, though.