Avodart success or failure?

[mkamph]

some friends have been on it for 10 years. i've been on it for about 4.

[ThinFast]

Have you thought about 2-2.5mg a day of avodart??

There were a couple of reasons I couldn't do that much. First was cost, I got my avodart from a local grocery store and 1 month supply of 30 pills went for $112 USD. I didn't trust getting a generic or going through some Canadian online pharmacy option. I was spending $336 a month when I was at 1.5mg/day and I just couldn't afford to do so anymore and justify paying more for avodart than my car payment. The other big problem is that I began to develop gynecomastia. It went away when I stopped taking the Avodart.

[CVAZBAR]

There were a couple of reasons I couldn't do that much. First was cost, I got my avodart from a local grocery store and 1 month supply of 30 pills went for $112 USD. I didn't trust getting a generic or going through some Canadian online pharmacy option. I was spending $336 a month when I was at 1.5mg/day and I just couldn't afford to do so anymore and justify paying more for avodart than my car payment. The other big problem is that I began to develop gynecomastia. It went away when I stopped taking the Avodart.

From what ive read about you, it seems like you have the same type of hairloss as me so i found it interesting that Propecia nor Avodart worked for you. I took Propecia 6 months and felt it didnt do shit, so i switched to Avodart and just started. Im hoping it can at least halt my hair loss because I'm losing it real fast. How long did you take Avodart? Are you sure you were getting Gynecomastia? That's real strange knowing other people have took it with no problems at all. I heard that some people "load" up on Avodart first to get it working like taking 2 mg for the first month and than taking .5 mg a day after that. You think if you tried that, your luck my change? I dont understand how that would not even slow it down. Did you speak with your doctor about it?

[ThinFast]

From what ive read about you, it seems like you have the same type of hairloss as me so i found it interesting that Propecia nor Avodart worked for you. I took Propecia 6 months and felt it didnt do shit, so i switched to Avodart and just started. Im hoping it can at least halt my hair loss because I'm losing it real fast. How long did you take Avodart? Are you sure you were getting Gynecomastia? That's real strange knowing other people have took it with no problems at all. I heard that some people "load" up on Avodart first to get it working like taking 2 mg for the first month and than taking .5 mg a day after that. You think if you tried that, your luck my change? I dont understand how that would not even slow it down. Did you speak with your doctor about it?

I was on propecia from about March 2009 until March 2010 and never saw any improvement. I flew down to see Dr. Bauman and have him assess my hair condition April 2, 2009, he prescribed me .5mg/day of Avodart which I promptly began taking April 3, 2009. By June 1, 2009, I increased my dosage to 1mg/day. I know that by Septmeber or 2009, I had sent Dr. Bauman an email asking for a new script that would boost me up to 1.5mg/day.

I'd have to check my old calendar books and pharmacy receipts to confirm the amounts I took, when and how long I continued on them. Overall though, I'd say I have been on a minimum of .5mg/day of Avodart from April, 2009 through today, with a break of about 3 months around the winter of 2009-2010. I did this once I realized what was happening to my chest, my girlfriend also confirmed that my suspicion was real when I asked her opinion about it. I've actually read a lot of posts on here where users have issues with just .5mg/Avodart, so I wasn't too surprised that I was starting to see some side effects of it.

When I spoke to Dr. Bauman about my lack of positive results and also about the results of my HairDx tests which said I would have a high likelihood of great results on Propecia, he mentioned that I may just have more receptors on each follicle than most MPB sufferers. While it is possible that Propecia and Avodart do have significant impact on me in reducing the amount of DHT that would cling to each receptor, I may just have too many receptors. The number of receptors each follicle has is something that the HairDx test cannot account for.

I think that maybe if I kept up at a high dosage of 2 mg-2.5 mg/day it could possibly slow my loss. I base this on one (unscientific) trend that I have noticed from posters who say they have experienced side effects from either taking some form of Fin or Dut. It seems that those who experience the greatest side effects are also those who perceive the best results from taking those meds.

[CVAZBAR]

I was on propecia from about March 2009 until March 2010 and never saw any improvement. I flew down to see Dr. Bauman and have him assess my hair condition April 2, 2009, he prescribed me .5mg/day of Avodart which I promptly began taking April 3, 2009. By June 1, 2009, I increased my dosage to 1mg/day. I know that by Septmeber or 2009, I had sent Dr. Bauman an email asking for a new script that would boost me up to 1.5mg/day.

I'd have to check my old calendar books and pharmacy receipts to confirm the amounts I took, when and how long I continued on them. Overall though, I'd say I have been on a minimum of .5mg/day of Avodart from April, 2009 through today, with a break of about 3 months around the winter of 2009-2010. I did this once I realized what was happening to my chest, my girlfriend also confirmed that my suspicion was real when I asked her opinion about it. I've actually read a lot of posts on here where users have issues with just .5mg/Avodart, so I wasn't too surprised that I was starting to see some side effects of it.

When I spoke to Dr. Bauman about my lack of positive results and also about the results of my HairDx tests which said I would have a high likelihood of great results on Propecia, he mentioned that I may just have more receptors on each follicle than most MPB sufferers. While it is possible that Propecia and Avodart do have significant impact on me in reducing the amount of DHT that would cling to each receptor, I may just have too many receptors. The number of receptors each follicle has is something that the HairDx test cannot account for.

I think that maybe if I kept up at a high dosage of 2 mg-2.5 mg/day it could possibly slow my loss. I base this on one (unscientific) trend that I have noticed from posters who say they have experienced side effects from either taking some form of Fin or Dut. It seems that those who experience the greatest side effects are also those who perceive the best results from taking those meds.

Hmmm thats very strange because when my doctor saw me, he also told me he believed i would get great results because my hair line was the same. I really did not have a pattern of loss, but I'm thinning from the hairline to crown down the middle. It seems that we are ****ed haha. It's a bit difficult for me to understand what the receptors do to impact the loss of hair and i don't know what HairDX is but can you do anything about the receptors? I do understand that many people get side effects from these meds but its very strange that you were getting Gyno in just a year? What i was going to say is to maybe re-consider taking .5 mg and maybe you can hold on to as much hair as you can because we might be getting new treatments in a couple of years. Histogen and Acell seem very promising and even if i took 2.5 mg a day, i would not think of doing it long term, maybe just for a couple of years. The problem with you is the Gyno but maybe you need to confirm this with a doctor to make sure. Has Spencer said anything about the TRx2? There has to be something else you can do bro, especially if the Doc said your hair growth seemed promising. Receptors???? That gets me pissed off.

[ThinFast]

CVAZBAR, my goal has been to retain as much as possible until Histogen, Acell, or something becomes a reality. I still am taking .5mg/day of Avodart in hopes that I'm at least slowing it down. I really don't think I am though based on how fast it is miniaturizing. I've seen a strand of my hair that is no more than 1.5"-2" long and it'll start off nice and thick, halfway down it becomes noticeably thinner until it gets down to the white bulb at the end where it almost invisible. I have tried laser at a clinic and had a PRP with protein matrix session down at Greco's in Florida about 5 months ago. My hair is hell bent on falling out. I will probably stop the avodart since it seems pointless and switch over to trx2. It may be just as ineffective, but it's about $35 USD cheaper a month than avodart.

I'm not a doctor, so I may not be 100% explaining this correctly, but according to a conversation I had with Dr. Bauman back earlier in 2010 regarding my CAG score and androgen receptors, every person has a different number of androgen receptors for each hair follicle. Receptors are basically the things that DHT "bonds" to if you will. They are the other part of the DHT equation that cause miniaturization. When you take a DHT inhibitor, you're decreasing the amount of DHT in your body that can bond to these receptor sites. If you've read through enough of different poster's treatment regimens on here, I'm sure you've heard of something referred to as "Spiro". Spironolactone has a few functions, but mainly it used to block the androgen receptor sites from bonding with circulating DHT. The more androgen receptors per follicle that a person has, the more dht can bond to that follicle and miniaturize the hair. So even though I've reduced the amount of dht in my blood, I still potentially have a shit ton of androgen receptors per hair follicle for the small amount of dht to bond to, which still miniaturizes my hair. I've tried Spiro too with all of the other treatments, although I was only it for about 3 months, but it also didn't seem to help me. As you correctly said before, I'm pretty much ****ed.

[CVAZBAR]

CVAZBAR, my goal has been to retain as much as possible until Histogen, Acell, or something becomes a reality. I still am taking .5mg/day of Avodart in hopes that I'm at least slowing it down. I really don't think I am though based on how fast it is miniaturizing. I've seen a strand of my hair that is no more than 1.5"-2" long and it'll start off nice and thick, halfway down it becomes noticeably thinner until it gets down to the white bulb at the end where it almost invisible. I have tried laser at a clinic and had a PRP with protein matrix session down at Greco's in Florida about 5 months ago. My hair is hell bent on falling out. I will probably stop the avodart since it seems pointless and switch over to trx2. It may be just as ineffective, but it's about $35 USD cheaper a month than avodart.

I'm not a doctor, so I may not be 100% explaining this correctly, but according to a conversation I had with Dr. Bauman back earlier in 2010 regarding my CAG score and androgen receptors, every person has a different number of androgen receptors for each hair follicle. Receptors are basically the things that DHT "bonds" to if you will. They are the other part of the DHT equation that cause miniaturization. When you take a DHT inhibitor, you're decreasing the amount of DHT in your body that can bond to these receptor sites. If you've read through enough of different poster's treatment regimens on here, I'm sure you've heard of something referred to as "Spiro". Spironolactone has a few functions, but mainly it used to block the androgen receptor sites from bonding with circulating DHT. The more androgen receptors per follicle that a person has, the more dht can bond to that follicle and miniaturize the hair. So even though I've reduced the amount of dht in my blood, I still potentially have a shit ton of androgen receptors per hair follicle for the small amount of dht to bond to, which still miniaturizes my hair. I've tried Spiro too with all of the other treatments, although I was only it for about 3 months, but it also didn't seem to help me. As you correctly said before, I'm pretty much ****ed.

Well i might be having the same problem because Propecia did nothing for me in 6 months and my hair continues to fall out. Did the Avodart help the hair shedding at least? So do you think i should try that Spiro for the androgen receptors, along with the avodart? This shit is ridiculous. I wonder if there could be something to reduce the androgen receptors significantly. I know it sounds stupid because im not a Doctor but if you potentially have more than the average person, i don't know how it would affect you destroying some of those bastards. Maybe you can talk to a doctor about this? It just seems unrealistic that something like that would keep the medicine from working. This makes me think negative about the rest of the medications that will potentially come out. I mean if this shit don't work for us, than how will trx2, Histogen, Aderans of Acell help us?? It's frustrating. Hey Bro at least you have you're girl and I'm sure if she has been with you through all this, you don't have to worry about her at least. i personally don't think i look good bald but i guarantee you that if i was satisfied with how I looked bald, i would not give a shit about going bald. Plus where i come from you see BALD guys everywhere, even when they are not losing their hair haha. Don't worry BRo. Keep Me updated on the TRX2 since you are going to try it already. I will probably have to try it myself sooner or later. Do you know if Spencer talked about this in his show already?

[ThinFast]

CVAZBAR, the funny thing about my hair shedding is that it was pretty much constant whether I was taking propecia, avodart, or using some sort of minoxidil formula. It never changed. I don't think I necessarily had "sheds" but I could count about 70 hairs that would accumulate when I would shower. The main thing was just the amount of miniaturization that was taking place on each follicle. I was told by a doctor that miniaturization is something that happens over cycles of each hair follicle and that it's not something you can see on an individual hair. I'd really like to know then why every single one of my hairs starts out really thick and gets much thinner almost immediately.

I'm not sure you can destroy the androgen receptors. I believe it's one of those "it is what it is" deals. As far as the effectiveness of other meds vs. the status quo dht inhibitors like propecia and avodart, I'm actually encouraged. The normal stuff didn't work and the fact that today the science is attacking this problem from a different angle and at more of a cellular level has my hopes up.

My girl is somewhat in denial about my hairloss. She is really the only reason I haven't shaved my head yet cause she says she will hate the way it looks. So, it's not quite as peachy there as it could be. I've accepted what's going on and everytime I show her what hair loss is, she claims she can't see it. I'm not sure if it's to not hurt my feelings or what, but I've accepted it and she needs to as well. I did shave my head once in highschool and ironically got more girls then than when I had a full head of hair. Still, you could obviously see the shadow of where I would have hair on my head, unlike the baby smooth skin a truly bald guy will have on his dome.

I didn't get a chance to tune in for all of Spencer's show this past Sunday evening, I caught the last hour or so and they were talking about religion for all of it. It obviously wasn't informative in regards to hairloss and I didn't particularly care for it, but I do understand the format of his show and you can't just talk about hair loss all of the time. Most of the time it is very informative and to me it sounds like a bunch of guys just chilling, having a drink at a bar and shooting the shit which I like. I haven't ordered trx2 yet, probably will bite that bullet this evening. I'm just holding out a little longer to do a little more research on it. Good luck man!

[crochetg]

I am an avodart user and stumbled upon this thread. Im on the 5 month mark of avodart. still shedding :[ When do people see a decrease in shedding if they are a responder? Also no luck on propecia :[

Have any of you guys heard of RU58841? I heard many people upset over the fact that despite lowering your DHT if you have lots of Androgen receptors you may still be unresponsive to 5alpha reductase inhibitor treatment. RU58841 is a competitive inhibitor of the androgen receptor with a much greater affinity than DHT. It physically blocks the androgen receptor and does not allow the AR-DHT complex to express the genes involved in miniaturization. There is a lot of information and long term users of RU all over the web.

Anyway the reason i bring this up the RU is that a prodrug variant for more effective topical application RUM is in the midst of being synthesized. Check out this video where i talk a little bit about it. This video was made for a different target audience so please forgive the fact that much of this may not make sense but if anyone is interested at least you will know a really cool AR blocker is out there. Its some really interesting science. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj_14caGJE8