27yo Diffuse Thinner, On Propecia 1mg / Rogaine, Went From Nw2.5->nw4 In 6 Months, Please Help

JC01

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This is my first time posting on a site like this but my hair loss has gotten to the point where its starting to scare me quite a bit. A little Background:

I am a diffuse thinner and always new my hair was going to thin out eventually (genetics), but never thought it would be this early in my life. My hairline has been slowly receding from early 20's till last year until I decided to go ahead and do something about it. I went to see my derm, and he put me on propecia 1mg/ day and suggested i try minoxidil as well. I wanted to give propecia a shot first as I heard the shedding stories from minoxidil, but hair got so thin, I eventually started applying Rogaine as well. So for the past 6 months, my routine was:

Propecia 1mg / day (6 months)
Minoxidil (twice daily) (2.5 months)
Vitamin D supplements (Just started - please see below)

Ever since my treatment started, my hair loss has accelerated and i have lost density all over my scalp (back and sides are still fine and thick however) these past 6 months, going from a NW2.5/3 to easily a NW4 within this time frame.

Went back to Doctor and he suggested I try switching to dutasteride instead. So i just started adding this into my regimen, (still taking Propecia, but adding in dutasteride every third day to try to ease it into my regimen).

Nothing seems to be working at the moment, so my question is, where do I go from here? I am considering a hair transplant as well if I don't have any other options.

Additional things to note:
Got some blood tests done, came back with the following irregularities:
Free testosterone levels -> higher than normal (assume due to propecia). (But overall T levels seem within range)
Estrogen levels -> Higher than normal
Iron -> higher than normal
Vitamin D -> slightly defficient (Have started taking vitamins to counter this).

Also hair has always been thin and curly/weak so im a little scared getting a hair transplant too. On top of this, I would look REALLY bad bald, so I am trying everything I can to maintain what I have.

Any help would be appreciated!!!
 

Recon_s

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Did you take pictures from before you started the treatment vs your current state now?
 

JC01

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Unfortunately I don’t have before pics because I was under the silly impression that meds would work wonders for me. Here are some pics of my hair at the moment, wet and dry views along with my lab result pics
 

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JC01

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And here are some from 1-2 months ago, earliest I have. Don’t have any from 6 months ago unfortuantely as mentioned above. Wet and dry views again
 

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Retinoid

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I am wondering what your DHT level is. The problem with these drugs is they take so long to work and there is no way of knowing it it will work for you. If Duasteride does not work, you may want to look into Spironolactone since you have high free testosterone...never thought I would suggest that to a male but it actually may be helpful for you. Are you suffering from anything due to high testosterone or estrogen? Such a gynecomastia, etc.
 

JC01

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Thanks for the reply Retinoid. I am not sufffering from anything else that I know of right now. I guess my only concern is should i go down the dutasteride path knowing that finasteride has made my hair worse / not shown any improvements (I know there is a huge debate on whether this is the case or not, but at the very least, there has been no improvements). And also wondering if this would just be a minoxidil shed since I started 2.5 months ago (but also no improvements so far).

I'll give spironolactone a shot. I read somewhere that a minoxidil + spironolactone topical mix has actually worked well for some people, but just never considered it at until now.
 
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