Exploring The Hormonal Route. Hair=life.

[Yar]

0.035 mg of ethinyl estradiol and 2 mg of cyproterone acetate (EE35-CPA), for hormonal and clinical parameters of 66 patients with polycystic ovary. syndrome (PCOS). While taking the pill, there was a significant decrease in the ratio of LH / FSH and androgens of the adrenal glands and ovaries, as well as a significant increase in sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG). A progressive decrease in total androgenic activity explains the clinical results that were obtained: on the 36th cycle of therapy, acne disappeared in 100% of cases, seborrhea in 76.4% and hirsutism in 75%. Our results highlight the need for continuous administration without interrupting the administration of pills with CPA in patients with clinical hyperandrogenic symptoms.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2150631/

 

[Yar]

shbg is very important, it binds sex hormones. Diane 35 can be added to the main mode!

 

[Yar]

As already mentioned, most androgens are also synthesized in the skin from inactive adrenal precursors, including dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), DHEA sulfate (DHEA-S) and androstenedione (Fig. 1). In addition to the sebaceous glands, other androgen-sensitive skin components are hair follicles, sweat glands, epidermis, and dermis. These structures contain enzymes important for converting DHEA, DHEA-S and androstenedione to potent androgen dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and testosterone. 10 DHT and testosterone are the main androgens that interact with the androgen receptors of the sebaceous glands, and DHT is 5-10 times stronger than testosterone. 8, 19 This conversion of inactive adrenal precursors into a powerful androgen occurs in the sebaceous glands in the presence of several key steroidogenic enzymes: 3Beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3B-HSD), 17Beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17B-HSD) and 5α-reductase. 6, 10
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2923944/

 

[Ikarus]

Both of my parents are arabic, but I have some non-arabic ancestors, because I am white. (most arabs are dark-skinned).
My hair looks similar to yours. Maybe a little bit thicker. What worries me is the hair strand tappering off towards the root. Half the strand is thick and the other half towards the root it gets progressively thinner. (see pic)

Me too. I am South Asian, and my particular ethnicity has the same hair as those who are East Asian, except we have horrible genetics when it comes to balding. I am white-skinned, and look similar to those who are European.

I do believe you are balding, and those hairs somewhat prove that. However, your ethnicity further proves that since it seems to be common within our ethnicities, especially if you begin getting facial/body hair within your early-teens. You should definitely start using some sort of a hair loss medication...

 

[Ikarus]

Did you get a prescription for spironolactone? Is it easier to get one compared to a prescription for bica?

Spironolactone is somewhat 'easy' to get on prescription by a dermatologist. I got it prescribed by a dermatologist, at a dose of 200mg/day.

 

[Father_of_Shiseido]

Is it more effective to split the dose into 100 in the am and 100 in the pm ? I’ve just been taking .5 dutasteride, 200 spironolactone, and rogaine foam all at once before bed.

spironolactone has a short half-life time, so yes, you should split the dose. Did you notice any improvement?

 

[I'mme]

How severe is your hair loss, do you have any pics? Mine isn't as bad as some on here, plus it's mostly the crown, my hairline isn't too bad. Here is a pic from january. https://imgur.com/QCTlwap

Could be worse but it's enough to worry me daily. In hindsight i probably should have taken a picture before starting spironolactone, but this one from january is the only clear one i have.

It is very hard to say how severe it is. I say this because I have been losing hair since I was 14; at that time hair would simply fall on my registers/notebooks and books, therefore I knew I was losing. (There started the journey with snake oils haha.)
But I still have about 50/60% of hair density left, so I don't know whether I can call it severe or not.

Due to DUPA(= not pattern), I can with sufficient efforts fake full head, but deep down I know the reality.

How have been your results with oral spironolactone and spironolactone in specific? I mean to ask how much importance would u give to these two drugs in an regimen? Do you have before and after pics that show regrowth?

 

[I'mme]

Spironolactone is somewhat 'easy' to get on prescription by a dermatologist. I got it prescribed by a dermatologist, at a dose of 200mg/day.

A doctor working with a pharmacy app called me very early in the morning. I was not expecting that and as such was not prepared with responses. It then occurred to my mind and told him that I've placed the order for spironolactone as I want to take it for acne. He seemed to agree and then told me that I'm taking a really high dose for acne and should ergo be seeing that doctor again. Whatever, I got the pills. So yeaa

 

[hopeforhappiness]

spironolactone has a short half-life time, so yes, you should split the dose. Did you notice any improvement?

No I have yet to see any changes. Honestly I don’t really get any acne but sometimes I notice like the start of it ? Then it will go away. My face still gets oily , and I’ve never really been an extreme case of this either.

I’d like to think I have a solid 60 maybe 65% of my original hair but I haven’t seen any changes since I started.

Lastly what’s the word on drinking while on spironolactone ? Will it change the efficacy or even still work ? I’m trying to cut down but I’m a bartender and an alcoholic.

 

[Father_of_Shiseido]

No I have yet to see any changes. Honestly I don’t really get any acne but sometimes I notice like the start of it ? Then it will go away. My face still gets oily , and I’ve never really been an extreme case of this either.

I’d like to think I have a solid 60 maybe 65% of my original hair but I haven’t seen any changes since I started.

Lastly what’s the word on drinking while on spironolactone ? Will it change the efficacy or even still work ? I’m trying to cut down but I’m a bartender and an alcoholic.

I take a beer every Saturday, didn't do any harm to me. Scalp itch and oily skin went away after a few months on spironolactone. It's working for me but sexual sides are real, at least for me. I am planning to add bicalutamide while reducing my spironolactone dose.

 

[baba_yaga]

Yes it does, it will continue to thin out towards the root if you don't do something immediately to stop the genocide of your hair follicles lol, mine did the same even on finasteride, dutasteride i think helped maintain the thickness of my hair strands because over the next 6 months of being on dutasteride i couldn't see it getting thinner at the root.

Why did you stop duta?

 

[Ikarus]

Yeah i too wasted 2 years with finasteride/ 0.5 mg dutasteride and my hair loss was relentless and remained unaffected by those drugs (i was able to maintain with dutasteride) maybe if i had taken like, 2mg dutasteride / day i would have seen a result but i couldn't afford to buy that much dutasteride lol, i hear good things about dutasteride especially 2mg and because it blocks both types of 5a-reductase SRD5A1 and SRD5A2 and blocks 98% of DHT Leading to better results than finasteride in the majority of users.

I managed to get dutasteride on prescription; if I had to continue buying it online, I would have stopped using it completely. It's expensive to purchase, and was a waste of money considering I am using it as a supportive role.

 

[itsyaboi]

Yeah i too wasted 2 years with finasteride/ 0.5 mg dutasteride and my hair loss was relentless and remained unaffected by those drugs (i was able to maintain with dutasteride) maybe if i had taken like, 2mg dutasteride / day i would have seen a result but i couldn't afford to buy that much dutasteride lol, i hear good things about dutasteride especially 2mg and because it blocks both types of 5a-reductase SRD5A1 and SRD5A2 and blocks 98% of DHT Leading to better results than finasteride in the majority of users.

Yeah at 2mg a day it would deplete 4 times faster than the normal dose , although annoyingly Bicalutamide is also proving to be very expensive but hopefully it’ll be worth it with a much increased effectiveness. At least estradiol is relatively cheap lol but I’m getting anxious waiting for them to be shipped over knowing that I could be getting worse until that time yikes.

 

[Ikarus]

Haha yeah, i paid $268 for 168 tablets of Bicaludamide that should last me 6 months, every 3 months im going to buy the next 6 months supply incase they go out of stock for a long time on inhousepharmacy and i paid $155 for 196 tablets of oral estrofem to take sublingually and that should last me roughly 6 months too, so $800 a year for treatment is pretty good in my eyes as long as i don't have to add minoxidil because that will break my budget lol

I have been hoarding bicalutamide, and ordering a lot of it... I am aiming to have a years-supply soon! I am fearful of it becoming out of stock everywhere...!!!

 

[itsyaboi]

Haha yeah, i paid $268 for 168 tablets of Bicaludamide that should last me 6 months, every 3 months im going to buy the next 6 months supply incase they go out of stock for a long time on inhousepharmacy and i paid $155 for 196 tablets of oral estrofem to take sublingually and that should last me roughly 6 months too, so $800 a year for treatment is pretty good in my eyes as long as i don't have to add minoxidil because that will break my budget lol

Yeah I honestly don’t know what I would do without in-house pharmacy, I ordered 6 month supplies of fina and duta but I can’t with this since stupid UK laws mean you can only order up to 3 months’ supply of each medicine or it gets seized by customs. I suppose the price isn’t *too* bad but it’s a big step up from when I thought £140 a year on Finasteride would sort me out for life lmao.

 

[Ikarus]

I worry too, i dont know if inhousepharmacy is owned by a real pharmaceutical company or if they are just a person buying drugs and listening then for sale on there, it comes from another country that probably allows people to just get things over the counter like in india or Thailand, who knows but i dont wanna risk letting it go out if stock for months and not having a way to buy more lol

I would actually die if bicalutamide ran out for months... I wouldn't know what to do besides injecting my testicles with alcohol lmao

 

[itsyaboi]

Totally agree lmao, luckily for me i live in the U.S. and there's not really a limit to what you can order from finasteride to cocaine lolol and if there is a limit the mail inspection team is doing a terrible job of monitoring it.

Lucky, the things I’ve ordered will likely be seized by customs anyway since there’s a chance any packages worth over £15 is taken hostage for 2 extra weeks until I pay the VAT charges and handling fees I really despise this system

 

[itsyaboi]

Wow man thats really bad, what a lame system, and what makes it worse is that its labeled on the parcel that there are drugs inside and that customs is welcome to open it and look, has tour package been seized before ? Or is this the first time ordering it?

Yeah this is my first time ordering pharmaceuticals from another country and it’s gonna suck because it most likely will get seized. It shouldn’t be a problem though since they aren’t controlled substances and the amount is under 3 months’ worth but it’ll be hella frustrating to have to go through this 4 times a year but I guess I’m just lucky it’s an option at all! I legit had no idea where to buy bicalutamide until reading this thread lol.

 

[itsyaboi]

Its worth it, you just gotta make sure to order early enough before running out of supply, i didn't really know there was anything else besides finasteride/dutasteride/min for us because doctors never prescribe us these things in the U.S. so i was pretty hopeless until i found this thread I'm thankful for bridgeburn creating this thread because if i had not found it i would have probably committed suicide in the near future because i didn't want to bear the weight of the emotional torment that stems from balding, all of you on this thread played a role in saving me and I'm grateful.

Legit I can’t agree with this enough, there seems to be little in the way of genuine medical help in this area with most concerns just being brushed off as “vanity”. So many mainstream medical or media sites say that Finasteride or minoxidil is the be all and end all of treatment so I freaked the f*** out when I stopped deluding myself and realised Finasteride wasn’t helping at all. And I get that powerful antiandrogens and estrogen isn’t something that should be freely encouraged as a first option but holy sh*t was it a relief when I found this thread and others like this. Also looking young well past my current age is an added effect I can’t complain about lmao.

 

[bridgeburn]

i actually have emotions now im not a psychopath anymore which is both wonderful and destructive -> (because my heart is broken) but overall i feel like a better human being after being on HRT and i never imagined i would do this before because I'm not trans however i am fine no matter what gender i look like, it's all for the betterment of my life so far so good.

same, I feel more real

and i am more hungry, before i would only eat once a day or not at all because i had no drive to eat,

I'm actually less hungry. Testosterone raised my metabolism too much and I was always starving