My bombshell visit to the dermatologist

[Felk]

Today i finally saw the dermatologist. My mother is doctor, and got me an appointment with one of the best derms in australia (for free too... good old medo's privileges... ) and after a wait of three months i finally saw him.

Anyway to cut a long story short, he told me the basic things:

1) There are really only three things you can do about hairloss, finasteride, minoxidil and surgery.

2) He believed finasteride wasn't for me, as in his experience libido sides were far more common than 2%, and there is no information on DHT inhibitors in the long run, as in over 10-20 years or so. Also, the fact that people naturally born with the 5AR missing in their systems are healthy (with full heads of hair) doesn't make finasteride safe, this is just hypothosising.

3) and here is the big one...
there is no information that minoxidil can regrow hair, only maintain it. He said that even though he thinks it probably can regrow hair, this hair will inevitably not last. However it does stop one losing existing hair if you begin early.

When, naturally, i choked on this and asked him, he simply says it's in the leading dermatology literature. Any information otherwise is not authentic and corrupted. I couldn't really argue with this, and he asked me where i got my information. Naturally my information from the internet can't compete with that of a specialist.

When i kept asking him throughout my visit "are you sure minoxidil maitains hair?!?" he simply said

"Do you read the Royal Journal of Dermatology? Or the Specialists blah blah..."

Naturally i had to say no
"but i heard it regrew hair, didnt maintain it..."

"sorry, but you are wrong."

And he repeated this, and eventually got frustrated. I don't know what to think... my mum as a doctor tells me that she likes it when patients look things up on the internet, as it helps speed things up when she checks the best drugs out. However anything i have heard on the internet cannot ever compete with the advice of a professional medical specialist.

I dont know what to think....

 

[Goingat20]

Hey Felk, did you talk to him about spironolactone? Its always better to listen to medical professionals, but sometimes other sources can give off more precise information (like this forum). As seen on this site many users have regrown hair with minoxidil. And many users have maintained with it, so its just an issue about how each inidividual respnds. Thanks for the info!

 

[Bryan]

The dermatologist didn't have a CLUE what he was talking about. Find another one.

Bryan

 

[sublime]

:sleep:

 

[Steve4263]

I agree with Bryan as well. This guy don't know what the hell he is talking about. I suppose your mother can't prescribe you Proscar. I would go see a different dermatologist. You won't know if you have side effects to the Finasteride until you take it for awhile. If the sides go away continue to use Finasteride. If they don't, don't take Finasteride.

 

[Felk]

Thanks for the responses guys, this is pretty much what i expected.

But my problem is convincing people (like my mother) that the people on the internet know more than my specialist.

Despite the fact that i strongly believe he is wrong, he has access to all the leading medical literature on this and im just really going on websites and forums for my information... so it annoys me so much that he is so wrong!!

...ugh what to do!?!?

 

[Bryan]

Despite the fact that i strongly believe he is wrong, he has access to all the leading medical literature on this and im just really going on websites and forums for my information... so it annoys me so much that he is so wrong!!

I guess the problem here is that it's not clear what he meant when he said that "there is no information that minoxidil can regrow hair, only maintain it". I can show him at least 10 different medical studies that demonstrated increased haircounts from minoxidil use, so how can he justify the weird claim that he made? I can also show him a few long-term studies which found that haircounts do gradually decline over time, indicating that the results aren't "maintained". If he has access to medical literature, why isn't he aware of all this?

Bryan

 

[-cj-]

If he has access to medical literature, why isn't he aware of all this?

Bryan

Cause he's in Austrailia ?

 

[Felk]

Despite the fact that i strongly believe he is wrong, he has access to all the leading medical literature on this and im just really going on websites and forums for my information... so it annoys me so much that he is so wrong!!

I guess the problem here is that it's not clear what he meant when he said that "there is no information that minoxidil can regrow hair, only maintain it". I can show him at least 10 different medical studies that demonstrated increased haircounts from minoxidil use, so how can he justify the weird claim that he made? I can also show him a few long-term studies which found that haircounts do gradually decline over time, indicating that the results aren't "maintained". If he has access to medical literature, why isn't he aware of all this?

Bryan

Yeah that's what i think too, however he justified it by saying he read it in a dermatology journal, but didnt want to listen to me. However i think though he is a leading derm, i heard he leads the field in skin cancers and other more kin related issues, so though he may know a lot about hair loss, his knowledge of the treatment probably isnt up to date.

When i asked him how minoxidil could maintain it, he simply said it did, and that peopel have no idea how it works, so this makes me doubt his knowledge of treatments.
Also, he hadn't heard of dutasteride, though i think that's because its not recognised as a safe treatment here.

Anyway, looks like im going for finasteride-less regimen for a year at least. Im thinking spironolactone and a copper peptide, but im wondering what i can do for DHT inhibition. gourmetstylewellness.com pretty much admitted that revivogen was a money scam, so i might try use 2 antiandrogens.

You're not a finasteride user are you Bryan? And i know you use spironolactone, but is it ok to use 2 antiandrogens, or will they react?

Anyway, im tihnking of using spironolactone alone for a year and hopefully see some results. I'd really like to come back and put in the good word for spironolactone, as so many people have success with regimens including this treatment, but can't attribute the success to the spironolactone because their regimens are so multi-faceted.

Thanks again, felk

 

[hellohello]

gourmetstylewellness.com pretty much admitted that revivogen was a money scam,

Huh? : :shock:

 

[powersam]

derms for the most part concentrate on the skin and problems with it. a lot of dermatologists dont really consider male pattern baldness something they need to keep up on, so they honestly don't know too much about the treatments available. this would be fine if all they said was 'i dont know' but when they try to push misinformation on people then it becomes a bit nasty. the fact that your even considering taking his opinion over the masses of published studies which prove him wrong is somewhat hard for me to understand.

and where exactly did gourmetstylewellness.com 'admit' revivogen was a money scam? sounds like someone must have misread or misunderstood a post.

 

[Felk]

Im not taking his advice, i think its too well known that minoxidil regrows and doesnt maintain for it to be true. However im worried by it, and the fact that im worried due to the advice of a leading medical specialist over information from the internet shouldn't be hard to understand. Honestly, try convincing your mother (who in my case is a doctor herself) that you actually know more from the internet than a top dermatologist does

Anyway, i dont think i misread the post. Recently in a topic entitled "free fatty acid question for Bryan" gourmetstylewellness.com said that the maker was just a guy trying to make some money from a product like everyone else, but (something along the lines of...) "wouldnt it be great if the makers of revivogen put all their money that they are putting into advertising into making a product that actually helps people. Strangely, he (the maker) was willing to listen...."

I can't remember it exactly, but search "Bryan - Free Fatty Acid question" or something and im sure it'll turn up.

 

[hellohello]

Im not taking his advice, i think its too well known that minoxidil regrows and doesnt maintain for it to be true. However im worried by it, and the fact that im worried due to the advice of a leading medical specialist over information from the internet shouldn't be hard to understand. Honestly, try convincing your mother (who in my case is a doctor herself) that you actually know more from the internet than a top dermatologist does

Anyway, i dont think i misread the post. Recently in a topic entitled "free fatty acid question for Bryan" gourmetstylewellness.com said that the maker was just a guy trying to make some money from a product like everyone else, but (something along the lines of...) "wouldnt it be great if the makers of revivogen put all their money that they are putting into advertising into making a product that actually helps people. Strangely, he (the maker) was willing to listen...."

I can't remember it exactly, but search "Bryan - Free Fatty Acid question" or something and im sure it'll turn up.

Nah im pretty sure they were referring to P r o c e ri n

 

[sublime]

 

[Felk]

thanks for those links sublime, and thanks for correcting me hellohello. It was just the bit about gourmetstylewellness.com saying he succumbed to the advertising and used it, and i didnt know he ever used p r o c e ri n, only revivogen

 

[momo]

I actually take the doctor's word. It all depends on what do you mean by saying "regrowth". Yes, if you wanna call the 3 freaking hairs that popped on your forehead regrowth then go ahead. It always amuses me how guys on this board are so ecstatic when they find a new vellus hair that they have never seen before.
Don't expect minoxidil to grow a full head of hear on someone like homer simpson, since it simply won't.