GoldiLoX said:
After 1.5 years of finesteride I couldn't handle the mental side effects and stopped it. It has been 4 months and I'm just starting to feel semi normal again. Does any one have experience with natural DHT blockers, and do you know if they will cause side effects similar to that of finasteride? ( I think mine were because of finasteride blocking the other neural steroids )
Any experience or knowledge of pros of cons of the following?
Natural
L-lysine
Saw Palmetto
green tea extracts
gains dodder & pumpkin seedTopicals
So if instead DHT blockers will still cause side effects what about topical solutions? Will they also block neural steroids along with DHT? If not what are some of the more effective topical solutions you have found to work? Should I be using them along with minoxidil? Thank you for you help and insight.
here is what I am currently doing
minoxidil topical 5% 2 x day
nizoral shampoo 1% 3 x weekthinking about adding
spironolactone topical 5%NANO shampoo on the other days.- - - Updated - - -
Bump, I've never been to a forum that I've made 6 separate posts with out a single response on any of them. I don't know why i'm having such a hard time getting input on this forum. Am I asking too many questions or are there just too few active knowledgeable members?
The reason for the lack of response is that this forum is fatigued from discussing saw palmetto and biotin. There's a post like yours every day it seems. I think what I should do is write you a thoughtful reply, save it, and then every time somebody like you makes this exact post I'm going to copy and paste the exact answer.
The reason finasteride and minoxidil are the most suggested treatments for hair loss, is not necessarily because they are the best treatments, but because they are the most proven treatments. Their effectiveness is backed by expensive clinical studies and testimonials from thousands of users.
Minoxidil: A pain to use, expensive, has to be used continuously and forever, will give your dying hair follicles a kick to make them grow stronger but will not block the disease and you will eventually lose the hair regardless. In the short-term, 40% of users get maintenance+some regrowth.
Finasteride/Dutasteride: Easy to use, cheap, the vast majority of users get maintenance+minimal regrowth, it pauses hair loss. Dutasteride is somewhat more effective at both hair protection but also will likely have more side effects, is not as well studied, and costs more money. For both, the risks include growing man-boobs, reduced sperm quality, reduced sperm quantity, decreased libido, decreased erections, brain fog, depression, and may continue once you stop using the drug.
Nizoral/Ketoconazole:Modest effect shown in clinical studies of dubious quality. Lots of people use nizoral. Lots of testimonials say it decreases itch/acne. However, I've never seen a testimonial from someone saying it reduces male pattern baldness.
The other stuff might actually work, honestly, but you're taking a risk. They have not been robustly studied, and they are not backed by testimonials. The people who have success on pumpkin seed oil or whatever are usually using 10 other treatments as well so who knows what happened and why.
For speculative treatments, try and google:
Legal:
Topical spironolactone, ostensible small effectiveness, expensive but a pain to use, ostensible minimal feminizing sides
The stuff in my signature, like stemoxydine, ostensible minimal effectiveness, cheap, easy to use
Saw palmetto, cheap, ostensible minimal effectiveness
Pumpkin Seed Oil, cheap, ostensible minimal effectiveness
Rice Bran Extract, cheap, ostensible minimal effectiveness
Black market:
Setipiprant, mixed testimonials, expensive, does decrease itch, likely better as a topical
CB0301 mixed testimonials, expensive,
RU58851, expensive, nearly-universally positive testimonials, no safety studies.
For the finasteride side effects, I recommend looking up stories on propeciahelp forums. I didn't read everything, I only skimmed, but it seems two popular means of curing PFS are water fasting and other cleanses, and hormone replacement therapy.
