This is why:

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I’m not sure how useful progesterone intake would be for males. Might be feminizing?

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Progesterone is converted to allopregnanolone by… that’s right, you guessed it: 5-alpha reductase. So, it won’t help if you’re taking finasteride or dutasteride.

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LOL. Damn. Precisely why I am so wary of going after 5AR.

I’d love a drug based on the following to break down DHT instead of prevent its formation via 5ARi:

“DHT is inactivated in the liver and extrahepatic tissues like the skin into 3α-androstanediol and 3β-androstanediol by the enzymes 3α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase and 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, respectively.”

FWIW, most procedures don’t remove 100% of the gland because it would cause inverted nipples. They aim to leave a “normal” amount of gland

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No… I haven’t had my DHT measured.

Could in a blood draw in a few weeks.

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Please do. I had a very high DHT reading.
DHT 11.53 nmol/L
Reference range on the lab test is 0.4-2.5

Thinking of trying pumpkin seed oil capsules daily and topical finasteride low dose 3x a week, or topical dutasteride low dose once a week.

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I am still not convinced about topical dutasteride itself but oral dutasteride once a week would work.
If you take 10kg of pumpkin seed oil daily I’m sure it will have significant 5ar inhibition effects. Any less than that and you will nothing beyond placebo (“I shed nothing for a week, this must mean it’s working!”).

Finasteride itself has no real inhibitory effects on brain allopregnanolone production due to its strong selective affinity for 5ar2. Dutasteride does but doesn’t always cross the BBB.

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I’ve seen people complain about side effects from it, which to me tells me it works lol.

Might just try low dose topical finasteride a few times a week and see how I go with that. No sense rushing into it.

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Or that people get sexual side effects from topical alcohol :wink:

Might just try low dose topical finasteride a few times a week and see how I go with that. No sense rushing into it.

Agreed, topical finasteride works well enough and you can easily follow progression of MPB every few months. I’d advise against stacking it with minoxidil for now as that can mask continued hairloss for up to a year.

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I take 1 mg of dutasteride every day now. No side effects. Please do not stress about finasteride side effects. Some people get them, but there are always a few people who get side effects with any drug.

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Can you elaborate on this? Why not use both if you want max hair loss benefits, since they have different and complementary mechanisms of action?

If your concentration of topical finasteride is too low for example, you will get regrowth for 6 months with minoxidil while DHT is ravaging hair follicles in the background. So it will appear like your hairloss has stopped/reversed but after minoxidil hits its peak regrowth, you will return to your starting point and then below after several more months.

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