I am pumped to try rapamycin. I’m very cautious about finasteride. I feel like there are benefits to DHT, and from what I’ve heard the 5AR enzyme doesn’t just work on testosterone but works on other hormones.
I’m lucky that testosterone doesn’t affect my hair in a negative way.
DHT is only marginally used in the body and at least finasteride doesn’t impact the kind of 5ar enzyme that may actually have a role in humans.
ITP male mice also seem to be living longer when given mega-doses of 17a-estradiol despite there definitely being siginficant 5ar inhibition going on at such concentrations.
It seems 17a-estradiol should be put head to head with finasteride and dutasteride in some studies.
For BPH is the prescribed 5mg necessary or would a lower dose still work?
Honestly I don’t know but if you look at the hair retention studies, it’s seems like you can get away with lower dosing of 0.25 mg of finasteride.
Personally and anecdotally I can tell you that dutasteride 0.5 QD works way better for me than finasteride 1 mg with significant reduction in hesitation and increased stream flow. In fact over the years I seemed to forgot what it was like to take a piss as a young man until after few weeks of dutasteride.
Definitely increase hair growth and thickness. It won’t cure genetic male pattern baldness, but it will definitely allow you to keep your hair longer.
Any effect on mood or libido? It has such a long half-life that it seems like quite a gamble…
I can tell you that my mood on dutasteride is a lot better than my mood on finasteride. Finasteride gave me mild depression! Dutasteride does nothing to my mood that I can tell. Maybe it blunts a little of my normal joie de vivre, but I’m guessing here. At least it doesn’t cause depression!
No apparent effects as far as I can tell.