0.1mg daily or 0.5mg weekly show similar results to 1mg - 5mg of Finasteride. The half life of dut is 5 weeks. It is a strong DHT suppressor, suppressing DHT by 90% at 0.5mg when taken daily.
If your goal is hair loss this study might help.
The importance of dual 5α-reductase inhibition in the treatment of male pattern hair loss: Results of a randomized placebo-controlled study of dutasteride versus finasteride
In this phase II, dose-ranging study, 2.5-mg dutasteride was superior to 5-mg finasteride in improving scalp hair growth
And I searched around and many websites say that usually the best dose is 0.5mg daily to balance side effects with benefits (the 2.5mg has better results, but a lot more side effects).
In one double-blind study, 2 out of 70 patients on 0.5 mg daily had decreased libido, and 2 out of 70 had impotence. 3 of 70 on a placebo developed impotence. 9 of 71 taking dutasteride 2.5 mg daily had impotence, indicating a correlation with dosage.
Another study showed a 25-28% decrease in sperm count in a one-year trial. Six months after discontinuing dutasteride, the sperm count was still lower than the initial count by 23%. Semen volume followed these same percentages. The sperm morphology appeared normal.
Oral minoxidil can quite literally kill you though while finasteride has, according to the FDA, no causal relationship with permanent/long-lasting side effects and most side effects other than gyno disappear within 3 months of cessation.
I had a couple of supplements and medications that also nuked my libido (SSRI, dutasteride and DIM amongst others) though also their side effects also resolved by themselves after cessation and some waiting time.
And finasteride wasn’t just studied by Merck. We have systematic reviews for BPH and hairloss from independent institutes that also confirm the 2-4% incidence of side effects over placebo.
@Virilius do you believe there is any reason why finasteride or dutasteride haven’t been tried in the ITP yet? My feeling is some of these might improve mice lifespan.
No one has recommended those drugs yet yet. My gut feeling tells me they will show a significant life extension in male mice similar to 17a-estradiol as it’s been hypothetized before that 17a-estradiols effect is mediated by 5ar inhibition.
That would make sense in male humans since females (with less DHT) live longer, but I couldn’t find any data that female mice live longer than male mice.
Not at the tiny doses we use for androgenetic hair loss (1.25mg or 2.5mg, for instance). Serious side effects are extremely rare. The hypertension doses are much higher (10 to 40 mg) and definitely come with some risk.
Me too, dutasteride was even “worse.” I’d say it’s calmed down a little now that I’ve been on it a few months, but my libido is still higher than baseline.
I’ve wondered this too but I think that significant of an effect, if it translated to humans, would show up in ACM in studies on fin and it has not. No?
Of course the overall risk is probably lower than 0.1% at doses below 5mg due to the sheer amount of oral minoxidil users and low-ish amount of reports of pericardial effusion but it can still be dangerous if you get unlucky.
