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Is there dangers in simultaneous finasteride and dutasteride usage?

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cliff_hanger

member
I've now been using a month both dutasteride and finasteride daily. I take the first in the morning and the latter in the evening. I use dutasteride with a 0.5 mg and finasteride with a 2.5 mg daily dose. I know those are a lot, but let me explain.

I was using finasteride ever since as early as from 2007, continuously. In 2012 I made in hindsight the mistake of stopping its use for roughly four months, in which time I lost maybe as much as 60-70 percent of hair coverage on my scalp, which was in good shape to begin with. I continued the use and luckily I was able regain perhaps half of what I lost during the stoppage. I seemed to notice however that the relative effectiveness had started to drop, so over the years I ended up upping the dosage to half of a full 5 mg tablet. During the last 2-3 years I started to notice my hairline on my left temple to recede to a point where I decided its now or never when I have to react, or I will have lost the fight. I visited doctor and got a recipe for dutasteride, which is supposed to be more effective in prohibiting the production of DHT. I quit finasteride and used it alone for 3 to 4 months, but the pace the hair loss continued only sped up, so I decided to continue my finasteride, along with the dutasteride.

The simultaneous usage of both the main medication for hair loss seems to be last straw for me, at least for now. I was wondering can anyone think of any significant reasons not to use both at the same time, other than the main adverse effects that can be suffered, listed on their individual labels, when used alone? I don't seem have any of those, luckily. I had some back in 2012, prior quitting finasteride for several months, but I haven't suffered any side effects since I stopped and continued, although the efficacy in preventing hair loss has not ever been the same. I have also been using 5% minoxidil pretty much daily this whole time.
 
Hi @cliff_hanger , both finasteride and dutasteride are listed medically as 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors. Whilst it is common to recommend the use of only one drug in the family to treat a problem in this case no interactions have been found to to date. Of course that does not mean that will not change in the future. There is a documented case of a man first taking finasteride and then added dutasteride to the mix.

We report on a 47-year-old man who was initially treated with finasteride for androgenetic alopecia. Despite continuous treatment, after year 4 his hair density was not as good as at year 2, and low-dose dutasteride at 0.5 mg/week was added to the finasteride therapy. This resulted in a dramatic increase in his hair density, demonstrating that combined therapy with finasteride and dutasteride can improve hair density in patients already taking finasteride.
 
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cliff_hanger

member
This input was much appreciated - thank you! (y) I'm going to continue with my dual regimen (+minoxidil), in mind that this is the best and perhaps only viable treatment for me now and keep hoping future will bring more solutions in the coming years, while trying to save as much natural hair as possible.

PS: And happy early New year everyone!
 
This input was much appreciated - thank you! (y) I'm going to continue with my dual regimen (+minoxidil), in mind that this is the best and perhaps only viable treatment for me now and keep hoping future will bring more solutions in the coming years, while trying to save as much natural hair as possible.

PS: And happy early New year everyone!


Glad it has helped, wish you successful hair growth and a happy new year to you :)
 
R

Risingforehead

member
Are you taking the medication purely as a loss prevention, or are you planning on surgery too?
 
C

cliff_hanger

member
Are you taking the medication purely as a loss prevention, or are you planning on surgery too?

For now, just for prevention. Hair transplantation surgery is something I haven't really given any significant thought so far. My current mind set is to hang in as far as necessary and best as possible with "natural scalp", at the same time hoping some significant new targeted treatment to stop hair loss and/or regain lost hair to emerge, given the speed medicine and gene technology advances today. I wouldn't even have the necessary information to make that decision right now, so first I would need to do the research to make an informed decision. But I'm not ruling it out either in the future, with better financial flexibility to only choose the best possible procedure by the best possible practice. Given what I just said, in my view I would be more surprised if no major brake through treatment came up withing the next 15 to 20 years, than if one, possibly or even probably based on gene technology was to come.
 
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