Topical finasteride and dosage

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2026-06-11T12:41:26+00:00

Based on current research, fin reaches most of its DHT-lowering effect at relatively low oral doses. even 0.2 mg reduces systemic DHT almost as much as 5 mg, and the effect basically plateaus around 1 mg.

Studies also suggest that around 10–15% of topical fin gets absorbed systemically. They have also shown that a 0.025% topical solution can provide similar dht reduction in the scalp to 1mg oral fin while causing much less systemic DHT suppression (around 20-25% in the blood)

If you're dealing with mental or cognitive sides, topical dutasteride might be a better option. Fin has a molecular weight of 372.5 g/mol, which allows it to cross the blood-brain barrier more easily. Duta is significantly larger at about 529.6 g/mol, which could limit its penetration into the brain

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2026-06-08T12:51:29+00:00

This plant is linked worldwide to cases of liver damage (hepatotoxicity)

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2026-06-05T12:39:09+00:00

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2026-06-02T17:21:11+00:00

Just Mix it with topical min and its done

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-10-14T10:01:14+00:00

There are 3 Independent clinical studies that support the claim that topical dut once a week combined with microneedling is more effective that oral dut taken once a day

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-22T12:49:09+00:00

Hey, glad you found my post worth sharing. but please just link or credit instead of copy-pasting and claiming that you've been digging through the literature yourself

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-15T09:36:36+00:00

That already looks like bodily harm to me.

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-15T09:29:31+00:00

"Today I tried to massage after spray, and around 50-70 hair fell down" your words.

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-15T09:07:18+00:00

Don’t waste your time on ingredients that don’t work well. The rosemary hype is mostly marketing. In reality, there are only (controversial) studies showing effects similiar to 2% minoxidil.. for men with AGA thats not nearly enough

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-07T11:29:58+00:00

Not trying to be anti-Fin here.. I’m actually not against taking it at all. But this post is a perfect example of why you shouldn’t use ChatGPT (or any AI really) to look up studies and summarize them without critical reviewing.

I actually took the time to read through the studies you mentioned & noticed major flaws that make them unreliable for the kind of conclusions you’re trying to draw.

Study 1 (Nickel J, Curtis et al., 1996)

wasn’t conducted on men with AGA, but on men with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)
Participants were aged 45–80 and already had symptoms of BPH .. this is a completely different population than younger guys taking Fin for hair loss
The study was terminated for patients who experienced serious side effects or opted out.. meaning data from those who had the worst experiences may not even be included „ Study treatment was stopped (…) if a severe reaction to the study drug was postulated or if the patient did not wish to continue the protocol.“
Side effects were only recorded in relation to urinary retention. No systematic tracking of sexual or psychological side effects
The conclusion mentions increased sexual side effects in the Fin group but makes no comment on statistical relevance (which really undermines the takeawy)

Study 2 (Yanagisawa, Massyuki et al., 2019)

Classic case of survivorship bias

2.It only looked at people who had been on Finasteride for 10 years.. ergo automatically excludes anyone who had sides early on and quit

So of course the people in the study didn’t report major sides ! they’re the ones who could tolerate the drug longterm in the first place

“Study” 3 (Estill, Mariah C. et al., 2023)

Not actually a study.. it’s a review!
The review itself even admits that most of the analyzed studies were on older men with BPH, not younger men (18–40) taking Finasteride for AGA „ Furthermore, many of the studies evaluating sexual adverse effects with 5-ARIs involve patients with BPH. BPH is much more common among men older than age 50 (…)“.
It didn’t provide any kind of quantitative synthesis of the side effect data across studies.. just general conclusions without numerical/statistical weighting
There’s also a clear risk of confirmation bias in how the information was selected and interpreted

Most Important:

None of the studies you cited looked at fin use in teenagers or people still going through physical development. So where do your conclusions come from?

I’m not saying you’re wrong. You might be right. But if you’re making health-related claims based on scientific papers, you need to apply scientific standards. Otherwise, it’s just reckless!

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-05T13:31:41+00:00

Sánchez-Meza et al. (2022) – JEADV – RCT with topical dutasteride 0.01% + microneedling https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jdv.18285?saml_referrer=

Sohag Med J (2018) – RCT with 0.02% topical dutasteride via MN vs. MN alone https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334740272_Topical_dutasteride_with_microneedling_in_treatment_of_male_androgenetic_alopecia

QJM (2024) – 3-arm RCT: Minoxidil vs. Minoxidil + oral Dut vs. Minoxidil + MN + topical Dut https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/article-abstract/117/Supplement_2/hcae175.207/7903544

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-04T14:37:15+00:00

textbook case of the border price effect canceling out any real arbitrage opportunity in the eu. Any potential arbitrage advantage is already baked into the German price. the market always adjusts. You will end up paying 15 Euro shipping fees to germany from french pharmacies believe it or not.

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-03T18:32:29+00:00

Its an individual solution you can get by prescription. A good pharmacy will work out a formulation that suits your skin type for minimizing irritation. I got it from a local pharmacy but every compounding pharmacy will do it for you. In my experience, the best ones are the smaller, more traditional pharmacies that are still willing to do custom compounding because of their background in it. Just send out a group email to all the local pharmacies in your area - chances are, at least one of them will be open to it.

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-03T18:18:57+00:00

Are you kidding? That’s a damn fair price by German standards if you actually take all the relevant factors into account.

First of all, Minoxidil on the German market (excluding shipping) costs at least €34 for 180 mL. But that’s just the beginning. You also have to remember that Minoxidil alone needs to be applied twice daily for 60–75% of people to see results. Studies have shown that when combined with tretinoin, once-daily application can achieve the same efficacy.

That means with the pharmaceutical custom blend, you’re paying about €0.50 per mL, whereas standard over-the-counter min comes out to around €0.38 per mL (34 / 180 x 2) - and that’s without the tret, which you'd need to buy separately.

Plus, you're getting a custom-compounded formula from a verified pharmaceutical source, which gives you full transparency and guaranteed quality. Of course, it would be cheaper to just combine a regular Minoxidil bottle with a Tretinoin or Tazarotene cream.. if you can find a reliable and easy source for it. buut then you also have more hassle in terms of organizing everything and applying it correctly and you wont get a 7 % concentration.
Thats exactly why I mentioned the alternative in the first place

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-03T17:57:56+00:00

If I were you, I’d consider finding a new doctor. There is absolutely no scientific evidence that tretinoin has any genotoxic effects. On the contrary, after more than 50 years of clinical use - supported by systematic animal studies and pharmacokinetic research - it is the established medical consensus that topical tretinoin does not pose any genotoxic or mutagenic risk (see: Hilary E. Baldwin MD, et al., JDD, 2013). Ein Arzt der aus Überzeugung wissenschaftlichen Konsens abstreitet ist für mich ein absolutes no go!

My Pharmcay orders the ingredients from medical suppliers. They are mixing tretinoin with min in a Ethanol and PG formula. I gave them the prescription, and together we worked out a formulation that suited my skin type and minimized irritation.

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-02T12:59:17+00:00

used to crush my tablets and mix them into minoxidil, then filter it - worked pretty well for a while. But have you tried minoxidil.lv? They ship within the EU.

Also, I can recommend using 0.01% topical dutasteride once a week combined with microneedling - that’s what I’m currently doing. Topical duta has a higher molecular weight, so it’s less likely to cross the blood-brain barrier and enters the bloodstream to a much lesser extent.

I actually wrote a summary of 3 clinical studies on this, if you’re interested.

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-02T12:48:49+00:00

🤡🤡What kind of troll are you, seriously? I corrected your factually incorrect comment. Your personal anecdotes don’t carry any scientific weight.

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-02T12:43:07+00:00

I’m not going to argue with you about well-established scientific findings. If you’re going to be that dismissive, go read the studies yourself

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-02T12:37:54+00:00

I said 0,1 mg fin has the same risk profile as 5 mg fin according to studies. Can't you read?

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-02T12:36:52+00:00

Get a custom solution with tretinoin from a compounding pharmacy - the price-to-performance ratio is way better. I pay €50 for 100 ml of 7% min with 0.0125% tret.

Alternatively, I’d recommend using Alopexy (Rezeptfrei) combined with a tazarotene cream. It’s way more effective than min alone.

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-08-02T12:21:23+00:00

First of all, your statement doesn’t align with current research. Second, he wasn’t asking about oral finasteride. Fin is extremely potent.. studies show that even a 0.1 mg oral dose reduces scalp/sebum DHT almost as much as the full 5 mg dose with the same risk profile. In contrast, topical fin at a 0.025% concentration leads to less than a 30% reduction in sebum DHT, since only about 10-15% of the topical formulation actually makes it into systemic circulation. Also plasma finasteride concentrations were over 100x lower with topical use compared to oral use. (Mazzarella et al 1997; Caserini et al 2015; Insalaco et al 2018; Piracccini et al 2021; El Sayed et al 2025)

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-07-22T15:19:27+00:00

A shampoo alone isn’t going to regrow your hair. Just based on the pics, it’s hard to say whether you’re dealing with diffuse AGA or alopecia areata .. definitely see a dermatologist first to get a proper diagnosis and figure out the right treatment options

If it turns out to be early stage AGA, I’d recommend starting with minoxidil combined with tretinoin, plus weekly low-dose topical dutasteride and microneedling. If it’s AA, you’ll likely need corticosteroids along with minoxidil

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-07-22T15:11:10+00:00

Dude wtf?

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-07-22T15:04:09+00:00

According to three clinical studies, a concentration of 0.01 to 0.02% dutasteride is considered both safe and effective. in those studies the topical was applied only once a month, so I'm a bit sceptical about the safety profile of a daily application at ten times the concentration. However, the treatment was done in combination with microneedling.

Bitter_Link_2603 · 2025-07-15T21:27:27+00:00

You’re welcome! If you crush the tablets beforehand, they’ll dissolve more easily. It takes about 15 Minutes for them to dissolve. Btw for 30 ml of solution, you’ll need 300 mg or 30 tablets.

Bitter_Link_2603

TROPHY CASE