So I am seeing increasing posts of people getting gyno sensations on finasteride online, and the people in the comments seem to have no clue what they’re talking about.
As someone who’s been dealing with this for years since day one, I know how frustrating it can be.
I cannot comment advice on everyone’s posts so I will try to write out what helped me and there is a worrying lack of info on this.
The issue is due to the ratio of androgrens to estrogen. When taking finasteride e2 goes up while DHT goes down which completely throws off the ratio in some people.
With fin there are two major causes of gyno: either high estrogen or low dht. Dht binds to the receptors in the breast and with less dht floating about in tissues due to finasteride, this allows e2 to attach instead.
I am also like you. I am sensitive to finasteride and at most dosages it give me chest swelling and pain as well as burning nips.
Initially as a first stage noobie approach i’d recommend microdosing fin with supplement such as DIM and zinc, but clearly that wont work for you.
I’d recommend you get blood tests done (while you have side effects and preferable before) to find out if you have high estrogen and/or low testosterone and/or high shbg. I personally got sick of messing around with dosages and frequency of fin all the time for years and eventually found out my issues were due to high estrodial.
I worked with an endo and my bloods while i was experiencing gyno sides showed that my estrodial shoots up like crazy on finasteride. I eventually just addressed this with the low dose of an aromatase inhibitor (anastrazole) and it has worked very well. I can get away with small doses very infrequently and take fin just fine with no chest issues. Right now im on 0.5mg fin but plan to up this in the future.
I know a few guys that do this too. Unfortunately gyno on fin is so rare that there is little to no info on what to do if you get this issue, but people are starting to get more educated. Back when i first had this issue the only thing people really said was “oh it’s extremely rare”, like thanks for the useless information.
The other issue is if your gyno is due to low dht. This is a bit more complicated to address and i dont have much advice on how to combat this. All i can think of that should work is addressing with a SERM like tamoxifen. But bear in mind i really dont know anything about SERMs like dosage or frequency, and it can have side effects too.
No matter what you decide to do it is important you work with an endochrinologist.
I think it is just easier to figure it out the issue and address it rather than fucking with bullshit like 0.001% topical fin and getting sides anyway with no results. And in my experience topical gave the same sides so it being marketed as a lower side effect option is bullshit imo
Just so you know:
Aromatase inhibitor- Lowers e2.
SERM- Prevents e2 from binding to the breast receptors and causing gyno