I was on fin for a long time. Had sides that I wasn’t fully aware of, attributing them to stress and other factors. They largely stopped when I quit, but I had lingering issue. I also started losing more hair on my crown and in the frontal region. Really started getting some hairline recession recently.
I went to a well-known purveyor of hair replacement surgeries and hair systems. They said I still have a lot of hair, so I’m best-suited for a transplant, not a system. Another place confirmed.
I have been adding HCG to TRT recently in order to boost libido, sensitivity, and performance, none of which has been great since stopping fin, albeit better than when on fin. It has worked pretty well for those purposes, but I have had to use an aromatase inhibitor and prolactin reduction measures to prevent gyno. I have had definite “spicy nip” feelings.
OK. But here’s the thing: I tried a bit of DHT recently with my TRT. Just a few mg. Holy shit. Amazing mood. Rock-hard randomly. Could go several times in a single afternoon/evening if I needed to. Have never felt this way since I started fin in my early 20s, even after coming off of it, but I at least was functional down there while still losing hair. But with DHT, which I was taking to try to combat what might be PFS, or at least some remnant effects of having reduced 5-ar for a very long time, I feel amazing. But I can feel that burning feeling in my crown and frontal regions and know what that is. I didn’t need the aromatase inhibitor, though. As soon as I took a little bit, the need for that was flat-out gone. No spicy nips.
So I started using some of Rob English’s Ulo brand’s hair growth serum and shampoo, both with Saw Palmetto as the main feature (he also has fin and other topicals). The thinking was that if Saw Palmetto doesn’t lower serum DHT, but does where you apply it (the scalp) and, to the extent some goes systemic, the prostate, then perhaps I wouldn’t have the issues I did with fin. I know it’s a non-specific Type 1 and 2 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor, and wouldn’t directly reduce DHT, but the hope was that it would knock out any incremental DHT conversion at the scalp. I also suspected it would act in other tissues, but I can’t find anything specific on it other than it acting on seminal vesicles. I suspected it acted on penile tissue and other stuff, like fin, but I couldn’t get confirmation.
So here’s what happened … even with a bit more of the DHT that I took, just doing that topical with Saw Palmetto the past two nights left me tonight severely dysfunctional down there, and with watery/little semen and a burning feeling in the head of my penis during the big event, when it took all kinds of stimulation and other things just to make it work. Whereas with DHT, just a few days earlier, I could probably go three times in a row, and before all this, with the HCG, I was in pretty good shape down there, but needed to use the aromatase inhibitor, which also isn’t great. I know some may say this is placebo or I was looking for it, but the feelings were familiar to when I was on fin, and I haven’t felt them in years. Completely different feeling in various organs/systems from what I have had without 5-ar inhibition.
So here are my choices, it seems:
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Basic TRT: not very functional, keep losing hair at a pretty rapid clip. Hair transplant may help for a while but it’s on borrowed time.
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HCG and TRT: have to use aromatase inhibitor or get gyno. The aromatase inhibitor seems to cause hair loss, too.
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HCG, DHT, TRT: feel fucking amazing, perform fucking amazing, even seems to cause some growth down there; but I know my hair will be a goner within months, and even if I do a transplant, at best, the transplanted hairs will just look weird after the other hairs are gone. I have a weird-shaped head, so I can’t just shave it.
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Any of the above with a topical with any kind of 5-ar inhibitor, apparently: fin sides, which totally suck in my case and obviate any real benefit I’m hoping to get from the hair, and won’t reduce DHT if I’m on exogenous DHT.
So what is one to do?
Lots going on here, I realize, but this is just so tough for those of us who are DHT-sensitive and/or sensitive to 5-ar inhibitors. There are no great choices, even if I am willing to spend thousands of dollars and spend tons of time on this. The only moderately decent one, I guess, is mediocre performance and reduced functionality / feeling with a transplant and basic TRT but no 5-ar inhibition. Anyone else navigated a similar set of facts?