REGROWTH AFTER 12 YEARS! My doctor approves of self-prescribed gray market internet dutasteride!!

Omg I’m so relieved, happy, but lightweight kinda angry right now. This is the first time in 12 YEARS of hair loss I’ve had a doctor finally acknowledge to my face that:

1) 5ar drugs work in females.

2) the ONLY reason nobody’s willing to prescribe them is the risk of birth defects in male fetuses.

I’ve always known this in my soul to be true, but felt like a crazy hypochondriac whenever I asked (begged, pleaded, even sobbed at times) doctors for a prescription and they’d vaguely respond, “We don’t give those to women”. Some outright refused to answer why (even in one case when the clinics website openly stated they prescribe to postmenopausal women). Some said, quite mysteriously, “we don’t know what will happen”. Some pretended they thought it wouldn’t work. All of them bald-face (lol) lying to my face and I HAVE FINALLY BEEN VINDICATEDDD!!!!!!

I started losing hair at seventeen. I was on 200mg spiro for over a decade. No regrowth. I did my due diligence with greasy, drying topical min and cosplaying jumanji with oral min. But all I ever wanted was the gold standard, convenient, low side effect treatment available to men.

I never wanted to go rogue and self-prescribe, it seemed dangerous. But pushing 30 I realized that I was running out of time and I had probably lost a good chunk of follicles that I could never recover. (RIP to those follicles, and to the hot-ass bitch I could have been in my 20s if I wasn’t visibly balding).

So, one year ago I finally snapped, and I ordered some fin off a site we will call SchmallShmay Shmemist. I started with 2mg, then after a couple months with no side effects, I bumped up to 5mg I also decided to halve my dosage of Spiro to preserve my T. I had a shed, followed by what appeared to be regrowth. When I went to the dermatologist 6 months later, and let him know I was self-medicating with gray market internet drugs, he surprisingly confirmed he was fine with me doing this but wasn’t willing to prescribe it himself.

A few months ago I switched to 0.5mg Dut. Another shed, another round of what seemed like promising regrowth, although if course it’s hard to tell from day to day. I also am choosing to skip my Spiro most days at this point.

Well, I just got back from another appointment with that same derm. He looked at my head and instantly said, “it seems to be looking better”. He pulled up photos from my visit 6 months ago and both him and the nurse confirmed they saw regrowth!!!!!!!!!!

After confirming I wasn’t experiencing any dizziness or lightheadedness, he told me without prompting that I should CONTINUE TAKING THE INTERNET DRUGS as long as I am avoiding pregnancy, but that he wouldn’t ever offer me a prescription. I asked him “are you concerned about anything other than pregnancy”? He just smirked ruefully and was like, “….nah not really”. I thanked him for being honest and told him he was the first doctor to admit that to me.

So to recap: my doctor is not concerned about the safety of these drugs, nor is he concerned about their disreputable source. He does believe they’re working, and he straightforwardly advised I keep taking them.

I’m angry about being gaslit for so long, I’m angry that I will probably never fully regain my original hair, and I’m angry that the needs of a hypothetical male fetus that I do not want are put before my medical wishes. But I am so relieved to confirm my instincts. And it’s working!!!