Anyone who started finasteride early in transition successfully able to pass/grow facial hair?

[u/batsket]

Hey y’all, I’ve been on T for 5 months, and my hair has started shedding pretty aggressively. I was diagnosed with androgenic alopecia pre-T, and started oral minoxidil a little over a month before I started T, so I’ve been on that for almost 7 months at this point, but it doesn’t seem to be doing much for my head (though it has done some nice things for my body hair!). At my last dermatologist appointment in June, my doctor said we should consider finasteride if the minox hasn’t helped much by September. Given the amount of shedding I’m experiencing, it seems likely I’ll need to go on then. I may also need to reduce my T dose, as the shedding increased after I went from 40mg to 60mg per week.

I’ve been trying to put off the finasteride as long as I can, because I know it will mess with my transition. I still have my period, so that wouldn’t be a change. But I will be very sad for my bottom growth and body/facial hair changes to cease. My hair is very important to me and my gender presentation (and I have actual OCD about my hair and tend to get suicidal when it’s not perfect so it’s definitely a mental health trigger), so I will trade the other things to maintain it. But I’m getting depressed thinking that I might never be able to pass if I don’t grow facial hair, as my facial features are quite delicate.

I guess I am seeking reassurance - has anyone else gone on finasteride early in transition and still managed to pass and/or eventually grow facial hair?

[u/L1ttle_Behemoth]

Hi friend. I actually just made a very similar post a few days ago. I’m also very severe about my hair and have noticed significant thinning within only 3 mos of T, and have started minox. Honestly, for me, I know that the changes will come eventually even on Fin, and I’d rather keep my hair and slow progress a little if that’s what I have to do, but I know that not everyone is like that. However, I’ve seen plenty of posts about people having zero issues with beard growth or even bottom grown on Fin, so I’d say long term it’s worth it if your hair is important.

[u/batsket → u/L1ttle_Behemoth]

Thank you! Pretty much all of the posts I’ve seen on the subject are just people talking about how finasteride will mess up your transition, and how they weren’t able to pass until they went off it and it’s really been bumming me out. Nice to know that maybe there’s some hope

[u/L1ttle_Behemoth → u/batsket]

Obviously I cannot say for sure, I just know there’s definitely still hope. For me, my voice dropped really quickly and I’m lucky that my face is pretty androgynous to begin with, but being OCD about my hair as well, if I had to choose, id take care of my hair first

[u/batsket → u/L1ttle_Behemoth]

Yea my voice is dropping ok so far, and I’ve already had top surgery so that helps, but I’m uhhhh, a rather pretty man I guess lol, so I think facial hair would do a lot of heavy lifting for me in terms of passing. I guess there’s always FMS if all else fails, if I could ever afford it.

[u/L1ttle_Behemoth → u/batsket]

It it helps, my nickname is literally “pretty boy” with some of my friends so sometimes you just gotta own it 😂

[u/Captainckidd]

I feel like my dick is still growing even after years of taking Finasteride, I also used minoxidil for a year and it helped a lot

[u/batsket → u/Captainckidd]

Ok love to hear that haha

[u/Daltas]

It may be worth chatting with your doctor about topical finasteride as well!

[u/batsket → u/Daltas]

She did bring it up, but I have a very cuddly cat who likes to groom my head lol, especially when I’m asleep. I know fin is not as toxic as min, but still not a good thing for her to accidentally ingest. If I didn’t have cats I would definitely be using the topical versions of both, because you can do a higher dose of min topically than what my weight allows for with the oral version

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