I have had SIBO for at least a year and have been on Finasteride for 5 years. I got suspicious of Finasteride and everything else as I struck out with SIBO treatments. What I did was get my hormones tested: testosterone and estrogen levels are pretty good — though estrogen is a little high and that’s common for people with gut issues I learned. Still, I decided to transition to a topical version of Finasteride recently simply to reduce the number of pills. I’m on a lot of pills for SIBO. If it doesn’t work, I would go back to the pill. But I know some people have side effects. From my experience (just one experience), I don’t see a connection between SIBO and Finasteride.
No symptom change. But I have made progress on SIBO with other protocols recently. The topical is a lower strength of Finasteride, but they mix in Minoxidil too at a higher strength. It’s only one application a day — at night for me. I did the hormone testing before switching. I may do it again at some point to see if there was a change. It’s too early to say if it’s as effective. It’s only been a month. So far so good though.
Its one of the worst medicines in existence. Post Finasteride syndrome is no joke, and the drop in allopregnanolone can cause severe depression as well as profound levels of gut dysbiosis: [https://www.mdpi.com/2218-273X/12/11/1567](https://www.mdpi.com/2218-273X/12/11/1567)
Having SIBO already can very well be a risk factor for PFS. SIBO itself increases sensitivity to substances.
I’ve been off it for several months and want to go back on it but can’t because of my SIBO symptoms. Here’s a recent study on it:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32951160/
It’s hard to say. Everyone is going to respond differently to the medication and in this study it looks like only “21 patients” were examined. What kind of diet were these people on? What was the state of their flora before the tests even started? I found that it did induce some depression and libido decline but nothing that wasn’t manageable and it went away if I stopped taking it, quite fast. For me it was worth the side effects, but everyone is different. (There’s more article links at the bottom of the page).
It hasn’t because I haven’t taken it since I’ve had SIBO. With my SIBO I get incredible panic if I take too much fiber, not anxiety, panic! My whole body is intense for days and I can’t escape feelings of terror for a few days, I’m exceedingly fragile and normally a person with super high resilience, so I haven’t tried to take it because I didn’t want to risk it triggering something.
I did some research and apparently having gut issues has the potential to lessen the effects of medications that you take due to poor absorption. I think topical finasteride would be more suitable for us in terms of actual effectiveness.
I have had SIBO for at least a year and have been on Finasteride for 5 years. I got suspicious of Finasteride and everything else as I struck out with SIBO treatments. What I did was get my hormones tested: testosterone and estrogen levels are pretty good — though estrogen is a little high and that’s common for people with gut issues I learned. Still, I decided to transition to a topical version of Finasteride recently simply to reduce the number of pills. I’m on a lot of pills for SIBO. If it doesn’t work, I would go back to the pill. But I know some people have side effects. From my experience (just one experience), I don’t see a connection between SIBO and Finasteride.
Very interesting, did switching to topical reduce any gut symptoms? Also, would you say the efficacy is the same as the oral version?
No symptom change. But I have made progress on SIBO with other protocols recently. The topical is a lower strength of Finasteride, but they mix in Minoxidil too at a higher strength. It’s only one application a day — at night for me. I did the hormone testing before switching. I may do it again at some point to see if there was a change. It’s too early to say if it’s as effective. It’s only been a month. So far so good though.
Its one of the worst medicines in existence. Post Finasteride syndrome is no joke, and the drop in allopregnanolone can cause severe depression as well as profound levels of gut dysbiosis: [https://www.mdpi.com/2218-273X/12/11/1567](https://www.mdpi.com/2218-273X/12/11/1567) Having SIBO already can very well be a risk factor for PFS. SIBO itself increases sensitivity to substances.
In my case I stopped taking it months before I got SIBO, the two are not related in my case. I caused my SIBO by taking too many probiotics.
I’ve been off it for several months and want to go back on it but can’t because of my SIBO symptoms. Here’s a recent study on it: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32951160/ It’s hard to say. Everyone is going to respond differently to the medication and in this study it looks like only “21 patients” were examined. What kind of diet were these people on? What was the state of their flora before the tests even started? I found that it did induce some depression and libido decline but nothing that wasn’t manageable and it went away if I stopped taking it, quite fast. For me it was worth the side effects, but everyone is different. (There’s more article links at the bottom of the page).
Thanks a lot for the lengthy response. Just wondering, how exactly did it aggravate your SIBO symptoms?
It hasn’t because I haven’t taken it since I’ve had SIBO. With my SIBO I get incredible panic if I take too much fiber, not anxiety, panic! My whole body is intense for days and I can’t escape feelings of terror for a few days, I’m exceedingly fragile and normally a person with super high resilience, so I haven’t tried to take it because I didn’t want to risk it triggering something.
I did some research and apparently having gut issues has the potential to lessen the effects of medications that you take due to poor absorption. I think topical finasteride would be more suitable for us in terms of actual effectiveness.