Knichol - You are right, there are apparently not a lot of users here that have tried Avodart. There was one poster a while back, Chicane was his name I believe, who was achieving good results from Avodart, but he has since disappeared.

After my reading here, I went to my derm with all the Avodart and spiro info I could print. I did not have to push very hard at all to get a spiro rx (I'm a male), but he was hesitant to go the Avodart route. It sounded to me like it was just too new and he was not very familiar with this drug and its potential use for acne. I decided to try the spiro and keep Avodart on my list of possibilities. Since I've been achieving some pretty good results with spiro, I'm not in a huge hurry to try Avodart right now.

I do believe that the commentary regarding potential side effects for males from spiro has been somewhat overstated on this board. If you read the specs for Aldactone the side effects do not appear to be any more alarming or frequent than those from Avodart (the ones you mentioned in your post). I'm taking 50 mg/day, and am really hesitant to take more than that, and have not seen any side effects other than some minor things that lasted the first few days.

Regarding discussion boards with Avodart info -- you have the right idea. Forums for discussing male pattern baldness tend to have a lot of folks talking about Avodart. I found it hard to get any useful info from these places because the users on these boards have a completely different chemical makeup and a different problem, and who knows how the drug affects them. I even saw some instances where users claimed that Avodart CREATED acne problems for them where none had existed before! That seems improbable to me. Anyway, it generated more confusion than answers.

Quote from Clark:

Knichol - You are right, there are apparently not a lot of users here that have tried Avodart. There was one poster a while back, Chicane was his name I believe, who was achieving good results from Avodart, but he has since disappeared.

After my reading here, I went to my derm with all the Avodart and spiro info I could print. I did not have to push very hard at all to get a spiro rx (I'm a male), but he was hesitant to go the Avodart route. It sounded to me like it was just too new and he was not very familiar with this drug and its potential use for acne. I decided to try the spiro and keep Avodart on my list of possibilities. Since I've been achieving some pretty good results with spiro, I'm not in a huge hurry to try Avodart right now.

I do believe that the commentary regarding potential side effects for males from spiro has been somewhat overstated on this board. If you read the specs for Aldactone the side effects do not appear to be any more alarming or frequent than those from Avodart (the ones you mentioned in your post). I'm taking 50 mg/day, and am really hesitant to take more than that, and have not seen any side effects other than some minor things that lasted the first few days.

Regarding discussion boards with Avodart info -- you have the right idea. Forums for discussing male pattern baldness tend to have a lot of folks talking about Avodart. I found it hard to get any useful info from these places because the users on these boards have a completely different chemical makeup and a different problem, and who knows how the drug affects them. I even saw some instances where users claimed that Avodart CREATED acne problems for them where none had existed before! That seems improbable to me. Anyway, it generated more confusion than answers.

Clark,
How long have you been on spiro now? How was your acne before and how is it now?

Also, how would you know if you're potassium levels are too high? What are the side effects and consequences of elevated potassium levels?