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My experience with 2% Tofacitinib Cream
My dermatologist wrote me a prescription for Tofacitinib 2% Cream/Lotion Compounded from CFS Pharmacy.
Thought I'd chronicle here. It was very expensive at $540 for a 60mg container. I knew this medicine would not work with just a few doses so if I applied to my whole scalp I'd probably run out in maybe 3-4 weeks. My goal was eyebrow regrowth only so that I could test it. I was very skeptical as everything I had read and experienced about AA was that topical applications don't really work because they don't sink down to the follicle roots.
So here I am. 3 weeks in with once daily application, no regrowth yet. No pictures worth posting yet. I have a few white vellus eyebrow hairs popping up, but I'm smarter than to think this means anything as I had just lost my eyebrows from an episode 2 months ago, so this might be a last breath of my follicles before they truly shutoff.
However, I will keep this updated. I suspect that if I don't see regrowth after 8 weeks it's not going to happen. The good news is that there are no side effects, it's just a cream so a little greasy if anything.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by JustAnotherBaldGuy on
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Update?
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Permalink Reply by 5DH on
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Thanks for the reminder. I'm 11 weeks into once/daily application.
A couple of eyebrow hairs have popped on on the very far outside of my eyebrow. A good amount of transparent vellus hairs have grown out. No terminal/pigmented hair regrowth otherwise.
Frankly I think if I get regrowth at this point, it would be hard to attribute it to the cream (vs. just spontaneous regrowth, which is what happened when I lost half of an eyebrow 10 years ago). If it was actually penetrating deep enough to have an effect, it would have done so after this many weeks.
However I haven't had any side effects from using the cream at all either, just like using a standard lotion product. I may increase the dosage to 2x/day just for the heck of it since 1x/day isn't doing anything.
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That is interesting indeed. From what I've read (mainly on here) even the people who take the jak inhibitors orally sometimes need to take them over many months before they start seeing real progress. I think it's good you've stuck to the routine, for all we know you're just a bit of time and consistency away from getting the results you're hoping for.
A lot of people, myself included at that, also have vitiligo to go along with our alopecia areata. That's why I'm so curious to hear how you're getting on with it. I recently read on r/vitiligo that ruxolitinib is in the process of getting fda approval for treating vitiligo, and the clinical trials have shown amazing promise. It would be a dream come true for me if I could just apply this cream to both my bald spots and my depigmented spots and they both just get resolved without any side effects or sketchy immuno suppressant pills needed. However, I'd first have to get my hands on the cream somehow, which sadly doesn't seem like the easiest of tasks as I'm living in London. I don't think topical ruxolitinib is approved for vitiligo/AA here in UK/Europe. I'm contemplating making my way over to the US and getting a derm there to prescribe it to me. If anyone knows any tips & tricks for me to buy topical tofacitinib or ideally topical ruxolitinib, please reach out.
Sorry for the little derail, I wish you the best of luck on your journey, and please do keep the updates coming, all of us here on this forum either have AA, AT or AU or know someone who has it, so any potential new treatments without side effects are extremely interesting to follow. Cheers, and may the follicles grow in your favor!
Edt: in the thread I came across on reddit they mention a specific pharmacy in FL named Medoz that are supposedly cheaper than all the other compounding pharmacies in the US at $110/tube for ruxolitinib, just figured I'd give you a heads up to maybe look into them in case you decide to buy a 2nd tube of the tofacitinib or if you ever want to switch over and try ruxolitinib.
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Have you taken any medicine for this? Such as Tofacent 5mg (Tofacitinib)
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