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Permalink Reply by Ladybird Gish on April 5, 2012 at 7:22pm

Hey there. I am on Spironolactone (aka aldactone) for hair growth. I am a nurse and it is actually often used for blood pressure and helps prevent heart problems.... it also happens to help block male hormones which is why it helps slow loss.

I bet you are basically dizzy because it is lowering your blood pressure slightly and making you a little dehydrated because it is a diurectic (do you notice you pee more, esp at night?).

I think it is a good safe drug for the most part. I prefer more natural options but I believe this helps slow loss for me (not regrow). And it prevents unwanted hair on my chin too!

I would try for one week to increase your water intake and see if it helps and then report back to your doctor.

I would talk to your doc. 25mg is really the lowest dose.

You know rogaine was originally a blood pressure med too -- and it gives me massive migraines!

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Permalink Reply by karma on April 6, 2012 at 9:23pm

Hey Jenneh, Ok so I was on spiro for 7 months last year, first 50 2x's a day than 100 1 time a day and 50 later.....here's the thing with aldactone, it is and antiandrogen (and potassium sparing diuretic)..it helps to SLOW hair loss but it has to be taken at 200mg per day to really effect it although a dose as low as 25mg will help skin, it also has no real affect on regrowth which is y they usually have people combine it with bc and minodoxil (the bc is used to overide ur hormones and force them into a "normal" state and the minox will help wih regrowth)...I stopped taking the spiro because I personally wasn't ready to take rogaine, I didn't want to lock myself into taking it for life and it made my head itching (can also cause hair growth anywhere else that touches it, I also didn't want to take bc it makes me bitchy) and I also got the fatigue and dizziness...If you are taking it alone you may want to consider adding the other two components for optimal regrowth potential. And yes your skin looks awesome on spiro and goes back to breakout after spiro (and I mean the cystic type, but t levels out...I've been off spiro for 6 months and my skin looks as good as it did on it, but I quite eating grains, sugar and coffee)

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Permalink Reply by karma on April 6, 2012 at 9:35pm

Oh btw Jenneh, have you had your serum ferritin all of your B vitamins and your folate checked?....I had read a number of studies suggesting that like 90% of diffuse hair loss patients test low in serum ferritin....because my testosterone was high and I wasn't "anemic" my doctors focused in on treatin the testoerone only, they told me I had pcos (without checking for cysts, or my blood glucose and with no signs of hirtsuism and I'm normal weight)....after switching doctors I made them check all of the things I listed up top, my serum ferritin is 38 (this is clinically normal) but its suggested that you need ur ferritin to be atleast 40 to keep hair and over 70 to grow it, I also am b1 defficient which does not directly contribute to hair loss but it almost always means u are b3 deficient and now I have to go check that....so if u haven't had those tests done u may benefit from fining out your levels, I personally belive if u do not have a family history of female hair loss, and you have no solid reasoning for it such as thyroid or lupus then it is most likely a multifaceted issue

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