Comment by Eric Dane Mattson on July 19, 2010 at 11:22am

Jeannie,

That drug is given to people who are given organ transplants to keep your immune system from attacking the new organ. Dermatologists are giving it to Alopecia patients as a treatment geared towards immunotherapy.

There are side affects like any other medication. Additionally, it will lower your immune response and can make one susceptible to infections. Your Doctor will probably start you on a low dosage to see how your body reacts and then bump it up depending on the outcome of your bloodwork.

You may want to talk to him about CellCept.

My email is eric.mattson@us.army.mil if you have any further questions.

Comment by Connie - Chris' Mom on July 19, 2010 at 1:41pm

My son's dermatologist considered putting my son on this. In his explanation he said it would tell us if his hair COULD re-grow. Basically it would suppress the immune system that is attacking the hair and if the follicle was still viable hair would grow. BUT, he said it was only temporary to tell if hair re-growth was possible and would not be something prescribed long-term. He looked at it as an alternative to a biopsy. My son, however, was currently taking another immuno-suppressant for another medical issue. The dermatologist offered to consult my son's other doctor to see if he could switch, but we decided that the hair issue was less important than his gastro issue and didn't switch. As a side note though, after being on immunosuppressants for about 9 months my son is experiencing some re-growth. He has hair on his arms and legs, splotchy re-growth on the scalp (getting thicker every day), several eyelashes and a few eyebrow hairs. The scary part though is the risk of getting sick because of a compromised immune system. We went through a scare of H1N1 flu exposure and then 2 exposures of chicken pox that each required 10 days of anti-virals.

Comment by Donna Maree on July 19, 2010 at 5:12pm

I just started taking cyclosporine 100mg twice a day...it has now been two weeks and my hair is worse than ever. handfulls are coming out and im bruised all over my legs for no reason. I asked the doctor if this is normal and she said yes sometimes it can fall out more before it gets better.I wish i wouldve known that before i took it :(

Comment by Jeannie Terrel on July 20, 2010 at 2:28pm

Im taking 200mg in the morning and 100mg at night. My hair is falling out at about the same rate which to me is no big deal because I only have about 10% left anyway and plan on shaving my head soon. Thanks all for the information.

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