Due to libido increase from taking finasteride I am thinking of going on a combination of saw palmetto and finasteride.
Is this a good idea and if so what dose of both should I take.
Kind regards
Saw palmetto has not been proven to affect hair growth. There are many articles and much misinformation on the Internet about saw palmetto as a hair loss treatment, but there is no good science to back up those claims. If you insist on using it though, each person seems to have a different take on how much to use, as there isn’t any standard dose. I’m not sure what connection you’re making between libido and saw palmetto, though.
I don’t know how much finasteride you take, the frequency you take it, or how long you’ve been on it, but in my experience, the increased libido that you have from the medication has been a short term finding. Most people return to their normal sex drive in 2-4 months, so I’d wait it out.
I believe some doctors do use ice on the forehead to reduce the swelling, but in general there is no significant inflammation on the forehead where most doctors put ice. I do not know if the ice really helps, but I am confident that it does not impact the degree of shock loss that occurs in some men. Icing the recipient area (the grafts) could do more harm than good if the grafts are disturbed while the ice packs are put on and taken off.
I think the FDA frowns upon companies that release information prematurely, which may impact the ability of those companies to get the FDA clearance they need from clinical trials. While I don’t know about legal restrictions, I doubt any company would want to publish such information early. These companies have a difficult task of balancing what their investors want to know (to keep those that supply the money happy), and the need for good science. Revealing too much before the clinical trials are concluded doesn’t seem to be in their best interest, as reading an incomplete study is essentially like watching a movie with the ending cut off. Lots of things could change by the end.
I do not know the cause of your scalp pain. I have heard some patients complain about scalp pain when they have hair loss, but I had little to offer them. Trichodynia has some interesting ideas behind it, but there’s no proven link between hair loss and scalp pain. This could be a case of a peripheral neuropathy, something that neurologists work with all of the time… or as the reference article says, it could be psychological or caused by a fear of balding.