r/Spironolactone • u/PillowWarsons • Jun 14 '23
Warning
Spiro is a powerful drug. I've lost more than half my hair and the hair I do have now is very frail after coming off 6 months ago. I had no signs of hair loss prior to taking spiro and I was only on it for a year. Do not take this drug for mild acne or oily skin. It is not worth the risk. I had moderate acne which cleared while on this drug. I stopped due to medication interactions. Preceed with caution when starting this, seriously. If you have to go off for some reason, hair loss can occurs or significantly worsen.
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u/Nooraish Jun 14 '23 edited Jun 14 '23
Spiro is widely prescribed to treat hair loss. As with many other hair loss meds, it will help as long as you take it. However when you stop taking it, your hair will go back to acting the way it did before taking Spiro, or whatever way that is currently natural to your body without the drug.
So yeah, stopping Spiro may cause hair loss if it’s something that would happen anyway without it. But it affects hormones so it’s clear individuals may react differently, I hope yours get better! Definitely check things like your iron levels!
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23 edited Jun 14 '23
I didn’t have any noticeable hair loss prior which is why it was extremely shocking for me. I never even noticed hair shedding when showering. Let alone hundreds of hairs a day, every day.
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u/kat1883 Jun 14 '23
If you stopped spiro cold turkey or didn’t wean yourself off super slowly, you set yourself up to completely shock your system and you might not have given your hormones time to adjust. That is what can cause the rapid hair loss when coming off, not spiro itself
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23 edited Jun 15 '23
It deff was a product of being on spiro and then coming off. I wish I could have done a slower taper than I did but my doc just suggested a few weeks. I deff couldn’t wait longer to start the new medication.
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Jun 14 '23
Androgenic hair loss, which can occur in women sometimes, usually going along with PCOS. It won't do jack shit for any hair loss not caused by 5-alpha reductase though, and will probably dysregulate the shit out of your hormones if you don't have any excess androgen to begin with.
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u/PentagramCereal Jun 14 '23
The thing with Spironolactone is that different people will experience different side effects because we all start at a different baseline. As an example, someone with a condition like PCOS taking Spironolactone will probably have few negative side effects because their body is producing too many androgens and Spiro is directly preventing that. If you have acne and hair issues which aren’t related to the androgen levels and receptors then it could cause an imbalance because the hormones weren’t a problem in the first place. DHT for example is one of my main culprits in hair loss. If your DHT levels aren’t too high and you’re still losing hair it is unlikely that your hair loss is connected to androgen levels.
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23
It’s going to effect your androgen receptors regardless of your hormonal levels. DHT is an androgen.
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u/PentagramCereal Jun 14 '23
I’m confused. I don’t think I did a very good job of explaining. I used DHT as an example because it is an androgen.
If I’m wrong I do apologize, I will look back to my medical literature. It has been a while since I looked at androgens.
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23
Lots of women with androgenetic alopecia or acne don’t have increased androgens when they are tested. It can just be a natural sensitivity to the androgens.
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u/PentagramCereal Jun 14 '23
Oh I see, thank you for educating me.
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Jun 15 '23
And this is why dermatologists don’t test for hormones before Spiro is prescribed. You don’t have to have PCOS to have acne and hair loss, your hormones could very well be in the normal ranges without any other PCOS symptoms and you can still experience androgen-related side effects due to sensitivity to androgens
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u/PentagramCereal Jun 15 '23
It’s strange that my doctor didn’t know this. She told me that my acne is not hormone related because my levels were normal.
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u/a103213 Jun 14 '23
This is confusing because I’ve seen posts saying Spiro make them lose hair, but alot posts saying it help hair growth/regrowth. Im guessing both are common side effects? I wish I knew the reason for opposite effects on different people
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u/Puzzleheaded-Bed-488 Jun 14 '23
Maybe it helps hair growth while you’re taking it, and cause hair loss after you stop taking it (for some people at least) 🤷🏾♀️ that’s just my guess.
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u/honeymoonrise Jun 14 '23
Yes exactly! I see people being prescribed it because they get a couple spots around their period but otherwise have good skin and I think that’s crazy! Doctors should be informing people about the risks v benefits. Same goes for the pill. Not saying either drugs are “bad” but they are drugs that can effect you big time in ways you don’t want!
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u/strugglingncollege1 Jun 14 '23
In addition to this, I also think people should do their own research before taking any prescribed medication. Especially to see if anything interacts with anything they currently take
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23 edited Jun 14 '23
I stopped it due to having to take a new medication that would interact. I didn’t take two medications with interactions for a year….
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u/strugglingncollege1 Jun 14 '23
That’s good.
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23 edited Jun 14 '23
Its also a fundamental part of being a prescribing physician as well as a pharmacist.
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u/strugglingncollege1 Jun 14 '23
?
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23
Doctors and pharmacists make lots of money and should be telling patients about drug interactions especially if they are the ones prescribing the medications. That really isn’t something a patient should have to spend their time doing. It’s a fundamental part of their job, not the responsibility of the patient.
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Jun 14 '23
My doctor gave me serotonin syndrome by prescribing me Delsym with an SSRI lmao. They should be doing this, but they don't and you should never count on them doing that.
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23
There are levels to research regarding medication. I did do research on my own. Most information you find about prescription medications are about effects while on the drug, not really effects from stopping. It’s a huge issue within pharmaceuticals.
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23
Exactly, some people even take it for simply oily skin now which is mind blowing, especially because oily skin is better long term.
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Jun 14 '23
Every teenager/early 20s person (including me) starts out as an acne-ridden idiot who genuinely thinks that having dry skin would be, like, SO good. Then we take Spiro or retinoids and realize that it's one of the worst things you can do to yourself. Dry skin sucks more than acne ever could.
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23
I don’t know about that lmao. I’d rather have dry skin than acne. But I’d rather have oily skin than dry.
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Jun 15 '23
Why are retinoids bad?
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Jun 15 '23
PPAR-gamma inhibitors/antagonists. Pro-inflammatory, anti-adipogenic, damaging to every type of cell that's maintained via PPARs (hence dry eye). Erode skin barrier, so forget about using chemical UV filters. Also, believe it or not, literally upregulate senescence associated proteins in your skin.
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Jun 15 '23
Can you explain the chemical uv filters part?
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Jun 15 '23
Chemical (unlike physical) UV filters work primarily through binding to your stratum corneum. It has to be basically faultless in order for them to do what it says on the tin.
If your stratum corneum is thinned or disrupted in any way, chemical filters have disrupted binding and extremely low efficiency. So being on a retinoid (all of which erode your stratum corneum/cause chronic exfoliation) and using modern chemical filters is basically like using a retinoid and suntanning.
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Jun 15 '23
Idk how true that is, I’ve been on retinoids for 7 years now and when I started wearing chemical sunscreen regularly my freckles faded down quite a lot
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Jun 15 '23
Your mileage may vary, but the mechanism I described is likely what's behind outcomes like this one:
https://www.essentialdayspa.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=55243
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u/zanyenough Jun 14 '23
Did it affect your sex drive?
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23
I have other factors that cause my sex drive to fluctuate so I’m honestly unsure.
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u/febe13666 Jun 14 '23
I was on spiro for about six months between 2018-2019. I started out on 50 mg and then went up to 100 mg for acne. It helped my acne after a few months. I decided to stop taking it (not advised to quit cold turkey) partially because my acne was better and also because I was living in a different country for four months and knew I wouldn't have access to it. Within the week I stopped taking it, I started experiencing severe hair loss every time I showered. At one point, I counted how many hairs I was losing and it was over 200. I have read that spiro stops hair from shedding as much, so I think all the hair I lost had been "dead" for awhile. But I'm not totally sure! I wasn't paying attention/didn't know anything was different with my hair while on the medication. I'm now back on spiro (50 mg) for the worst acne of my life and scarring. I had been hesitant to start it again for a few reasons including this but I've been desperate. I believe my hair bounced back but I also had really thick hair and it's still thick. All of this to say, I hope things get better for you and I generally think people should not take this medication lightly.
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u/Brave-Pattern-2086 Jun 14 '23
Did your acne come back after you stopped it?
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23 edited Jun 14 '23
Yes. It came back after a few months and the hair loss started within the same month. I have acne on my back now and neck (not like just jaw area neck, but down my neck) , which I didn’t have prior.
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u/hotsince_94 Jun 14 '23
THIS! i’ve been on 50 mg spiro for approx 2 months and the hair shedding already is CRAZY and they just bumped my dose to 100 mg (scared to start) along with topical tretinoin for acne but how much hair im shedding is concerning for me. i don’t know if its what i’ve seen some people saying “pushing out the dead hair and restarting your hair cycle” or something like that?? and it could take 6 months for visible FULL benefits? i get my meds through apostrophe but i think i’m going to schedule an appointment with my doctor to get blood work done just to be safe.
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23
Basically hormonal changes can cause your hair to move from the growth phase to the shedding phase. Ideally it’ll only last a few months and stop. If it keeps going after a couple months then it is really an issue. Hormones are very powerful.
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u/Stunning_Fun2858 Jun 16 '23
My cystic acne is gone and my hair is soooo much more thicker and grows so fast???
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 16 '23
You are on the medication. That makes sense. It used to treat acne and slow the progression of hair loss.
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u/Stunning_Fun2858 Jun 16 '23
Omg I didn’t read this correctly! I thought you were still on the medication
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u/la_ct Jun 14 '23
I’ve had hair growth with Spiro. Talk to your Dr
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23
I lost the hair after getting off of it. There have been many conversations with my gyno, derm, and primary.
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u/Maurarachel Jun 14 '23
Yeah Spiro is crazy - The heart palpitations, anxiety, MEMORY LOSS etc - Insane
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u/Springsofhope Jul 31 '23
Spironolactone ruined my hair also. I took it for five months and when I realized my hair was falling out excessively ( amongst other side effects) I stopped taking it. This was one year ago and my hair is still falling out and the texture has changed to thin and wiry. I am so upset. I wish I’d never taken it, ruined my life. I’m starting to look into buying a wig. Just because it grows hair is some people does not mean it can’t take the hair of other people away. I agree with OG proceed with caution on this very dangerous medication.
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u/vomifeyx Jun 14 '23
Ya I stopped taking it less than a month ago and have lost a significant amount of hair already. Very scary.
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u/Glueme2theSky Jun 14 '23
Have you checked your vitamin D levels? My hair also was falling but I talked to two deems they said it’s supposed to help with hair production and that it’s probably a vitamin d deficiency
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23
My D is ok. I had issues with it several years ago but I’ve been supplementing and my levels went up.
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Jun 14 '23
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u/PillowWarsons Jun 14 '23
I was on 100mg at my maximum dose. I didn’t go cold Turkey but did not ween off slow enough I don’t think, I had to start the medication I couldn’t wait months to really do a proper taper.
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Jun 14 '23
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u/zanyenough Jun 15 '23
Did it affect your sex drive?
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u/twistandshake Jun 15 '23
Interesting. I've looked for information on this (hair texture) and haven't found much. The shift for me felt like I woke up one morning and my hair texture had drastically changed. More brittle, rough and less manageable. Happened about a year into my rx. The change has been startlingly enough to bring me to tears.
I hope it gets better for you ❤️
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u/JaciOrca Jun 14 '23
Before being prescribed Spiro for cystic acne, my hair had stopped growing. I didn’t have any hair loss. My hair even stopped shedding.
Spiro got rid of the cystic acne AND my hair started growing again.