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Avodart

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graham90475
graham90475

Hi all. Well it looks as though maybe I have a choice to make after the doc. Prescribed me Avodart after my poor experience with Finesteride. People are saying, its out of the frying pan into the fire.

I have a decision to make, should I give myself a rest from these type of drugs and see how I get on with just the Doxozasin that I originally only took for blood pressure/ BHP. I may just continue with the Doxazosin by itself as the comments on Avodart don't exactly give me much cause to be excited. My previous posts will explain my condition and I would be interested to know if anyone has any positive experiences by stopping these type of alpha 5 inhibitors and the negative symptoms caused by them. Thanks all. I really am confused on the way forward.

0 likes, 7 replies

7 Replies

  • Howard31850
    Howard31850 graham90475

    Posted

    Hello Graham - I guess you saw my post about not taking any of the 5-alpha reductase inhibitors. As I am sure you know these drugs work by stopping the production of the hormone DHT in the prostate from regular testosterone. DHT has been implicated in BPH because it is a very powerful growth hormone that causes cell proliferation. By using Proscar/Avodart to suppress DHT production the prostate will shrink in the short term. But that little gland is very smart and over time it figures out other biochemical pathways to still produce small amounts of DHT. The problem then is that if we stop these drugs after a few years DHT production can skyrocket since the prostate has learned to produce it very efficiently. So when the regular pathway is opened up again the BPH can come roaring back and the prostate may grow like crazy. I know men who have tried to get off these drugs after several years and that is what happened to them - including me. These drugs are poison.

    I myself rejected surgery for my BPH when my prostate started to grow again after 10 years on these drugs. They will lose their positive effect but still keep all the negative effects. So I learned to do self-cathing (CIC) with the help from the folks here (especially jimjames ). At first it was tough but the alternative was surgery or death so I learned to do it and today it is just like brushing my teeth. there are no side effects and it puts you in control of your bladder rather than the other way around. I view CIC as a stop gap measure until some of the new BPH treatments come available that are simple annual injections with no side effects. Sadly even with CIC I still cannot get off these drugs because my prostate starts to grow again like crazy which makes CIC tough.

    I also take alpha-blockers like uroxatral which has worked well for me over the years with no side effects. I tried Flomax but it did not help.

    Anyway give CIC a consideration and maybe read some jimjames posts on it. If I can do it anyone can.

    good luck

    howard

    • keith42667
      keith42667 Howard31850

      Posted

      Good post Howard.  Sorry to hear you had the problems with the drugs.  Seems like we all have to be guinee pigs for medical treatments nowdays but thats how we make progress.  I understand how the rebound effect could happen.

      A question.  If the uroxatral is a alpha-blocker why is it working for you whereas the proscar/avodart is not?  Is it not as strong or doesn't supress the DHT production?

    • graham90475
      graham90475 Howard31850

      Posted

      Howard thanks for this info. At the moment I am not bad and can void but my steam is not brilliant. I am hesitant in the night. I take Doxozasin for my blood pressure which I have to continue. I may see how I get on in the next month without the Avodart. I will know if things start to go downhill fast. I wish I hadn't started taking the Fineseride a year ago now. I'm sure I was managing okay before they said they may help. Should have just stayed on the Doxazosin.

    • Howard31850
      Howard31850 keith42667

      Posted

      HI Keith,

      Thanks for your response. The drug companies would know all these side effects from their Phase III studies before the drug are approved but if they did reveal it to the doctors the doctors never passed it on to me at least.

      Alpha blockers are different types of drugs than the hormone drugs like Avodart/proscar. They are just muscle relaxers which help to relax the pelvic floor muscles that tighten the sphincter muscles around the prostate. You can stop them at any time. they just make you a bit dizzy at first because they can lower blood pressure. Thanks.

  • barrie62598
    barrie62598 graham90475

    Posted

    I took Alpha Blockers 2006 to 2015 for BPH.. They were supposed to need an increase above the 4mg a day after 2 years but nobody had done the research so when I asked for an increase I was prescribed Duodart (Dutasteride [Avodart] + Flomaxtra (alpha blocker 4mg) in 2013/14. Very strange my alpha blocker went to 8mg a day anyway and I got the cancer risk 5ARI I didn't need. Dutasteride and Finasteride abnormally manipulate prostate cells and for me I was 2015 diagnosed with PCa. I suspect the many years of drug induced urinary tract relaxing is part of my ongoing post RP incontinence which is far worse than the BPH. I think I was better of not taking drugs at all for my urinary problem.

    Barrie Heslop

    • Howard31850
      Howard31850 barrie62598

      Posted

      Thanks for sharing this with us. I wish you all the best for the future.

      I have a very large prostate (240gm) and was told by my urologist that it has probably acted like a middle sphincter muscle between the internal and external ones. Accordingly this likely has weakened my internal sphincter muscle over the years. He told me that if I have a prostate-reduction procedure I will likely experience incontinence because of my weaked internal sphincter ( as well as bladder spasms ).

      Were you able to do Kiegel exercises to strengthen your external sphincter muscle to stop the incontinence?

      Good luck to you.

      Howard

    • barrie62598
      barrie62598 Howard31850

      Posted

      My RP came up without opportunity for pre-op physio and also proper personal PCa research. I never really got on top of the post-op pelvic floor program. U/S testing showed I was below par in effort and I never understood how 3 sets of 10 x 10 second lifts a day plus only stress points was good while continual effort could weaken the muscle contribution. They said 3 x 8 second lifts would seal off dripping post voiding but couldn’t explain how this didn’t work during exercise rests. Early I would be dry overnight and gush terribly on rising. Now I leak a little overnight, am pretty good while sitting and have a growing retention capacity when active but only just growing after almost 3 years. Every RP associate I speak to is better continent than I but so far the PCa has not spread.

      I am type 2 diabetic which Urologist says contributes to incontinence. Last year I was diagnosed with Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) which took forever to be detected. While Uro says this is not connected to Cancer or Op there appears to be cases where it might be. There’s a whole lot they don’t know about BPH, medications for it or the functions of the prostate and the bits lost with it. During a weekend blockage incident hospital emergency would not call-in Urology and rammed many catheters into a bladder neck scaring blockage. A Triage nurse had recorded TURP on my treatment document thinking it was their jargon for Radical Prostatectomy. A Urologist was finally called when they finally believed me but that may have been too late. Our Prostate Cancer Forum site tells us 3,300 Australian men a year die from #ProstateCancer yet research and data collection of it and BPH are practically non-existent. The continual phrasing of “we are all different” and “most men die with PCa rather than of it” do not help.

      I was prescribed Duodart (Dutasteride +alpha blocker) for BPH without being informed of a pre-release trial indication of possible increased high-grade Cancer risk. That risk was possibly very small or even non-existent also but I was entitled to know. My BPH wasn’t bad enough for any PCa risk. I have spent 3 years trying to get “PCa side effects” added to these 5ARIs without any success. I can’t even find if prostates enlarge via increased number or size of cells or both. Could this unnatural, abnormal cell manipulation be harmful to some of us? My Uro tells me Gleasons 7 become 8s and 9s if gland remains within and not just a more aggressive 7 but I don’t see this elsewhere. It’s hard to figure out how they know so much but so little at the same time.

      Barrie Heslop

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