I was just curious as to whether any of these oral medications can work for men or if there are any designed for men exclusively. I’m a swimmer at my university and don’t have a huge body hair problem but I do have to shave it before meets which I have being doing for years. My hair is too light for laser hair removal and I don’t wanna do electroloysis. Any suggestions?
Shaving, waxing, plucking would be the only things that would work for you in that case. Drugs like Vaniqua would have little value for you.
Electrolysis is a very selective hair removal method. It is your best bet for permanent hair removal. It is the Gold Standard of hair removal.
are they any oral medications for men even available?
There are no hair removal drugs that I am aware of that are designed exclusively for men.
Most effective drugs for hair reduction, also cause feminization in men. Although body hair may reduce to unnoticeable levels when at conversational distance with continued use, there is no drug that will remove, or reduce facial hair in men to the point where one would not need to shave, or to the point where stubble would not be evident.
Ya I’m more concerned with body hair. It doesn’t have to be totally gone, it just creates a high amount of drag when swimming races. It would be easier to shave less thick hair or whatever.
I heard a horrible rumor about another swimmer who took birth control pills and it really messed him up. Any validity to that?
YES!
A male taking birth control pills would have his body hair reduce both in size, and perhaps even number – however, he would also start to feminize, thus loosing strength and testosterone levels.
I imagine he thought he could counter act the feminization with steroids, or something. This is nothing to fool around with.
The only safe way to remove hair for those extra seconds on the swim meets is electrolysis.
Hi:
If you took oral medications called anti-androgens such as spironolactone or androcur, they would reduce your body hair after a very long time. But at the same time you would lose muscle tone and possibly become sterile and impotent.
The medications would definitely reduce your strength, which as a competitive athlete would eliminate you from competition.
Birth control pills generally contain some estrogen and some progesterone but not anti-androgens. Some are too weak to have much of a feminizing effect, but some types are strong enough. I think that they would cause you to have secondary female characteristics over time such as breast growth or fat deposits. They say that progesterone has a bit of a masculinizing effect, so that may increase hair growth.
James is right that you would need to remove the hair with electrolysis if you want to remain a competitive swimmer.
Alicia
The hair loss drug Propecia (and to a lesser extent Avodart/Dutasteride) has led to some men seeing significant body hair reduction (along with some scalp hair regrowth).
Saw Palmetto has also done the same thing in some men.
All the above drugs/herb reduce DHT, which is what causes body hair growth and scalp hair loss. DHT is a much much more potent form of testosterone.
That’s really interesting Tembo, do you know where I could read further or find evidence supporting that? I’m deffinitly into a herbal solution
Hey sorry I don’t check this board often (especially this section).
Anyway, the evidence is easy to come by on the various hair loss forums out there where users of these drugs post testimonials. Only problem is that the hair reduction only occurs in some users of these drugs so your results may vary.
Hi, Alica.
They contain a progestin, not progesterone.
Progesterone it a bioidentical progestagen.
If it lacks, you will get an ‘estrogon dominance’ (better would be estradiol-dominance).
Please google for this verb. 
I’m interested in using some sort of anti-androgen or whatever that will reduce body hair…I’m not expecting to be hair-free, but I’m hoping for a significant reduction. I’ll try to explain as best as I can what I’m after…
The guys in my family have hair pretty much everywhere…I got the least, but its still a lot. Here’s an example of kinda how much I got:
Because its black and I have these black vellus (?) hairs cover most of my body its impossible for me to remove any unwanted body hair (ie: lower back and butt hair…hair in the back of my neck) without creating a noticeable patch…my sister however, although she has the hair on her arms, legs and a bit on her stomach its nowhere near as thick…her arms for example would look like this:
Except, of course black but a less darker black…but yeah, she doesn’t have the black hairs covering her entire body…her back is pretty much smooth, so I’m wondering if I were to take something like spironolactone would my body hair eventually reduce to the same amount as my sister or close to it??..would it have any effect on these black hairs that cover my body?? How much a reduction can I expect to see?
I’m not an athlete or anything, so muscle tone reduction isn’t an issue for me…breast growth, ehh I can get rid of that with surgery so that’s fine…I understand no medications get rid of facial hair, thats fine as well I’m most concerned with getting rid of those black hairs…cuz like, lets say I wanted to get laser hair removal on my stomach…if my snail trail was gone, I’d have a patch with the smooth stomach contrasting with the dark hairs that cover my back…sorry if I haven’t been articulate enough, its hard to explain.
Hi:
I wouldn’t advise it unless you are a transsexual.
Alicia
Lets just say I’m a transsexual…what can I expect from taking something like spironolactone??
My hair is such a serious problem that I’m willing to do just about anything to get at least reduce it.
Your best bet if you are NOT a transsexual is to get some manual hair removal going, like electrolysis, as it will target the hair, and ONLY the hair.
The reason transsexuals use drugs that have hair reduction as a side effect is because reduction of testosterone, and androgens is also a part of their program. For a typical man, these body changes brought on by the drugs would present problems both for one’s health and ones social life.
Out of curiousity, what are the other effects apart from hair reduction brought upon by these drugs?
Then in that case you won’t mind at all that it will shrivel your “bits” and make you grow man-boobs.
Alicia
I wanted to post here, because there’s a fair bit of conjecture and misinformation in the responses presented thus far.I’m a transgirl, and know these drugs and their effects well
The drugs sprioactone and Androcur are caled antiandogens. They will NOT cause feminization alone, what they will do is reduce your serum testosterone levels. This is what causes the hair to become thinner and lighter and more like a females, because testosterone is the mechanism that makes them thicker and darker in the first place. Other effects of testosterone is increased energy, and increased body strength, especially upper body strength, so if you are on an antiandrogen you can expect to tire easily and have less overall strength over time.
To the best of my knowledge, birth control pills do not contain antiandrogens. They do contain Estrogen which is a different mechanism altogether, but if feminization is your goal they are a really lousy source of it, they tend to contain varying amounts of estrogen and contain some other things that are not desireable and may be even dangerous if feminization is your goal. It’s true some developing countries transgirls do do this, but they suffer other medical issues as a result.
Estrogen is a bit different. It DOES cause feminization, redistribution of body fat to the hips and face, and of course to the breasts. Just because you take estrogen doesnt mean you will get feminizing effects, I can introduce you to alot of transgirls who get breast augmentation because their breasts never grew.
There are other sources of estrogen, in particualr concentrated SOY. The type of estrogen in soy is referred to as phytoestrogen ( sorry I prolly spelled that wrong) in that it is bioidentical to estrogen, it has the same effect and is close to, but isnt necessarily estrogen. Research has shown that these bioidentical estrogens are less effective than body produced estrogen, and ironically can cause less feminization because they dont work as well, and block access to estrogen receptors by body produced estrogen.Therefore, eating a ton of soy isnt the best method of feminization and may even be undesireable.
If hair loss is your goal, you may be disappointed with antiandrogens. It usually doesnt make you lose hair. Laser and electrolysis do. It will make them lighter and thinner, so less noticeable but the number of hairs generally stays the same, with some mild decrease because your body isnt generating as much new hair growth.
If feminization is your goal, PLEASE see a qualified endocrinologist. Most states and canada there are doctors who operate under informed consent. In other words you dont need a psychologists or other gatekeepers approval to start HRT. There are a number of serious side effects that come with these drugs, including and especially liver failure and blood pressure issues that can cause death. These risks are doubled if you smoke.Being monitored by a qualified doctor is absolutely critical, along with regular blood work.
I also want to stress that if you are not a traqnssexual these drugs are not recommended. They have other effects. For example reduction in sperm count that eventually leads to PERMANENT sterilization. I myself have almost zero sex drive. and when I do orgasm, nothing comes out. If you ever plan on having children, antiandrogens are not for you. Breast reduction surgery carrys it’s own risks, and cost thousands of dollars to have performed. It’s generally not covered by government health plans in Canada. Also the endocrine system needs some kind of hormone to operate on the long term, so if you eliminate testosterone without having estrogen as a replacement, there are other problems that occur. One or the other is needed by your body to continue living.
Seana