LOL, OK Gentlemen, let's clear up a few misconceptions.
First of all, yes Spironolactone or any anti-androgen or DHT Inhibitor is going to effect your sex drive (male or female). This of course will vary depending on how much you are taking. If it's 50mg, probably won't notice a difference. If it's 100mg or more, you probably will. I was taking 150 - 200mg for almost 6 years and when I stopped, I noticed I had more of a desire, but it wasn't too big of a change.
Now some may get results faster than others. However it typically takes 3 months to truly see results when using anything (topical or oral) and up to 1 year to get the full benefits. Also, some of you are mixing up a few key terms:
Anti-Androgen - An anti-androgen is anything that will decrease your overall androgen production or will decrease the amount of unbound androgens in your blood. Thus, Estrogen or a Hormonal Balancing Diet will act as anti-androgens. If you are doing this the dietary route, you won't experience a loss in sex drive. However, if you are relying on certain medications, like Estrogen, this can definately alter a man's sex drive because you aren't producing as much testosterone overall plus there will be more estrogens in your system than usual, and estrogen is not the sex-drive hormone. ;-)
DHT-Inhibitor - Now DHT is the super potent form of Testosterone. This is the Big guy and it's what's involved in androgenic alopecia (topical hair loss), hirsutism (excess body & facial hair), and of course acne. It has some positive things too, but if you are producing too much of this, especially in men, you are already on the road to Prostate Problems (men please don't fear this, handle it early on). This must be converted from Testosterone and requires a Type I or Type II enzyme to do this. The goal of a DHT inhibitor is to either BLOCK DHT's effects on your sebaceous glands or to STOP the conversion of DHT by inhibiting the neccessary enzyme(s). So a DHT inhibitor will be Spironolactone, Flutamide, Avodart, etc. These do not seriously castrate you, these are not permanent. As soon as you stop, your body will take all of that DHT or Testosterone that you've been continuously producing and allow it to do it's job!!! So males that are past puberty, early 20s seems like a good period, should be able to safely take DHT-Inhibitors without any worry of stunting your growth.
Here's another little FYI about DHT-Inhibitors. Wether they are prescriptions or herbal supplements, they have a built in mechanism for balancing out your hormones. It seems that even though they are preventing your body's ability to utilize or produce DHT, they are also preventing your body from producing too much estrogen. DHT Inhibitors, prevent your body from naturally aromatizing (converting) Testosterone into Estrogen. So while you are blocking the bad effects of DHT, you are still producing Testosterone and should still have a naturally higher ratio of male hormones vs. female hormones. This is actually a good thing especially if you are prone to cancer, since estrogen feeds the growth of some forms!
If interested in Herbal* DHT Inhibitors the top ones are:
Beta Sitosterol - Active ingredient in the below herbs. It's 3,000x more potent than Saw Palmetto (stronger than Avodart?)
Saw Palmetto (Permixon)- equally as effective as Proscar / Finesteride. Some find that it's a good alternative to Spironolactone as well.
Stinging Nettle
Pygeum Africanum
* These will also decrease cholesterol levels which is great because our bodies use cholesterol to make these sometimes highly pesky steriod hormones!
HTH =)
P.S. I absolutely don't condone taking things without a prescription. If you are going to do this PLEASE make sure you get a CBC, CMP and at least a Liver Panel done every 3 - 4 months. If you find yourself feeling tired, you are taking too much. Of course there's always the natural alternatives that usually have less side effects associated with them.
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