Hi everyone,
Something weird I have realized. I was diagnosed with Gilberts syndrome a few years ago (supposedly harmless elevation of bilirubin). This might be sheer coincidence, but while on finasteride I was actually getting normal bilirubin levels for the first time ever. Did anyone else notice this? Wondering why it might be.
I have had high bilirubin levels since after I developed PFS. I may have had them before. I have been told its benign and haven’t really given much thought about this. Levels can probably fluctuate from day to day or month to month based off a whole range of factors. The body is a dynamic rather than static system. Might be meaningful if bilirubin levels are generally stable from day to day and throughout the day but if they cycle and vary a lot then I think its just a random observation.
I should double check the bilirubin numbers to be sure.
I wonder if Gilbert’s can cause buildup of fin overtime. If we had poor phase 2 detoxification (i.e. Gilbert’s), it could be that this caused finasteride to build up. From my research finasteride appears to slow down UGT1A4. Gilbert’s deals with UGT1A1 but I’m sure this forces compensation on the other glucuronidation enzymes. Also, finasteride impairs glutathione, so there goes that phase 2 enzyme. Finasteride is reduced after phase 1 to something that is like 20% potency of a 5-ar inhibitor, but if there is reduced phase 2 detoxification going on that would still be able to build up significantly over time.
My blood test showed that I have had high bilirubin levels for the last 2 years. I used finasteride for 6 months earlier this year, and there was no change to my levels during that time, up or down.