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Hi guys,
I have severe hormonal male acne and have never been able to fully get rid of it. I've read some things on the internet about DIM, but nearly ALL THE ARTICLES are geared towards women! It's always women talking about hormonal imbalances.
Does DIM work for male hormonal acne? What are your experiences? What happened?
Thanks
Hi guys,
I have severe hormonal male acne and have never been able to fully get rid of it. I've read some things on the internet about DIM, but nearly ALL THE ARTICLES are geared towards women! It's always women talking about hormonal imbalances.
Does DIM work for male hormonal acne? What are your experiences? What happened?
Thanks
DIM increases the ratio of good/bad estrogen metabolites but can also increase free testosterone. Some bodybuilders use it to increase testosterone in their supplement stacks. For many acne sufferers, this will make your acne worse.
I only really recommend DIM if you have some confirmed evidence that you have low progesterone/high estrogen.
For the majority of people, both male and female, it is more beneficial to add a supplement that controls androgenic activity, such as pygeum, saw palmetto, pumpkin seed oil, or stinging nettle.
this is so weird but im a male and i took dim supplement for about 3 months now and i havent broke out but instead it cleared my skin o.o
this is so weird but im a male and i took dim supplement for about 3 months now and i havent broke out but instead it cleared my skin o.o
Congratulations! I hope it keeps up for you. (: It worked for me too. And no it's not weird... DIM is an anti-androgen in addition to supporting healthy estrogen metabolism. It seems that people are overlooking that first part.
I find so little males that use it, so any info is appreciated! On the bottle of DIM that I take, it recommends women take 100mg (2 capsules) and men take 200mg (2 capsules twice a day) with food. It also says "For intensive use take up to double the dose." Even then, it would only be 400mg for men... your dose dose seem a bit high. I suppose it depends on the specific DIM supplement, too.
I achieved results at 100mg a day, however when I took 150mg my skin cleared more quickly. I now take 50-100mg a day to maintain.
this is so weird but im a male and i took dim supplement for about 3 months now and i havent broke out but instead it cleared my skin o.o
Congratulations! I hope it keeps up for you. (: It worked for me too. And no it's not weird... DIM is an anti-androgen in addition to supporting healthy estrogen metabolism. It seems that people are overlooking that first part.
Hearts, I am really interested in how you found out DIM is an anti-androgen....most bodybuilding DIM supplements promote it as a testosterone booster, so I'm confused.
In your opinion, does it work similar to vitex? I'm interested in how DIM works, but haven't been able to find conclusive information. I would like to use it to help my melasma, but I'm nervous to add anything else at this point.
I'm also interested to see if any of you who have taken it have had an initial breakout. I read an old DIM thread, and some people were breaking out, possibly from the toxins & excess hormones being pulled out too quickly.
Hearts, I am really interested in how you found out DIM is an anti-androgen....most bodybuilding DIM supplements promote it as a testosterone booster, so I'm confused.
In your opinion, does it work similar to vitex? I'm interested in how DIM works, but haven't been able to find conclusive information. I would like to use it to help my melasma, but I'm nervous to add anything else at this point.
I'm also interested to see if any of you who have taken it have had an initial breakout. I read an old DIM thread, and some people were breaking out, possibly from the toxins & excess hormones being pulled out too quickly.
monn's link above is the main study on DIM being an anti-androgen.
I suppose bodybuilders could use it because it does increase free testosterone. Also, lower estrogen - higher testosterone would potentially support leaner body mass/less fat and higher metabolism.
I don't know a whole lot about Vitex, but I don't think they are similar. Vitex seems to reduce prolactin and stimulates progesterone.
DIM works in a few ways... The main one being efficient estrogen metabolism. This means estrogen has a better chance of being broken down into good estrogen metabolites (2-hydroxy) and less bad estrogen metabolites (16-hydroxy) which are carcinogenic. Though DIM doesn't directly decrease estrogen, the change in the estrogen metabolite ratio can actually cause a decrease in estrogenic effect.
The other thing is that it is a potent anti-androgen. "Androgen" is wide term... androgens not only include testosterone, but DHT and DHEA as well as others. Androgens are also precursors to estrogens ” this conversion is called aromatase. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but it seems that decreasing androgens overall would cause a decrease in estrogen as well.
DIM also targets other proteins, as shown below:
And as I already mentioned (I'm sure), I did not experience any sort of initial breakout using DIM. I hope this helps some. If anyone knows more about DIM and its effects, please don't hesitate to add to or correct my information. I really wish I was a biologist or endocrinologist at times like this so that I could understand all of this better. (:
Ok, so DIM will be next on my list to try then. I read it's better to take it with calcium-d-glucarate to help get rid of excess hormones in the body, but taking CDG on its own seemed to cause breakouts for me...my skin got worse fast, so I got scared and stopped taking it. Not sure if it was a "purging" reaction, but damn, how much purging does my body have to do?!? lol.
So I was worried that, if the body is unable to use normal toxin elimination pathways, can DIM cause the same purging reaction as CDG? It seems that noone on this thread has had an initial breakout, which gives me hope. What is the lowest dose that would be effective? Has anyone used DIM for melasma? I'm mostly interested for that right now. I read some studies that say in order to treat melasma, an estrogen-lowering protocol is needed. DIM might be my best bet for that.
PS. LeadingForce, your dose seems too high...which may be fine short term, but you should be careful about long term effects. If you can find the lowest effective dose, that's better than megadosing.
Ok, so DIM will be next on my list to try then. I read it's better to take it with calcium-d-glucarate to help get rid of excess hormones in the body, but taking CDG on its own seemed to cause breakouts for me...my skin got worse fast, so I got scared and stopped taking it. Not sure if it was a "purging" reaction, but damn, how much purging does my body have to do?!? lol.
So I was worried that, if the body is unable to use normal toxin elimination pathways, can DIM cause the same purging reaction as CDG? It seems that noone on this thread has had an initial breakout, which gives me hope. What is the lowest dose that would be effective? Has anyone used DIM for melasma? I'm mostly interested for that right now.
Is melasma an estrogen issue? I don't know anything about that.
I also don't know about CDG since I've never taken it, but I did read about people reacting negatively to it so I didn't bother trying it out. Are you still breaking out even after inositol? Your skin is looking great right now (at least in your recent pictures)... I love DIM, but it would be a shame to mess that up by adding something more.
Ok, so DIM will be next on my list to try then. I read it's better to take it with calcium-d-glucarate to help get rid of excess hormones in the body, but taking CDG on its own seemed to cause breakouts for me...my skin got worse fast, so I got scared and stopped taking it. Not sure if it was a "purging" reaction, but damn, how much purging does my body have to do?!? lol.
So I was worried that, if the body is unable to use normal toxin elimination pathways, can DIM cause the same purging reaction as CDG? It seems that noone on this thread has had an initial breakout, which gives me hope. What is the lowest dose that would be effective? Has anyone used DIM for melasma? I'm mostly interested for that right now.
Is melasma an estrogen issue? I don't know anything about that.
I also don't know about CDG since I've never taken it, but I did read about people reacting negatively to it so I didn't bother trying it out. Are you still breaking out even after inositol? Your skin is looking great right now (at least in your recent pictures)... I love DIM, but it would be a shame to mess that up by adding something more.
Nope, the breakouts stopped after CDG. Since adding chiro inositol, breakouts reduced even more. 
I wish it could work on scarring and red marks too. That' why I'm scared to add anything else right now, but my melasma bothers me sometimes and I know inositol won't help with that, unless the progesterone boost somehow manages to reduce my estrogens.
This is one of the most recent studies on melasma. I find some problems with the research method, but it's very hard to tell what causes melasma after it is already caused...the women they used in the study already had melasma. http://www.jpad.org.pk/Oct-Dec-2011/4.%20Orignal%20artical%20Estrogen,%20progesterone%20and%20prolactin%20levels%20in%20melasma.pdf
Conclusion
It was concluded from the present study that raised estradiol (estrogen) levels contribute towards the development of melasma and it may serve as the basis for exploring any topical or systemic anti-estrogen therapies for melasma in future studies.
Hi, I am a male, 23 years old and I found that my progesterone level is 3 times higher than the normal. I couldn't find much information related to acne but I am pretty sure that may be the root cause for my acne. The reason behind that is, I tested my testosterone and estrogen levels and they both were in the normal range (surprisingly).
I started taking DIM supplement a week ago and I hope to see better results, perhaps after a month I would expect so. I am taking 2x200mg capsules once a day.
What is your experience with the DIM supplement and shall I increase the dosage to see results faster? Then I would drop it down to a lower dosage just to keep the results.
P.S: I know this thread is quite old but I found it one of the few that exactly match my scenario :/