I have been taking finasteride since late 2006 – so around 12 years.
I have maintained pretty much all my hair, I have some hairline loss but that was already going on when I got on the drug. Maybe I lost a tiny bit more when I experimented with taking a bit less finasteride for a period.
When I started taking it, there wasn't much information around about its potential negative side effects and I was just glad I had this option for keeping my hair.
In the past three years I've been having some pretty bad shedding each spring and not only in the norwood areas but all over my head. I think I have seborrheic dermatitis, so that's probably behind it not the androgenic alopecia alone but I'm pretty sure both are going on to an extent. (When I first started losing my hair in the hairline I first had a severe seborrheic dermatitis skin symptoms there (redness, inflammation, flaking skin, itching) in the hairline and whenever I develop this, my hair falls out and doesn't want to grow back to the area.
I didn't know about many of the finasteride side effects and none of them occurred to me in a rapid way, I also wasn't actively cruising these forums but in recent times I've become more aware that finasteride could be behind some of the stuff going on with me.
I wasn't having morning or spontaneous erections (I know now are crucial for long term penis health, right?) and even often times had mediocre erections during intercourse and libido also wasn't the best. I even started to take Cialis 5mg regularly whenever I had sex (which helped a lot). My sperm quality was super bad too (had it controlled). Also, I developed a slight gyno – "minimally prominent glands" in left 1,2x0,6cm and 1x0,2cm in right. It's not too bad for now but I'm having it looked at next week. I've also having some areola discharge when squeezing, so that made me a bit alert. Also it's painful sometimes.
In the beginning of last month I went to an ayahuasca ceremony on unrelated stuff. They ask you to stop any SSRI medications before. I don't take any but thought I should maybe do a break in finasteride as well. Just to be clean from any sort of medications.
Anyhow, after being off from finasteride, about after a week I started to feel much better libido and having morning erections almost every morning for a month now and even spontaneous erections during the day sometimes. My penis also feels fuller and even bigger often.
No change in gyno I think so far (I've had it for a long time).
So after being off from finasteride for a month now I'm feeling wary to get back on it. As I feel my sexual health has been much better not taking finasteride.
During these 12 years I'd had a few breaks before as well but I don't think I've been completely off without single dose for a month.
Do I have any other options for keeping my hair? I don't think I can mess with that RU solutions all the time... Making it and having to keep it in a fridge etc. Any good experience with topical finasteride? Any other new stuff on the horizon? I tried Minozidil for about 9 months and it seemed it did more harm than good.
I'm gonna see my andrologist in a week. But I know this doctor is really pro finasteride and he will probably be surprised that I had a boost in my sexual health coming off from finasteride after 12 years of taking it. In my small country only about 100 patients take finasteride for baldness (information from medical records), so these doctors we have also should not have a huge patient basis to compare. And none of the other doctors I've been seeing here don't know almost anything about the drug.
I did blood work 16 days after stopping finasteride. And which seemed odd is that my DHT hasn't recovered.
(But I do have improved erections and libido). But after taking finasteride for so long maybe it takes longer for DHT to go back up?
Here's some of my results two weeks after stopping finasteride.
My testosterone seem to have dropped quite a bit after quitting. More than 20% that people say is normal to have increase in test when taking finasteride.
S-FSH: 11,4 IU/l . (ref. 1,4–18,1)
LH: 4,28 IU/l (ref. 1,50–9,30)
Estradiol: 106,4 pmol/l (ref. <146,0)
Testosterone: 14,0 nmol/l (ref. 8,0–29,0)
Prolactine: 191 mIU/l (ref. 53–360)
S-SHBG: 17 nmol/l (ref. 15-95)
DHT: 0,44 nmol/l (ref. 1,03–2,92)
Free testosterone: 66,2 pmol/l (ref. 24,3–78,8)
Androstenedione: 3,49 nmol/l (ref. 1,40–5,20)
Thank you!
I have maintained pretty much all my hair, I have some hairline loss but that was already going on when I got on the drug. Maybe I lost a tiny bit more when I experimented with taking a bit less finasteride for a period.
When I started taking it, there wasn't much information around about its potential negative side effects and I was just glad I had this option for keeping my hair.
In the past three years I've been having some pretty bad shedding each spring and not only in the norwood areas but all over my head. I think I have seborrheic dermatitis, so that's probably behind it not the androgenic alopecia alone but I'm pretty sure both are going on to an extent. (When I first started losing my hair in the hairline I first had a severe seborrheic dermatitis skin symptoms there (redness, inflammation, flaking skin, itching) in the hairline and whenever I develop this, my hair falls out and doesn't want to grow back to the area.
I didn't know about many of the finasteride side effects and none of them occurred to me in a rapid way, I also wasn't actively cruising these forums but in recent times I've become more aware that finasteride could be behind some of the stuff going on with me.
I wasn't having morning or spontaneous erections (I know now are crucial for long term penis health, right?) and even often times had mediocre erections during intercourse and libido also wasn't the best. I even started to take Cialis 5mg regularly whenever I had sex (which helped a lot). My sperm quality was super bad too (had it controlled). Also, I developed a slight gyno – "minimally prominent glands" in left 1,2x0,6cm and 1x0,2cm in right. It's not too bad for now but I'm having it looked at next week. I've also having some areola discharge when squeezing, so that made me a bit alert. Also it's painful sometimes.
In the beginning of last month I went to an ayahuasca ceremony on unrelated stuff. They ask you to stop any SSRI medications before. I don't take any but thought I should maybe do a break in finasteride as well. Just to be clean from any sort of medications.
Anyhow, after being off from finasteride, about after a week I started to feel much better libido and having morning erections almost every morning for a month now and even spontaneous erections during the day sometimes. My penis also feels fuller and even bigger often.
No change in gyno I think so far (I've had it for a long time).
So after being off from finasteride for a month now I'm feeling wary to get back on it. As I feel my sexual health has been much better not taking finasteride.
During these 12 years I'd had a few breaks before as well but I don't think I've been completely off without single dose for a month.
Do I have any other options for keeping my hair? I don't think I can mess with that RU solutions all the time... Making it and having to keep it in a fridge etc. Any good experience with topical finasteride? Any other new stuff on the horizon? I tried Minozidil for about 9 months and it seemed it did more harm than good.
I'm gonna see my andrologist in a week. But I know this doctor is really pro finasteride and he will probably be surprised that I had a boost in my sexual health coming off from finasteride after 12 years of taking it. In my small country only about 100 patients take finasteride for baldness (information from medical records), so these doctors we have also should not have a huge patient basis to compare. And none of the other doctors I've been seeing here don't know almost anything about the drug.
I did blood work 16 days after stopping finasteride. And which seemed odd is that my DHT hasn't recovered.
(But I do have improved erections and libido). But after taking finasteride for so long maybe it takes longer for DHT to go back up?
Here's some of my results two weeks after stopping finasteride.
My testosterone seem to have dropped quite a bit after quitting. More than 20% that people say is normal to have increase in test when taking finasteride.
S-FSH: 11,4 IU/l . (ref. 1,4–18,1)
LH: 4,28 IU/l (ref. 1,50–9,30)
Estradiol: 106,4 pmol/l (ref. <146,0)
Testosterone: 14,0 nmol/l (ref. 8,0–29,0)
Prolactine: 191 mIU/l (ref. 53–360)
S-SHBG: 17 nmol/l (ref. 15-95)
DHT: 0,44 nmol/l (ref. 1,03–2,92)
Free testosterone: 66,2 pmol/l (ref. 24,3–78,8)
Androstenedione: 3,49 nmol/l (ref. 1,40–5,20)
Thank you!
Last edited: