12 Years On Finasteride, Having A Month Break – Seborrheic Dermatitis, Result And Blod Tests

[memoryboy]

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!

 

[HLV]

Thank you for coming back and stating you maintained on finasteride for 12 years as we have individuals here saying that finasteride is useless long term.

You can consider RU topical solution at your own risk as some have reported success. You can also experiment with topical finasteride at your own risk and try minoxidil again but try it with dermarolling as this seems to improve results. You can also consider a hair transplant. There are still options.

HLV

 

[memoryboy]

Thank you HLV for your feedback!

Yes, I have most definitely kept my hair with finasteride long term. In fact I even had some regrowth in hairline compared to when I started taking it. I think I lost some of that regrowth when I experimented with taking less finasteride or had some breaks before.

I have been thinking about hair transplant. But to me it seems I have to keep taking finasteride in order to go that route, otherwise I could lose a weird patch of hair behind my transplant and things could look really odd, right?

I don't see myself making and taking RU but I have been thinking to try min with dermatolling and/or topical finasteride.

I'm thinking – should I jump back on oral finasteride at least for as long I have ordered other products and have them ready to go...

 

[HLV]

Thank you HLV for your feedback!

Yes, I have most definitely kept my hair with finasteride long term. In fact I even had some regrowth in hairline compared to when I started taking it. I think I lost some of that regrowth when I experimented with taking less finasteride or had some breaks before.

I have been thinking about hair transplant. But to me it seems I have to keep taking finasteride in order to got hat route, otherwise I could lose a weird patch of hair behind my transplant and things could look really odd, right?

I don't see myself making and taking RU but I have been thinking to try min with dermatolling and/or topical finasteride.

I'm thinking – should I jump back on oral finasteride at least for as long I have ordered other products and have them ready to go...

You can always consider a transplant as a last option. It is advisable to take finasteride when you have a hair transplant in order to maintain your hair but it is not always mandatory if you and the surgeon come up with a long term plan taking into account how much hair you are likely to lose over the years.

You can definitely consider dermarolling with minoxidil and experiment with topical finasteride. The studies on topical finastride dont always agree with each other on effectiveness and generally it seems that if topical finasteride does work it’s because it’s absorbed systemically.

I would advise against jumping on and off finasteride. If you would like to go back to finasteride by all means do that, but if you have concerns about safety the only option is minoxidil and a transplant in future with a master plan taking into account future loss.

RU is the only other experimental option which may yield results. Aside from that things haven’t really progressed in terms of medications since 2006.

HLV

 

[Manochoice]

The problem w/ hair transplant is that hair loss itself is very hard - if not impossible - to predict how fast or what pattern will evolve into meaning that without finasteride in place you may end up with latches of hair that may end up looking unnatural. In theory topical should at some point go systemic so sooner or later you would (again, in theory at least) end up with the same situation as with oral. Most likely you will have to assess your situation and decide if you want to keep your hair and push through with the sides or let the hair go and regain your old self. It seems (from many testimonials) that once you start having sides after long term usage (to be differentiated from the initial ones) there's not much middle ground. It's either or.

 

[memoryboy]

Thank you Manochoice for your input. Fair points!

Has anyone seen success and their sides subsided taking 0,5mg every other day or other such regimen?

 

[Manochoice]

Thank you Manochoice for your input. Fair points!

Has anyone seen success and their sides subsided taking 0,5mg every other day or other such regimen?

This is an older story on a different forum you may wanna give it a read:
https://www.baldtruthtaIk.com/threads/12698-My-Finasteride-Story-so-far.../page20

 

[memoryboy]

Thank you Manochoice!

The link doesn't seem to work though?

 

[Drextez]

@memoryboy

did you get kids while being on finasteride during all those years?

 

[memoryboy]

I haven't got kids during these years on finasteride. But that was due choice.

I had poor fertility but I cannot be sure what was the exact cause. I also had prostatitis around the time I got it checked, so that could have affected it. I had poor fertility for a while after curing prostatitis too but it still might have affected it.

At one point I measured I was pretty much infertile, that was around the time I had prostatitis. The next time, the quality was very poor but it was still possible to impregnant a female.

I haven't now checked being off finasteride for a month.

But my erections have gotten a lot better being off finasteride now.

 

[fffalling1]

I haven't got kids during these years on finasteride. But that was due choice.

I had poor fertility but I cannot be sure what was the exact cause. I also had prostatitis around the time I got it checked, so that could have affected it. I had poor fertility for a while after curing prostatitis too but it still might have affected it.

At one point I measured I was pretty much infertile, that was around the time I had prostatitis. The next time, the quality was very poor but it was still possible to impregnant a female.

I haven't now checked being off finasteride for a month.

But my erections have gotten a lot better being off finasteride now.

Do you think finasteride caused prostatitis?

 

[Btg]

did shbg drop after stopping finasteride ?

 

[Maxihair]

Thanks for sharing your story. That's so interesting to read about long term using of finasteride.

 

[memoryboy]

My SHBG levels while taking finasteride were:

24 nmol/l (ref. 17–66) / 21.01.2017
22 nmol/l (ref. 15–95) / 07.03.2017 – lab #2

Now after quitting finasteride, it was 17 nmol/l (ref. 15–95) – lab #2

So you could say, it has dropped a little.

I think my free testosterone was very good while on finasteride, at least that's what my doctor said.
And I guess that's more important than total testosterone.

What's weird is that when I looked at my 21.03.2017 lab tests, then my DHT was actually higher. 0,74 nmol/l (ref. 1,03–2,92)
And that was while I took finasteride, although that was a a period when I took it less.

Now, after 3 weeks of completely being off finasteride, my DHT was 0,44 (ref. 1,03–2,92)

My dermatologist said it might take a year for the DHT levels to creep back up. Which I can imagine when talking about the potential PFS, could be the case (?), but still was crazy to hear.

I really have no way of knowing whether finasteride caused prostatitis or not.

It took me nearly a year to have it completely cured with heavy antibiotics.
I know way more now about antibiotics and maybe I would have tried a different route now, but all in all, I think it's at least cured for now.

PS. Anyone know the link to the article Manochoice was refering?
The link doesn't seem to work.
http://www6.baldtruthtaik.com/?s_token=1560083063.1163171874&kw=hair+loss&term=Hair Loss Treatments For Men&term=Hair Loss Treatments For Women&backfill=0&tdfs=0

Now, being a month off finasteride, my hair still continues to shed like it has been shedding around the past 5–6 months. It seems the scalp could still be affected by seborrheic dermatitis, although the dermatologist I saw didn't think there's more I need to to than use Nizoral as the scalp seemed in Ok shape now visually.

 

[memoryboy]

correction to my last paragraph:
Now, being a month off finasteride, my hair still continues to shed like it has been shedding around the past 5–6 months. It seems the scalp could still be affected by seborrheic dermatitis, although the dermatologist I saw didn't think there's more I need to to than use Nizoral as the scalp seemed in Ok shape now visually.

 

[Manochoice]

I'm not sire why the link doesn't work

 

[memoryboy]

I'm not sire why the link doesn't work

Got it – https://www.baldtruthtaIk.com/threads/12698-My-Finasteride-Story-so-far.../page20

 

[Manochoice]

Got it – https://www.baldtruthtaIk.com/threads/12698-My-Finasteride-Story-so-far.../page20

Were you able to open the link and access the story? If not, I will hard copy the text and paste it in this thread.

 

[memoryboy]

yeah all good thank you man!
In some reason the link changes when pasted here, but I could find the thread easily on Google.

 

[memoryboy]

I had a doctor appointment.

After examining me, he said I don't gave gyno.

My mammography a few years ago said – I have "minimally prominent glands" in left 1,2x0,6cm and 1x0,2cm in right.

But I guess it's no big deal?

I guess I could loose a bit of weight and see how it is. I'm naturally with a bit muscular build and I have gained a few pounds, so I could try to get my body % percentage down to minimum and see what's up. (pun intended) That of course doesn't explain why I have felt pain there now and then. Doctor thought some of the things might be psychosomatic. I don't deny that reading about possible finasteride side effects doesn't do me or anyone any good and could bring on additional psychosomatic symptoms or nocebo effect.

Looking at my tests, what the doctors said, they thought it's kinda a weird and unusual is that I have unusually high free testosterone. And has been for some years already when they have measured it. I guess this can be good and bad. And it could affect other hormones

Anyone else here with unusually high free testosterone levels?

Could it be that when I have blocked testosterone to be converted to DHT, then I have just ended up with so much extra free testosterone?

Maybe some of if has been converted to estradiol but not crazy amount as he said my estradiol levels were totally fine.

He said same for prolactin levels.

He of course seems to look at these things simply from medical/pathologic perspective. Like either something is completely off the charts or not. No middle ground that could be improved. He doesn't seem to be concerned what would be the best or optimal levels for a person my age and activity, it seems to me.

He didn't think much of my low DHT levels (measured 3 weeks after stopping or having a break in finasteride).
1) He thought it can take a much longer time for DHT to come back up after stopping finasteride (especially after long term usage).
2) He thought it could be a possibility I have low DHT levels to begin with as a characteristics and genetics (unfortunately I don't have baseline tests taken before getting on finasteride). I could still have hair loss even with low DHT levels, it all depends on receptors and sensitivity etc.
He said we don't know that much about the receptor activities, they said he will publish a paper soon about it but there's still a lot that's in the dark.
3) He didn't think DHT test is a very good test, as the numbers are so small and it can often be very inaccurate. he said he prefers DHEAS test.

He of course didn't deny the fact that when I'm having now morning erections, better libido and no need for Cialis, then I should consider not going back on finasteride. At least stay off for longer and see how I am. If not completely stay off it and accept my genetics in terms of hair loss.

He said they have tried a lower dose (0,5mg daily) with some men but didn't have much records to say how effective it is or how would the possible sides be.

I have already tried 0,5mg daily too on some periods.

The doctor is the most reputable andrologists in my country, a pioneer and founder of the field in my country. It does feel to me as he has prescribed finasteride for years, he is quite pro-finasteride. But at least he knows about it and can be talked with.
None of the other doctors I have seen over the years (andrologist, endocrinologists, urologists etc) haven't had almost any knowledge about finasteride.