9 Years on finasteride - What's the Safest Way to Quit?

[junior_senior]

Hi folks,

I've been taking 1mg of Finasteride since January 2006. I was 22 then. I'm 31 now. In terms of hair, it worked great. I have 100% of the hair I did when I started--more, even. However, being a little older now, and a little wiser, I'm beginning to feel that altering my hormonal balance to preserve my hair isn't a decision I should make lightly.

For the first 4 years, I had zero side effects. Zero. But from 2010 onward, little by little, the sexual side effects began to accumulate. Today, I would say that my sex drive is severely lowered. Everything still works, but my libido has been severely compromised. My girlfriend has brought up our lack of sex as a relationship issue. Nocturnal and morning erections have all but disappeared. I'm 31, and this is not acceptable.

I'm now seeking advice from experienced members on how to quit Finasteride in a healthy way. I'm terrified of the post-finasteride crash, which I've been reading about on every single hairloss forum out there. I'm even more terrified of any permanent damage, or long-lasting hormonal imbalances after stopping the drug. Has anyone taken finasteride for many years, and then stopped taking it? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[fullhead]

This is just bro-science but I will lower the dose step by step and not quit it cold turkey. From what I've been reading, it makes sense to let your hormones readjust and that takes time. If you quit cold turkey you will be your endocrine system go ballistic and in overdrive for a few weeks. Usually after a couple weeks most people "crash". So just take it step by step, let your body readjust to increased level of DHT and not a sudden influx of DHT. Remember, you've been reducing this hormone with up to 70% for the past 9 years. Give your body time to adjust. Let us know how it goes, good luck!

 

[junior_senior]

Thanks for the reply. Doesn't the research indicate that any amount of finasteride above 0.2mg--whether it's 0.2mg, 0.5mg, 0.75mg, or 1mg--will inhibit most DHT production? If that's the case, wouldn't lowering my dose have little effect? For example, if I took 0.75mg for a few weeks, then 0.5mg for a few weeks, and so forth, wouldn't it all produce the same effect as far as my endocrine system is concerned? If anyone has tapered down their dosage with success, please provide advice.

 

[Notcoolanymore]

Sorry you need to give up finasteride after all these years of success, but I totally understand your reasons. I hope you recover 100%. I wonder how much hair finasteride saved for you? Hopefully you will only lose a norwood or two. That would blow if you lost everything and went all the way to NW6. Wonder how your GF would feel about that?

 

[zdm632]

Don't be scared about tales with "crashes", etc. They are 99% BS. DHT production comes back to normal, there's nothing to "crash" in there...except your hair.
And, i would think carefully if it's only about your girlfriends sexual demands. What about if she won't like you balding and dump you? Then what's the gain? But you know better what kind of relationship you have with her. By the way, from 30 the sex drives starts to lower, anyway. IT won't be like 9 years ago anyway, even if you completely quit finasteride.
Oh,a dn about your point with 0.2 being still very effective, you can try taking the same dose every other day, then every third day ans so on, until you stop it.
As of my personal opinion, and regarding your very well success, i won't stop it at only 31. Maybe in 40's yes, but 31, if it's working well, i wouldn't. Now looking at your full hair ir's easy to talk about quitting, but when you will see a bald head you could regret it.

 

[DoctorHouse]

If you stop the medication and get "catch up" loss, your going to be more depressed and your libido is going to suffer too. Honestly, I would lower the dose or look into going to Hasson and Wong and try their topical formula. Libido is psychological so I would explore other options to enhance that. Just curious do you have the desire to masterbate a lot still?

 

[junior_senior]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Yes, I'm aware I'll likely begin losing my hair. All things considered, it's not my biggest priority anymore. My health is my biggest priority, and inhibiting 5AR-II might be dangerous for my long-term health. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather not lose my hair, but Finasteride is serious stuff, and you need to trust me when I say I want to get off of it. Perhaps I'll look into topicals, but I'll worry about that later. My main focus is getting off finasteride in a healthy way, and having my body's hormonal balance and sex drive return to a level more typical for a 31-year old.

I had the big conversation with my significant other this weekend, where I laid it all out: that I've been on finasteride for almost a decade, about the side effects I've been experiencing, about my fear of quitting, about my fear of staying on, about what might happen if I quit. I told my girlfriend I'll likely lose all my hair within a year or two, but she didn't seem concerned about that. Her concern was about my health, my sexual health, and about avoiding any long-term damage that finasteride might cause that is beyond the purview of today's medical science. To paraphrase her, she said: your hair isn't what people see about you; people respect you because of how you carry yourself in this world, not because of you hair. She also mentioned that, even if I go through some horrific post-finasteride crash, that takes a few years to recover from, we'll work through it together. But she was adamant about me stopping this drug, and that I should never be on it if we ever try to conceive.

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry you need to give up finasteride after all these years of success, but I totally understand your reasons. I hope you recover 100%. I wonder how much hair finasteride saved for you? Hopefully you will only lose a norwood or two. That would blow if you lost everything and went all the way to NW6. Wonder how your GF would feel about that?

Thanks for the support. In a perfect world, I stop taking the drug any my sexual health rebounds to what is normal for my age. I don't know how much I'll lose, but I told my significant other that I'll likely lose all my hair, and she didn't mind.

- - - Updated - - -

Don't be scared about tales with "crashes", etc. They are 99% BS. DHT production comes back to normal, there's nothing to "crash" in there...except your hair.
And, i would think carefully if it's only about your girlfriends sexual demands. What about if she won't like you balding and dump you? Then what's the gain? But you know better what kind of relationship you have with her. By the way, from 30 the sex drives starts to lower, anyway. IT won't be like 9 years ago anyway, even if you completely quit finasteride.
Oh,a dn about your point with 0.2 being still very effective, you can try taking the same dose every other day, then every third day ans so on, until you stop it.
As of my personal opinion, and regarding your very well success, i won't stop it at only 31. Maybe in 40's yes, but 31, if it's working well, i wouldn't. Now looking at your full hair ir's easy to talk about quitting, but when you will see a bald head you could regret it.

Thanks for sharing your perspective. I've been slowing accumulating side effects for the past 4 years. I naively shrugged it off as something non-finasteride related. I didn't want to face the reality that: 1) finasteride was causing side effects, after 5 straight years of being side-effect free; and 2) that as a consequence, I have stop taking this pill and will lose my hair. But, over the past 4-5 months, I've been thinking more and more about it, and really focusing on how much the side effects have accumulated, and I now want to quit.

I understand the male sex drive decreases with age, and I'm not looking to restore my sex drive to early-20s levels. But I want the sex drive I should have, had I not taken finasteride. My sexual side effects, which have been accumulating slowly over the past 4 years, include: reduced sex drive, reduced sexual interest, loss of nocturnal and morning erections, smaller volume of ejaculate, loss of spontaneous erections, getting erections takes more work, and weaker orgasms. Trust me when I say, this is not age-related decline. This is the drug.

And post-finasteride crash is reported on every single web forum related to hairloss out there. I think it does a disservice to the many men out there, whom are not that dissimilar to us, that are suffering because their endocrine system crashed after taking or stopping finasteride. Just because it's not your experience, doesn't mean someone out there isn't experiencing it. Let's hope you or I never have to experience it.

 

[zdm632]

but I told my significant other that I'll likely lose all my hair, and she didn't mind.

Yes, she "didn't mind" now, but she may change her mind. I wouldn't be so sure... As you put it, she's dissatisfied with not getting enough sex, if this is her main reason, it doesn't sound too well for me.
Anyway, it should matter equally what you feel , not only to seek her acceptance.
As to long-term health, there are people who took finasteride for 20 years, and no problems.
It does not completely inhibit all 5ARII, only some 60-70%.
But your reasons are totally understandable, good luck! Yes, health should be more more important than hair, but unfortunately in our superficial world appearance matters very much. And if you won't like how you look bald and get depressed and in bad mood, that wouldn't be that good to your health and to your libido, as someone above said.
If it will affect you psychologically, meaning that you look in the mirror in the morning and then feel "ugly" all day long, that could affect you on every level: personal, professional, etc.
Uneasiness of mind everyday could be worse than potential risks of health problems with finasteride.
I mean, it would be bad if you regretted your decision.
But, if you will accept it, good for you. But have in mind, even if you think otherwise now, getting "ok" to balding is not something that happens overnight, it could take time, and for many people, as we see in this forum everyday, it never happens. Maybe your girlfriend is truly a great person and wouldn't care about your potential baldness, but what good, if you will be bothered by it? We are our worst critics...

 

[junior_senior]

If you stop the medication and get "catch up" loss, your going to be more depressed and your libido is going to suffer too. Honestly, I would lower the dose or look into going to Hasson and Wong and try their topical formula. Libido is psychological so I would explore other options to enhance that. Just curious do you have the desire to masterbate a lot still?

My desire is significantly reduced. And when I do do it, I'm less aroused, and it's somewhat forced. To put it simply: sexually, everything still works in my body, it's just operating at 35% of what it should be for my age.

Over the last 2-3 years, there were many times where I'd masturbate just to reassure myself mentally that my sexual drive was perfectly fine. I'm done playing that game, and I'm done pretending that I don't have an issue to deal with. It's unfortunate, because for the first 5 years while on finasteride, I honestly thought I was going to take it my whole life. I now realize that's not an option, and coming back to web forums and doing more research, I'm learning just how serious this drug is in terms of side effects and hormonal system damage. And to be honest, I'm feeling very scared.

- - - Updated - - -

Yes, she "didn't mind" now, but she may change her mind. I wouldn't be so sure... As you put it, she's dissatisfied with not getting enough sex, if this is her main reason, it doesn't sound too well for me.
Anyway, it should matter equally what you feel , not only to seek her acceptance.

Thanks for your perspective, but I'm confident in our relationship. We both share the value that health>hair, always. Both her and I want to have good life experiences together, and to be healthy and happy together, and to take good care of our mental and physical health. And currently, taking finasteride contradicts those goals. Plus, the new research of how it might affect long-term brain health is downright scary.

Anyway, thanks all for your replies so far. I want this thread to be less about me rationalizing my choice, and more about people who have quit finasteride after being on it for many years sharing their advice. I need advice at this point in time.

 

[DoctorHouse]

There is a poster on one of the other forums who has been on Proxiphen for a few years after he quit finasteride due to sides and has no further loss. You could just stay on minoxidil twice per day and see how you do. Some people have maintained on minoxidil alone. If you are ready to give up the fight all together than that is an option too. You have an understanding girlfriend and you seem to accept your possible fate so you are off to a good start.

 

[junior_senior]

There is a poster on one of the other forums who has been on Proxiphen for a few years after he quit finasteride due to sides and has no further loss. You could just stay on minoxidil twice per day and see how you do. Some people have maintained on minoxidil alone. If you are ready to give up the fight all together than that is an option too. You have an understanding girlfriend and you seem to accept your possible fate so you are off to a good start.

What other topicals are proven to work for preventing further loss? From what I've read on HairLossTalk.com's main website, Revivogen and topical Spironolactone (S5 cream) are the go to. But there aren't many threads on this forum of men using those products.

 

[smyth01]

What other topicals are proven to work for preventing further loss? From what I've read on HairLossTalk.com's main website, Revivogen and topical Spironolactone (S5 cream) are the go to. But there aren't many threads on this forum of men using those products.

Try 'Horny Goat Weed' before you quit finasteride.

 

[junior_senior]

Try 'Horny Goat Weed' before you quit finasteride.

I'm not familiar with horny goat weed. What might it do for me?

 

[abcdefg]

If you quit finasteride just be at peace with male pattern baldness and accept it then because there are no topicals to replace it. Why do you think everyone is still using? Its not because they enjoy the sides or the risks of it long term. I really wouldnt put a ton of stock in topical revivogen or spironolactone working any wonders. RU is probably the best bet or maybe going topical finasteride instead like that hasson and wong. There are drawbacks to RU too like it might be fake or not work anyway

 

[2tite2014]

Are you sure your lowered libido isn't just due to getting older? Maybe you're just not as physically attracted to your girlfriend as you used to be? Have you tried shaving your head to see how you'd like it? Not saying finasteride isn't causing you problems, just a few things to consider. I'd really hate to see a regret thread on here a few years from now about dropping finasteride. But good luck in whatever you decide to do.

 

[smyth01]

I'm not familiar with horny goat weed. What might it do for me?

Make you have a crazy sex drive lol. Look it up on youtube.