How do I quit finasteride? Cold turkey? Lower the dose? *help*

[thisblowss]

I lowered the dose to 0.5 mg every other day for about 10 days, and took 0.25 mg once.
Is it safe for me to stop using the drug?
I've read that its better to lower the dose before quitting the drug, not sure why I had to do it so yeah.
Any advice is much appreciated

 

[TA45]

You ask an excellent question as I can tell you I had a terrible time coming off of Finas. Coming off the drug may have been worse than being on it! Why you quitting? Sides?

 

[Bryan]

I do suggest that if you decide to quit using finasteride, taper-off the drug slowly.

 

[Ende]

Why, Bryan? I'm just curious. According to the leaflet it should be safe to just quit whenever.

 

[Bryan]

Why, Bryan? I'm just curious. According to the leaflet it should be safe to just quit whenever.

No, the leaflet doesn't explore _quite_ as many of all the various ramifications of finasteride usage as what gets discussed on hairloss sites!

For example, there's the matter of the "intense upregulation" in the number of androgen receptors in hair follicle cells when you use finasteride that Dr. Sawaya talked about at a medical conference a few years ago. Assume for a moment that what she said is in fact correct; if you use finasteride for a long time and then decide to discontinue it suddenly, it seems like you would leave your hair follicles at the mercy of all those extra androgen receptors, at least for a period of time. What if DHT gets back to normal before the number of androgen receptors gets back to normal?

And indeed, there does appear to be _some_ bit of circumstantial evidence suggesting that that's a bad thing: looking back at the huge Propecia Phase III trial from several years ago, the group of test-subjects who got finasteride for the first year and then were switched-over to placebo for the second year seemed to have a sharper decline of haircounts during that second year than any of the other groups! I'm not saying that that's a terribly scientific proof of what I'm saying, I'm just saying it's rather suggestive. If you want to stop using finasteride after being on it for a while, I'd suggest doing it slowly over a period of time. Give those androgen receptors some time to get back to normal, first!

 

[Shma]

And indeed, there does appear to be _some_ bit of circumstantial evidence suggesting that that's a bad thing: looking back at the huge Propecia Phase III trial from several years ago, the group of test-subjects who got finasteride for the first year and then were switched-over to placebo for the second year seemed to have a sharper decline of haircounts during that second year than any of the other groups! I'm not saying that that's a terribly scientific proof of what I'm saying, I'm just saying it's rather suggestive. If you want to stop using finasteride after being on it for a while, I'd suggest doing it slowly over a period of time. Give those androgen receptors some time to get back to normal, first!

What exactly does that mean? Lower the dosage shouldn't make such a big of a difference, or am I wrong? Are you talking about every 2nd day, then eod and then once a week?

 

[rint]

This is just what I was looking for!
Ive been on finasteride for about 6 months, .5 a day, stopping 1 or 2 days out of the week just to give my body a break. This was fine until recently, I think.

My sex drive is near perfect on finasteride, But I recently went out of town and decided to stop taking finasteride for the 7 days I would be gone. But the first three days I had major brain fog/low energy/depression and even low sex drive! :dunno:

so I decided to restart prematurely and I actually felt more normal ON the finasteride. High sexdrive, felt completely fine. then I decided to test this again and didn't take finasteride today. I got the same results- brainfog, etc.

I realize I should be happy that the finasteride is working but one day I know I will stop taking it. What gives? Has anyone had an experience like this? Would tapering do the trick?

 

[Bryan]

What exactly does that mean? Lower the dosage shouldn't make such a big of a difference, or am I wrong? Are you talking about every 2nd day, then eod and then once a week?

Normally it doesn't make much difference if all you do is reduce the dose modestly to 1/2 mg, 1/3 mg, etc. But for this special purpose, you do need to MAKE it work by reducing the dose sufficiently so that it _does_ make a difference. You'll have to figure out how to get the dose down to smaller and smaller doses, something along the lines of maybe 1/10 mg, then 1/15 mg, then 1/20 mg. You may have to help with that by spacing-out the dose over more and more days.

 

[ham373]

Do not stop finasteride cold turkey!


You should do a slow taper (slower than almost everyone considers doing). This has a very good chance of reducing the chance of post-finasteridesyndrome. Apart from requiring patience there is no down side.


The short summary:


1. Very small doses of finasteride(like 0.04mg) inhibits DHT quite a lot.
2. A single dose of finasterideinhibits DHT for 4-7 days for a tiny dose (like 0.04mg to 0.2mg) andeven longer for a 1mg dose.
3. The post-finasteride syndrome has alot of the hallmarks of a hormonal axis shut down, likely due to thesurge in DHT following stopping the drug.
4. Like in other hormonal shutdownsthis risk can be minimised by a very slow tapering regime.
5. I will explain at length therationale below but one point worth making- there is no downside totapering. If you have been on the drug for x years then three months(or so) tapering cannot add a lot of risk and it may be highlybeneficial.
6.A slow tapering regime forfinasteride involves the following in broad outline:
a.going to about 0.25mg a day straightaway (this inhibits DHT the same as 1mg/day),
b.then going to 0.25mg every secondday, third day and then fourth day.
c.At this point you should reduce thedose, while dosing every fourth day. An eight of a tablet is 0.125mg.
d.Ideally you would get down to about0.04mg every fourth day which might be done by very careful cuttingup of eights of a tablet.
e.From every fourth day on 0.04mg,space this out to 5, 6, 7, 10 and 14 days.
f.There is even rationale to go toeven more smaller doses - like 0.02mg and 0.01mg at these intervals.
g. Timing: step a. can be donestraight away. step b. can be done over a couple of weeks. steps c.to f. should be done as slowly as you can stand. It is very likelythat when you get to 0.125 mg every fourth day you will notice animprovement in your side effects and you might also be able todiscern a time line of worse symptoms about 24-36 hours after a dosethat improves over the next 2-3 days. This is not the time to quitcold turkey! This is the time to go slow. This period should removeany doubt in your mind where the side effects have come from. But youneed to wean off slowly to give a chance to safely land your hormonalsystem. It is tough to put a drug into your mouth that you realise isdoing you harm, but it is far tougher to risk the prolonged sideeffects that might come from stopping quickly.

 

[massa]

What happens if you want to quit finasteride because it hasn't worked? Do you still have to do the tapering off thing as its really having no effect on me whatsoever. So I spent all this money, still lost most of my hair and now may get PFS, what is life?

 

[ham373]

Life isn't exactly as promised in the movies is it.
I would say
1) Yes, I would absolutely taper off in this way. It is is irritating. It makes the most sense to avoid PFS.
2) When you say it has no effect on you whatsoever - does this mean it hasn't stopped hair loss at all? Also no side effects? (there is god reason to believe that the more side effects you have on it the more likely you are to get PFS coming off it - so if you have had no side effects that is promising).
3) However, I will repeat 1) there is no need to add to the mild misery you are already in by adding a hormonal mess to it. Tapering makes sense and is safer.

 

[paulie72785]

So BTW this BRYAN is really dead??

 

[skyline999]

So BTW this BRYAN is really dead??

Yes he is and the man is well respected legend. RIP to him. I wish I joined the forum in the earlier years to get his insight.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

k

 

[mariawotters]

if you decide to quit using finasteride, taper-off the drug slowly.