quitting propecia after 19 months

[msb]

i have been on propecia for 19 months now and my hair has reached an all time low. it has become more and more diffuse ever since i started Propecia - front, vertex, hairline. and even the sides have thinned out. i would say in the last year and a half i lost 50-60% of my hair.

not only that the quality of the hair i have left has declined since beginning. plus i have gained over 25 pounds since starting and my libido has never returned.

i have tried to incoporate minoxidil (dr. lees ppg free) for a few months, but i get headaches, dizziess, puffy face, dark circles, and blood-shot eyes. i tries to add dmso and the headaches and diziness got even worse.

anyone quit after this long and not see a shed? i hope this doesent happen, but since i didnt get any result i cant see to much of shed occuring.

 

[WRX_STi_Driver]

Are you sure there might not be something else wrong? Go tell a Doctor your symptoms and what you are taking.

 

[HairlossTalk]

Hm, I wonder who told you to use DMSO.

Sheesh.

Not good.

Anyways ... 19 months ... have you been using Nizoral shampoo to control any itching or inflammation? If the answer is no, try adding that and giving it another 5 months.

If the answer is yes, then you are most likely just not a responder to Propecia. 17% of people will not respond.

The next logical thing to do is to add Rogaine, but you tried that. Email dr. lee and ask him what he suggests since you had bad side effects from it.

HairLossTalk.com

 

[msb]

i have been using nizoral also. i guess i am not a good responder.

i am just very frustrated about how fast and how much hair i have lost since starting propeica.

i began for maintenance of a slightly thinning crown area which was not appearent to anyone except for me. and now i have very obvious thinning.

 

[hopewas]

you know.. i think some people start propecia too late and then make threads like this. if you lost most of your hair before you started propecia don't expect a miracle.

 

[msb]

i basically had a full head of hair before starting propecia. the only reason i started is for maintenance. i had a very slightly thinning crown/vertex. with a nw1 hairline.

i still have the same hairline, but it has thinned severely from front to back and even in the sides all in a year and half.

 

[flux]

my libido has never returned.

If you mean it hasnt been the same, thats one thing. But if its just GONE, then that alone is reason to get off the finasteride, working or no.

 

[msb]

my sex drive has slowed since starting propecia. some say that this side effect diminises over time. it hasnt for me though.

 

[flux]

my sex drive has slowed since starting propecia. some say that this side effect diminises over time. it hasnt for me though.

Its also possible that those people just gradually forget what their sex drive used to be like. A few users here have reported a drive that they had long forgotten after quitting the finasteride.

Still theres other things you can take to help offset this, such as L-Arginine.

So back to your situation. If finasteride hasnt helped you, stopping most certainly wont hurt your hair. Are you sure you just didnt get some kind of shed in the past few months? And ditto to what HairLossTalk.com said, if your scalp health hasnt been great (inflamed, itchy, flakey, etc), that will make it hard for the finasteride to do its thing.

 

[msb]

i have been taking l-arginine for a while and it hasnt helped much. i could have handled a little lower libido if it would have helped my hair, but thats not the case.

i wonder if i just had a negative reaction to propecia. obviously i have no research to back that up, but the fact that i have lost so much hair in such a diffuse pattern makes wonder. especially on the sides.

prior to starting propecia i pretty thick hair with the exception of the crown, which was basically only noticable to me.

i have also kept my scalp healthy. i use nizoral and t-sal mixed regularly and have had no flakes or itching.

 

[elguapo]

msb,

do your father or uncles recall losing their hair rapidly once they reached your age? I guess I am implying that some people go fast due to genetics. 19 months is more than enough time to judge that you are not a good responder to propecia. But could it be genetics rather than the propecia itself that has caused further rapid loss? That's what I am getting at.

Sorry to hear the bad news. We are all keeping our fingers crossed for further advances in the fight against male pattern baldness.

 

[Hairless Potter]

This is the kind of thread that scares the sh*t out of me.

 

[msb]

i only have 2 realative the lost much hair, a cousin and grandfather. neither of them lost hair rapidly from what i know - i know my cousin didnt for sure. all other relatives have pretty good hair. my father has some recession, but he is 60 and that didnt start until about 5 years ago or so.

prior to starting propecia my hair was in pretty good shape with just some minor thinning int he crown - good hairline and thickness elsewhere. i though i would try propecia to maybe thicken that up and maintain the rest.

within a month i was shedding something fierce and that continued on and off for year. since then i am still shedding but not at the same pace. i just dont understand why this would happen after beginning propecia.

 

[elguapo]

hairless potter,

That is exactly why I responded. Propecia has worked quite well for me so far. Been on it for 5.5 months. Experienced a few-day side effect of loss of libido while my "hormone pendilum" balanced out again, which happened within the first 2 weeks. After that, easy sailing, and though I did not get remarkable regrowth so far, my hair quality has really improved.

Last night I got my haircut- kept putting it off for 4 weeks. The girl I always go to couldn't believe how thick my hair felt. Mind you, she didn't notice my hairloss until I told her. I am a diffuse thinner, mainly suffering in the top anterior "widows peek" area. But once I pointed it out, she agreed that it was a little thin. Now we both agree that it is thickening up again. I'll have more pics in a month or so. See the before photos in the Tell Your Story section.

I wish everybody had good results with propecia, but it is true, some do not. msb was pretty fair in his update/thread, in comparison to what other people jump on here and say when it doesn't work like they would like. But it "works" for the majority.

Good luck guys.