finasteride tolerance?

[Luther007]

I've been taking finasteride daily now for about seven years, and I've maintained a Norwood 2. I seem to be thinning out for the past two or three months now though and I remember reading that finasteride's effectiveness can wane over a long period of time. Is this due to some kind of biological tolerance where the body finds a way to produce more DHT despite the drug?

Would it be better to stop taking finasteride for a while and then start it again? How long, two weeks, two months? Or do I just need to increase the dosage or switch to dutasteride?

Also I started noticing shedding/thinning when I switched from Propecia to Finax a few months ago, although I had been taking Finpecia and Fincar for years before that. Could the switch in brands have any detrimental effect?

 

[Bryan]

I've been taking finasteride daily now for about seven years, and I've maintained a Norwood 2. I seem to be thinning out for the past two or three months now though and I remember reading that finasteride's effectiveness can wane over a long period of time. Is this due to some kind of biological tolerance where the body finds a way to produce more DHT despite the drug?

I don't think anybody develops the kind of "tolerance" that you're suggesting. In my opinion, what happens is simply that balding slowly gets worse and worse as the years go by; I think that happens because scalp hair follicles slowly become more sensitive to the effects of androgens.

Would it be better to stop taking finasteride for a while and then start it again? How long, two weeks, two months? Or do I just need to increase the dosage or switch to dutasteride?

I think stopping finasteride for a period of time is a VERY bad idea. Increase the total fight against balding by adding other substances to your regimen. Agents like SODs and other growth stimulants would be obvious things to use. Adding topical antiandrogens like spironolactone would probably help, too.

 

[Chris87]

I've been taking finasteride daily now for about seven years, and I've maintained a Norwood 2. I seem to be thinning out for the past two or three months now though and I remember reading that finasteride's effectiveness can wane over a long period of time. Is this due to some kind of biological tolerance where the body finds a way to produce more DHT despite the drug?

Would it be better to stop taking finasteride for a while and then start it again? How long, two weeks, two months? Or do I just need to increase the dosage or switch to dutasteride?

Also I started noticing shedding/thinning when I switched from Propecia to Finax a few months ago, although I had been taking Finpecia and Fincar for years before that. Could the switch in brands have any detrimental effect?

I've heard guys say they upped their dose from 1mg to 1.25mg or 2mg when they began losing ground again and that worked for them...of course this is just anecdotal.

 

[RadioMopTopHead]

I think stopping finasteride for a period of time is a VERY bad idea.

Other than the obvious reasons...why else?

I ask because I got great regrowth from finasteride but stopped because of gyno sides. I then started up again, and got good regrowth once more but sides again.

I've since started up a third time expecting the same, whereas before I saw a change after 2 months, its now been way longer than that and things are still getting worse.

It does feel like a "tolerance".

 

[Bryan]

I think stopping finasteride for a period of time is a VERY bad idea.

Other than the obvious reasons...why else?

If you look at the original large Merck study for treating hairloss with finasteride, one of their experimental groups was the subset that took finasteride for the first year, but were then swiched over to placebo during the second year. It was a bit surprising to me when the haircounts for that group during the second year declined at a STEEPER rate than the group that was on placebo for the entire time. I think it's bad to go back and forth from finasteride to placebo to finasteride to placebo, etc. etc.

 

[RadioMopTopHead]

It was a bit surprising to me when the haircounts for that group during the second year declined at a STEEPER rate than the group that was on placebo for the entire time.

Well sh*t...

But did they eventually stabilise again?

 

[Bryan]

Well sh*t...

But did they eventually stabilise again?

Don't know (or at least not sure). All we have to go by in that experiment were just the four groups that were tested in that study for two separate years: placebo ---> placebo; placebo ---> finasteride; finasteride ---> placebo; and finasteride ---> finasteride.

 

[kc444]

They did stabilize, but it took 3 more years for them to catch up with the treatment group and never got back to where they were when they stopped finasteride. Oddly though, the group that stopped taking finasteride for a year was still trending upwards at the end of five years.

http://www.regrowshair.com/wp-content/up ... _chart.gif

 

[RadioMopTopHead]

Where can I see more graphs and info on this study??

 

[RadioMopTopHead]

Ok I've googled it don't worry!

 

[Nip It In The Bud]

Not sure if it's a "tolerance" or something else, but after five years on finasteride I've noticed some thinning over the past few months. It's somewhat reassuring to know that someone else is having a similar experience. Check on my thread in the "My Story" forum.

 

[RadioMopTopHead]

It's somewhat reassuring to know that someone else is having a similar experience.

I was hoping there'd be someone somewhere who after 3 years on finasteride started losing ground, but kept taking the drug and after say a year or so things picked up for him again.