quitting finasteride!

[lightningbald]

Hello all,

as my situation continued to worsen at an incredible pace in the last few month, I am going to quit
finasteride. Does anyone have advice or experience with quitting proscar/propecia? I was thinking
to take take 1 mg every other day for the period of a month, to phase things out... maybe
go down to every 3rd day the following month? Or will the fluctuations cause more harm than good?

What about quitting cold turkey?

Are there people out there for whom finasteride actually made their situation worse, and who recovered
after quitting the drug?! How long did it take?

I would really appreciate your input!

 

[reallysad]

My situation got worse after taking propecia
Can you tell me how long u took it?

 

[lightningbald]

I've been taking 1 mg finasteride (cut down proscar) for 7.5 month now.

Well, I don't know where I would've been without it, but I am now almost NW6 (not slick bald, but hair is really thin and horseshoe is visible even when i shave my head!), and already thinning in NW7 pattern.

I noticed my diffuse thinning little over a year ago!!! So either I've had worst luck with my genetics, or something is really going wrong here.

The reason i want to quit finasteride is because I think I'm getting increased body hair, and that can't be a good sign, can it?

 

[Kramer3]

How old are you?

 

[lightningbald]

I'm 22. Great fun being a NW7 at that age.

 

[Guest]

what were you on the norwood scale when you first started propecia?

 

[GourmetStyleWellness]

Ok you're using Propecia and ............ Innovate?

Why?

Why not Propecia and Rogaine at the very very very least?

Innovate is one of many bandwagon treatments that will come and go like it never existed in another 4 months. Mark my words. And here you are, about ready to give up on it all because you're not seeing results. This is the damage these guys do on these other sites with bad advice.

You need to try, at the very least, Propecia and Rogaine and Nizoral for 1 year. That is the best possible advice you can get. You may need the "kitchen sink" approach... but no matter what way you look at it, your foundation MUST BE Propecia and Rogaine. Propecia and Innovate was not the way to go.

The fact that you ask "Has anyone lost hair because of Propecia and gained it back after stopping" tells me that you spend a significant amount of time on other hair loss web sites, listening to these same uneducated dolts who fill newbies like yourself with these wrong thoughts and misinformation. Sorry if I sound angry at them. I am. Propecia does not cause hair loss. It stops hair loss, or does nothing, depending upon whether you're a responder or not. You should not have been told to start on Innovate before trying Rogaine.

Also, its not technically accurate to say you're a NW6 if you're only thinning in the NW6 area. That makes you a diffuse thinner. Norwood is defined by completely slick bald loss. A Norwood 6 is 80% slick bald head 20% hair.

Let me ask you this, if you quit the most clinically proven and effective treatment on the market today (finasteride) ... what exactly are you going to do instead? Doesn't leave you with much of anything does it?

Give us some more info.

gourmetstylewellness.com

 

[fuzbucket]

Seems to me there is a common propecia shed that often happens at 6-7 months. I would also recommend you stay on the propecia for atleast a year, but that is just me.

In-Valid

 

[Odelay]

Let's see I quit it about 1 month ago after being on it for over a year, as well as Minoxidil and Nizoral. Can't really tell what's going on, because I have opted to let my hair grow long one last time and hold out till spring and shave it off and get a tan. Perks are you don't have to deal with using the stuff anymore, which is great. I have also found that my libido, which was not really affected, has gone back to the way it was pre-Propecia.

I say you just quit cold turkey because you are just wasting time and money on something you are quitting anyways. I have yet to have a horrible shed, and even if I do it's no biggy. To me going bald is worse than actually being bald.

 

[Bob_Marley]

DON'T QUIT YET. MY hair went to sh*t at about 8-9 month mark and then stabilized nicely.

DON'T QUIT. You are ruining your chance for something good to happen

DON'T QUIT. You have gone this far, so at least ride it out until the 1 to 1.5 year mark.

If you have not been using nizoral, get on it. I added it around one year of propecia use and it made a hell of a difference.

 

[oaslam]

Not much worse can happen

You need to augment your regime with minoxidil and nizoral and be sure to stick with it for a 1 - 2 years.

And even if you just use finasteride, you can and should expect a shed between 7 and 10 months of usage.

Don't give up.

 

[lightningbald]

Okay, thank you all for your suggestions!

I think I'm gonna stick with it for a few more months, you're right in saying I haven't got much to loose. I am quite reluctant to start Minoxidil,
but facing the current situation, I'll probably give it a try soon...
I think I'll also get my hormone levels checked by an endocrinologist...

anyway, I'm not too hopefull, as I am really speaking about a dramatic progression in hair loss. To address a few questions / comments:
i was NW2 a year ago, and this was the first time I really noticed my
thinning. Technically you might call it diffuse thinning, but cosmetically
there isn't much difference to a slick bald area. My hair barely leaves a
shadow when shaved... so I don't think it's just the usual propecia shed.