Quit Finasteride after 13 yrs. BIG MISTAKE

[Localguy]

I'm 58yrs old. I was on fins for 13 yrs. and had great results keeping my hair. It was thick, fast growing and I had no hair loss all these years. It was so easy to take that little crumb every morning and I never even thought about going bald. I started it back then because of a small bald spot on my crown. My Dr. said try this pill it might regrow that spot, and it did within a few months, so I kept taking it.

Now 13 years later my new doctor asked my why I was taking that crap and that it will prevent me from ever getting an erection again. So I panicked and thought about the sides I did have and thought I better quit taking it. I used to think the ED I had was more from high blood pressure, cholesterol and being over weight and getting older.
So like a fool I just stopped it cold turkey with out doing any research and within 2 weeks I started to find hairs everywhere. Within 4 weeks I was scooping palm fulls of hair out of the drain and seeing my scalp and massive hair loss.

So not knowing what to do I started taking it again. Now 8 weeks after I quit I am still loosing hairs and I am almost completely bald on top. My sides and back have thinned out a lot also and it seems like my hair stopped growing altogether. Even my beard seems to have slowed down, I used to need to shave every morning and now its every 3 days or so. I never would have thought I would lose so much hair so fast.
I did go see my dermatologist who is a hair transplant guy, and he just said to stay on the fins. He tried to say it will grow back but wasn't very convincing.
Does anyone have any experience with regrowing hair after loosing so much this way? Is it even possible?

It seems like it fell out way too fast, could it be something else?
I have a Dr. appointment next week to have some blood work done.
This is horrible, to go from having a full head of hair 2 months ago to this and its not stopping. I can't face anybody, I know I'm older than most of you guys and shouldn't care that much, but I do. I can't believe I just stopped it without realizing this could happen, and so fast.
So being on Fins again, is there any hope?

[brunobald]

Because your hairloss was later in life, chances are it aint too aggressive. Sound like you have had a big shed but hairs always grow back in, maybe they will be weaker at first but fin should maintain boost them back up. Your shed was prob due to the inflammation responce as dht started working again on your follices, this inflammation can cause damage to the follicules but this process takes years so getting back on fin will limit any damage and you should be ok.

[Jazz1]

Yes you have hope as hairs go through cycles can take 6-12 months, just carrying on taking it, oh and go see that Doctor show him your middle finger . These days some Doctors are proper right idiots along with Dermatologist, half of them tend to refer to Google when I go see them!

I never though mine would ever grow back, in past I had AA it took 2 years to come back. See my thread

https://www.baldtruthtalk.com/threads/16582-Hairloss-progress-regrowth-thread?highlight=

My advice get some Regenepure DR and NT to remove the inflammation, maybe get on Rogaine aswell to stimulate growth.

[Localguy]

Thanks guys for the replies. I feel a little more hopeful my hair may come back some. Its the waiting and not knowing for sure that is driving me crazy.
I guess its true that people like me who have had good results with fins don't usually come on sites like this to say so. You mostly hear the horror stories from people who have had problems. While I was taking it all those years I didn't even think about hair loss until this happened.
Obviously Fins does work well for some people like it did for me. I hope it does again. I'll keep you up dated.
The ED side effects (if caused by fins) was not that big of a deal for me because of my age. It would have been nice to have that crazy rage, but on fins I could still work my self up a few times a month and that was acceptable. I had my wild times when I was younger. I don't know what I would do if I were in my 20's or 30's, that would be a problem. Its such an important part of being human and male.
So I sympathize with you younger guys on whether to take it or not.
I will look for the Regenepure products, can they be bought in drug stores? I'm going to wait on the Rogaine for a few months because I couldn't handle any more shed yet if I can help it. My dermatologist also said I could try it to stimulate some growth. Thanks

[rev3]

Thanks guys for the replies. I feel a little more hopeful my hair may come back some. Its the waiting and not knowing for sure that is driving me crazy.
I guess its true that people like me who have had good results with fins don't usually come on sites like this to say so. You mostly hear the horror stories from people who have had problems. While I was taking it all those years I didn't even think about hair loss until this happened.
Obviously Fins does work well for some people like it did for me. I hope it does again. I'll keep you up dated.
The ED side effects (if caused by fins) was not that big of a deal for me because of my age. It would have been nice to have that crazy rage, but on fins I could still work my self up a few times a month and that was acceptable. I had my wild times when I was younger. I don't know what I would do if I were in my 20's or 30's, that would be a problem. Its such an important part of being human and male.
So I sympathize with you younger guys on whether to take it or not.
I will look for the Regenepure products, can they be bought in drug stores? I'm going to wait on the Rogaine for a few months because I couldn't handle any more shed yet if I can help it. My dermatologist also said I could try it to stimulate some growth. Thanks

have you considered trying dutasteride with the fin?

.5mg dut once week and 1mg fin the other six days seems to grow hair better than fin alone

google "dutasteride and finasteride together"
there was a study done showing this

i heard a derm on doctor radio (siriusxm)
talk about how she prescribes her patients

1mg fin: tues weds fri sat sun
.5mg dut: mon thurs

some fin patients who have been on fin for many years and have found diminishing returns have even switched to dut full time with success

i've been on fin for almost 17 years
and though i am afraid to switch totally to dut am going to try supplementing with cut once a week as the study shows

anyway, hope this info helps
i feel for you

[Localguy]

Thanks,
I never even heard of dutasteride before I came to this site. Is it a prescription drug like fins? I'll have to search it out, because I wondered if maybe the fins stopped working for me, but then again I stopped it before it stopped me. But thanks for the suggestion I will look into it.

Have you ever stopped taking fins after so long? I read here that some guys stop and experience some loss over a few months, I don't know why mine is so severe and so fast. Its embarrassing, I could handle it better if it were gradual.

[OrdinaryUser]

That is a shame that you had such a sudden onset of hair loss after quitting. Dutasteride is more potent than Fin, so if ED is a concern, then taking it would be counter to that. Did your ED at least improve after quitting?

[Artista]

Hi LocalGuy and welcome to this great forum.
We are somewhat akin to each other age-wise lol.
Im just a few years younger than you~My hair loss started becoming way too disturbing for me about 10 years ago.
My hair matured in my late 20s and then the subsequent receding / hairloss was relatively minor.
I did not allow it to bother me though.
I always had a decent framing of the face with very minor crown loss up until my late 40s.
STRESS (from my own 'perfect storm') certainly helped to destroy what I had kept.
Long story short I decided to finally try Finasteride last year, August 2013.
1 mg per day has definitely been improving my hair without any major sides.
My scalp is progressively showing more density now.
My point is that I began Fin' in my mid 50s and its doing something for me..
More than likely you will recover your hair..To what degree we dont know ,just hang in there and stick around BaldTruthTalk with us.

[Localguy]

I only quit for 4 weeks and didn't notice any ED improvement, but then again I wasn't looking.

[Artista]

LocalGuy how are you doing today?

[Localguy]

LocalGuy how are you doing today?

Wow, thanks for asking Artista...that is very nice of you.

First let me start with the good news, I think I already feel a lot of bristles of hair coming in already. Is that possible? So soon? When I try to look its hard to see because I need my glasses and can't look up in the mirror with bi-focals. Also I have grayish/white hair on my white scalp. But I can feel sharp little prickles of “hair” everywhere, I think. Who know what quality they will come in at, but at least its a good sign.

Went to my Dr. yesterday and I knew more about hair loss then he did. I tried to explain to him that I had a mop of thick hair only two months ago and it fell out this fast. But he must have thought that I have been balding all these years and just experienced some more loss and was exaggerating. But anyway he is having me do some blood work to check things out.

Now the bad news...I'm so sorry I learned about all these side effects, thanks web-sites. I was better off not knowing.
Because now I think I have everything! I'm not sure if its in my head or real but my dick is shrinking, my boobs are growing and I have brain fog. Also it seems like I have to pee every few minutes.
I'm wondering if I screwed up my body because I stopped taking it so fast and started again too fast.

About a week after I started Fins again, one morning when I woke up my testicles where really big and I had an erection. Which is very unusual, haven't had that in years so I kind of got worried, it didn't feel normal but it went away. I figured the fins was working again.
Now this morning I woke up semi-hard and it seemed to last awhile. I got nervous again thinking what if it doesn't go down, what should I do? Go to the emergency room! but it did go down. It actually felt kind of good.

So now I am obsessed with all these things and I'm watching and thinking about everything way too much. I hope its all ok and I go back to where I was before I quit... with hair.

But thanks for asking.

[OrdinaryUser]

Take a step back and objectively go through your concerns one-by-one, this will help put to rest some anxieties about side effects. It can very well turn into a form of self-fulfilling of adverse effects when you do not have them in reality. This is why I think a good portion of people who purport to have ED from finasteride fulfilled it themselves after reading a lot of negative things about it.

Anyway, keep us informed on progress, it's reasonable to assume it will grow back--you likely just had a rebound shed that you would have undergone had you not been on finasertide.

[Jazz1]

Please don't stress or think about it, iv been there with major sides and stressing/anxiety makes things worse! Relax, he lad have sex don't stress or think about it! I'm now 3 years later using FIN that gave me the worst sides anyone could have, yet 3 years down the line I'm on the drug and doing great no sides .

[Notcoolanymore]

Now the bad news...I'm so sorry I learned about all these side effects, thanks web-sites. I was better off not knowing.
Because now I think I have everything! I'm not sure if its in my head or real but my dick is shrinking, my boobs are growing and I have brain fog. Also it seems like I have to pee every few minutes.

The first thing you should have done when you lost all of your hair was go back to your doctor, show him your head, then tell him off. This is a very important story that you tell. People need to know what can happen when you make a rash decision and quit fin after so many years. They don't realize everything that it actually has been doing all those years. Pics of your full head of hair, and pics after quitting fin would make an even stronger point.

[35YrsAfter]

I'm 58yrs old. I was on fins for 13 yrs. and had great results keeping my hair. It was thick, fast growing and I had no hair loss all these years. It was so easy to take that little crumb every morning and I never even thought about going bald. I started it back then because of a small bald spot on my crown. My Dr. said try this pill it might regrow that spot, and it did within a few months, so I kept taking it.

Now 13 years later my new doctor asked my why I was taking that crap and that it will prevent me from ever getting an erection again. So I panicked and thought about the sides I did have and thought I better quit taking it. I used to think the ED I had was more from high blood pressure, cholesterol and being over weight and getting older.
So like a fool I just stopped it cold turkey with out doing any research and within 2 weeks I started to find hairs everywhere. Within 4 weeks I was scooping palm fulls of hair out of the drain and seeing my scalp and massive hair loss.

So not knowing what to do I started taking it again. Now 8 weeks after I quit I am still loosing hairs and I am almost completely bald on top. My sides and back have thinned out a lot also and it seems like my hair stopped growing altogether. Even my beard seems to have slowed down, I used to need to shave every morning and now its every 3 days or so. I never would have thought I would lose so much hair so fast.
I did go see my dermatologist who is a hair transplant guy, and he just said to stay on the fins. He tried to say it will grow back but wasn't very convincing.
Does anyone have any experience with regrowing hair after loosing so much this way? Is it even possible?

It seems like it fell out way too fast, could it be something else?
I have a Dr. appointment next week to have some blood work done.
This is horrible, to go from having a full head of hair 2 months ago to this and its not stopping. I can't face anybody, I know I'm older than most of you guys and shouldn't care that much, but I do. I can't believe I just stopped it without realizing this could happen, and so fast.
So being on Fins again, is there any hope?

Working at Dr. Cole's office, I meet a lot of men with similar issues. We have a number of older patients, so yes, we still care about how we look when we get into our sixties and seventies. I know of a man who had massive hair loss while using Avodart for around 9 years. Although a depressing situation, his hair grew back.

35YrsAfter also posts as CITNews and works at Dr. Cole's office - forhair.com - Cole Hair Transplant, 1045 Powers Place, Alpharetta, Georgia 30009 - Phone 678-566-1011 - email 35YrsAfter at chuck@forhair.com
The contents of my posts are my opinions and not medical advice
Please feel free to call or email me with any questions. Ask for Chuck