Dispelling The Myths Of Quitting finasteride (10 Year User) - What Happens After You Quit Finasteride?

[Justheretohelp3]

I'm not currently on any hair loss medication but started using finasteride at 25 when I was experiencing pretty significant hair loss at the temples - quite a bit of recession. finasteride was great for my hair and I haven't had any hair loss while on it. I quit exactly a year ago at 35 years old. Not going to get into why - just didn't want to take meds anymore for something so superficial. That's not the point of this post.

I know I struggled when I was going off it because there was so much misinformation online about what happens when you quit and it was freaking me out. So I told myself I would come back on here and post my results a year after, praying that my hair loss would not be significant... hoping that it helps at least one person get through the awful anxiety of losing their hair.

There's a lot of bullshit out there and some of it is propagated by paranoid users and I even believe the makers of propecia/finasteride to keep people on the drug, talking about catch up hair loss - that when you quit, you'll rapidly lose all the hair you would have lost like you didn't even take the drug - basically a fast forward to the point where it's like you never took the drug at all - I'm on here to tell you this is absolute bullshit.

Have I lost hair? Yes, I've had hair loss, but nothing that would describe it as significant. Mild and slow thinning continuing in the temple area which is where it would have continued. It's so unnoticeable I just noticed it in the last month when I was browsing through older pictures.

So please don't let the fear of what happens. finasteride is basically a pause button (and for some, it's not even a pause button, but slows down hair loss). When you quit, you'll resume your normal loss of hair.

How do I know this besides experiencing it myself?

1) I talked to 3 doctors who told me exactly that
2) I googled and googled and couldn't find much out there - think about it - if that was actually the case, you'd see hundreds of thousands and even millions of people freaking out online about 'catch up hair loss'
3) The anecdotal evidence on forum was limited too... I saw a poll ones where people just said they had mild loss but there wasn't much out there.
3) It just doesn't make sense from a biological perspective. How does your hair 'know' what it would have been like without the drug? When I was freaking out when I was quitting, I couldn't think logically cause I was so emotionally attached that the logical part of my brain turned off. But if you think about it, it makes 0 sense.
4) The people who experience significant loss (which again, I couldn't find much of online) were losing rapidly when starting finasteride - again you resume your natural pace of hair loss after quitting.

Don't let misinformation like this stop you from quitting. Continue on with the drug if you want but quit if you want too, and don't let it wreak havoc on your mental health.

Google tags (to help anyone else out):
What happens after you stop finasteride after 1 year?
What happens after you stop finasteride after 2 years?
What happens after you stop finasteride after 3 years?
What happens after you stop finasteride after 4 years?
What happens after you stop finasteride after 5 years?

What happens after you quit finasteride after 1 year?
What happens after you quit finasteride after 2 years?
What happens after you quit finasteride after 3 years?
What happens after you quit finasteride after 4 years?
What happens after you quit finasteride after 5 years?

 

[JohnSmith21]

I'm not currently on any hair loss medication but started using finasteride at 25 when I was experiencing pretty significant hair loss at the temples - quite a bit of recession. finasteride was great for my hair and I haven't had any hair loss while on it. I quit exactly a year ago at 35 years old. Not going to get into why - just didn't want to take meds anymore for something so superficial. That's not the point of this post.

I know I struggled when I was going off it because there was so much misinformation online about what happens when you quit and it was freaking me out. So I told myself I would come back on here and post my results a year after, praying that my hair loss would not be significant... hoping that it helps at least one person get through the awful anxiety of losing their hair.

There's a lot of bullshit out there and some of it is propagated by paranoid users and I even believe the makers of propecia/finasteride to keep people on the drug, talking about catch up hair loss - that when you quit, you'll rapidly lose all the hair you would have lost like you didn't even take the drug - basically a fast forward to the point where it's like you never took the drug at all - I'm on here to tell you this is absolute bullshit.

Have I lost hair? Yes, I've had hair loss, but nothing that would describe it as significant. Mild and slow thinning continuing in the temple area which is where it would have continued. It's so unnoticeable I just noticed it in the last month when I was browsing through older pictures.

So please don't let the fear of what happens. finasteride is basically a pause button (and for some, it's not even a pause button, but slows down hair loss). When you quit, you'll resume your normal loss of hair.

How do I know this besides experiencing it myself?

1) I talked to 3 doctors who told me exactly that
2) I googled and googled and couldn't find much out there - think about it - if that was actually the case, you'd see hundreds of thousands and even millions of people freaking out online about 'catch up hair loss'
3) The anecdotal evidence on forum was limited too... I saw a poll ones where people just said they had mild loss but there wasn't much out there.
3) It just doesn't make sense from a biological perspective. How does your hair 'know' what it would have been like without the drug? When I was freaking out when I was quitting, I couldn't think logically cause I was so emotionally attached that the logical part of my brain turned off. But if you think about it, it makes 0 sense.
4) The people who experience significant loss (which again, I couldn't find much of online) were losing rapidly when starting finasteride - again you resume your natural pace of hair loss after quitting.

Don't let misinformation like this stop you from quitting. Continue on with the drug if you want but quit if you want too, and don't let it wreak havoc on your mental health.

Google tags (to help anyone else out):
What happens after you stop finasteride after 1 year?
What happens after you stop finasteride after 2 years?
What happens after you stop finasteride after 3 years?
What happens after you stop finasteride after 4 years?
What happens after you stop finasteride after 5 years?

What happens after you quit finasteride after 1 year?
What happens after you quit finasteride after 2 years?
What happens after you quit finasteride after 3 years?
What happens after you quit finasteride after 4 years?
What happens after you quit finasteride after 5 years?

Have you ever considered that you weren’t intended to bald that much more then you did before you started finasteride? You may have still had the catch up hair loss, you just weren’t going to recede that much more. You have no way of knowing. In either case, you’ll never be worse off if you decide to stop, worst case you’d just be in the same spot

 

[JohnSmith21]

I do agree though, catch up hair loss makes no sense. Resuming your hair loss is probably what happens. But for most people, losing hair slow or over 10 years is barely noticeable. I feel like MOST people who take finasteride, take it because if they go another year without it, they will be significantly below baseline. Like I felt If I didn’t take it, I’d be a Norwood higher in a year. I wouldn’t take it if it was gonna take me 10 years to go back a Norwood

 

[Justheretohelp3]

My hair loss is much more aggressive. I have a twin brother who never took any hair loss meds. He's lost a lot of hair (now buzzes it off) and I started receding way before he ever did. I had significant widows peak/lots of recession at the temples so there is no way this was the 'catch up hair loss'. I would have lost way more by now. Our grandfather on our mom's side was bald pretty early so it runs in the family.

Even so, there is no way to know but the concept of 'catch up hair loss' makes no sense like you said. Your hair just starts to thin at the normal pace it was doing it at before treatment. And I would guess most people, even those with aggressive hair loss, would not see a major difference after discontinuing... otherwise you would have had heard about it. I didn't believe my doctor (which is why I went to multiple) when they told me hair loss would just resume at a normal pace, but I choose to trust the doctors and take stuff on the internet with a grain of salt. Besides, you're much more likely to go online and vent if you had the severe scenario happen.. millions of people who quit taking finasteride don't come online and share because they dont see significant changes.

 

[JohnSmith21]

My hair loss is much more aggressive. I have a twin brother who never took any hair loss meds. He's lost a lot of hair (now buzzes it off) and I started receding way before he ever did. I had significant widows peak/lots of recession at the temples so there is no way this was the 'catch up hair loss'. I would have lost way more by now. Our grandfather on our mom's side was bald pretty early so it runs in the family.

Even so, there is no way to know but the concept of 'catch up hair loss' makes no sense like you said. Your hair just starts to thin at the normal pace it was doing it at before treatment. And I would guess most people, even those with aggressive hair loss, would not see a major difference after discontinuing... otherwise you would have had heard about it. I didn't believe my doctor (which is why I went to multiple) when they told me hair loss would just resume at a normal pace, but I choose to trust the doctors and take stuff on the internet with a grain of salt. Besides, you're much more likely to go online and vent if you had the severe scenario happen.. millions of people who quit taking finasteride don't come online and share because they dont see significant changes.

Yeah I mean if DHT was killing the hair it wouldn’t make sense for DHT to like kill it extra when you stop. It’s just exposed to dht again, so hair loss resumes. I agree

 

[blub10]

I quitted Finasteride after taking a low dose of 0.25mg every 3 days for 8 years. I am still not the same as before

If you had no side effects on it you will probably be fine

If you had side effects on it you will be probably not

Very simple

 

[Paulito9x9]

I quitted Finasteride after taking a low dose of 0.25mg every 3 days for 8 years. I am still not the same as before

If you had no side effects on it you will probably be fine

If you had side effects on it you will be probably not

Very simple

I'm sorry to hear about your struggle but this is simply not true. PFS syndrome is a rather rare phenomenon. Most people who experience side-effects won't have any lasting issues after quitting. In what way are you not feeling ok and how long has it been since you quit?

 

[Incinerate]

lol, OP you stopped one year ago, maybe it won't be the case, but maybe you are going to lose a lot more. What's your opinion about minoxidil's catch up hairloss then ?

 

[Paulito9x9]

Nope. PFS is much more common than you think. Most learn to live with it though.

And OP is right with his pause analogy.

I'm not saying it's not more common than they'd have you believe but it's still pretty rare. Are you also affected by it?

I for example quit topical anti-androgens 3 times (alfatradiol and 2x finasteride) due to sides and recovered every time. Or at least I think I did the only thing that kind of remains from my last try (quit 3 weeks ago) is the jaw pain. But I attribute this to my wisdom teeth suddenly starting to grow again. Though this technically could be related. I heard stress can make your wisdom teeth hurt and finasteride inhibits your ability to cope with stress hormones.

 

[blub10]

I'm sorry to hear about your struggle but this is simply not true. PFS syndrome is a rather rare phenomenon. Most people who experience side-effects won't have any lasting issues after quitting. In what way are you not feeling ok and how long has it been since you quit?

According to the trials against Merck in the US and other studies it is a lot more common than thought. I quitted 2 years ago. I got better first and then worse after time

Furthmore, with every finasteride retry it got worse

But to be fair: I had immediate side effects on 1mg 8 years ago, so it was my own dumbness to continue with a lower dose. The retries as well

 

[blub10]

I'm not saying it's not more common than they'd have you believe but it's still pretty rare. Are you also affected by it?

I for example quit topical anti-androgens 3 times (alfatradiol and 2x finasteride) due to sides and recovered every time. Or at least I think I did the only thing that kind of remains from my last try (quit 3 weeks ago) is the jaw pain. But I attribute this to my wisdom teeth suddenly starting to grow again. Though this technically could be related. I heard stress can make your wisdom teeth hurt and finasteride inhibits your ability to cope with stress hormones.

Glad to hear, but imo you are playing with fire. But its off topic. I dont want to hijack someone else's thread

I lost quite a bit of ground, like 1 cm Hairlline and a lot of density

 

[Paulito9x9]

Glad to hear, but imo you are playing with fire. But its off topic. I dont want to hijack someone else's thread

I lost quite a bit of ground, like 1 cm Hairlline and a lot of density

yeah sorry for going slightly off-topic. Back on topic: I also agree with OP's pause analogy. It's the only thing that makes sense. The only thing I could imagine would be you body's hormones going wild for a while after quitting trying to readjust which could cause additional hairloss but the idea of a "catch-up" is silly.

 

[Justheretohelp3]

lol, OP you stopped one year ago, maybe it won't be the case, but maybe you are going to lose a lot more. What's your opinion about minoxidil's catch up hairloss then ?

Incinerate, I will obviously keep losing which is why I'm now looking for another solution. The point of this thread is that stopping finasteride doesn't cause 'catch up hair loss' (what people are reporting to happen 3 months to a year after quitting) and that it seems to be just a pause. I just wanted to share for anyone concerned about this.

Minoxidil works differently than finasteride so I don't have an answer to that but will be asking my doctor at my appointment next Friday. I want to start Minoxidil but don't want to if there's a catch up hair loss when I quit. I'd rather deal with balding slowly than rapidly when stopping any treatment.

I also appreciate the side effects concerns but this isn't what this thread is about. I didn't quit cause of side effects. I quit because I just decided I didn't want to take meds anymore for something so superficial.