22 years old and I’ve been on the drug for 3 years. Just found this site.
My sides:
-Cycles of serious & unexplainable depression/sought professional help to no avail.
-Loss of libido
-Trouble maintaining erection
-Chest enlargement
-Panic attacks at night
-Loss of morning erection
-Constant fatigue
There is too much correlation with my symptoms and the side effects of the drug. I’m getting off the drug immediately.
Mew, please elaborate on your weening methods.
G
I’m not Mew, but I’ve had some thoughts on this that I might offer…
Mew will tell you that finasteride has a flat dose-response, meaning that for a wide range of dosages, you should expect no real difference in 5AR inhibition. Researchers have found that all dosages greater than about 0.05 mg inhibit with about the same potency.
This means that if you would like to wean yourself off, and have any real confidence that you did so successfully, you’d have to start by dividing the original 1 mg pill into pieces 1/20 the original size, and then slowly work your way down from there.
To do this you could probably a) grind up/flake off pieces of the pill that seem to be about the right size…This would be better than quiting cold turkey, but still sort of haphazard; or b) I’ve read that finasteride is soluble in alcohol. Crush 1 mg of fin and dissolve in, say, 100 mL alcohol. You would then measure out 1/20 of that (5 mL) and heat so you burn off the alcohol and are left with the desired quantity (or just drink the 5mL solution, I suppose). You might then rinse the pan with water so that you can consume the finasteride residue that was left in the pan. This approach would be more precise, and could allow you to even split the 1/20 quantity at which the dose-response begins to decrease into even finer gradations.
Just a thought.
Come to think of it…and Mew, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve read that replenishment of DHT levels, even after quitting cold turkey happens very slowly; it’s something like 30 days I believe before 5AR returns to its normal level again. So even quitting cold turkey, just taking into account the transcription rate of the 5AR enzyme, it does seem that the body has time to readjust. So when you “quit,” really you should not expect the next day that a surge of DHT is going to be rushing back into your system; the return of DHT will be very gradual.
This considered, maybe just taking a pinch of fin powder every few days might be enough to adequately draw out the gradual return of 5AR.
Thanks for the reply. I’ll do the best that I can. Cheers.
Gary, welcome aboard. Glad you found this resource, hopefully it will help explain some things.
Also, nice that you asked for me by name… but contrary to what some may think, I am not the be-all of knowledge about Finasteride… most of the info is available for public consumption in the Finasteride and Other Studies sections of this site… and there are also other members of this site who know quite a bit as well. Anyway I try to help as best as I can, with what I know (or can theorize, at least).
As for weening off, rather than repeat myself in countless threads I have updated the FAQ with info pertaining to this so suggest you read through (top of this forum). Wether you quit cold turkey or ween off, the ultimate goal is to get off the drug as soon as possible but at the same time trying to prevent any withdrawal symptoms or further “shock” to your endocrine system…
I and others can identify with your many side effects. Suggest you get blood work done ASAP as listed in Blood Tests section so you will be able to see what is going on with your hormones, especially if you are still on the drug (or shortly after discontinuing). Also continue to read all the materials on this forum so you will have a better sense as to what could possibly be going on.
Keep us updated, best of luck.
Mew.
Yes, according to this model (comparison of Finasteride vs. Castration on hormones), the slow off-rate of the 5ARII enzyme is ~ 30 days (see note at bottom): propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=181
Thus it may take up to a month (at the very least) for DHT to recover to true baseline… at least that’s what I would think, based on the above info.
This is definetly not all of us but some have reported an increased 5ar activity after quitting the drug. So dont automaticly write everything off as not enough dht if u find yrself feeling less well than b4 propecia. Hopefully u will have no problems when u quit. I returned 2 normal twice after quitting, so probably for u like most this will soon be forgotten. I just had to push my luck for a 3rd grrr 