My story, questions about weening off Propecia

Hey folks,

I’m 23 years old, started taking propecia 2 years ago because my hair was thinning just a little and as a musician a slight vanity made me think that people would rather see a guy with a full head of hair on stage. Anyways, in the past two weeks i’ve had two experiences that i found alarming. The first incident was a post-bar experience with a pretty girl and I found myself not able to maintain an erection. I was embarrased but attributed it to being quite tuned in, having been at the bar. But last night, with the same girl, I was able to achieve erection but not maintain. I was pretty embarrased, having never had any problem in that department before.

So i started looking up Propecia side effects, and this site came up (though I wish it was the first site that came up in my search). I’d never really thought of some of these things before, but it’s true, no morning woodrows that i can remember in the last two years, the brain fog sounds a bit familiar, though I always attributed that to depression… As a competetive endurance athlete i’ve also noticed that when lifting weights the muscle mass tends to decrease sooner than it used to after quitting lifting sessions.

So i’m done with this drug. But I was wondering if it might be better to ween myself off of it than to go cold turkey. And if so, what the best protocol might be . I was thinking of taking a half a pill every other day for about two weeks so that my body doesn’t go too haywire. I must say that all of the stories i’ve read on here telling about how symptoms worsened after stopping use have me pretty scared. Really scared in fact.

Any help would be so much appreciated.

Hi Robert, welcome to the forum.

Everyone has a different opinion but most of us did quit cold turkey and aren’t sure if doing so could have been what caused us problems in the end. I myself quit cold turkey…

If I was to do it all over again, I would ween off over the next few weeks/month by reducing dosage and days you take the drug, ie every 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th etc. There is a chart out there (I will have to find it) that shows it can take up to a week, possibly longer for DHT levels to recover after a single dose of Finasteride, even though the half-life of the drug is only 8 hours.

So keep that in mind… plus the fact you’ve been taking it for 2 years. With SSRIs, doctors suggest weening off slow to prevent withdrawal symptoms. I’d heed that advice for Finasteride as well, but its your choice.

Finally, be aware that the guys that get these problems after discontinuing are in the minority and really, there’s no need for you to panic at this stage. Most guys recover without issue, although for a few it can take a few weeks/months/year for hormones to normalize. So, give yourself and your body some time to readjust before considering any other actions.

At the least I would get bloodtests as outlined in the BloodTests section while you still on Finasteride, then re-test a few weeks/month after quitting to see whats going on with your system just to be sure.

Cheers.

Yeah, sounds like you got the right idea. I’d definately ween as Mew suggested. Most of us wish we had.

You should be ok. Most people are, just don’t freak out if it takes a few weeks/months to get back to totally feeling normal. I’ve seen a lot of people come and go on this forum, just like your situation, who are fine after some time. Just eat really healthy.