does lowering propecia dosage help?

[philippe]

hey everybody,

i have been on proscar (quartered tablets) for sixth months now and in that time period i have experienced one shed after another to the point where my crown (which before taking finasteride was only just beginning to thin) is now visible to the scalp. like all of your i have read countless blogs on line and informed myself to the utmost about why this could be:

the meds are working and i need to wait it out--although at a little over six months with no growth and nothing but shedding that is hard to believe.

i am a non responder.

i am hyper sensitive to hormonal imbalances and the increased testosterone due to the dht blocking is causing the hair to fall out.

OR--and the reason i believe the LEAST--is that in the last six months my mpb has decided to get super aggressive. i don't believe this because i have been losing my hair slowly and steadily for the last ten years and in the 6 months since i began talking finasteride it has gotten much, much worse--and yes--i have sides, too--loss of libido and my erections are not what they used to be.

so my question to all of you is twofold:

1. have any of you tried reducing your dosage to 1 mg every other day or to .5mg every day and seen an improvement--i.e. new growth less shedding?

3. for those of you getting off finasteride altogether--how did you wean yourself off the drug and have you returned to your baseline or close to it?

i know i ask a lot of you to answer these questions but i think this topic is really important to a lot of finasteride users out there who are not responding well to the drug and want to know what their options are because ONE thing we all know for sure: the statistics merck uses are inaccurate to say the very least.

many thanks and hope to hear from you!

[mattj]

6 months is normally considered quite early into Finasteride use, and it's a time-frame when shedding occurs. The general advice is to give the treatment 12 months before assessing whether you should continue with it.

Reducing dosage is a good strategy for men who are experiencing side effects, but I'm not sure if it would have any effect on what you are experiencing. And what you're going through does sound like it falls safely within the range of normal Finasteride experiences.

Of course I cannot be completely sure of what will happen to you, but I've heard enough panicked reports of users getting noticeably worse, sticking with it and riding out the sheds, and then coming through the other side better off than when they began.

I personally didn't notice a shed when I began using quartered Proscar, so I hope some guys who did will post to this thread.

[Zoidberg]

I don't use fin myself, but am considering it after reading the following article.

https://www.hairloss-research.org/UpdateProscar2Jan-08.html

More experienced users may dismiss this article but I thought it interesting.

[philippe]

@ mattj--thanks for taking the time to respond. in your experience is 6 months really early? in the propecia literature (which i believe is a bunch of b.s.) it says that shedding should stop after 3-4 months and you should start to see some regrowth. i can say with 100% certainty that my hair looks worse now than it did 6 months ago, and as i stated in my first post, i do NOT believe the hairloss is just mpb doing its thing. i wonder if i am hypersensitive to the dht blocking and added testosterone in my system that is causing this, thus the idea of lowering my dosage.

you wrote: "but I've heard enough panicked reports of users getting noticeably worse, sticking with it and riding out the sheds, and then coming through the other side better off than when they began."

what is this time frame here? is this for people that were panicking 1-2 months in or a little over 6 months in? this is pretty important as with 6 months to go until it's been a year it's hard for me to believe that everything is just gonna turn around now...or am i being unrealistic?

@zoidberg--thanks a lot for the link--i will check it out and get back to you.

[Jcm800]

I don't use fin myself, but am considering it after reading the following article.

https://www.hairloss-research.org/UpdateProscar2Jan-08.html

More experienced users may dismiss this article but I thought it interesting.

Are you thinking of going on Fin then Zoidberg? Interesting article, still scares me tho - shuck's at least it's more likely to work than TRX2 tho dude

[Zoidberg]

Thinking about it, but giving my current regimen a few more months before I make my decision (it's stupidly big now and listed in my profile).
Fin would certainly be cheaper and less hassle, but I'm happy to continue what I'm doing for a while.
I've ordered some Spectral DNC N but it's taking an eternity to be delivered, hopefully I won't react to it like I did minoxidil which destroyed my face.

Had somewhat of a devastating shed when starting saw palmetto, but it has stabilised a little now, but I think I lost almost a norwood level!
What is odd is that my hairs are really thick, and have been for the last three months but my hair is so diffuse that it is not a good look. The other day I overheard someone suggesting I'd had a bad hair transplant

Other thing I've noticed is that I'm losing lots of body hair. I've quite the carpet up my front and back but this is shedding quicker than my head hair (hoping is a good sign).

[Confided]

Thinking about it, but giving my current regimen a few more months before I make my decision (it's stupidly big now and listed in my profile).
Fin would certainly be cheaper and less hassle, but I'm happy to continue what I'm doing for a while.
I've ordered some Spectral DNC N but it's taking an eternity to be delivered, hopefully I won't react to it like I did minoxidil which destroyed my face.

Had somewhat of a devastating shed when starting saw palmetto, but it has stabilised a little now, but I think I lost almost a norwood level!
What is odd is that my hairs are really thick, and have been for the last three months but my hair is so diffuse that it is not a good look. The other day I overheard someone suggesting I'd had a bad hair transplant

Other thing I've noticed is that I'm losing lots of body hair. I've quite the carpet up my front and back but this is shedding quicker than my head hair (hoping is a good sign).

Hi Zoidberg. First of all i'd like to say that I love your name. secondly, don't let people get you down man. Are you using Nizoral? If not, get on it!

[VictimOfDHT]

Phillipe, yes it's possible that your hair loss has decided to kick into high gear. Sometimes the shed happens so quickly and suddenly. It happened to me. I shed probably 25% if not more of my hair in a mere 3 months period. I don't know if Fin can cause hair loss (permanent one not temporary) in some people for whatever reason. It really sucks that for some of us Fin doesn't work while for many others it works pretty well.

[Morgan137]

So, has anyone yet tried every third day that dosage, i am thinking, it might be more easy if someone could cut 1 mg fin into four pieces (then it will be like 0.25 mg not 0.2 mg but it is not so different).

[Zoidberg]

Thanks for the kind words Confided, but the comment I overheard didn't particularly bother me... it just surprised me to hear such a remark really.
My hairloss has been very gradual and I've got used to my ever reducing hairline without too much distress now.
Nizoral is a good tip thanks, and I have been alternating between that and revita shampoo.

@Morgan - I thought that the article was interesting and worth sharing if you experience side effects or are new to using fin (which I'm considering now).
If you have no issues with how much you are currently taking though I'm not sure you should change... not broken? don't fix it!

[philippe]

i've been taking .625mg (i am cutting the proscar tablets into eight pieces) for about a week now and the shedding has def cut back. as far as libido changes are concerned i can't yet tell a big difference...i do, however, no longer feel as "brain foggy." it's hard to explain--i just feel mentally sharper (not like i'm doing advanced calculus all of a sudden but i just notice a difference in mental clarity). i will keep this up for the next few weeks and then start going every other day. i think this is a powerful drug and there are def people like myself who are very sensitive to it and 1mg is just too much. hope this gives hope to some out there that you can get by on less. i will update in another few weeks about changes/improvements to my libido.

[Morgan137]

Thanx philippe, keep us updated please, i am also considering to start fin, but i am changing my decision every other day and can not make any definite conclusion. And one question, can you tell is it available to cut it into 8 pieces and use it safely, i mean by the time the cutted one may debilitate? Did you research it ?

[philippe]

hey morgan, i did research the cutting of the pills and whether or not finasteride is distributed equally throughout. from what i was able to gather on various forums the pill is made in such a way that if you halved or quartered it (or cut it into even smaller pieces) the finasteride should be pretty equally distributed--i would not be too worried about slight discrepancies, i.e. one day you take .5mg and then next .6, etc. as with any other drug i can only suggest you try it and see how your body responds--everybody responds differently. i would give it a month (as far as sides effects go, etc) to see how you're feeling. you won't see and new growth for at least 4 months and you may experience a shedding period within that time which is pretty standard. not everyone sheds--i did and it's no fun but it's a sign that the medication is working. good luck.

[hkoros]

I had been using minox and other topical formulas for over 7 years and my temples kept receeding. Then my frontal third started thinning big time. At that point, I started taking propecia only once every 2 days (half dosage). My frontal third has since thickened considerably. It hasn't grown back the temples (don't think it will since those follicles are probably dead by now), but it thickened and saved existing native hairs. I wish I jumped on propecia much earlier, would have much more hair now. Other forums have said half dosage is almost as effective as full dosage.

[Morgan137]

Thank you for you detailed answer philippe and i wish side effects will go away for you! I am now really considering to start fin by cutting it to pieces, but will still wait until tomorrow to decide concretely