Finasteride and liver health

Hi everyone,

I've been taking propecia for 5 years and I've now stopped temporarily as I felt some abdominal discomfort in the liver area that had never occurred before.

My last blood tests showed some slightly higher values in the liver function test. Nothing above the ranges, but since finasteride is the only drug I take and I usually eat very healthy, I'd like to understand the correlation between the drug and the results.
In the previous 3 months before having this issue, I had been taking some supplements and vitamins. Could that be the triggering factor?

The finasteride leaflet seems to mention this possibility among the side effects, but I find surprising that I could tolerate this for over 5 years and all of a sudden I have this problem.

Has anyone incurred in similar problems?
I'd like to try again in a few weeks to see if it's the drug that causes the discomfort (now gone), but how long should I wait? Weeks? Months?

It's difficult to get a valid opinion from a doctor as dermatologists don't usually know much about other areas of the body and general doctors know nothing about finasteride, so hear all sorts of things.

Thanks in advance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mark7

Hi everyone,

I've been taking propecia for 5 years and I've now stopped temporarily as I felt some abdominal discomfort in the liver area that had never occurred before.

My last blood tests showed some slightly higher values in the liver function test. Nothing above the ranges, but since finasteride is the only drug I take and I usually eat very healthy, I'd like to understand the correlation between the drug and the results.
In the previous 3 months before having this issue, I had been taking some supplements and vitamins. Could that be the triggering factor?

The finasteride leaflet seems to mention this possibility among the side effects, but I find surprising that I could tolerate this for over 5 years and all of a sudden I have this problem.

Has anyone incurred in similar problems?
I'd like to try again in a few weeks to see if it's the drug that causes the discomfort (now gone), but how long should I wait? Weeks? Months?

It's difficult to get a valid opinion from a doctor as dermatologists don't usually know much about other areas of the body and general doctors know nothing about finasteride, so hear all sorts of things.

Thanks in advance.

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I stopped propecia after only a few months due to side effects.

With any medication whether that be advil, propecia or whatever there are going to be some side effects. If it gets to a point where you have discomfort of any kind you should stop.

Get on Rogaine. It has side effects also, but remember anything you swallow you body needs to process it possibly putting unnecessary stress on your organs.

I wanted to update on the above.

I found out that some supplements I was taking actually caused this problem.
I waited 3-4 months and then started Finasteride again. No problems.