Quitting Propecia after 3 years, what can I expect?

[JSmyth]

I am 25 and have been taking 1mg of fin per day for the past 3 years and decided to call it quits. It took me a while to notice things were different. I found it difficult to get and maintain erections, semen volume diminished, low libido, and low energy. I want to say that these symptoms were not as pronounced as they seem for some folks. I could still get erections it just took more effort to become stimulated. The thing that gets me the most is the low libido. I find it very hard to care about sex and it feels unnatural, as if I am not even a human. I haven't so much as kissed a girl in a year.

If I quit cold turkey, what can I expect? What did you experience when quitting?

As an aside, when I began fin I did not have a full beard (sparse hair on cheeks). If fin prevented me from developing a beard, is that window lost or will it start developing again when I quit? My brother has a full beard and we are very similar physically.

[Not giving up]

I've not taken fin but from what I understand of it you can expect a massive shed within 3 months. You'll lose all the hair you would have lost in the period you've maintained on fin.

Frankly, I think you're making the right choice given your sides.

As for facial hair, I can shed a little light. In theory, and it will have to be theoretical I'm afraid, it is possible your facial hair might grow out depending on your genetics for it to do so.
I took steroids for a brief time, testosterone to be precise and in that time it made predisposed to MPB hairs shed and it also made my facial hair thicken.
In theory, by raising your DHT by stopping fin in a similar way to steroids raising it, your facial hair COULD fill in, which I'm guessing you might want if you're about to try and go for that Jason statham badass stuble look.
However, steroids elevate your test levels way beyond that of an average man, and stopping fin will only make your DHT levels return to that of a normal man, so it's hard to tell if the spike would be enough.

Fingers crossed for you either way bro.

[mlamber5]

I am 25 and have been taking 1mg of fin per day for the past 3 years and decided to call it quits. It took me a while to notice things were different. I found it difficult to get and maintain erections, semen volume diminished, low libido, and low energy. I want to say that these symptoms were not as pronounced as they seem for some folks. I could still get erections it just took more effort to become stimulated. The thing that gets me the most is the low libido. I find it very hard to care about sex and it feels unnatural, as if I am not even a human. I haven't so much as kissed a girl in a year.

If I quit cold turkey, what can I expect? What did you experience when quitting?

As an aside, when I began fin I did not have a full beard (sparse hair on cheeks). If fin prevented me from developing a beard, is that window lost or will it start developing again when I quit? My brother has a full beard and we are very similar physically.

I am 26 now, was 17 when I started fin and 21 when I stopped. You will notice all of those things (libido, energy, etc.) come back to normal, but it may take a year or so for your body to fully get over all that you put it through on fin. You will notice your hairline and crown thinning speed up for sure. I have lost a lot of hair since being off of fin. Overall, I'm glad I quit despite the toll on my hair. I just feel healthier in general. I'm confident that our "generation" will experience a full head of hair again in the not so distant future, so if I have to go all the way bald in the meantime than so be it. I won't compromise my manhood for hair lol. As for beard, yes, my beard growth picked up rapidly after about the first year of being off if it. But some may differ, if your window is indeed "lost" I have a friend who had freaking incredible results using minoxidil on his face for beard. Dried his skin out pretty bad for some months but in about a year he went from being able to grow a goatee only to a full beard. So, maybe that would work lol.

[Hicks]

I wouldn't quit any drug cold turkey. May lean off? Personally I take 3-5mg a week. I was taking 1.25 a day for 8 months then backed off. Not because of sides but because I hate taking drugs. Even allergy pills. Best of luck.

[alitaher2009]

Instead of Quitting cold turkey, you should try to reduce your doses at 1 mg thrice a week
and see if it works for you. There are many threads in this forum where users have atleast
maintained there hair with least sides at less dosage, Propecia has a flat rate dosage response
if your taking 0.25mg daily, it will work at nearly 80 percent same as 1 mg per day.
i am also experimenting with 0.25EOD because of bad sides.
or you can try Ru58841, OC or topical cetrizine.

https://www.baldtruthtalk.com/threads/20742-Topical-Cetrizine-for-hair-loss

[JSmyth]

Thank you all for the information. I think I am going to cease the drug for long enough to see if I notice a significant change in side effects.

[Trenblastoise]

Thank you all for the information. I think I am going to cease the drug for long enough to see if I notice a significant change in side effects.

I recommend you get blood tests to check if your DHT get to normal levels. If they do and you still have problem with erections, it could be permanent damage to your prostate.
If your values never get back to normal, try to get synthetic DHT I suppose.
Good luck.

[feelgood]

As for beard, yes, my beard growth picked up rapidly after about the first year of being off if it.

Do you mean that your beard continued to develop after you quitted finasteride or was it already fully developed before you quitted? I mean did you get more beard hairs on your face after you came off of fin and did it increase in density and coverage?

I only ask because I also hope that my beard will finish its development now when I have stopped using finasteride.