60 year old considering stopping long term use of Propecia, hoping to boost libido

[Bertie]

I take both Minoxidil and Finasteride (via Proscar) and have been for 20+ years. I'm considering stopping taking Finasteride as my libido has dipped in recent years. As I'm now 60, I realise that this is sadly probably age related, but I think it's worth stopping finasteride to see if I get any positive results, something I've never done before.

But my questions are:

1) Is it better to stop completely or phase it out gradually?

2) I'm worried about quickly losing all my gains of retained hair for 20+ years. The book 'Hairloss for Dummies' says "If you stop using the medicine, you can expect to lose all the hair that you may have gained from this therapy as well as any hair you would have lost while you were on the therapy, but luckily not more. After about six months your hair will look as if you’d never used the medication, and you’ll resume losing hair at your natural rate." - I interpret this to mean that I would lose all my gains of 20 years in a matter of months, almost like a damn bursting, and I don't suppose I could restore my hair to its present state if this happens. On the other hand, perhaps the minoxidil would hold things in check and prevent further loss. Moreover, perhaps being 60 means that hairloss proceeds at a slower pace (? I'm hoping). I seem to recall reading something about side effects of stopping finasteride, which is a concern. Any advice would be appreciated.     

[Melvin- Admin]

Have you considered switching to topical finasteride? You can also take maca for libido.

[ciaus]

Before throwing away 20yrs of effort make sure you are in good shape, getting regular exercise, eating good, sleeping good, managing any life stressors well, not mildly or severely depressed.   

Once you go off the finasteride your hair loss is going to fast-forward to where it would have been had you never started taking it. Minoxidil is just a growth enhancer, it doesn't help you hold on to anything. Once the follicles have been destroyed by the DHT they'll be nothing left to enhance.

 

Since you've been taking it for over 20 yrs, this is probably actually due to some combination of natural aging and bad lifestyle habits catching up to you. As far as finasteride is concerned, I wouldn't do anything more than tweek your dosage or maybe try the topical, if that. Are you quartering the 5mg Proscar, or taking the whole pill? Generic 1mg finasteride is relatively cheap too and that would reduce your dosage from 1.25mg dosage from quartered pills to 1 mg.
 

 

Edited February 15, 2022 by ciaus

[Gatsby]

There is information out there that that states people should have a break of a couple of weeks from finasteride every six months or so. Finasteride remains active in the dermal area for up to 30 days. Theoretically then if you ceased finasteride it will wash out of your system (but not in the active area's of where it works in the dermal layer of the scalp) fairly quickly. If you try this I'm pretty sure you will know withing four weeks if your libido is being suppressed or not by the drug. I had sexual side effects from taking finasteride 1mg a day and so I ceased taking the drug. Ten days later I was as toey as a March hare! I later on began micro dosing and now I can tolerate 1mg of finasteride every other day. Food for thought and all the best.

[TorontoMan]

4 hours ago, Bertie said:

I take both Minoxidil and Finasteride (via Proscar) and have been for 20+ years. I'm considering stopping taking Finasteride as my libido has dipped in recent years. As I'm now 60, I realise that this is sadly probably age related, but I think it's worth stopping finasteride to see if I get any positive results, something I've never done before.

But my questions are:

1) Is it better to stop completely or phase it out gradually?

2) I'm worried about quickly losing all my gains of retained hair for 20+ years. The book 'Hairloss for Dummies' says "If you stop using the medicine, you can expect to lose all the hair that you may have gained from this therapy as well as any hair you would have lost while you were on the therapy, but luckily not more. After about six months your hair will look as if you’d never used the medication, and you’ll resume losing hair at your natural rate." - I interpret this to mean that I would lose all my gains of 20 years in a matter of months, almost like a damn bursting, and I don't suppose I could restore my hair to its present state if this happens. On the other hand, perhaps the minoxidil would hold things in check and prevent further loss. Moreover, perhaps being 60 means that hairloss proceeds at a slower pace (? I'm hoping). I seem to recall reading something about side effects of stopping finasteride, which is a concern. Any advice would be appreciated.     

Bertie we have a lot more questions for you loool! I'm interested in knowing if you don't mind how your hair has held up over those 20 years? Has it been able to halt your hair loss?

Any feedback you could give would be great as its not very often we get users that longterm to hear from. 

[mmokin]

6 hours ago, Bertie said:

I take both Minoxidil and Finasteride (via Proscar) and have been for 20+ years. I'm considering stopping taking Finasteride as my libido has dipped in recent years. As I'm now 60, I realise that this is sadly probably age related, but I think it's worth stopping finasteride to see if I get any positive results, something I've never done before.

But my questions are:

1) Is it better to stop completely or phase it out gradually?

2) I'm worried about quickly losing all my gains of retained hair for 20+ years. The book 'Hairloss for Dummies' says "If you stop using the medicine, you can expect to lose all the hair that you may have gained from this therapy as well as any hair you would have lost while you were on the therapy, but luckily not more. After about six months your hair will look as if you’d never used the medication, and you’ll resume losing hair at your natural rate." - I interpret this to mean that I would lose all my gains of 20 years in a matter of months, almost like a damn bursting, and I don't suppose I could restore my hair to its present state if this happens. On the other hand, perhaps the minoxidil would hold things in check and prevent further loss. Moreover, perhaps being 60 means that hairloss proceeds at a slower pace (? I'm hoping). I seem to recall reading something about side effects of stopping finasteride, which is a concern. Any advice would be appreciated.     

dht is less of an issue the older you get and at age 60 unless you have very high testosetone i do doubt any hairloss you get is from hormones and is more likely just old age with the hair getting weaker like eveything else in the human body, even woman at that age commonly have thinning hair

[Mike10]

I support your decision: health is more important than hair. Unfortunately I do think hair loss generally accelerates in the higher age (after 65 or 70).

[Bertie]

Thanks for all the helpful advice. Whilst the 20 years on minoxidil and Propecia have helped, I should also add that I had two transplants by Ron Shapiro (in 2013 and 2015), so I can't evaluate these treatments separately. Unsurprisingly, the transplants showed the most dramatic improvements, but even so were not as impressive as I'd anticipated. They really just thickened up my hair, which had become very thin. As a teacher, I had the transplants done in the summer and only ever told one other person. Remarkably, while I have had compliments on retaining my hair, no one else has ever said anything - not even close friends and family!

Following the helpful advice here, I will look into topical finasteride, 'maca for libido', and also consider the options of cutting down + a trial discontinuation to find out if it improves my libido. My interest in women remains as strong as ever, but I am currently single and am concerned that should opportunity present itself I might fail to rise to occasion! Interesting to hear that 'hair loss generally accelerates in the higher age (after 65 or 70)'; helpful to have the facts, even if I'd prefer to hear the opposite.
 

[ciaus]

1 hour ago, Bertie said:

My interest in women remains as strong as ever, but I am currently single and am concerned that should opportunity present itself I might fail to rise to occasion!

So just to clarify, by interest do you mean female companionship in general? or more specifically the desire to have sex but you can't achieve a sustained erection during sexual acts? If its just the erection part look into sildenafil, aka Viagra. It could not only help with that but recent research is indicating it can help protect against old age-related dementias. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59546948

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/viagra-associated-reduced-risk-alzheimers-disease

 

Something else to consider is how much does your hair help with your confidence and general attractiveness to the opposite sex? It would suck to get your libido back and then have extra difficulties attracting the ladies. Just more reasons to make sure you rule out other lifestyle factors before risking your hair.

Edited February 16, 2022 by ciaus

[Bertie]

My interest in women remains both emotional and sexual. I do still have erections/ejaculations, but unfortunately less so than in the past. I'm aware of Viagra and it's good to know I have that to fall back on. 

Yes, having a reasonable head of hair does make me feel more confident and losing a significant amount would make matters worse. I take your point about ruling out other factors and will proceed cautiously.

[Runitback]

It absolutely amazes me that nothing better has come out in 29 years.  I’ve been on for 5, thinking that by now something better would have definitely been created.  Is it lack of research?  Is it really that difficult?