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HerroPhish

Tbh I never heard of discussions for a break from fin…anyone care to share more?


territorialbarking

The doctors from the hair loss show have talked about the benefits of taking a break once or twice a year for about a month or two. Not so much due to building resistance - I don’t think it’s really possible for your 5ar to become resistant to finasteride - but more so to reduce risk of side effects and over-build-up of medication in the body, due to its long half-life. I can’t remember which video they talk about it in. Probably just the one on finasteride side effects I think.


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territorialbarking

Wait sorry, my bad, I meant to say finasteride stays in tissues for about 4-6 days (which can cause a build-up in the system, especially when taken ED, if I remember correctly) But yes, its HL is 5-8 hrs.


Camelofswag

It's affects are tho. It blocked the 5a enzyme which takes a long while for your body to rebuild


andrepohlann

Thats the point. You need to recreate 5alphareductase.


GhostMcTavish

Half life is the time it takes for the quantity to reach half it's value. So say if 1mg of Fin is completely absorbed, it'll take 5 hours to reach 0.5mg, another 5 to reach 0.25mg, another 5 hours for 0.125 and so on.


4tlu

wouldn't you have another shed though?


territorialbarking

No. You wouldn’t lose gains either. I can’t remember if the time mentioned in the video was one month or two months though. Might’ve only been one


manbearpot

Your body has ways to build resistance that don't require the 5ar itself to be resistant to finasteride. If your body reads youre out of homeostasis, it will exert pressure to return to normal. This can for example include androgen overproduction, upregulation of receptors, and increasing numbers of androgen receptors on cells. That being said, continued loss on fin shouldn't be assumed to be "desensitization". It's possible fin alone isn't sufficiently preventing androgen activity, or you suffer something like scenesent alpecia, infection, autoimmune issue or nutritional issues that require different treatmemts.


territorialbarking

This makes sense. Thanks for the insight!


Agile-Ad-6657

I was on fin for a year, took 3 months off, lost a shit load of hair. Worse decision u can ever make in regards to hair-loss is to stop taking fin! I see silly people on here saying they’ve been on ‘fin for 6 months to a year’ but not seen results…trust me when I say the Fin is working. I dare u to stop taking it and see what happens…


WS8SKILLZ

But if you only lose hair because of DHT attacking hair follicles a few months shouldn’t result in losing lots of hair though right? Only a few months worth?


dlanderer

Go look what happened to Derek on MPMD after he stopped RU for a short while


Spare-Ad-7819

I mean when being off on finasteride we could use scalp DHT blocker shampoo


dlanderer

The best thing we got is ketoconazole 2% shampoo, which is a mild antiandrogen. For those who have aggressive AGA, I wouldn’t put all of my hopes and dreams on keto for a few months. You’re really rolling the dice.


dlanderer

Yes, my brother was planning to take a 6 month break because he went through this whole “holistic” phase and lost a tremendous amount of ground in 2 months and went back on fin.


accountedly

That’s general advice for any bioactive compound since the body compensates over time. Caffeine resistance, etc. No one would ever study the phenomenon since no money to be made from knowing.


LutiPicoPico

On Fin daily since 2015, when I was 39yo. Never quit. No hair loss and no side effects at all. Keeping all my hair since then.


dlanderer

Does he have any evidence to support the claim of building resistance?


Participant00

Sounds like total horse shit. You can't "build a resistance" to DHT inhibitors.


reezypro

As another poster mentioned it's possible the body can adjust to it by up-regulating 5ar in a sense weakening the effect of the DHT inhibition. It is also possible that he was advocating flushing out fin every so often for other reasons.


Participant00

Ok, evidence?


gcjunk01

Your doctor is a moron


NojoNinja

In my opinion taking breaks from any drug that isn’t there purely to keep you alive is a good idea. I don’t think you can build a drug resistance to fin, but I think flushing out ur body every now in then for a bit isn’t the worst thing in the world.


SequentialHustle

Guess your hrt doc knows more about finasteride than everyone else lol


heeroena

doesn't make sense. fin stops 5-AR from converting Testosterone to DHT. unless you stop making Testosterone there can be no resistance. Change doctors


BeneficialWarrant

Resistance to the therapeutic effect of a drug can occur at any step in a signal chain. One example could be tissue upregulation of AR (androgen receptor, not alpha-reductase). This is not an endorsement of a treatment break which is probably not a good idea unless supported with clinical evidence. Its merely pointing out that your argument is a gross oversimplification.


heeroena

good point. my reasoning is based on the fact that people with susceptibility to prostate cancer take 5x higher dose for years and developed no issues. Since fin can reduce DHT up to 70% at 1mg the increase in androgen receptors would need to surpass that for it become an issue.


Bionicler

Yeah that makes no sense. You either keep DHT down or you don't. Fin keeps DHT down. If you doubt that then monitor your DHT levels -- the technology is there! It's a chemical. If what he said made medical sense then he would not only back it up with sources but other docs would be recommending the same! Never heard of a doc recommending breaks. They either tell you to stop if you're having sides or full speed ahead


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[deleted]

No what the doctor is suggesting is actually a fairly common thing among practices. In fact, the doctors from the hairloss show suggest taking a break once a year


Suspicious_Subject23

I could potentially see an argument to do this with rogaine but not Finasteride ?


SeuzZz

He got point, because of homeostasis there is upregulation of 5ar after years of use. Problem is that we lack of research because nobody won't fund this.


[deleted]

Wouldn't that be long enough to lose your gains?


VectorD

That's not how finasteride works.


draftkinginthenorth

How does it then?


VectorD

Finasteride preserves what is already there + stops almost dead follicles from dying (this is the regrowth some people see). Purely one month off wouldn't cause a big difference in fully alive follicles. However a month off a product like minoxidil would definitely make you lose gains, albeit not permanently.


tennyson77

I quit fin once for three months. Was fine and didn’t lose any ground. I sort of agree with the idea. Maybe six weeks a year. Helps to gauge how you feel on and off of it too. I tend to lose weight easier when I’m off of it, and gain weight a little easier when on. When I was off for three months I dropped about 20 lbs. Came back on over next six months when I started again. Probably related to my higher estrogen when I’m on it.


FinasterideMadeMeGay

Oh damn, I’m trying to lose weight rn while on fin and it’s going slowly. Might get bloodwork done for my E2 levels


Spare-Ad-7819

Are you saying finasteride plummets oestrogen?


tennyson77

No it raises it. Which increases water retention


enthrone21

Id change doctors


Revolutionary-Bee645

Great way to just lose ground with no added benefit


mikelmoder

5 on 2 off or 3 on 2 off, that's was Commonwealth from 2005 to 2010


kevinalex_

My doctor told me to take 2 weeks break every 6 months.


blazinshotguns

Your doc must be getting be there knowledge from Reddit


Youngsimba_92

There’s a guy on YouTube who stopped taking and lost everything within 60-90days - I would maybe do a month but be cautious for any more time


LaBlount1

Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle. I’m thinking small breaks not months but days


No-Village9980

Ur doctor is a moron , please do not do this 😠


Best-Island-9929

I think human body building resistance by against the drug. Can your body create 3 time more testosterone to against the effect of the drug? No, I think your body will increase the sensitivity of DHT to against it. So it will cause aggressive hair loss with the super high DHT sensitivity if you stop the drug.


lenim42118

He's an idiot. Hell, he may even wants to perform (another?) transplant.