Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Community Conversation => Transitioning => Hormone replacement therapy => Topic started by: SofieG on December 10, 2015, 11:49:56 AM

Title: Stop taking Finasteride effects (cold turkey)?
Post by: SofieG on December 10, 2015, 11:49:56 AM
My endo told me I can stop taking Finasteride and that I can stop cold turkey. I took a low dose (for 3 years) which I guess is all I'm allowed to say here. He also said that if I notice that I get more bodyhair growth that he can give me a low dose of Androcur. Any thoughts?

Did anyone here ever stop taking Finasteride? What effects did you notice?

I started taking Finasteride because I was a little worried about my hairline at the time. Nothing major. I'm post-op SRS and FFS. I started Finasteride after SRS when I stopped taking Androcur (he said F also blocks T). A hairline advancement solved my little hairline problem. I haven't seen noticable changes to my hairline from Finasteride by the way. The only reason I continued using it was because it might have made bodyhair grow slower. Not sure if that was the case, but I might find out soon enough now that I stopped taking Finasteride.
Title: Re: Stop taking Finasteride effects (cold turkey)?
Post by: KayXo on December 10, 2015, 01:37:15 PM
Finasteride doesn't block T. This is wrong. Finasteride reduces the conversion of T to DHT (dihydrotestosterone), does nothing to T levels except sometimes actually increase them due to more bioavailable T since less converts to DHT.

Androcur, on the other hand, blocks ALL androgens, T and DHT. One cannot compare to the other. Androcur is a more potent anti-androgen.

Post-op, anti-androgens aren't necessary as you produce minute amounts of T BUT in a few cases, perhaps, finasteride might be needed to prevent hair recession as these people are genetically very sensitive to DHT.