Coming off Doxazosin

I also had dreadful problems with Ramipril. I had complained that both made me ill over the years but the GP's will not listen, they just lecture that you need the drugs and must put up with some side effects..

Problems with Doxazosin :-.

Headaches, Sinus Pain, Upper Teeth Ache, Chronic Rhinitis, Blocked Nose, Constant Colds, Tinnitus, Blurred Vision, Stress Incontinence (it is not just for the ladies), Blood in Urine, Pain Passing Urine, Reduced Flow Rate, Generally Feeling Unwell.

I too would say that Doxazosin ruined my life

GP's prescribed, Nasal Spray, Antihistamine on repeat prescription, regular Antibiotics.

BP didn't change much when I stopped Doxazosin I keep a regular check on it. Headaches, Tinnitus, Rhinitus, Sinus and Teeth Pain, Stress Incontinence, went away, Flow Rate increased.

Still improving slowly, now I have to face the GP with the news, its worse than having to go to the Headmasters Office as a child.

However, I was co-administered with three other drugs which I continued taking.

My symptoms worsened after withdrawing Doxazosin, eventually with blood appearing in sputum after a fortnight.

At this stage I decided to stop all other drugs against GP's advice (called a washout) after which symptoms resolved.

Reports in this forum suggest that you could feel better within two days - it suggests that coming off Doxazosin depends on what other drugs you may be taking with it.

I had been on Cardura/Doxazosin since 1996 (a little over 20 years) to deal with my urinary issues caused by BPH, prostatitis and interstitial cystitis.  I'm 64 now, now I started on it when I was around 45.  It helped a lot, but the side effects can be tough to deal with.  Doxazosin is an alpha blocker, so it relaxes the smooth muscles in the body.  Lots of smooth muscles in the body besides the ones that impact the prostate and bladder.  As I aged some of the side effects became more pronounced, especially muscle weakness and neck pain.  The neck pain caused problems with my balance, due to the compression of certain nerves in the neck.

Anyway, after undergoing many different proceedures for my BPH that didn't work, in May of this year I finally had enough and elected to have a Greenlight Laser TURP.  The month or so after the surgery was not much fun, but after about 40 days I felt good enough to discontinue the doxazosin.  Similar to how you are told to initially start taking the drug, I gradually reduced the dosage from 4mg to 3mg, 2mg, 1mg and finally discontinue entirely.  This was done over about 30 days.  During this time I monitored my blood pressure carefully, as doxazosin can affect the blood pressure quite dramatically in some people, myself included.  After being off the drug for about 25 days now my blood pressure is normal (around 120/60), but I still feel some of the affects of the drug, such as nasal congestion, being tired, and sore neck.  However, these symptoms are getting better by the day.  I am hoping that within 60-90 days any residual effects from the drug will be gone.  And I am hoping the results from the Greenlight procedure last for a long time.  If I can help it I NEVER want to have to take an alpha blocker again.  In fact, if symptoms return the FIRST thing I will ask my Urologist is to have another TURP-like procedure, whatever that may be in the future.