I just had my fist shot of Enbrel Friday night so have not experienced any side effects yet. I didn't have any luck with Humira and am hoping Enbrel helps.
It is nice to know that it is helping some people on here.

no, not even the methotrexate makes my hair thin or stop growing like evergrow. i realize this is just luck and my empathy to all.

do our family genetics and/or age and/or gender play a role in this, aside, or rather, in addition to, the RA drugs?

depot

You're lowering the dose just to prevent further hair loss? Is that correct?

Perhaps others have the answer to this question: How long does it take after you lower the dose, or stop the biologic altogether, for the rebound to begin [if it begins at all]?

Well, I've been on Enbrel for a year and a half now and the hair loss has been gradual bur persistent. I noticed this as well with Humira. I was on that for about a year or so. When I quit Humira, my hair loss stopped, so I am sure of this correlation.

Yes, California, I would lower my dose for that because the Enbrel is helping me so much. Obviously, if the benefit of lowering my dose did not outweigh the hair loss conundrum, I wouldn't do that. This is always experimental. No two of us are the same. If I am able to live on Enbrel every other week instead of every week, I will let you know next year if it helped with the hair loss, which matters to me a lot.

I have always had great, very thick hair. My mother had very thick hair until she died at 89.

Dorothy, statistically, Enbrel has the greatest success of all of the biologics. It has helped me, beyond belief, from the very first dose.

I wish you luck. And yes, I have heard of others going every other week and it worked for some.

As for me, I'm always afraid to tamper with dose if it's working. Not sure how long Enbrel stays in the body. I was working overseas longer than planned and ran out of my MTX and for 3 weeks I was fine, thinking maybe I didn't need MTX after all. Then all h*ll broke loose. It took me close to a year to recover the lost ground. Again, this is a different type of DMARD.

Do you know how long it will take to see if every other week dosing with Enbrel is working?

I'm with you Trooper, my hair loss has been slow but steady after 2 years on Enbrel. I just started up again after 5 weeks without due to being on antibiotics. I've just taken my 3rd dose (1/week) and I don't feel like it's as effective as it was. Could this be? I thought I read that this happened to someone else- Jen maybe? I hope this isn't the case and it will be working again soon enough.
I hope everyone is having a restful, relaxing night,

Juls

I am new on remicade - feeling better now, but hair is coming out in the back of my head again!!! Thank God I'm starting to love silk scarves more every day - I guess I'll be ordering some

RATS!!!!! Could it just be seasonal shedding?

I am not on a biologic but I have had a sudden onslaught of hair falling out. I saw my rheumatologist, gynecologist, and dermatologist. Mine is not related to RA, but instead is androgenic alopecia. It's thinning from my mother's side of the family and menopause started it. Rogaine once a day has mostly halted it, but I've not seen much regrowth.

California, no, I don't have a clue how long it might take to slow the hair loss. If I see any improvements, I'll add to this post.

iteach, I had a friend who went off Enbrel and then tried to get back on it, but it didn't work very well for her the second time. I'm not sure what she is taking now. In the past, I have skipped a week, here and there, due to a cold or flu and I didn't seem to lose much of the momentum, so I am hoping the same thing will happen for me, switching to every other week.

Good luck trooper, it would be nice to not have to put so much medication in your body if you don't have to! I'm still waiting for Enbrel to kick back in and give me the relief I've had in the past.
Keep us posted!
Juls

I have had significant hair loss on Enbrel. I'm talking about 1/3 of my hair. Fortunately I had really thick hair so it is not noticeable to most other people. I did discuss it with my rheumy and he put me on leucovorin daily and advised that I also take OTC biotin. It has helped a lot! I have hair of all different lengths right now because of the regrowth and the fall out seems to be a little less.

The leucovorin also helps me with the fatigue caused by both the RA and the MTX. My doctor has me taking 5 mg daily and I am thankful for it!