Daily mail article on Finasteride side effects

[Mark2010]

Quote

 

 

The drug that banishes baldness can ruin a man's love life: Hair loss drug finasteride is used by millions, but men say it has devastating side-effects such IMPOTENCE - that can last years after you've stopped taking it 

• Global market for hair loss treatments is valued at an extraordinary £5.6 billion
• However, the cost for many men is infinitely higher as it can destroy their libido  
• Many people report that Finasteride-related impotence never fully goes away 

 

To many men, it’s a wonder drug that has helped halt their baldness. 

Others, however, say it has had a devastating effect on their lives, causing a range of crippling side-effects including impotence, infertility, insomnia, anxiety, depression and, in some cases, suicidal thoughts — even years after they stopped taking it.

The drug is finasteride, sold under the brand name Propecia, which is used to treat male pattern baldness. Donald Trump and Wayne Rooney are reportedly two of the millions who have used it in the hope of reversing a receding hair line or bald spot.

Globally, the market for hair loss treatments is valued at an extraordinary £5.6 billion, with male pattern baldness accounting for 90 per cent of that, and finasteride the most commonly used treatment.

And finasteride does work for male pattern baldness, improving hair growth within months, according to multiple studies. The effects last as long as the man continues to take the drug.

In simple terms, it stops hair loss by reducing the conversion of the male hormone testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT). High levels of DHT cause hair follicles on the scalp to shrink, leading to hair loss. Finasteride not only prevents this, it has also been shown to encourage regrowth.

In the UK, when it comes to treating hair loss, the drug is available on private prescription only — from doctors since 1999 and, since 2014 and with a prescription, from a pharmacist. 

It is, however, available on NHSprescription under the brand name Proscar — and at a higher dose: 5mg compared with 1mg for hair loss — to treat an enlarged prostate, a common condition that affects many men with age, causing problems with urinary flow.

That’s because reducing levels of DHT can also help shrink the prostate, stopping it pressing on the bladder and urethra.

Finasteride is, by any measure, a hugely popular drug, with more than 3.3 million prescriptions issued for prostate problems alone in England and Wales in 2017, which is double the number just ten years earlier.

But there is another side to this apparent success story — the drug’s potential side-effects.

DHT influences other male characteristics and interfering with its production can lead to sexual dysfunction, including difficulties achieving an erection, reduced desire and reduced semen.

Less frequent problems can include infertility, testicular pain and anxiety.

And since 2017, following a ruling by the European Medicines Agency, finasteride patient information leaflets must also now carry warnings about the risk of depression and, in rare cases, suicidal thoughts.

Merck, which manufactures Propecia, says up to only one in 100 people is affected by sexual dysfunction, although it does now acknowledge in patient information leaflets that this can persist after coming off the pills.

In the U.S., Merck has paid out more than £3 million in total to hundreds of men who have claimed side-effects have persisted after they stopped taking Propecia.

Meanwhile, growing numbers of British men say they have been affected by persistent side-effects — one of them is Ryan Clark, 52, an operations manager from North Tyneside, who says the drug has wrecked his libido and left him with reduced fertility and depression.

After taking finasteride on and off for 18 years, he says he is still plagued by side-effects, despite stopping for good two years ago.

‘I QUICKLY LOST ALL INTEREST IN SEX’

Ryan started taking finasteride after noticing a tiny bald spot on his crown. ‘I was only 31 and didn’t want to go bald at such a young age,’ he says. He had read about Propecia and thought it sounded like ‘a miracle cure’. Ryan’s GP prescribed the drug privately and he began paying £30 a month for the daily pill.

‘In terms of treating my hair loss, the drug worked brilliantly and the gaps on my crown filled in within three months,’ he says. ‘However, within weeks I lost interest in sex and my libido didn’t return. I didn’t connect it with finasteride as this side-effect was never mentioned.

‘Within three months, I began to feel anxious and to suffer insomnia. I’d always been confident, happy and positive, but suddenly I became withdrawn and irritable.’

Ryan, who married Lyndsey, 42, in 2010, went back to his GP ‘multiple times’ about his various health problems. ‘They treated each one individually,’ he says. ‘I was offered medication for sleep and depression, but I refused them.’

His list of symptoms continued to grow. ‘I developed dry skin, sore, red eyes and heart palpitations, muscle loss and weight loss.’

Then, in 2010, tests showed he had poor-quality sperm with low motility and he was told he and Lyndsey were unlikely to conceive naturally. Their son, Joshua, now six, was conceived through IVF.

Throughout all this, Ryan continued to experience symptoms. ‘I felt that people thought I was a hypochondriac,’ he says. ‘I’d see my GP, but all I got was a roll of the eyes. How I wish now I’d never been so vain about losing my hair.’

SIDE-EFFECTS THAT JUST GO ON AND ON

Two years ago, a desperate Ryan searched his symptoms online and came across post-finasteride syndrome (PFS) — a collection of symptoms that include sexual dysfunction, infertility, anxiety and depression, which persist long after finasteride is discontinued.

The side-effects may be the result of changes to hormone receptors in the body, suggests Professor David Healy, a psychiatrist at Bangor University and founder of RxISK, a pressure group that campaigns to highlight drug side-effects.

‘Finasteride doesn’t just act on the hair growth and shrink the prostate, but has effects throughout the body,’ he says.

‘As with a whole bunch of other drugs, such as SSRI antidepressants and the acne drug Roaccutane, we don’t know why these effects persist in some people.’

When Ryan read about PFS, ‘suddenly everything clicked into place — I had virtually all the symptoms listed and they had all started after I began taking Propecia,’ he says.

‘There were 5,000 men, many of them from the UK, like me on a website, all describing how their lives had been wrecked by the drug.

‘I stopped taking the pills, but none of the symptoms have gone away in the two years since. In fact, I’ve developed neuropathy [nerve damage, causing pins and needles] in my hands and feet, too.

‘Yes, the patient information leaflet does mention sexual dysfunction but it doesn’t stress how serious and long-term the problems can be.’

YOUNGER MEN AT GREATER RISK

The threat that finasteride poses to fertility should be stressed to younger men, suggests Allan Pacey, a professor of andrology at the University of Sheffield.

‘I ran an andrology laboratory in Sheffield for 25 years and I would regularly come across men who had poor or no sperm,’ he says. ‘They would reluctantly admit to using anabolic steroids — which was obvious anyway because of their appearance — or taking finasteride.’

Professor Pacey explains the effect on sperm is because both finasteride and anabolic steroids lead to the shutdown of the crucial hormone produced by the brain which tells the testicles to produce sperm.

The body is fooled into thinking the testicles are working harder than they actually are because the level of testosterone in the blood is increased.

‘The data seems to show that when a man stops [taking the drugs], he recovers the ability to produce sperm, but it may take many months.’

DANGERS MUST BE EMPHASISED

Dr David Edwards, a GP in Chipping Norton and past president of the British Society for Sexual Medicine, agrees that the potential side-effects, and the fact they can be long-lasting, should be made clearer to patients.

‘If you asked the average practice nurse, pharmacist or GP about this, I don’t think they would know about the risk of side-effects such as sex problems and depression,’ he says. ‘There needs to be more education about the risks.’

Tom, 45, a former teacher from Cheshire who spoke on condition of anonymity, couldn’t agree more.

He took Propecia eight years ago for only three months, but says as a result he’s lost his career and relationship and is now living with his parents and working part-time in retail.

‘My relationship crumbled under the pressure of the sexual problems and I haven’t had another relationship since,’ he says. ‘I had to give up teaching because of memory and fatigue problems.

‘It’s not the life I imagined I would be living. And I only took the pills after some guys I knew took the mickey out of a bald spot I had developed.’

His GP agreed to write a private prescription for Propecia. ‘He did mention impotence could be a side-effect, but being young I don’t think I quite understood what this meant.

‘In the third month, my libido just dropped and I started to experience erection problems. I felt incredibly tired and had memory issues.

‘I stopped taking the pills and hoped it would all stop — but it didn’t.’

Tom’s GP said the symptoms weren’t connected to the drug and said he had prescribed finasteride at a higher dose to patients with an enlarged prostate with no ill-effects.

‘I later saw an NHS endocrinologist who said the same thing, as did two more I paid to see privately. They told me I had depression, which I didn’t think was correct.

‘Four months ago, I experienced new neurological symptoms including increased anxiety, head pressure — like I had concrete inside my head — headaches, total impotence and terrible insomnia.’ Those affected say the medical profession’s refusal to acknowledge that finasteride can cause such side-effects is particularly hard to take.

Ryan says: ‘I have seen two endocrinologists who say my hormone levels are normal, and my symptoms are not connected to finasteride.’

PEOPLE TAKE THEIR OWN LIVES

The online support group Propecia Help says it has 5,000 members and that men are joining at the rate of 100 a month from across the globe. It reports that 59 suicides have been associated with the drug globally.

‘People need to be specifically warned about these side-effects so they can weigh up the risk versus the benefits,’ a spokesman told Good Health.

‘A man losing a bit of hair can’t be expected to imagine that he is risking a horrifying condition beyond current medical understanding when neither the prescriber nor the leaflet emphasises the risks sufficiently.’

Professor Healy also stresses the need for more recognition of the risks.

‘People kill themselves after taking this drug,’ he says. ‘I had a colleague who took his own life 15 years ago, so I know it happens — and so many people with the same symptoms can’t be wrong.

‘People take their own lives because of the effects of the drug, but also because they can’t get through to anyone and they are not believed.’

For men taking the drug at larger doses for an enlarged prostate, the benefits are thought to outweigh the risks.

Professor Roger Kirby, a prostate surgeon and president of the Royal Society of Medicine, says Proscar is a good treatment for older men with enlarged prostates who aren’t too concerned about potential effects on their sex life.

‘But I tend not to prescribe finasteride to younger men with benign prostate disease because of the sexual side-effects. There are alternative treatments that can be prescribed for younger men.

‘I think younger men worried about hair loss are better off having a hair transplant.’

Merck, however, emphatically defends Propecia’s safety record. ‘Propecia (finasteride) has been prescribed to millions of men worldwide since its approval, and has been the subject of extensive clinical trials, reported to regulatory agencies around the world,’ says a spokesperson.

‘The safety and efficacy of our products is paramount.

‘We continuously monitor the safety profile and update the safety information which is included in both the summary of product characteristics (intended to inform health professionals) and the patient information leaflet (or ‘packet insert’, intended for patients).

‘The potential for erectile dysfunction and depression to occur as an adverse reaction with finasteride treatment, although uncommon, is documented in both the Summary of Product Characteristics and the Patient Information Leaflet.

‘Anxiety is another potential side effect which is listed.’

For more information visit propeciahelp.com

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7274057/How-baldness-drug-ruin-mans-love-life-Finasteride-devastating-effects.html

Edited July 23, 2019 by Mark2010

[LaserCap]

And the debate continues........With millions of people in this planet, anything is bound to happen.  Different gnome, different composition, different traits.  A medication that may be good for one, may kill another.  But the fact still remains, the medication is helpful to millions.  I noted in the excerpt they make note of hundreds of patients. Again, this is bound to happen.

And while reference is made to Proscar, they do not address the fact that millions do take the medication, but do not cite side effects.  Being 5 times the dose, you would think something would have come off of that.

I think taking Propecia is a very personal decision that should not be taken lightly.  I decided long ago this was a good choice for me given my choice of profession.  Imagine me with no hair, you'd be asking "how come you haven't done anything." And, I think of the medication as a vitamin.  More testosterone....better performance.  It works for me and I look good doing it.

Funny, there was nothing in the report about the mental aspect.  Perhaps they should do a study on this.

Lastly, they indicate some patients experience regrowth.  This, perhaps is a misstatement.  It enhances hair that is dissipating. I doubt very much a totally bald man will grow a single hair the medication.

By the same token, they do state what most believe, loss of interest.  

Overall, not a bad piece, but needs lots of polishing....and more case studies.

[HLPToronto]

where is that report which says : 87 % of finastride users notice zero side effects ( any of the above stated ) and only 13% feels some side effects as noted above. 

this is important case study that also should be highlighted 

[hairman22]

article is bs

 

And finasteride does work for male pattern baldness, improving hair growth within months, according to multiple studies. The effects last as long as the man continues to take the drug.

 

not true

 

The side affects listed are all true.

 

You can recover though just takes time.

Edited July 23, 2019 by hairman22

[Mark2010]

7 hours ago, hairman22 said:

article is bs

 

And finasteride does work for male pattern baldness, improving hair growth within months, according to multiple studies. The effects last as long as the man continues to take the drug.

 

not true

 

The side affects listed are all true.

 

You can recover though just takes time.

 

I'm off Finasteride 7 years and have still not fully recovered from the side effects.

[s14a]

49 minutes ago, Mark2010 said:

 

I'm off Finasteride 7 years and have still not fully recovered from the side effects.

How has it affected you?

[paddyirishman]

Great post Mark2010 . Its very important patients are made aware of the pros and many cons of this drug. There are many posters on this forum who keep telling people to " get on fin " which I dont agree with. I know they are trying to be helpful by saying this, however I believe the best advice they should be giving is to advice people to speak with their own doctor about taking the medication as the doctor can make an overall assessment of the person sitting in front of them to discuss the pros and cons of taking the medication. Thats only my opinion Im not saying Im an expert in any way shape or form.  

Pharmaceutical companies are experts in disguising the true numbers of patients with side effects to ensure the drug gets to market. Dont believe the low figures for a minute. At the end of the day if one is considering taking the medication, there is a 50/50 chance you could be affected.  

......Your health is your wealth ......

....................Paddy............

 

[hairman22]

1 hour ago, Mark2010 said:

 

I'm off Finasteride 7 years and have still not fully recovered from the side effects.

very sorry to hear that mark.

im off 2 years now. i still have pfs. Im about 70-80% recovered.

Very strict diet has been key. No alcohol or processed food.went 5 months in 2017 where i had 0% sex drive & no erection at all.Improved alot after 1-2 years.

I'll never ever forget when I got the side affects & then crashed. 

 

My opinion is the drug should not be sold at all because side affects can happen at any time.

[Friedman]

Why take the oral fin when you can use the fin cream? And still get 90-95% of the results?

[Melvin- Admin]

15 hours ago, hairman22 said:

very sorry to hear that mark.

im off 2 years now. i still have pfs. Im about 70-80% recovered.

Very strict diet has been key. No alcohol or processed food.went 5 months in 2017 where i had 0% sex drive & no erection at all.Improved alot after 1-2 years.

I'll never ever forget when I got the side affects & then crashed. 

 

My opinion is the drug should not be sold at all because side affects can happen at any time.

Wow didn’t know it affected people that much. Myself I suffered side effects that lasted about 6-7 months.

[lakes9925]

17 hours ago, paddyirishman said:

Great post Mark2010 . Its very important patients are made aware of the pros and many cons of this drug. There are many posters on this forum who keep telling people to " get on fin " which I dont agree with. I know they are trying to be helpful by saying this, however I believe the best advice they should be giving is to advice people to speak with their own doctor about taking the medication as the doctor can make an overall assessment of the person sitting in front of them to discuss the pros and cons of taking the medication. Thats only my opinion Im not saying Im an expert in any way shape or form.  

Pharmaceutical companies are experts in disguising the true numbers of patients with side effects to ensure the drug gets to market. Dont believe the low figures for a minute. At the end of the day if one is considering taking the medication, there is a 50/50 chance you could be affected.  

......Your health is your wealth ......

....................Paddy............

 

One of the smartest statements I have read on this site. In the states we pop pills like popcorn and dont think nothing of it but when you travel to foreign countries you couldnt pay them enough to take meds.

[LaserCap]

13 minutes ago, det9925 said:

One of the smartest statements I have read on this site. In the states we pop pills like popcorn and dont think nothing of it but when you travel to foreign countries you couldnt pay them enough to take meds.

Perhaps an exaggeration but I think it does apply to any drug.  Because of the cost of drugs in the US, I can tell you that many people drive to Canada for this purpose.  To get meds for a lot lesser cost.  I am not too sure if this has to do with the effectiveness of the drug or the money aspect of it.  i was doing research on this same subject a few weeks back and found $800 per mo med for $25 in Canada. It is no wonder this is happening.  I should find out what the cost is for fin.

I think of this forum as a true democracy.  We are a united front with lots of experience.  We share our opinions, some for, some against.  It is not only our responsibility but also that of the person who asks the question.  Research and results.  That's what is all about.  Time will dictate the final decision on Propecia and many other drugs.